Recently we were so excited to see three fat Monarch Caterpillars munching away on our Milk Weeds. They looked so fat, healthy and happy that is until disaster struck. We found one dead at the bottom of a milk-weed, curled up with ants covering him. His friend we found at the bottom of another milk-weed black and shriveled. What was happening?! We had no idea. The third one we took into the screen dome on a potted milkweed where we could watch it more closely. I looked away for a few minutes and he vanished! I looked everywhere! " Maybe he climbed into one of the dome girders", I thought to myself.
We have had other disastrous hatch-lings in the past. One butterfly was missing an antennae, but she seemed okay and eventually flew off. Another had one wing that couldn't open and it kept flying in circles. Upsetting to say the least. The worse was one that I referred to as " The Elephant Man Butterfly". No description needed, suffice it to say that a lizard made sure it didn't live long. When I hear about the decline of the Monarchs nation wide I think of just the few dozen we have bred which had a small percentage of deformities. You would think the miraculous butterfly lives in a perfect world. Even his world is fraught with danger and cruel twists of fate. Mother Nature can be a heartless bitch!
Trying not to think about them and their demise when Jim yelled at me the other day to come quick! A gorgeous Monarch was drying out his beautiful wings at the inside top of the screen dome! The missing one did build in the girder! That kept him safe from weather and critters, how brilliant!!
Jim carefully collected him in a butterfly net and I'm happy to report he flew off to the top of a tree with his perfect wings!
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| Our one successful Monarch |
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