The warm weather and sunny skies has sure brought the butterflies back to the garden again.

Since Easter, the monarch population has grown leaps and bounds in the butterfly garden. The caterpillars are on both my balloon milkweed, and giant milkweed, in various instars.

The monarch caterpillars feed solely on milkweed leaves, which produces glycoside toxins, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which deters other animals from eating the caterpillars.

The toxins are stored making them taste bad and remains after they emerge into a butterfly, continuing to protect them.

After the butterfly lays a cream colored egg on the bottom of a milkweed leaf, it takes anywhere from three to five days to hatch. The larvae chews a small hole in the egg to wiggle free. Once it emerges it consumes the rest of the egg before moving onto the leaf.

As the yellow, black and white stripped caterpillar eats the milkweed leaf it continues to grow and molts its old skin, splitting it in half. The caterpillar often consumes the skin before continuing eating the milkweed leaf. It can grow in length to 2″.

One of my favorite parts about having a butterfly garden is finding where the caterpillars end up making their final destination. The chrysalis below was found on my watering can, a good distance, but not too far away at the same time. 

The monarch butterfly resting on red penta, a favorite nectar plant for many species of butterflies.