Regicide?

We found a couple of Monarch butterfly caterpillars recently, both just sort of trucking along far from any Asclepia plants, their chief food source, so we transferred them to the one healthy Asclepia plant in the yard.

They both happily set to chewing away on the leaves and eventually the larger of the two set off to find a place to form a chrysalis.

Looking For A Location

The site it finally selected was the underside of a rail on one of Cindy's anti-varmint panels.

Chrysalis

That was OK; it should be fine there as long as we remember it's there.

We continued to keep an eye on the second caterpillar, but today I found it wrapped up in spider web, looking dried out and dead.

Spiders Got This One

I guess the spiders have to eat, too, but I wish they would pick on the less beneficial insects and leave the pollinators, including the Monarch caterpillars, alone.

Butterfly Farms

We've both always loved butterflies and have tried to make our front yard into a garden with food sources for butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, so we went up to see the butterflies at Butterfly Farms in Vista recently.

Butterfly Farms

Most of the butterflies they have, both inside and outside the enclosure, are native to Southern California.

Monarch

Of course there were plenty of Monarchs enjoying the abundant Asclepia.

Gulf Fritillaries on Lantana

I was surprised to see how popular the Lantana was with the butterflies; we ripped out all the overgrown Lantana in our yard long ago, but the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) butterflies were all over the Lantana shrubs in this enclosure.

Indra Swallowtail

An Indra Swallowtail (Papilio indra) also found the Lantana attractive.  And a couple of Indra Swallowtails even found each other attractive.

It was an interesting place.

The Twelve Caterpillars of Christmas

Actually, it was sixteen or seventeen Monarch caterpillars, all chomping away at the lone Asclepia plant in the raised beds in the back yard.  Finding them was pretty funny, because I had just given Cindy a tee-shirt for Christmas that said, "Got Milkweed?" http://www.northernsun.com/Got-Milkweed-T-Shirt-%288467%29.html.

How Many Caterpillars????

The ravenous horde of caterpillars had pretty well stripped most of the leaves off that one plant, so we decided to move most of them to the Asclepia plants in the front yard.  Today I counted eight of them on those plants, but some of the caterpillars we moved yesterday looked about big enough to trundle off and find places to attach and form their chrysalises, so they may have done that.

Not Many Leaves Left

They aren't too choosy about where they attach; we initially thought they wanted a horizontal branch or something to attach their chrysalises to, but since then we've found them on vertical surfaces as well.  This summer we had one that attached to the driveway gate post and one that was unfortunately crushed because we didn't notice it had attached to the underside of the cover of the hot tub.

I hope they all survive; the world needs more butterflies.

A Garden Without Caterpillars

Monarch Caterpillar

We've had plenty of Monarch butterflies visiting our front yard butterfly garden all summer, but until recently we had seen no Monarch caterpillars.  The Asclepia plants are all thriving this year, although by now they should have been nibbled down to bare stalks by the caterpillars.

We would think it was just our yard, but other Master Gardeners in San Diego are reporting the same problem in their gardens:  no Monarch caterpillars.

We saw two small ones about a week ago, but they are gone now.  They were both too small to have pupated already, so something is clearly still nobbling our caterpillars (I learned that word from watching the delectable British TV series Pie In The Sky).

It might be the Lesser Goldfinches, as we saw one trying to imitate a hummingbird as she attacked a huge Tomato Hornworm in the back yard a couple of weeks ago.  She wasn't afraid to go after that enormous worm, but she also didn't succeed in getting it off the tomato vine.

Another suspect is the same one we considered last year at this time:  wasps.  We haven't seen any of the Mud Dauber wasp nests this year, but the Paper Wasps in the back yard not only revived their old nest from last year, but also constructed a large three part wasp condo under the patio cover.  You would think they could have taken out that hornworm, but noooo.

One thing I don't think we'll try again is the caterpillar cage we tried last year when we were having the same problem (See Co-dependent to Caterpillars, Part II).  As the subsequent posts from October and November of last year show, that effort was pretty much of a disaster, so I think they'll just have to figure it out on their own.

We'll probably have to hire a pro to get those wasp nests down, though.

Codependent to Caterpillars, Part II

Butterfly Garden

We love our front-yard butterfly garden, especially when we see several Monarch butterflies at once enjoying the flowers and bushes we've put there to attract them.

In fact, we've had lots of Monarchs this summer flying around and landing on the Asclepia, the lavenders and the Buddleia.

What we haven't had is what makes butterflies:  namely, caterpillars.  The Asclepia plants were flourishing, but with all those Monarchs fluttering around, they should have been all but stripped of leaves.  But they weren't.

After the disaster of the Anise Swallowtail caterpillars we found on the parsley in the back yard, probably gobbled up by the Scrub Jays that hang around our bird feeder, we relocated some several Monarch caterpillars from an Asclepia plant in the back yard.  When they, too, disappeared, we began to think that maybe it wasn't just the Scrub Jays eating our caterpillars.

