One day last week I was sitting at my desk working when a monarch caterpillar caught my attention going for a stroll up the window. It was a great distraction from writing articles. The caterpillar found its resting area under the windowsill for its chrysalis.
Both of my giant milkweed are crawling with caterpillars of every instar. My butterfly house has a tremendous amount of activity from caterpillars eating, to creating their chrysalis and emerging. It has been a tremendous few months for these lovely caterpillars and butterflies.
The gardens have been a monarch paradise these last few weeks. The garden has every stage of life from eggs to butterflies.
For the Sunshine State, they are seasonal in Northern Florida with low numbers during the spring before exploding by the millions during the late summer and fall. In central and southern Florida, the monarch butterflies breed all year.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, the monarchs are broken down into eastern and western populations divided by the Rocky Mountains. It states that the eastern population is the largest. This population migrates northward. In the spring they leave Mexico and migrate north into Texas and the Southern Plains, through the Northern Plains, Midwest and into the Great Lakes area. And by late summer the monarchs expand into Canada, eastward from its central migratory corridor of the United States through the northeast and southeast states.
The National Wildlife Federation states that the late summer, last generation of monarchs that emerges will delay sexual maturity for migration. This migratory generation can live up to eight months, compared to the typical few weeks.
It’s fascinating to learn about the monarch’s incredible migratory patterns. In Southwest Florida we are blessed with these beauties visiting the garden daily during the winter months as the weather never dips to unbearable temperatures.
Today, similar to many others, the nectar plant of choice is the red penta. We also had a female monarch emerge in the butterfly house, the one that is on the same milkweed plant as the monarch caterpillar.
When you begin a butterfly garden the list of “favorites” seems to grow as the hours go by. Among my favorites lists is taking a stroll in the garden and seeing brand new life. You can see the empty chrysalis in the background of this newly emerged monarch butterfly.
A second stroll through the garden awarded me with this females first flight to a nearby nectar plant.
Plant them and they will come! Nothing is truer than that statement. Find native milkweed, plant nectar plants and the butterflies will flutter to your oasis.
There have been tons of monarch caterpillars munching on my giant milkweed lately, many of which have been relocated to our butterfly house. This male emerged yesterday and remained in the house until today when the sun came out. He hung out for a while before fluttering away.
Yesterday there were three monarch caterpillars on this particular milkweed leaf. The others must have found their final resting place to make its chrysalis. There is a tree nearby, I would imagine they are somewhere in there seeking shelter to transform to a beautiful butterfly.
Now, just this lonesome caterpillar. I moved him to a milkweed plant that offered an abundance of food.
