"Ask the Expert" Questions by Category
Category:
Diseases, Mortality
Don't see the information you're looking for?
Try another category or ask your own question.
|
| ID | Question |
| 26 | I am a Family Child Care Provider in a northern suburb of the Twin Cities. We planted the beginnings of a butterfly garden this spring (including milkweed), and have been raising and observing Monarchs for about a month. When I found caterpillars on the plants, I brought them into the house, and we fed them and watched them as they went through their different instars, formed their chrysalises, and then emerged as butterflies. My children have been fortunate enough to observe all of these different happenings, and are very excited to do more. We have a new batch of caterpillars that are beginning to make their chrysalises. This time, one of the other caterpillars ATE one of the chrysalises that was already formed (it is still hanging, looks rather like an apple core). There were leaves in the container at the time. Is this common? I was under the impression that the caterpillars ate ONLY milkweed. Is this a type of competition behavior? |
| 28 | I found a monarch caterpillar on milkweed which was growing on the prairie in Glenview, Illinois. The caterpillar was already big, and the next day it started to form a chrysalis. The day after the chrysalis was formed, I saw a little string hanging from the chrysalis, and saw a little worm-like caterpillar was coming out of the chrysalis. It was absolutely disgusting. It was a yellowish but almost transparent worm with two black eyes. It does not sound like the parasite you were talking about in your website that monarchs tend to get infected. Do you know what it was? |
| 35 | For a few years we have observed the monarch life cycle on the common milkweed and swamp milkweed I planted by our garage. In past years many monarchs have perished as small larvae during heavy rains, or in the chrysalis stage (small hole in the chrysalis, subsequent browning and drying out of chrysalis). But every year there have been plenty of monarchs who make it to adulthood.
I am observing this year, however, the mysterious disappearance of the tiny larvae. We haven't had rain, so they haven't been washed away... There have been plenty of eggs, then tiny larvae, then *poof* they're gone. Today I found the largest one I've seen - about 1/2 inch - dead on a leaf below the milkweed.
Do small monarch larvae have predators? (I've noticed red beetles hanging out on the milkweed.) Could the plants carry a harmful fungus or virus? (The swamp milkweed is shedding yellow leaves, and both types have an occasional papery patch on a leaf)
I miss the caterpillars! Is there anything I can do? |
| 38 | We tried raising Monarch Caterpillars in our summer science program and all 24 died. We fed them tropical milkweed. Some never grew too big and others that did grow seemed to attach to a leaf in the middle of their body and then hung in a strange "V" shape and died. In some of them, the middle of their body became "deflated" while the rest remained. Any ideas what we did? We certainly don't want to repeat this mistake. |
| 39 | My family and I live in Apple Valley, MN. We have been "raising" monarch butterflies in our home for the past 3 years during the summer time. It has been a wonderful experience for our children and we have had great success. This year, however, we have run into a problem that we need help with. None of our butterflies have been surviving. We started with 4 caterpillars forming their green chrysalises. Following these 4, there have been about 5 failed attempts by catterpillars to form a chrysalis. They don't seem to be attaching themselves correctly, and they are oozing a green liquid. Their body starts to deflate and their skin begins to open but everything just stops and they appear to die. This is something we've never seen before. The next weird thing was that when the butterflies started coming out of the chrysalises that did form early on, they did not survive. Their wings were small, and instead of hanging on to the shell of the chrysalis, they dropped to the ground and died. We are very concerned about what's going on. We have yet to have a successful butterfly this year, and it is very discouraging. We need your help to figure out what it is that is going on. Please help us. |
| 45 | What is killing all of my monarch caterpillars? I have a large milkweed plant in my garden and last summer I saw dozens of caterpillars and chrysalises, but this year all the eggs that I find disappear with no caterpillar to be found. What can I do to stop my caterpillars from disappearing? |
| 51 | I have a fine large container cage to raise monarchs but have been plagued with "black death". What can I do now to avoid having this spread? I keep the cage as clean as possible without disturbing the caterpillars feeding and two remaining chrysalises which are still green and pretty, but I fear losing them to "black death" also. |
| 55 | We live in MN and have been successfully raising Monarch butterflies for over 10 years. This past week we have had a unique problem -- when emerging from the chrysalis, the butterfly is unable to get its thorax out of the chrysalis shell thus the butterfly ends up dying (I presume from exhaustion of trying to get itself free of the chrysalis shell) -- wings out but thorax still attached to the chrysalis shell. This has happened to about 6 of our past 14 chrysalises -- quite distressing both for me and my young daughter. What do you think is the cause? We don't use pesticides on or near our milkweed. They are in a butterfly cage in our house. Do you think that the hot, humid weather has been too much for the chrysalises? The first one or two I dismissed as a possible genetic flaw but 6 out of the past 14? That seems like more than a coincidence. |
| 65 | We are raising some monarchs this year and we have had a few that have died. We don't really know what they are dying of or if it is contagious to the others in the cage. The only thing we see is green liquid all over the place, but we can't figure out where it is coming from on the caterpillars. Suggestions? |
| 69 | My daughter and I are raising just a few monarchs this summer for the very first time. Our first caterpillar formed its chrysalis with no apparent problems; our second caterpillar seemed to wish to do the same when it was a little smaller than the first. We were surprised. We waited and waited and noted that its "J" was not as curled as the first caterpillar's "J." Then we also noted that it moved its mouth alot - opening and shutting it while in its "J." It seemed to take longer to get down to the business of forming a pupa. Then a very disturbing thing happened. A worm grew out of the side of this caterpillar. At this point I went online and discerned that it must have been a parasite - fly larva; in the meanwhile, another worm emerged from its side. I was so upset that I removed the caterpillar and had my husband squoosh it outdoors, as I felt it had little chance of surviving and was worried it was suffering terribly. My question is: could it possibly have survived and formed a pupa? Did we "do the right thing?" Here I was expecting to have such a special experience - a homeschool project - and it turned out to be very disturbing. What are the chances that our two eggs and remaining two larvae have the same problem? All were collected locally - out in wild. |
|