Wasps, lizards, ants and other predators eat caterpillars and we now suspect that the Mud Dauber Wasps that have built nests all over the eaves of our house may be responsible for the disappearance of the Monarch caterpillars.  (Caution:  that article is fairly graphic--don't read it if you're squeamish--it's like something out of "Alien").

The good news about these wasps is that they prefer to use spiders, especially Black Widows, to feed their larvae; the bad news is that they will also use butterfly caterpillars.  That's O.K. with us if the caterpillars are the larvae of the Tomato Hornworm, laid by the Sphinx Moth, but not O.K. if it's our Monarch caterpillars.

So, to protect at least some of the Monarch caterpillars, we finally bought a butterfly cage, a soft-sided mesh cage to protect them.  The cage has a clear plastic side and three mesh sides, one of which has a zipper to form a door on that side so you can open the cage.

Last Tuesday we put two fairly large Monarch caterpillars into it with some of the Asclepia in a bud vase with water.  Cindy wound plastic wrap around the stems of the plants so the caterpillars wouldn't crawl in and drown, which was probably a good precaution:  I don't think they can swim.  Then the next day we found two more caterpillars and moved them in, using a rose bud vial with a rubber lid.  We put stones in the bottom to keep the whole thing from blowing over in the wind.

By Friday the first caterpillar had crawled off the plants and attached to the cage to form a chrysalis.  Naturally, since nothing is ever easy, Numero Uno decided to attach and form his chrysalis very close to the zipper, which made it very difficult to open the cage to put fresh plants for caterpillars Two and Three.  Number four was very small and we never found out what happened to him, but Two and Three were eating everything in sight, so we had to slide the fresh plants in very carefully.

So that's the story so far.  Today Number Two is crawling all over the cage, looking for a suitable place to attach (NOT near the zipper, PLEASE!), and Number Three is still eating everything is sight and will probably attach soon, too.      

Milkweed Bugs

Large Milkweed Bugs

A few days ago Cindy and I were out in the butterfly garden in the front yard, when we saw some strange-looking red and black bugs clustered on one of the Asclepia plants.  The bugs all had red bodies with oblong black markings on both head and tail ends and a black band around the middle.  Neither of us had ever seen anything like them before.

A little research revealed that they are Large Milkweed Bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus.  Who knew there was such a thing?  We didn't.

Asclepia

The bugs love Asclepia, which is, of course, milkweed, and feed on the seed pods.  Because the milkweed sap contains a toxic substance called cardiac glycosides, the bugs themselves become toxic when they ingest the sap, making them unattractive to predators.

Although we've had several Monarch butterflies hanging out in the butterfly garden this summer, we've seen very few Monarch caterpillars this year.  Cindy has been reluctant to spray the Aphids off the plants because she doesn't want to wash off any Monarch eggs, but the plants aren't looking very good because of the honeydew secreted by the Aphids.  The Lady Bugs are eating the Aphids, but we're concerned that they may be eating Monarch eggs, too.

It's not easy being a caterpillar codependent.

Chow Down, Lady Bug!

Aphids For Dinner!

The Asclepia in our butterfly garden have set seed pods full of milkweed, and the pods have attracted more than butterflies--they've also attracted a horde of bright yellow aphids.

We've been reluctant to use the Bug Blaster to blast them off because that would probably also wipe out any Monarch butterfly eggs or small caterpillars on the leaves, too.

So we were delighted to see a few Ladybugs (Coccinella septempunctata) eating the aphids.  In a few days this one Ladybug had cleaned almost all the yellow aphids off this milkweed pod.  It's amazing how voracious an appetite these bugs have, but there are plenty more of the aphids to keep her and the others satiated.

And as far as we're concerned, she's welcome to all the aphids she and the others can eat.  Go Ladybugs!

Small White or Cabbage Moth?

We've been seeing a lot of the little white butterflies the back yard recently; so far they seem to prefer the catnip, which is now blossoming all over the place, but Cindy wants to keep them from laying eggs on the tomato plants.

We had always called these butterflies Cabbage Moths, but now it appears they are really called Cabbage Whites, or even Small Whites, since they really are butterflies, not moths.

Cindy's keeping a vigilant eye on them, whatever you call them; we're trying to encourage all the butterflies to go to the butterfly garden in the front yard, instead of the vegetable garden in the back.  Their caterpillars are welcome to chew up all the Asclepia and Buddleia they want, but stay off the veggies.

"Houston, We Have Lift Off!"

"

New Butterfly Next To the Chrysalis

I went out to look at the three Monarch butterfly chrysalises today before lunch and found that the first one had just hatched out.  I couldn't believe it at first, and then ran back into the house shouting, "It's hatching, it's hatching!"  The newly hatched butterfly was clinging to the branch next to the tattered remains of the chrysalis.

