Frank ~ I’ve been working with raising the Monarch butterflies for at least a decade now. I never knew that we could tell the sex of the chrysalis! My first batch of eggs hatched yesterday (7/11/24 which is late for central NJ). The milkweed plants bloomed before the eggs appeared! Being retired, we release between 40 - 100 Monarchs each year!
I have a caterpillar named Houdini, it has a crooked butt and I was so concerned when it came time for it to cling to its silk pad by the cremaster. My fear was it would be too weak to pierce the silk pad. The whole family watched anxiously as it tried many times to latch onto that little silk button. But very happily, it finally managed it. It's now a J! We're so proud of its effort.
Sure you wont see this 2 years later but had to comment. Here in central Florida thousands of people are trying to save the Monarchs. But, they are buying tropical milkweed from big box stores. This is detrimental to the Monarch. Education is key! I have a butterfly garden and just love watching mommas lay their eggs. Never had a problem with predators but this year is different. May have to build your Monarch cage.
Thanks for your share! Great to hear so many people are concerned about monarchs. Could you share as well why you are concerned about which milkweed is planted! Thank you!
@@natureatyourdoor Milkweed bought from big box stores are sprayed with pesticides that are harmful to Monarchs causing deformities and even death. Tropical Milkweed, sold by big box stores dont die back in the winter like native milkweed does here in central Florida. This encourages the Monarch to overwinter here instead of continuing their migration to Mexico or south Florida. Central Florida gets the occasional frost or freeze therefore killing the Monarchs.
This was such an informative video. I’ve been raising Monarchs for 50 years and never knew about sexing the crysalids. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Oh my goodness!!! This video was amazing!!! I especially like the part of telling male from female chrysalis!! I'm going out right now to look at the 2 that I have.
Just came on your video. I love monarch's and did have a butterfly house and I raised and released 40 butterflies. I seen them chain from a Caterpillar to a chrysalis and watch them hatch. Now I know how to tell a male chrysalis from a female. Love your video. I subscribed to learn more.
Thank you so much.... 30 years bio teaching experience... my kids in high School class would rear and tag sometimes as many as 500 monarchs. ( We had a breeding and flight cage set up with sun type lights!) Welcome to my channel. I am excited about more and more people finding me!! Shoot me questions anytime!
Thank you for posting this! I’ve been binging your videos, as just a few days ago I found a monarch caterpillar on my front lawn. I took it in and named it Cornelius and now he’s growing fast! I followed your DIY caterpillar box video and he has now found his way to the top mesh. So I’m very excited to see his transformation, I’m hoping to set up a GoPro so I don’t miss it 😄
Sorry for late reply...my 98 year old dad just past away so I think that says it all. Thank you so much for sharing with me! Very rewarding to me to hear your enthusiasm!
Thank you ! This video was Very helpful. I’m a newbie from Kansas City Missouri. Just finished watching a caterpillar create the silk and attach itself. It took a little over 2 hours. I sure hope I can catch the chrysalis formation
I love your videos and have learned lots from you! Thanks for all of them. I currently have 8 chrysalises, one Monarch emerged this morning and two released (didn’t get my tags in time due to backlog) this morning that emerged yesterday morning. I have a butterfly garden and plenty of Milkweed and am looking forward to many years of rearing Monarchs here in Knoxville, TN.
Wonderful information! My friend and I just got 5 Monarch caterpillars this early this year in New Jersey, we are really wondering what genders they are. After seeing your video, I am sure we will have a lots of fun to identify them. Thank you for putting this up.
I learned something! Well I often do learn from you but I now know how to tell the gender of a monarch chrysalis. I think the chrysalises are beautiful!
You bet love sharing! More to come! Thanks for taking time to comment! It means a lot to me! Ask questions any time! Love interacting with my viewers. I respond to every comment on every video!
My granddaughter discovered a caterpillar in the J position on a plant outside our house. We live in Southern California. It’s been colder than usual here this winter. I wrote the date down that it formed its chrysalis and I checked on it every day. It looked healthy. Guess how many days it was in the chrysalis? 43 days! On the 41st day I noticed it’s starting to get clearer looking so I knew it was alive and it was going to hatch soon so I cut a part of the plant off and brought it in the house. It hatched into a beautiful female butterfly. I had to keep it overnight because we had rain but the following day I took it out, and as soon as the sun hit its wings, it started slowly opening and closing them, then took off! I have no doubt that the cold weather is what kept it from forming into a butterfly quickly. I have many gulf frittalary butterflies around the yard at certain times of the year and usually they are in their chrysalis for three weeks even though everything on the Internet says around 14 days. I am always fascinated by this miracle.
