Wednesday, July 26, 2017

July 26

Well it is the end of July, and the Monarch and Caterpillar season are in full swing.  I am very excited about the numbers of caterpillars and butterflies that I am seeing, and about the numbers of milkweed that I see when I'm driving around.  I really feel like people are getting the message, and are proactively doing their part to save our pollinators!  Everywhere I go people ask for my expertise and advice about raising caterpillars, and obviously I love talking about it!  These amazing creatures just never cease to amaze me.  I love to watch them!  This week I witnessed 2 cats on the same leaf fighting.  I didn't watch long enough to see how it was resolved, but I'm sure eventually one of them just gave in and moved to another leaf, but it was sort of funny to me.
Well, as promised I took some pictures of my enclosure that I built this past weekend...pictures below.  Let me tell you what I did, cause it's hard to tell from the photos.  It's a large aquarium turned on end, so it's about 2 Ft. tall, then I covered the opening with removable netting, which I Velcroed to the frame.  One of the short sides was missing the glass anyway, so I covered it with a sturdy piece of cardboard, weighted down with books, so when it has chrysalides on it I can easily remove them with out disturbing the caterpillars below as needed.  The removable netting also makes it easy to access the caterpillars without disturbing chrysalides.  Just in time I was able to move in 12 large Cats, 12 tiny Cats, and 5 eggs.  I still am keeping the eggs and tiny newly hatched cats away from the largest ones in a separate container.
So this season has started much stronger than last few years.  I have also released 4 butterflies, 2 male, and 2 female.
That's all for now.....Save the MONARCH!  I welcome your questions and comments.


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