Monarch Caterpillars Saga II

It was about 40 degrees on the morning I went out to look for the caterpillars again and decide which milkweed plant to cut (the one with the most caterpillars was my criteria). I didn’t find any caterpillars! I decided to wait a few hours for the temperature to climb a little. By early afternoon it was in the 50s and I found a caterpillar on one of the plants.

It was near the base of one of the leaves, close the stem. I couldn’t tell that it had munched nearby but the caterpillars do go through cycles of eating voraciously and then resting as they develop…and it had been cold during the night.

I carried the fish tank out to the front flower bed. I’d found a glass flower arranger that I planned to use to hold the stalks of milkweed upright and their ends in water.

The stalk turned out to be a little bigger than the hole so I trimmed it around the edges enough for it to fit. Then I took the whole thing back inside and covered it with netting.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the caterpillar becomes active and thrives in my Monarch Caterpillar nursery.