Monarchs

We're raising monarchs again this year and it's the first time we've ever had any trouble with them. A couple of them died just as they were changing into chrysalids and several of the smaller caterpillars just didn't seem to thrive. We've done this several times in the past and only had one that didn't make it in all of that time. I can only guess why so many of them have died this year. I can rule out things like pesticides because we harvest them from our own land and we don't use pesticides, so I suspect it has something to do with the unusually hot, dry weather we've had this summer.

These pics are of the first two that emerged from the latest batch. We could tell that the first one was ready to emerge, so we sat around with the camera in hand waiting to catch it on "film". (It's a digital camera but you get the idea.) I got up to answer the phone at one point and just as I hung up my son started yelling "It's out! It's out!" I can't turn my back for a second. lol Then as we were sitting there watching the first one dry we looked over just in time to see the second one crawling out. You can see in the second pic that it's wings are still crumpled and wet. Missed capturing it on film again. The others since then have all emerged while we weren't at home or while we were sleeping, so we haven't managed to video tape a single one. We're down to two now, so it's not likely that we'll document them emerging this year either. But that's okay. We enjoy it nonetheless.

I think it's interesting how we can "raise" so many of them yet never tire of watching them. We sit around them for long stretches of time, watching them eat, sleep, grow, change and emerge. It's just so darned fascinating! One of the most amusing moments was when I got up one morning before everyone else was awake and heard a strange crunching sound. I looked all around downstairs for the source of the odd sound for quite a few minutes before I realized that I was hearing the sound of the caterpillars *eating*. It was odd to hear it so clearly all over the downstairs portion of the house. It also illustrated all too well how *UN*quiet it is around here most of the time! We've had monarchs several years and that was the first time I could recall having heard them munching and crunching away like that. It reminded me of the first time I *heard* snow falling. It was very late at night and I was out walking alone when the snow started falling around me. All of a sudden I realized that I could hear a faint tinkling sound when the flakes landed on the snow that was already on the ground. I stopped and just *listened* for several minutes. Definitely a *WOW* moment. Watching the monarchs has kind of the same effect on me.