Posts Tagged: monarch

by Dale Hoopingarner on August 25, 2026

Empty Nest

Monarch #9, last of this year’s brood, flew off to her Great Southern Adventure yesterday afternoon.  Here she is just a couple of minutes after emerging: I waited all morning for the emergence, hardly stepping away from the cage as I desperately wanted to see the event.  I kept checking every minute to see if I could detect the split.  Glanced away for probably 30 seconds and I missed it!  Caught the last half of the act, she was pulling her engorged abdomen free and then was dangling uncertainly from the chrysalis shell.  From split… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on August 18, 2026

The Kids are Moving Out

Yesterday Monarch #1 emerged, filled its wings, patiently waited for them to stiffen, then flew off for her Great Mexican Adventure! Today? FIVE more emerged and are either already gone or just resting up for a bit more and will be heading out.  Once their wings had stiffened I carefully had them climb on my hand so I could safely move them to a bush or branch outside, resting up before they head out.  Here’s two of them on my hand! To say I was fascinated is a bit of an understatement.  Every year I… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on August 8, 2026

AWOL?

This morning there were five beautiful lime-green chrysalises up on the sides and top of the cage: “Nothing to see here” yet as they’ve just started their amazing metamorphosis, but in six or seven days it will start to darken and a horizonal line show more prominently near the top, and then in eight or nine days it will become transparent revealing the soon-to-emerge butterfly within. The year started on such a somber note, with no spottings of any adults, but then a late spike in activity and of course the egg laying noted in… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on August 6, 2026

Sadness

Monarch caterpillar count is down from 10 to 9…because of me. When I’m transferring them to fresh leaves (a task that needs to be done every day) I’m careful to inspect both sides of every leaf to ensure I don’t miss one or injure one during the transfer.  I keep a piece of paper taped to the tray with the count so I know how many of the little ladies/gentlemen I need to move.  Easy peasy, right?  Well, was missing one from one of the trays and double-checking the leaves proved fruitless.  Picked up the… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on August 3, 2026

I’ve Lost Count

Yep…I don’t know how many Monarch caterpillars I have. I started out taping a small note to each tray indicating how many eggs and how many larvae were on each, useful information when transferring them to fresh milkweed leaves – did I get them all? But I’ve been replacing them more sporadically, just individual plant stalks that have wilted, rather than doing the full tray all at once.  And I keep spotting new hatchlings!  There are quite a few 3rrd instars now so they’re much easier to keep an eye on, but the little ones… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on July 30, 2026

The Nursery is Getting Crowded

Changing out the milkweed leaves this morning (pretty much a daily task) and spotted these two sharing a leaf: These are second and third instars, though the chap on the left is getting to the point where it will likely molt soon into its second instar phase.  Both are still very small, but much more visible than the itty bitty first instars.  You can get an idea here as to the amount of leaves the consume – a lot for their tiny body sizes.  The “big” caterpillar in this picture is still only about 1/4″,… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on July 28, 2026

6+ and Counting

Time to change the milkweed leaves for some fresh ones (they only last two days at most, even with the stem in a wet paper towel covered in plastic wrap) so I’m able to check out the progress of the Monarch caterpillars and get a better count.  There are six for sure, possibly seven (had seen three on one leaf cluster earlier so one may have been hiding), and there’s an egg to hatch yet.  At least two are now in their second instar, having molted their initial skin to accommodate their growth. To say… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on July 25, 2026

Off to a Good Start

It’s been five days since the eggs were laid…and right on schedule they’re starting to emerge — three of the five have hatched!  Hopefully more will come out as the day progresses but even if only these three emerge I’m very excited. Here’s one of the little tykes: And I do mean little.  These leaves are on a cookie plate about 12″ in diameter.  You can see the edge of the plate at the top right.  The caterpillar is about the size of a grain of rice at this stage. Most of the eggs had… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on July 20, 2026

Monarchs – And More!

I was getting worried…very worried. Those of you who follow me know that I’m a bit of a Monarch butterfly freak.  I raise milkweed, their sole food source, and distribute the seeds both by myself and via seed packets I give away. I’d like to say it was helping, as last year we had more Monarch butterflies than usual, spotting some every few days at least, and I spotted one laying eggs and successfully raised one to adulthood – fascinating and rewarding to say the least. This year?  Zip, zilch, nada – not a single… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on October 26, 2025

Encouraging

I’ve been busily scattering seeds via my “seed bomb” delivery system. tossing these little compost-and-seed lumps into vacant lots, power line cuts, wild road medians and the like. But with the prolific crop I had this year I’ve got way too many seeds to deliver by this method with each bomb only having half a dozen or so seeds glued to them. So I’ve been making up little seed packets in some little zip seal plastic bags – a couple of dozen seeds with a printed insert with some guidance on how and where to… Read Article →

by Dale Hoopingarner on September 29, 2025

Goal!

Last year I harvested and distributed about eight ounces of milkweed seeds. My goal for this year was one pound of seeds and the patch really delivered, yielding 17.45 ounces of seeds! This is a LARGE mixing bowl so the size is a bit deceiving. Volume-wise these seeds would nearly fill a gallon jug. This isn’t the full total as I have already distributed some seeds via compost bombs and there are still a few pods out there (I’ll let the wind distribute those) but this is the great bulk of the harvest. Couldn’t be… Read Article →

Scroll To Top