Butterfly House is open for business

This is the new Butterfly House that my husband, Jim, built me.  It has a much smaller footprint and holds the Giant Milkweed. I had 60 caterpillars on this plant last fall. They ate it down to the last leaf. It came back better than ever.

I find it much cheaper to grow them on this plant. The Tropical Milkweed disappears in days.

I picked up a couple of Milkweed plants to collect caterpillars from. I have several in the ground but the  eggs disappear from them. One or two caterpillars survive but most of the eggs become food for something else. They don’t seem to bother the eggs on the plants in the pots as much.

I have one chrysalis in the top. It pupated on 3.29.11. A Monarch should emerge in a few days.

  

There are 9 tiny caterpillars on the Giant Milkweed.  I bring them in when ever I find one on the outside plants. Can’t believe the last 2 survived the hard rain we had a couple of days ago.

This one is just over a 1/4 inch long. You can see how much leaf it has eaten. These leaves are thick and fleshy and support a larger number of caterpillars.

I haven’t seen a Monarch in here since the female came in and laid it’s eggs. I was thrilled there were so many.  When I went back a few days later they were almost all gone. That is why I bring the caterpillars inside. 7 of the 9 that are on the plant now are eggs that I brought in…let hatch and then placed them on the plant.