We have a thriving Monarch Caterpillar nursery, so to speak, on our back patio.
A Monarch Butterfly spent about 20 minutes on the patio a number of weeks ago, landing on the multiple potted milkweed plants we have hoping to attract them. While we never could see any eggs there were clearly some there – a couple of weeks we saw the first small caterpillars.
A couple of the small caterpillars did not survive but we have 11 of them now on several plants. They have grown quickly and have been voracious eaters. A couple of the plants have been completely devoured. We’ve had to go out and buy several additional milkweed plants so the caterpillars don’t grow hungry as they continue to grow.
We are hopeful some of them will make it to the next pupa (chrysalis) stage and survive to become butterflies. Time will tell.