Milkweed plant - Monarch butterfly

This is the milkweed plant where the monarch butterfly lays her eggs. The eggs hatch into teeny tiny caterpillars and they feed on the plant until they are ready to form their chrysalis.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• monarch butterfly
• milkweed plant

[justinandkim84]

I live in NC. It's late may and I still haven't seen any monarchs. Do you know when the monarchs start to arrive here? Maybe I'm doing something wrong. my plants are on my back deck. It has a tall rail. Could this be preventing the butterflies from finding the milkweed?

[JustagirlfromTX]

@justinandkim84 - I'm not sure when the monarch butterflies are in NC. I know they are here in TX beginning spring and they come in groups throughout the summer and the last group is in the late fall. Monarchs use a combination of visual and chemical cues to find milkweed. Once they land on a plant, they use sensory organs on their feet and heads to tell them if it is a milkweed, and probably the quality of the milkweed.

[JustagirlfromTX]

@justinandkim84 - I checked my plants just yesterday for any eggs and saw none, nor have I seen the monarchs here yet.... I know they will be here soon and I will post here when I begin to see them. Also another note, you might start to see little red-orange bugs on your plant...don't spray them with chemicals to kill them as you will leave that poison residue on your plants. I spray them off with a water hose every other day or so.

[justinandkim84]

i Just bought several kinds of milkweed plants. I was curious about how you set up your aquarium. I noticed you sometimes use a hamster wheel. How do you keep it from turning? do you remove it from the stand? How oftern do the monarchs lay eggs? through out the warm months? also does your milkweed regrow every year?

[JustagirlfromTX]

The setup is very simple; just the hamster wheel (it provides a lot of places for the caterpillars to attach to) and some leaves. Since caterpillers don't quite weigh as much as a fluffly fat hamster :-), you don't have the issue of it turning, so putting it in there as is will be fine.

[reavch]

I bought two milkweed plants just like yours. Do you have to place anything in your butterfly habitat to encourage them to cocoon? It looks like they are about 3 inches when you bring them inside?

[JustagirlfromTX]

Typically they stay on the plant until they are ready to form their chrysalis, and then they crawl off somewhere. When they are about 2 inches we bring them in, along with some leaves from the milkweed plant in case they are still eating (not quite ready). We've gotten pretty good at figuring out when they are ready, so they might eat for a day more before forming their chrysalis. If you do that make sure you keep an eye on the leaves...since they eat them up very quickly! Good luck!

[MsChunky34]

cool vid. but do yuo wanna know something real epic i ordered common milkweed but i diddent fully order them and a wekk or so later in the mail WAS MILKWEED SEEDS that was so cool (-_-)

[mrhumboldthippy]

that is so cool,wow,you raise monarch butterflys,very nice detailed video,im looking forward to starting my own monarch ranch,peace

[jay733]

My I have the same milkweed that you have, but I'm going to bring them inside also because of birds in my area. How many leaves do they consume a day? I'm planning on just using the leaves of the milkweed plant I have but the leaves don't seem that big.