Thanks for such great information. We are homeschoolers. Starting our 6th year. Love doing nature science! We found 6 eggs, all hatched, but only 3 have survived. One is about to j-hang. Is it normal for some not to survive? Our enclosure is 16x16x24. We cleaned the enclosure and changed leaves 2xs a day.
Hey thanks for kind words and I love my home school community! Yes...it happens...at least 5 larval diseases from bacteria to insect parasites and caterpillars are pretty much defenseless. Sounds like you all our doing everything right! Keep me posted how the remains larva turn out!
Enjoyed your videos on Monarchs, wish you would do more! Please. BTW, since you are changing your brand name, how about something simpler,... like... Backyard Nature. Too many words and people won't remember. :)
Thanks for suggestion...I ended up sticking with what I got...I didn't want to tread on other brands...hope to make more ...and better quality Monarch videos in the fall!
We found a monarch chrysalis on the ground while weeding. That was Sunday. It was the beautiful green w/ gold dots. Brought inside. It's resting on a folded napkin in a tiny container, no lid. Today is Thur & it has slowly been darkening to where I can see its wings. I have one inside house plant. Should I put the container in the dirt? How is laying on its side going to affect the emergence?
If it turning black it will emerge within 24 hours...its okay to lay on the ground at this point but it needs to be able to crawl up some where and hang upside down or its wings won't dry properly....there is also a parasite that can cause part black and Browning. If you see black outlines of wings and a bit of orange you are good to go! Keep me posted!
@@natureatyourdoor wonderful! Thank you! Yes it's a tall plant and there will be plenty of branches it for it to choose from. How long from the time that it hatches to the wings being dry will it be ready to fly? And do I need to provide sugar water on a saucer or anything? I have a few flowers right outside my patio door, mostly hosta lilies since I am in the process of designing a pollinator garden. It's still in the planning stages
Thanks for your awesome videos! I made an enclosure using window screen. It looks like the silk is detaching and I'm afraid the chrysalis is going to fall off. Any ideas on how I could prevent it from falling?
Hi Xiomara Cordoba Gerlach! Thank you for kind words and awesome you made an enclosure. Yes...you can actually move the chrysalis safely if you think you need to and use thread or tape on the silk strands to secure it if you are concerned. After a chrysalis has hung for over 24 to 48 hours they can be moved. I have had them emerge successfully from solid surfaces even...provided they can crawl to an upside down hanging position to successfully dry wings.
Awesome on your thread handi work! Keep me posted! And you can share your photos with me and NAYD learning community on my NAYD FB page under visitor posts!
Give it some time! I love how closely you are watching, learning, and observing! As I recall they fiddle with that a lot when the first come out! Imagine you were a caterpillar with cutting jaws ..now you wake up,and have a long curlying straw! Keep me posted!
@@natureatyourdoor it finally seems to be ok, I moved it outside on a twig. I think it was actually getting a bit tangled in the silk on the top of the cage. The moisture bead it had on its proboscis seemed to be able to move down further assisting the process!
We have a crystalist now day 3 it has been dark almost like a black/ dark brown i think it may be dead i have like 6 other crystalist near that one is it safe to keep it hanging there? I made a box with screen around the sides and to get to these is not easy but if I must take this out I will do so?
Ty so much for returning my message Now I have even a bigger question wow has this ever been a hard task to take on for my wife and I. So I made a habitat for my caterpillars and we now have 7 crystalist and here I took a box and cut out 2 sides put screen inside and been working very well until today the windy sunny day decided to throw the box off our outside table. 2 of the 7 crystalist fell from the top and no damage is done to them but I Google what to do and it told me to lay them on the bottom with a paper towel and lay them near the screen so when they hatch they can crawl up the screen and hang I bought a real habitat for them all but I left the 5 other in the box hanging from the cardboard top I taped the 2 flaps of the cardboard together as if the box was never open and hoping that is okay? Not sure if the butterfly can stick to the cardboard top or if when they hatch if I should move them to the real habitat we bought? Thanks for your help with this all
@@natureatyourdoor Thank you… it attached itself after I posted this comment, and now it’s hanging in the J but hasn’t shed its outer skin yet. I’m very hopeful!
