Tag: raising butterflies

Our Butterfly Project – The Final Update

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn butterfly project11 Comments

So here we are. All of my monarchs have grown up and flown away. I have about twelve black swallowtails in chrysalis, and one straggler caterpillar I found the other day outside and brought in before a big storm. I worried it wouldn’t make it, so I have one last lonely caterpillar hanging out.

I think we are all going to miss them, even the cats.

As you can see, two decided my hair looked like a good place to hang out. I was pretty nervous that they were going to get all tangled up in it and get injured lol. I carefully extracted them and they flew away. I think it was a goodbye.

I released my last monarch on September 12. I named her Persephone and she took off before I could get a photo. She was quite large, and I believe she was a super monarch, heading for the south. Hopefully she will return to me next year, that would be pretty cool!

As for the remaining black swallowtails, they can overwinter. On October 1st, I will be putting them in cold storage to protect them until spring.

Next year, I am definitely tagging. So next fall all of you down there in Texas be prepared to check tags on monarchs and see if they came from my house!

The statistics: This summer I released nineteen female monarchs, twenty male monarchs, nine male black swallowtails, and six female black swallowtails (of my own). When Chrissy was gone I released about fifteen butterflies that were hers that she had raised. And I named all of mine – all 54!

Starting from the beginning, July 5th, the first day I released butterflies this summer: Arthur Blue, Barbara, Marion, Jerry, DeWayne, Faye, Janet, Larry, Scarlet, George, Peter, Frank, Captain, Wendy, Penny, Loki, Thor, Odin, Freya, Cavendish, Kerouac, Jack, Sarah, Ice Cream, Fitzgerald, Orion, Wilde, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Cordelia, Leo, Oberon, Juliet, Orlando, Apollo, Soleil, Cielo, Cosmo, Portia, Konane, Leilani, Makani, Skye, Maisie, Millie, Jinx, Winnie, Hazel, Mamie, Guthrie, Percival, Primrose, Whitaker, and finally, Persephone.

I may still end up with a black swallowtail or two but my numbers won’t change too much now. I am already looking forward to next year! Next spring I plan on writing a post on how to do this yourself if you are interested in it. It is easy and inexpensive, and I love it. It never gets old watching a butterfly eclose or waking up to see one had been born overnight. Then setting them free, watching them fly high and wondering where their journey will take them next! And just being part of something that helps out their population is so rewarding. If you are curious about the next step, you can read about it here!

I can’t express how much I enjoyed this. I can’t wait until it all begins again next year!

Our Butterfly Project – Update #7

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn butterfly project6 Comments

Before we left for vacation, I had to line up a few caterpillar sitters! Luckily for me, my two besties also raise caterpillars and took mine in. One took my black swallowtails, the other my monarchs. I also had family coming in twice a day to feed my lizards and cats, and checking the butterfly enclosures for any butterflies that might eclose during our absence and release them.

And three monarchs were born while I was gone! I told my niece she had to name them all for me, so the three that eclosed under her watch (and her mom’s) are named Jack, Sarah, and… Ice Cream.

The rest of my caterpillars went into chrysalis for the most part while I was gone, so I ended up picking up tanks of chrysalis when we got back, except for a few that were younger and were still just little caterpillars. However, my SIL had a bunch of monarch caterpillars that she asked me to take. I now have about 11 caterpillars munching away in the tank!

Since the last update, I have had 11 total butterflies eclose – 8 monarchs and 3 black swallowtails. I named the monarchs (not including Jack, Sarah, and Ice Cream) Fitzgerald, Wilde, Leo, Cordelia, and Oberon. The black swallowtails I named Orion, Bellatrix, and Andromeda.

Cordelia was giving me great anxiety. When monarchs emerge, they generally hang from the chrysalis for an hour or more, to allow their wings to dry. For some reason though, Cordelia had itchy feet and wanted to rush the process. She kept walking across the top of the enclosure, hanging down of course, but since she was just new, she kept falling! Her wings were still wet and she couldn’t move once she fell and she would flail her little legs in the air. I freaked out because if she remained like that, in a crumpled heap, her wings would be malformed and she wouldn’t be able to fly. I would reach in, let her climb on my finger, and then help her back to the top. I did this eight times before she just went to sleep for the night. We made it, and she was able to fly free and high today when I released her.

