Facts about Butterflies
Questions, Answers and Tips

Chrysalis found on the Ground
Down and Doomed?  We Central Californians have had very rainy and windy weather recently and I just found a crysalis on the ground between two paving stones near the milkweed ...

New Butterflies Unsteady  Hi,
We are having an unusually cold Winter here in Central Florida, so we took in a few Monarchs: a newly emerged butterfly, a chrysalis from which a ...

Rasing butterflies indoors 
Reading the website, it sounds as though it may be possible for me to raise Monarchs indoors during the winter?....it's Dec. already but would it ...

Painted Lady Butterfly 
Is it true that Painted Lady butterflies can be raised inside my home during the winter months? Is this humane? And if the answer is yes to each ...

Butterfly with broken wing
How often to feed  How often do butterflies need to eat? I am feeding it some sugar water. It has a broken wing and I have it inside.
Thanks

Karen says:
Cathy, I ...

Black Swallowtail Chrysalis
Baby it's cold outside  I still have some chrysalis in my backyard. It will be 39 degrees F tonight. Is that to cold for them? Thank you

Karen says:
Cathy, my guess is ...

Need help finding milkweed host plant  I think I need a milkweed that is a kind called
Dregea volubilis. It is from Asia. Can you help me find seeds?

Karen says:
I am not familiar ...

A Monarch that won't fly?  We found our first Chrysalis and things were transforming well. Then after allowing the butterfly to dry her wings attempted to put her outside that ...

Monarch Release Question  I have a question,okay maybe more than one. How specifically do you go about releasing Monarch butterflies. How long do you wait after they emerge? Do ...

Monarchs Emerge and Fall to the Ground  We received the Butterfly Garden as a gift. The monarch caterpillars all attached to the top and after emerging several promptly fell to the floor. We ...

Monarchs in Salt Lake City Utah  I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I see common milkweed in many places growing wild but rarely find Monarch caterpillars on them. Is our climate too cold ...

Where have all my caterpillars gone?  This morning we had up to 20 caterpillars of various sizes, esp 2 big ones almost ready to pupate, but when we came home this afternoon we could only find ...

Milkweed harmful to birds and children?  Somewhere on your site you mention most animals not liking the taste of milkweed (the toxins) - but that cardinals love it. Due to a neighbor's bird feeder ...

Cold Weather  I live in South Florida, We are having a chilly winter. I have 6 chrysalis, that don't look normal. Sometimes they are on the side of the house instead ...

Care of Milkweed Plants  The caterpillars have nearly stripped my scarlet milkweed plants of their leaves. Should I cut the plants back now or just leave them as they are. They ...

Black Swallowtail Butterfly Emerges in Winter  We found a black swallowtail caterpillar in our garden last fall and put it in a jar to see if we could watch it go through it's change. It just "hatched"...

Indoor care for butterflies  I have a swallowtail butterfly that has just hatched indoors in the wintertime. I can't release him now. What does he need to survive?

Karen says:...

Chrysalis and moisture-sprinkler system?  We have several butterfly gardens where we have an automatic sprinkler system - is this good or bad, too much moisture-can it prevent chrysalis' from ...

How warm should it be to release monarch butterflies?  FYI, I was able to bring in the 9 monarch chrysalis that I found in my garden and so far 6 of them emerged, only one with a broken wing, even with the ...

Monarch Chrysalis Cold Outside  I have Monarch Chrysalis in my backyard. It will be 30 or below degrees F tonight should I try to bring them indoors? It is not the Black Swallowtail,...

Monarch Cold Weather  The weather has turned cold - should snow tomorrow. I have many chrysalis and 1 monarch hatched outside and is hanging on to chrysalis. If I bring it ...

Tropical milkweed number of simutaneous cuttings per stem  Tropical Milkweed, one growing stem, 18 - 24" long :
Can it be used as three rootable 6 - 8" cuttings?
(either all cut within minutes, or spaced over ...

Monarch eggs in November  What will happen to the monarch eggs and cats that are on my milkweed plants now, in late November?

Will they complete their cycle and have much chance ...

Tigere Swallowtails
Males or Females?  I grow Bronze Fennel and have watched the Swallowtails lay eggs and the joy of watching feeding babies. Two questions: I thought the yellow Swallowtails ...

Black Swallowtail Chrysalis
Unable to move! 
My kids and I have had the extraordinary and quite-by-chance opportunity to experience a Black Swallowtail caterpillar eat and grow and enter the ...

Lantana Butterfly?  Discovered a "different" butterfly today. Its wings are not very large, black with white dots. Body is a vivid blue with the lower third a bright red....

Milkweed Plant spacing in the garden?  How close together do you plant milkweed plants? Do you group them, several plants in a grouping and how close together should each plant be grown?


Karen ...

Book about Caterpillars  I'm looking for the very best book I can get on identifying caterpillars in all their instars. Most books show only one instar. My main interest is ...

When is the best time to start raising Monarchs? 
I live in Central Maryland and was thinking of starting to raise Monarchs. I have a daughter who will soon be an Elementary School teacher and I ...

Butterfly Can't Fly  I have a Butterfly that can't fly. Something is wrong with one of it's wings. I found it in my garden outside. What can I feed it? will it drink the ...

Chrysalis Moving  Thank you for answering all my questions? You have been very helpful. Instead of moving the Chrysalis inside of my home I want to move it from the garbage ...

Moving the Chrysalis inside  How can I move a Chrysalis from outside to inside the house. One of the caterpillars attached itself to my outside garbage can yesterday 6/26/09. I have ...