Really appreciate her program, I’ll be working with Native Americans and help restore, monarch habitats so that they will be able to island hop their way along their migration routes in California migration
@@natureatyourdoor I’d have left behind a Wile E. Coyote style dust silhouette if a found one of those. I saw a house centipede at work the other day, screamed, tried to run away and fell on my face. Luckily no stitches for the split chin. I’m terrified of those things yet I’m fine with sticking my hand in a beehive, go figure!
Frank ~ I’ve been working with raising the Monarch butterflies for at least a decade now. I never knew that we could tell the sex of the chrysalis! My first batch of eggs hatched yesterday (7/11/24 which is late for central NJ). The milkweed plants bloomed before the eggs appeared! Being retired, we release between 40 - 100 Monarchs each year!
That is awesome! A great hobby!
I have a caterpillar named Houdini, it has a crooked butt and I was so concerned when it came time for it to cling to its silk pad by the cremaster. My fear was it would be too weak to pierce the silk pad. The whole family watched anxiously as it tried many times to latch onto that little silk button. But very happily, it finally managed it. It's now a J! We're so proud of its effort.
Yea! 💪💪💪 Fun story! Keep me posted!
Sure you wont see this 2 years later but had to comment. Here in central Florida thousands of people are trying to save the Monarchs. But, they are buying tropical milkweed from big box stores. This is detrimental to the Monarch. Education is key! I have a butterfly garden and just love watching mommas lay their eggs. Never had a problem with predators but this year is different. May have to build your Monarch cage.
Thanks for your share! Great to hear so many people are concerned about monarchs. Could you share as well why you are concerned about which milkweed is planted! Thank you!
@@natureatyourdoor Milkweed bought from big box stores are sprayed with pesticides that are harmful to Monarchs causing deformities and even death. Tropical Milkweed, sold by big box stores dont die back in the winter like native milkweed does here in central Florida. This encourages the Monarch to overwinter here instead of continuing their migration to Mexico or south Florida. Central Florida gets the occasional frost or freeze therefore killing the Monarchs.
This was such an informative video. I’ve been raising Monarchs for 50 years and never knew about sexing the crysalids. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Awesome glad it was helpful and you could learn something new!
Oh my goodness!!! This video was amazing!!! I especially like the part of telling male from female chrysalis!! I'm going out right now to look at the 2 that I have.
Glad you enjoyed it! Keep me updated on your two!
Just came on your video. I love monarch's and did have a butterfly house and I raised and released 40 butterflies. I seen them chain from a Caterpillar to a chrysalis and watch them hatch. Now I know how to tell a male chrysalis from a female. Love your video. I subscribed to learn more.
Thank you so much.... 30 years bio teaching experience... my kids in high School class would rear and tag sometimes as many as 500 monarchs. ( We had a breeding and flight cage set up with sun type lights!) Welcome to my channel. I am excited about more and more people finding me!! Shoot me questions anytime!
Thank you for posting this! I’ve been binging your videos, as just a few days ago I found a monarch caterpillar on my front lawn. I took it in and named it Cornelius and now he’s growing fast! I followed your DIY caterpillar box video and he has now found his way to the top mesh. So I’m very excited to see his transformation, I’m hoping to set up a GoPro so I don’t miss it 😄
Sorry for late reply...my 98 year old dad just past away so I think that says it all. Thank you so much for sharing with me! Very rewarding to me to hear your enthusiasm!
Thank you ! This video was Very helpful. I’m a newbie from Kansas City Missouri. Just finished watching a caterpillar create the silk and attach itself. It took a little over 2 hours. I sure hope I can catch the chrysalis formation
So glad you were able to observe that...shedding to the chrysalis happens suddenly !
I love your videos and have learned lots from you! Thanks for all of them. I currently have 8 chrysalises, one Monarch emerged this morning and two released (didn’t get my tags in time due to backlog) this morning that emerged yesterday morning. I have a butterfly garden and plenty of Milkweed and am looking forward to many years of rearing Monarchs here in Knoxville, TN.