There is something amazing about a butterfly, and I love when they seem to trust you enough to climb onto your hands and fingers. I know they just assume that my finger is a stick but, it feels like I am truly connected to them in some way, to nature, when they allow that to happen. There is a trick to it by the way – you want to put your finger near their head/front of their body, under their legs and they just latch on. Their little feet feel so sticky, and despite being fragile little things, they have a surprising weight to them, a featherweight, but you know they are there.

So my tally to date is: 14 male monarchs, 8 female monarchs, 6 male black swallowtails, and 4 female. The next wave is coming! Usually the giant monarchs, the ones strong enough to migrate to Texas and Mexico, are being growing right now, and will leave Michigan to head south the end of August and early September. I am looking forward to contributing to that migration and hopefully helping to boost the numbers of these magnificent creatures.

Our Butterfly Project – Post #1

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn nature15 Comments

If you read here regularly, you have probably heard about our butterfly project. This year, I wanted to raise and release butterflies. Monarchs in particular, but I am also raising Black Swallowtails as well. I have read that statistically, 98% of Monarch eggs never make it to butterflies, due to predation and parasitism (did you know wasps can and will lay eggs inside butterfly eggs caterpillars, and chrysalis? You can wait all that time and have a wasp emerge.) As for Black Swallowtails, 1 out of 100 eggs make it to butterflies. And many people have decided to try to give these pollinators a helping hand – and this year I am trying as well.

I started by visiting a local nursery that is all about butterflies. They have tables of plants, labeled by butterfly. The plants are organic, raised without pesticides by the garden center owners themselves. If you get plants with pesticides, you will unfortunately kill your cats (caterpillars). So it is important to make sure your plants are clean and safe. They all have preferred food – monarchs only eat milkweed, but black swallowtails are not as picky. They have a wider selection to choose from, and easy to grow plants too, like parsley, dill, fennel, carrots, rue, and lovage. They will eat and eat and eat and it feels like you have to keep feeding them constantly – probably because you are. They also make a big giant mess too – caterpillars also poo a lot. (although their poo is called frass)

That photo at the top is how our project began. Three tiny tiny little cats. In their first stage they are wee little things, and black and white, as a natural defense against predators (who think they are just bird poop. so much poop here in this post) As they grow they are yellow and black, and seriously it will be overnight that they change.

Tiny wee baby. Although, they start off much smaller. Almost like a speck of dirt if you aren’t looking. Don’t put these babies in with big caterpillars either, they will be munched and eaten. I learned that the hard way, poor number four was lost to the belly of a caterpillar.

And like I said they eat like crazy. So you have to make sure you have enough to sustain the population you bring in. Right now I am doing ok – I have six caterpillars but three are tiny and three are about to go into chrysalis, so I only have to worry about feeding those three bebes.

I like to see what pattern they are. Some are more black, some more yellow. I didn’t expect that. I expected uniformity. I love nature.

You sort of get an idea of when they are going to go into chrysalis. They start wandering around, going walkabout I call it, and then for a final treat they expel a bunch of waste from their bodies. It’s gross but I guess they don’t want to drag that on to the next stage.

Today, I had to upgrade their tank. I now have three little tanks going – one tiny little one that I call the nursery for the very smallest, a smallish tank (pictured up top) for when they get a bit bigger, then a huge mongo one for the huge mongo caterpillars. I lucked out, my in-laws found that tank on the curbside for the garbage and grabbed it for me. Free giant tank!

Black Swallowtails can stay in chrysalis a really long time. Like years. So that is something to consider if you are thinking about raising butterflies. And to be a more butterfly friendly, it is recommended as well to have your tanks (rather than small jars) somewhere that experiences a day/night cycle and natural temps. And then know, that you will be their slave, feeding them constantly, which means cutting the leaves from your garden and bringing them in, putting them in water, probably twice a day. And cleaning up after them. They are the messiest. My friend recommended the paper towel method and so far that is working. It makes it so much easier. I use little Oui yogurt jars for my water and put foil over the top to stick the plants in.

So far, no monarchs. But I have my fingers crossed!

If this is something you are interested in, there are groups all over – I am in a local butterfly group on Facebook, and also a forum on Reddit which is good to see setups and read what other people have to say. I would suggest doing some reading on it or trying a pre-made kit situation (Insect Lore has a good one on Amazon), and you can get the feel for it. It is worth to see them eclose or find them flying about. I will do another update later, after my first cats eclose – hopefully they do at least! Another good resource is Save Our Monarchs as well.

So far, we are enjoying our journey. Wyatt loves them and will kiss the tank. It is a fun way to feel like we are doing something for the planet and the natural world.