Caterpillars hanging on cut leaves

by Andrea
(Ann Arbor, MI)

We have two monarch caterpillars that we have raised from eggs. We have been keeping them in a glass jar and adding fresh milkweed leaves daily. We also put some sticks in the jar to give them a place to hang. Today they climbed all over the sticks but then settled to hang on the underside of a couple of the milkweed leaves. They are still hanging caterpillars at this point. I don't know what to do because those leaves will not last long enough for the caterpillars to become butterflies, but I'm afraid to interfere or try to move them. I would appreciate any advice.

Karen says:
Andrea, is there any you could tape the leaf to a horizontal branch possibly. Or, the other thing you could do is tie a piece of thread to the top black "stem" of the chrysalis and then tie the other end of the thread so the chrysalis is hanging off a branch. Try to handle the chrysalis as little as possible....they are fragile. I hope this helps:)

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We have two butterflies!
by: Andrea

Both butterflies emerged this morning, and I was able to catch the second one on video so I can share it with my boys when they get home from school. What a truly amazing thing to witness!

Karen says:
FANTASTIC!! How wonderful that you can share your video with your sons!
I think tomorrow will be the day!
by: Anonymous

The chrysalises turned clear this afternoon. They changed rapidly over the course of an hour or two. Do they always wait until morning to emerge, or is there any chance of it happening overnight? I so hope we get to watch!

Karen says:
I think most all of my butterflies have emerged in the morning or maybe early afternoon.
Emerging Butterfly Question
by: Anonymous

Thanks for the tagging information. It looks like we're too late for this year, but maybe next year!

How long does it take for the butterfly to emerge from the chrysalis? Once it emerges, how long do we have before we need to release it? I'm asking because ours are due to emerge in the next few days, and I'm hoping my kids will be home to watch. I'm hoping for the weekend, but if it happens on a school day, can I keep the butterflies for a few hours until my kids get home? If so, where should I keep them?

Karen says:
The monarch emerges very quickly (less than a minute). My experience is that the night before it emerges the chrysalis turns black. Usually the butterfly emerges the next morning. In the morning, if you watch it carefully, you will notice that the "shell" of the chrysalis turns slightly "cloudy" as it gets close to the time the butterfly is going to emerge. It is truly a thrill if you see it happen! You can keep the butterfly until the kids get home. Usually they do not move much for a few hours and do not try to fly for a while (maybe 3 or 4 hours). If you have it in the open, maybe you could put it in a room so you don't "lose" it. You can release it when the kids get home. If you can't get it to perch on your finger (if it has been a while since it has emerged, the butterfly might fly away)....when the wings are closed you can GENTLY put your thumb on one side of the closed wings and index finger on the other side and take hold of the butterfly wings to bring it outside.
Solution?
by: Andrea

Thanks for responding. I took the leaves out of the jar and placed them across a wire cup holder so that each chrysalis hangs down into open space. I'm hoping the leaves will dry out this way. I was concerned that they would rot or get moldy in the jar, but I think they will be okay in open air like this. I figured that was better than touching the chrysalises or trying to move them. Does that sound good?

Also, do you know if there is any way to actually track these butterflies when we release them? Is anyone doing a migration study that we could somehow join?

Karen says:
Andrea, sounds like a good solution! Check out this information on tagging monarchs to find out about tracking the monarchs. I am not sure if it is too late to order the monarch tags.

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