Great to hear! Keep me posted!
Btw...my son and daughter in law UT grads! Go vols!
Oh wow, Go Vols! Btw, three more emerged this morning and released a female with her BIG ORANGE wings gracefully flapping as she flew off!
Wonderful information! My friend and I just got 5 Monarch caterpillars this early this year in New Jersey, we are really wondering what genders they are. After seeing your video, I am sure we will have a lots of fun to identify them. Thank you for putting this up.
Awesome! New Jersey....i graduated from Summit High School!
Keep my up to date!
I learned something! Well I often do learn from you but I now know how to tell the gender of a monarch chrysalis. I think the chrysalises are beautiful!
Ha! A sure win at any trivia party!
Thanks for all the info
You bet love sharing! More to come! Thanks for taking time to comment! It means a lot to me! Ask questions any time! Love interacting with my viewers. I respond to every comment on every video!
My granddaughter discovered a caterpillar in the J position on a plant outside our house. We live in Southern California. It’s been colder than usual here this winter. I wrote the date down that it formed its chrysalis and I checked on it every day. It looked healthy. Guess how many days it was in the chrysalis? 43 days! On the 41st day I noticed it’s starting to get clearer looking so I knew it was alive and it was going to hatch soon so I cut a part of the plant off and brought it in the house. It hatched into a beautiful female butterfly. I had to keep it overnight because we had rain but the following day I took it out, and as soon as the sun hit its wings, it started slowly opening and closing them, then took off! I have no doubt that the cold weather is what kept it from forming into a butterfly quickly. I have many gulf frittalary butterflies around the yard at certain times of the year and usually they are in their chrysalis for three weeks even though everything on the Internet says around 14 days. I am always fascinated by this miracle.
Wow! Thanks for sharing! WHAT A FASCINATING OBSERVATION!
Thanks for such great information. We are homeschoolers. Starting our 6th year. Love doing nature science! We found 6 eggs, all hatched, but only 3 have survived. One is about to j-hang. Is it normal for some not to survive? Our enclosure is 16x16x24. We cleaned the enclosure and changed leaves 2xs a day.
Hey thanks for kind words and I love my home school community! Yes...it happens...at least 5 larval diseases from bacteria to insect parasites and caterpillars are pretty much defenseless. Sounds like you all our doing everything right! Keep me posted how the remains larva turn out!
In a moment... In a twinkling of an eye we will all be changed...
😊 great quote.
Thank you for giveing me advise on how to idenify if my pupa a male of female
You are welcome!
Enjoyed your videos on Monarchs, wish you would do more! Please. BTW, since you are changing your brand name, how about something simpler,... like... Backyard Nature. Too many words and people won't remember. :)
Thanks for suggestion...I ended up sticking with what I got...I didn't want to tread on other brands...hope to make more ...and better quality Monarch videos in the fall!
Thank you !
You are welcome!
We found a monarch chrysalis on the ground while weeding. That was Sunday. It was the beautiful green w/ gold dots. Brought inside. It's resting on a folded napkin in a tiny container, no lid. Today is
Thur & it has slowly been darkening to where I can see its wings. I have one inside house plant. Should I put the container in the dirt? How is laying on its side going to affect the emergence?
If it turning black it will emerge within 24 hours...its okay to lay on the ground at this point but it needs to be able to crawl up some where and hang upside down or its wings won't dry properly....there is also a parasite that can cause part black and Browning. If you see black outlines of wings and a bit of orange you are good to go! Keep me posted!
@@natureatyourdoor wonderful! Thank you! Yes it's a tall plant and there will be plenty of branches it for it to choose from. How long from the time that it hatches to the wings being dry will it be ready to fly? And do I need to provide sugar water on a saucer or anything? I have a few flowers right outside my patio door, mostly hosta lilies since I am in the process of designing a pollinator garden. It's still in the planning stages
@@annetteh5554 I d say 24 hours!
@@annetteh5554 I have escapes emerge in the classroom and fly around til we caught them ..tagged and got em outside! I think you got it covered!
