Gardening by Mistake

Barbee’s questions on milkweed made me think back to almost 3 years ago when my kids and I watched two monarch caterpillars grow and become butterflies. I was homeschooling back then and I thought it would make a great addition to our science materials. It was fascinating for all of us.

At the time, I had great big milkweed plants growing among my roses. (BIG mistake; see my earlier post). I began looking on the undersides of leaves. I actually found monarch eggs. They are very tiny and easy to miss on a plant. They are only slightly larger than a period.

I took in an egg and a young caterpillar, as well as some milkweed leaves for them to munch on. I placed all of this into a peanut butter jar, drilled holes into the lid and jammed a stick into the inside of the lid. The stick was intended to be a place where the caterpillars could attach their chrysalises.

The larger of the two caterpillars on August 25th. (The other caterpillar is on the far right, about 1/3 of the way up the picture):

Also on August 25th, this picture shows both caterpillars together. The smaller one is right above the 28.5 cm mark of the ruler. “He” is tiny!

Two days later, August 27th, the larger caterpillar is almost twice as long and twice as wide. In two days!

The little guy has also grown considerably in those two days.

On August 31st, the larger caterpillar was ready to form his chrysalis. You can see in the picture that the caterpillar didn’t need my helpful stick. I have no idea how it got the chrysalis webbing to stick to that plastic lid.

The kids and I waited for the butterfly to emerge. On September 11th, a beautiful monarch emerged from the chrysalis. The second caterpillar was also in a chrysalis by this time.

Here the first caterpillar turned monarch is on our deck, where we placed it while it warmed its wings. The butterfly is holding on to a stick in the second picture.

This last picture was taken September 14th, shortly before the second butterfly emerged from its chrysalis. Look closely and the butterfly’s wings can be seen through the chrysalis.

In zones cooler than my 5b, you might need to look for monarch caterpillars earlier than late August, as I did. You want them to have time to mature and then migrate once they are butterflies. If you do this, you must make sure you have a supply of fresh milkweed leaves as this is the sole diet of monarch caterpillars. And you will be amazed at exactly how much a caterpillar will eat before turning to a butterfly.