Last year I complained about the shortage of milkweed as I tore up my main bed. This year started with a lot of promising young plants coming up from seeds I scattered last fall. The more mature plants came up strong and even offered new shoots nearby. All was well until the weather decided to withhold the rain needed to keep things perking along until the first Monarchs showed up. I had to water. And water. And water. I worried about fertilizer, but had to put it off, because of health issues. I had surgery and stents put in. I signed up for cardiac rehab and had to learn how to take a handful of pills during each day. My gardens suffered for it. Actually, a great many things suffered. This new image of me having a “heart” event, becoming a cardiac patient, all came as a shock. It shouldn’t have, I had warnings, but stubborn denial is a strange thing. During this period of attitude adjustment, I had to put a lot of things on hold. I’m still sorting things out and playing a constant game of catch up for the most import stuff.
As to caterpillars, I have a new trio of odd cases:
First up, the rescue my neighbor gave me. It was a large cat on a leaf heavily infested with aphids. It took a couple of days to get it moved onto a better leaf. However, when the beastie formed a chrysalis it didn’t stay attached in the proper way. My attempt to rehang it went it very wrong. I had to force myself to quit trying to help for fear that I’d only make things worse. The usual 10 day waiting period for emergence was fraught with dread and the question, “Did I kill another one?” The answer was no. The female came out fine and flew away.
Second up, the snot, #15, that attached itself to the side of its container, instead of the top. This time I waited for the chrysalis to harden before I tried to move it. Since I’ve had that problem before, I waited. As a result of my new found patience there was a flat spot that stuck to the side of the plastic container. More to worry about. When the butterfly emerged, it was just fine. I tagged it and let her go.
My third problem cat attached itself to a feeding tray that left it too close to the bottom of the mesh cage filled with 12 other chrysalises. I had to move it out of the way, but how? I decided to forget about rehanging and I just moved the whole tray to a smaller cage and elevated the miscreant high enough for its wings to come out, dry, and harden properly. The ten day wait was not as nerve wracking.
As I mentioned above, I began tagging butterflies this year. I got a little practice last year in Madison, Wisconsin and thought why not give it a go for myself. I only got 25 tags and that would have to be enough. Actually, it had to do. My new mantra was to not to overextend myself with exercising or commitments. Sadly, I ended my tagging efforts early due to unsteady hands coupled with the fear of harming the adults I’d spent so much time hand-rearing. I did like the new data field of wing size. The variation was something I’d noticed in past years.
I almost forgot to elaborate on the story of the Bishop Hill Hitchhiker, #15. My husband and I had gone to Bishop Hill for a reading of a book entitled “Becoming Utopia” written by two professor types. I had to be there for whatever new information they had on Bishop Hill’s history. Call it background research. Call it a new addition for my library. I had to be there. While just walking around the village, visiting all the milkweed along the way, I must have unknowingly picked up a newly hatched caterpillar. I didn’t discover this until after the lecture was over and I was getting into our car. I suddenly felt something on my left hand. I lifted it up and noticed the strand of silk attached to me. I looked closer at the almost invisible tread and saw a pale wormy thing with a black head wiggling on the end. Fortunately, I have seen caterpillars that young before, so I didn’t panic. I snapped the silk and got it transferred to a paper napkin. Then into an empty cup with a lid. I succeeded in getting it to Davenport alive and onto a real leaf. It got a new lease on life, and most certainly it qualified to become Lazarus IV.
Other Information & Data
Caterpillar Escapes: 0
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths: 0
Caterpillar Diseases & Parasites: 0
Accidental Deaths: 0
Chrysalis Problems: 4 (no deaths)
Butterfly Enclosure Issues: 0 (no deaths)
Final Results
How many monarchs survived to reach Butterhood? 61
Accidental deaths: 0
Disease or parasite issues: 0
Unexplained deaths: 0
Healthy males: 24
Healthy females: 33
Unknown sex: 4
Survival rate: 100%
