This Saturday’s event was great, thanks to all who came out.
- We distributed cages and plant plugs 🌱
- learned how to spot eggs and looked at it under the microscope 🔬
- learned how to care for caterpillars as you start finding them this month ❤
- and four people went home with their first freshly hatched caterpillars! 🐛 🐛🐛🐛
Caring for your “cats”
I wanted to send along care instructions so you’d have something to reference.
Keep your caterpillars, or “cats” in the butterfly cage and store them at either outdoor temperature or a warmer room in your house. They like the heat. They’re not super picky about temperature but don’t like to be in a frigid air conditioned room or in front of a vent. I keep mine outdoors on my porch in a shady spot but have kept them inside my house in the past.
Keep your milkweed leaves watered so they stay fresh. Replace them when they start getting shriveled or leathery. If the leaf doesn’t have a lot of stem, you can totally strip away some of the bottom of the leaf so it fits better.
Before you give them new milkweed leaves, use your sprayer to disinfect the leaf for 2-3 minutes with a 5% bleach solution, then rinse it with water thoroughly. You can make this bleach solution with 1 part bleach to 19 parts water. It doesn’t need to be exact. Another way to get close is to do 1 tablespoon of bleach to every 1 cup of water. Don’t stress out about it. 🙂 Another reason to wash the milkweed is in case any pesticides happened to get on the leaves.
There are a few ways to accidentally kill your “cats”. One way is to use bug spray, then scratch your legs, then touch the milkweed leaves. Another common way is if your pets have frontline, if you pet your pets then you can get the chemical residue on your hands that could inadvertently transfer to the milkweed. The bottom line is wash your hands before handling the milkweed you’re giving to your “cats”.
Timeline
Many people are wondering… how long do I care for my cats? Their caterpillar, or “larva” stage lasts about two and a half weeks. This is the only time they’ll eat milkweed, the rest is just waiting. During this period they’ll go through 5 “instars”. The first two instars eat very little. By the fifth instar they’ll be eating a tremendous amount. When they start to get decent sized antenna it means they’re in their 4th or 5th instar. At that point you’ll want to make sure to have a supply of milkweed available. I don’t cut the milkweed at the leaf stems at that point, I take a cutting from the stem. They need a constant supply of food or they’ll die, so make sure to have some ready. If you need any help or are nervous about where to get milkweed, please email or call me and I’ll help you acquire some! (302 547-2366) I see lots of it in the park so there should be enough to raise dozens and dozens of monarchs this year. I’ll share some spots I’ve seen it in the next section.
Where to find milkweed
- There’s a large common milkweed garden on the north side of the Market Street bridge
- Swamp milkweed along the Brandywine, right across the river from West street in the bare patch where they put that new water line a few years ago
- In the meadow with the waterfall in the park. This is across the river from the new apartments they’re putting in along the river. The meadow has paths cut in it.
Here’s a map with these locations. We can keep compiling new spots over time.
This may sound complicated but I promise, after you do it once you’ll see it’s really a piece of cake. As always, fire back with any questions and please share your progress!
Jason