Thanks for your awesome videos! I made an enclosure using window screen. It looks like the silk is detaching and I'm afraid the chrysalis is going to fall off. Any ideas on how I could prevent it from falling?
Hi Xiomara Cordoba Gerlach! Thank you for kind words and awesome you made an enclosure. Yes...you can actually move the chrysalis safely if you think you need to and use thread or tape on the silk strands to secure it if you are concerned. After a chrysalis has hung for over 24 to 48 hours they can be moved. I have had them emerge successfully from solid surfaces even...provided they can crawl to an upside down hanging position to successfully dry wings.
@@natureatyourdoor thanks for the tip! I used thread and needle to secure the silk to the screen. Now we wait :-)
Awesome on your thread handi work! Keep me posted! And you can share your photos with me and NAYD learning community on my NAYD FB page under visitor posts!
I have a newly hatched monarch that does seem to be able to zip its proboscis - is there any way to help it or is it doomed!?
Give it some time! I love how closely you are watching, learning, and observing! As I recall they fiddle with that a lot when the first come out! Imagine you were a caterpillar with cutting jaws ..now you wake up,and have a long curlying straw! Keep me posted!
@@natureatyourdoor it finally seems to be ok, I moved it outside on a twig. I think it was actually getting a bit tangled in the silk on the top of the cage. The moisture bead it had on its proboscis seemed to be able to move down further assisting the process!
@@christeenforster4645 good news!
We have a crystalist now day 3 it has been dark almost like a black/ dark brown i think it may be dead i have like 6 other crystalist near that one is it safe to keep it hanging there? I made a box with screen around the sides and to get to these is not easy but if I must take this out I will do so?
Probably best to remove infected chrysalisis
Ty so much for returning my message Now I have even a bigger question wow has this ever been a hard task to take on for my wife and I. So I made a habitat for my caterpillars and we now have 7 crystalist and here I took a box and cut out 2 sides put screen inside and been working very well until today the windy sunny day decided to throw the box off our outside table. 2 of the 7 crystalist fell from the top and no damage is done to them but I Google what to do and it told me to lay them on the bottom with a paper towel and lay them near the screen so when they hatch they can crawl up the screen and hang I bought a real habitat for them all but I left the 5 other in the box hanging from the cardboard top I taped the 2 flaps of the cardboard together as if the box was never open and hoping that is okay? Not sure if the butterfly can stick to the cardboard top or if when they hatch if I should move them to the real habitat we bought? Thanks for your help with this all
Is it normal for the caterpillar to remain still for a long time before it attaches to the silk pad? Or does it attach immediately?
I think that sounds in the realm of normal ...but sometimes internal parasites have a late impact. Late me know how it goes!
@@natureatyourdoor Thank you… it attached itself after I posted this comment, and now it’s hanging in the J but hasn’t shed its outer skin yet. I’m very hopeful!
@@ladylibrum7145 yeah! Now they will certainly stay in that j for awhile! 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀 thanks for keeping me up to date! Excited for you!
Proof once again only God could create such an amazing happening
😄
Really appreciate her program, I’ll be working with Native Americans and help restore, monarch habitats so that they will be able to island hop their way along their migration routes in California migration
Awesome! I would love to learn more about this effort!
What happens if when it goes into the initial chrysalis it can’t shake the exoskeleton off?
Not to worry! It might hang there for a while but won't hurt anything...unless a parasite had weakened the larva.
Shit why am i watching this its 4 am i dont even own a pet
Because its fascinating! :-) every episode more cool nature stuff!
Good stuff we are rearing 12 caterpillars
Awesome! Keep me posted! Love hearing from "rearers"!
I’m terrified of millipedes and one was in your into…🫣 You’re lucky you make good content! Lol
Lol...did you accidently see my giant millipede video in a playlist? Lol..oh gosh sorry! Thanks for hanging with me.
@@natureatyourdoor I just look away during the intro. I’ll try to not judge you for having a pet that is made up of 100% evil.
@iananderson8363 ha...no pet just random find!
@@natureatyourdoor I’d have left behind a Wile E. Coyote style dust silhouette if a found one of those. I saw a house centipede at work the other day, screamed, tried to run away and fell on my face. Luckily no stitches for the split chin. I’m terrified of those things yet I’m fine with sticking my hand in a beehive, go figure!