Our natural prairie outside our AP factory produced a bonus this year. We had monarchs laying eggs and saw a number of caterpillars on the milkweed plants. Upon reading up, it turns out that these caterpillars have only a 1% to 5% chance of survival before turning into butterflies. Monarchs are endangered, and especially this year the number has crashed dramatically.
So we gathered what we could find and brought them in. They are voracious eaters and consumed a lot of milkweed leaves before finally forming a chrysalis. About a weeks later (this morning) two of the 4 finally emerged as beautiful butterflies. The other two will probably emerge tomorrow.
Here are some pix.
Rolando
So we gathered what we could find and brought them in. They are voracious eaters and consumed a lot of milkweed leaves before finally forming a chrysalis. About a weeks later (this morning) two of the 4 finally emerged as beautiful butterflies. The other two will probably emerge tomorrow.
Here are some pix.
Rolando
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