We are just "crawling" with caterpillars again! I grew about 10 new milkweed plants from seeds and planted some of them in my front yard and added some to the butterfly garden in the back. I guess the butterflies migrated out of the area temporarily because my plants had time to grow back nice and lush.
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And it's almost all gone, the backyard milkweed is almost all sticks again. I counted 15 fat monarch caterpillars (probably all 4th or 5th instar) today. They were all eating like they were starving.
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Look carefully at the top corner of this picture - we found this chrysalis yesterday. I'm not sure how old it is because we didn't get out to look around the garden for a couple of days.
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Munch, crunch, glup, yum.
So in the backyard, it's all monarch caterpillars and in the front yard, it's all queen caterpillars.
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This one is probably 2nd instar, about 3 or 4 days old.
They have quite a bit of competition for space on the leaves. The front plants are just covered with aphids and I've found a lot of these slimy, icky, wormy bugs. They are getting bigger, but not cuter! And I don't see any evidence that they are eating the plant. My suspicion is that they are a kind of ladybug larva, but I haven't found a match yet.
This queen egg is about to hatch, you can tell because it is dark. They are white for about 2 days and right before hatching they turn dark. It is surrounded by aphids, which I think are the most bizarre looking bugs ever! They look like a preschooler's drawing of a dog!
We are just "crawling" with caterpillars again! I grew about 10 new milkweed plants from seeds and planted some of them in my front yard and added some to the butterfly garden in the back. I guess the butterflies migrated out of the area temporarily because my plants had time to grow back nice and lush..JPG)
And it's almost all gone, the backyard milkweed is almost all sticks again. I counted 15 fat monarch caterpillars (probably all 4th or 5th instar) today. They were all eating like they were starving..JPG)
Look carefully at the top corner of this picture - we found this chrysalis yesterday. I'm not sure how old it is because we didn't get out to look around the garden for a couple of days..JPG)
Munch, crunch, glup, yum.
So in the backyard, it's all monarch caterpillars and in the front yard, it's all queen caterpillars. .JPG)
This one is probably 2nd instar, about 3 or 4 days old.
They have quite a bit of competition for space on the leaves. The front plants are just covered with aphids and I've found a lot of these slimy, icky, wormy bugs. They are getting bigger, but not cuter! And I don't see any evidence that they are eating the plant. My suspicion is that they are a kind of ladybug larva, but I haven't found a match yet.
This queen egg is about to hatch, you can tell because it is dark. They are white for about 2 days and right before hatching they turn dark. It is surrounded by aphids, which I think are the most bizarre looking bugs ever! They look like a preschooler's drawing of a dog!
