On Monday we found 2 caterpillars eating on my Morning Glories...Tuesday we found two more and had to go to the pet store and buy a bigger "bug house." That evening, after making a neat habitat for our critters, we found yet another one! We researched online and found out we are going to have Monarch butterflies when all is said and done! Last evening we noticed two of them were hanging upside down from the top. This morning they were still just hanging there. A bit later my ds7 yelled, "Mom! Come quick! It made its chrysalis!" We oohed and aahed over it. A bit later (while we were researching about opossums since a mommy possum, with her baby on her back, had wandered into our yard) ds10 happened to glance into the critter keeper and started screaming, "Mom! It's making its chrysalis!" over and over. We were so excited (my heart was pounding - lol)! We got to watch as it wiggled and wiggled, making its bright green chrysalis. When I have days of doubt and want to chase down that big yellow bus, I'm going to look back on today. What an amazing experience watching God's creation! We are blessed to be able to homeschool our children.
Ooohhh!!! We live in a specific butterfly belt in CA - people plant specific plants and hang feeders and stuff - because we get an annual migration of all kinds. Even so - have had tons of trouble actually getting caterpillars. Soooo cool!!!!
Are you sure they're monarchs? My understanding is that a monarch eats ONLY milkweed! Well, whatever it is, watching it make a crystalis is fascinating!!! I hope you guys are around when they break out! Oh, and don't forget to take pictures!!!
Jackie, what did we do before we had computers and the internet to instantly look up information on?! I thought they were eating my Morning Glories, but evidently there were Sand (Blue) Vine Milkweed vines growing among them and that's what the caterpillars were eating.
When I was in girl scouts they gave us a pet caterpillar. I waited and waited until finally it turned into a butterfly. It is one of the things I can't wait to do with Sophie. You'll have to post some pics!
OH, that makes more sense! I was REALLY mixed up, because a Monarch caterpillar are very unique and their chrysalis is that BEAUTIFUL green. You know the gold specks on them? The naturalist told us that someone once was curious about them, and carefully cut them off of he crysalis, and the butterfly immerged with NO pigment! I think it's awesome you found SO MANY, and the birds didn't get them! You're usually very lucky to find just one or two!
That is AWESOME!! I want to do that!! We found an awesome place FULL of monarch butterflies and 3 differant kinds of milkweed. How do I find eggs?? Or even the caterpillars? The eggs would be on the milkweed right??
