This year Oleander aphids struck my common milkweed fiercely and decimated many plants. I thought no monarch butterflies would want to come near my yard. I was wrong! I saw a female flitting around the other healthy milkweeds and I have found many eggs and caterpillars in various sizes!
I also saw her land on one of the stumps of milkweed and questioned her judgement as this was not the best real estate for egg laying. I cleaned off the few remaining aphids and dug up the little feeble plant with its couple of scrawny leaves and put in in a pot, which I put inside my monarch hamper outside.
I’ll keep an eye on the little egg and feed the caterpillar fresh leaves when it hatches. I considered moving some of the other eggs into the hamper too since I didn’t want them to be cannibalized by the other caterpillars but I decided to let nature take her course since that study came out about butterflies navigation potentially getting disoriented when raised indoors.
I’m excited to watch all of these little ones grow and metamorphose!
Tiny Urban Wilderness 