In the Beginning
Hello! My name is Sam, and I am a fifteen year old girl from Minnesota. I have been raising Monarchs from caterpillar to butterfly since I was eight years old. My interest began at around the age of five or six with Painted Lady butterflies, and it blossomed from there.
As a child, I was always interested in nature, animals, and bugs. My family never hunted and I learned to appreciate the way life moves and works by simple observation. From the time I could walk I was chasing butterflies. Moths sparked interest too, but nothing captivated me quite like the bright colors of a butterfly. My parents fueled this interest with butterfly nets and bug keepers. I would catch, look, and release everything from grasshoppers to worms. We were subscribed to a little kid nature magazine where you could order these things, and one day something caught my mother's eye. It was a butterfly container that you could order caterpillars to go along with! Naturally we sent in our order, and little six year old Sam was eager to see metamorphosis in my very own bedroom.
When the caterpillars came in the mail, I was a little disappointed. There were probably seven Painted Ladies in a clear plastic jar with muck in the bottom. It said not to ever open it while they were larvae. They munched the unnatural looking brown substance and grew only a little. Not long after they arrived, they decided to enter pupae. We were to pin the lid of the jar to the top of the mesh enclosure and wait. They were all released into a much more natural environment once the little brown butterflies emerged. I definitely enjoyed the experience, but it seemed so unnatural to have them in a jar so close together. I never ordered them again, but I kept the enclosure.
Two years later, when I was in third grade, the class began a science project that brought back my butterfly love. The teacher announced that we would be raising Monarch butterflies. I expected something similar to the jar that I had, but much to my surprise, they were brought in on whole plants by the teacher in the classroom next to us. We got to hold the plants for an up close look, watch eggs hatch, and hold the butterflies outside before release. I was hooked. I had to do it! That summer I found my little mesh cage and set to work looking for caterpillars. I would bring in individual leaves to scatter on the bottom of the cage. I used this method for two years, an although the mortality rate was quite high because of it, I had fun. I would still manage to release four or five butterflies each summer. At the age of ten I started cutting down whole plants to put in vases for them. It worked much better, and I started having around ten butterflies each year.
Currently
After I started using milkweed cuts instead of leaves, I realized how inconvenient my enclosure was. It had thick white mesh that was difficult to see through. Not to mention it had one tiny door at the base of it, and when you're releasing butterflies, they want to go up! It was rather short, so tall plants did not usually fit. In the spring of 2012, I told my dad about my problems with the cage, and he started making plans with me. He is very talented in design and building, and this is what he built:
It is 2ft in height, and the roof and base are 1ftx1ft
The sides of the cage are window screens cut to fit. The back wall and front swinging door are plexiglass. The door does latch, and the top has a handle with leaves on it. My dad did an amazing job!
It works extraordinarily well to this day, and my success has skyrocketed. In 2012 I had fifteen successful, in 2013 there were 23, but in 2014 just two. The caterpillars would seem so healthy, and as they made a chrysalis they would disintegrate. It was painful to see six out of eight die at the top of my enclosure, so I didn't bring any more in. I asked a local "Bug Guy" in the fall why it happened, and he seemed fairly certain it was a bacterial infection. He suggested washing my enclosure in bleach. I was hesitant, because bleach could harm them. But after reading about other people's caterpillars on the internet I decided it was best. They suggested using a 20% bleach solution and thoroughly rinsing afterwards. I did just that this spring, and have had thirteen releases already!
Over the years I have learned patterns in egg laying and migration, so I can typically have two rounds of caterpillars in one summer. Round one starts in late May and early June, and round two starts mid to end of July. As I mentioned, round one had thirteen successful Monarchs. I cleaned the enclosure with a bleach solution again, and just began round two. I have seven tiny caterpillars, and I will update you on their progress almost daily! I will also include photos as often as possible. I hope you find interest in my blog, and I will write to you tomorrow. :)
