Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Rearing Monarchs

Our first batch of larvae arrived two weeks later than expected. On June 21st about 36 first instar larvae arrived from Monarchwatch.org. Our second shipment of 48 arrived two days later (on time). For the first few days they all fit in a large candy jar with milkweed and a cheese cloth cover over the top of the jar. The larvae ranged is size from under an 1/8 of an inch to under a 1/2 inch long. As the larvae grew we added more jars. When we had 4 jars and could not keep up with added enough milkweed, Doug built a large Conservatory or Atrium type enclosure out of old windows and a screened top. The bottom is open to the ground.