Cindy came out and we watched as it began to flex and dry its wings and get used to being out of the chrysalis.  It's truly amazing that a butterfly that size can come out of a chrysalis less than an inch long and about half an inch wide.

The new butterfly's body alone is about twice the length of the chrysalis.  I'm not surprised that it takes it a couple of hours to unfold itself and get used to its new size and its new wings. We watched it unfold and flex the wings, rest for a while, then try it again.

After lunch we watched the new butterfly take its first short flight to a nearby Bush Germander (Teucrium fruiticans) where it continued the process of getting used to the new wings and started to explore the world of plants.  We watched in amazement; it's really true that if you plant a garden, it will grow on you.

Getting Used to Plants

Watching the butterfly make her first short, wobbly flights reminded me of a teenager with her learner's permit--getting there, but not quite ready for the big time, yet.  She frightened us by flying across the street to the neighbors' yard and then landing smack in the middle of the street to continue the wing stretching and resting process.

After watching this creature from caterpillar to chrysalis to new butterfly, I wasn't about to let her get run over by the first car that came along, so Cindy and I stood out in the middle of the street to encourage cars to go around.  The first lady that came by was quite understanding and enjoyed watching with us, but the next car that came along just wanted us to get the hell out of the street, but did go around us.

Ready to Fly!

Then our new Monarch flew off down the street toward other neighbors' gardens.  But we think she'll be back when she wants to lay her eggs--after all, we've got all that milkweed (Asclepia) leafing out to start the process all over.

Codependent to Caterpillars

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar on Asclepia

That would be us.  After the fiasco of the Monarch butterfly caterpillars on the Asclepia bush in the back yard, when the Scrub Jays picked off the last of the Monarch caterpillars, we moved that bush to the front yard and ran out and bought three more small Asclepias because a new lot of caterpillars were rapidly stripping what was left of the leaves off the original bush.  Then more Monarchs visited the new bushes and laid eggs.

Asclepia Protective Fencing

We originally tried to protect the new caterpillars by using some plastic fencing around the bush, thinking that critters were getting at them, but we quickly discovered that the caterpillars were getting confused and climbing on the green fencing instead of staying on the Asclepia.  We were concerned that they would not find their way back to the Asclepia to get the food they need to thrive, so we took it off and that was the end of the protective fencing  experiment.  It looked pretty peculiar anyway, so we weren't sorry to see it go.  I can't figure out how to re-size this picture, but it's easy to see how ugly it was.

Since we moved the old plant and the three new ones to the front yard, we've had a resurgence of the caterpillars.  I counted seventeen of them one day last week.  Most of them seem to have survived the heavy rains of the last week.

The problem recently has been that all four of the plants, in addition to losing leaves to the voracious appetite of the caterpillars, were heavily infested with aphids.  There were also several very happy Lady Bugs, busily chowing down on the aphid buffet, but they really couldn't really keep up with the numerous aphids, which would eventually kill the plants unless we do something about them.

So today Cindy farmed out about ten of the larva to a neighbor who also has Asclepia, bought a couple of new Asclepia plants, complete with their own caterpillars, moved the remaining four of our caterpillars to the new plants, and cleaned the aphids off the first group of plants.  She put the new plants next to the Bougainvillea so that the caterpillars have something to climb up on to form their chrysalises.  Apparently they prefer to create the chrysalis on some other plant, which is probably wise considering how likely it is that one of their fellow caterpillars would eat the Asclepia leaf the chrysalis was on.  Now they have a place to make the chrysalises, so we're hoping we'll eventually see the whole Monarch butterfly process.

All Gone

Damn.  I am so bummed out.  Shortly after I published the post yesterday about the remaining Monarch Butterfly caterpillar, I went out to take another look at it and it was gone.  It had stripped off most of the leaves on the stem it was on, so it was pretty much exposed, as was one of them the day before, so we're thinking the birds got them all.

But which bird?  Was it one of the House Finches?  The Bushtits that are flocking in the neighbor's Trumpet Creeper right now?  The shy, reclusive California Thrasher that flits in and out of the hedge to break off chunks of suet?  Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick?

My money's on the Scrub Jay.  Members of the Corvid family, they are highly intelligent and opportunistic birds.  Cindy had just hung a feeder full of peanuts out because we knew there was at least one around, so we're guessing the Jay just thought we were providing yet another tasty snack for it.

While we were watching the Monarch Butterfly flitting around and looking at the caterpillar earlier in the afternoon, Cindy had made the remark that maybe we should take the remaining caterpillar into protective custody, but unfortunately we didn't actually do that.  Lesson learned, too late.

So now we will move the Asclepia to the front yard, where there is less cover for birds.  They tend to hang around the feeders in the back yard, so future butterfly larvae should have a better chance of survival.  And maybe eventually we'll get to see the whole metamorphosis process.