Butterfly Fever

This summer, we have jumped into raising monarch caterpillars like never before. Tanya started us off with a bang when she found us five newly-hatched caterpillars. We went searching in McCrory Gardens for more and found a few bigger ones. Misha has been very good about making sure our little friends have enough fresh milkweed to eat, and our whole family watches them grow bigger and bigger until they are ready to make their chrysalises.

Here they go!

Then it's a matter of waiting for them to hatch. A week and half to two weeks later, the chrysalis becomes transparent, showing the black and orange patterns of the wings inside. Then, out it comes, and the real fun begins! The butterfly grips its vacated chrysalis and lets its crumpled, wet wings dry off for a few hours. Its fat body pumps fluid into his wings, and after awhile, it tries a few tentative flaps. It will easily hang onto our fingers during this process, and we can sit outside until its ready to fly. Misha loves to hold the butterflies as they dry, free to admire the beautiful insects as long as he wants. Sebby got a kick out of holding one too.

Just like magic.

As we've learned, there are several generations of monarchs each summer. While most monarchs live less than two months, those born in the last generation of the summer can live upwards of seven months; these are the butterflies that will make the long journey south to warmer climates. Their rapid life cycles mean that we can have a constant rotation of butterflies hatching out. We have a new batch of babies that are busy eating and growing as we speak!