Herding Caterpillars

Many Monarchs

We've been complaining all summer about not seeing any Monarch caterpillars, but in the last couple of weeks we've seen a number of Monarchs, but also the Giant Swallowtail caterpillar on the citrus and an Anise Swallowtail caterpillar on the parsley.

The Monarchs are all over the Asclepia plant that came up as a volunteer in the corner of the big raised bed in the back yard, but they don't seem to be able to find a good place to form their chrysalises.

The first one evidently crawled along the top of the panels until it came to the farthest corner of the bed, then went out on the twist tie that keeps the panels together to form its chrysalis.

Really?

We put a couple of stakes across the top of the panels to give the others a little more solid place to attach, but did they do that?  Nooooooo, not one of them has used it.

A Little Help?  

The second one crawled completely out of the bed and ended up attaching to the bottom of one of the patio posts.

So when we saw the third one busily crawling along the pathway in the general direction of the patio and tried to climb up the side of the water tank, we decided to try to encourage it to find a better place to attach.

No, Not There!

We finally got it on one of the blueberry bushes, where it curled into its "J" shape and formed its chrysalis.

Finally Found A Place

So we'll see if any of them hatch out successfully.