Rachel Sumner - Monarch Butterflies and Metamorphosis

All About Monarchs, Metamorphosis, Butterfly Facts and Creating a Butterfly Habitat

What do butterflies like to eat? Answer: They sip nectar from flowers. (Yum, yum!) Here is a picture my husband took in our garden of a Monarch butterfly on one of our milkweed plants. Do you want to attract Monarchs to your backyard or school? If so, follow the directions below.

Monarch butterflies are losing their summer habitats as open spaces in North America are being developed. As land is developed, milkweed is killed. Plants in the milkweed family are the only plants that the Monarch caterpillar can eat. Milkweed is also vulnerable to herbicides used by farmers, homeowners, landscapers, and gardeners.

How to attract Monarch butterflies to your yard:

Plant nectar plants for adult butterflies
Select flowers with vibrant colors and strong fragrances. Suggestions: milkweed family plants, purple cone flowers, Meadow Blazing Star, zinnias, all varieties of aster, lavender, bergamont, joe pye weed, black eyed susan, goldenrod. and butterfly bush.

Abundant sunshine to warm their bodies.
Furnish your butterfly garden with flat rocks that will warm up in the sun. Butterflies will use these as basking perches.

Wet sand or mud puddles in shady nooks.

Monarchs will lay their eggs on plants in the milkweed family only because it is the only plant the larvae (caterpillars) eat. Plants in the milkweed family are swamp or common milkweed; and blood weed.

Do not use insecticides
Most garden insecticides are lethal to caterpillars. Simply coming into contact with surfaces tainted by insecticide also can kill adult butterflies.<p>

ABOUT MONARCH BUTTERFLIES

This is a picture of our first generation of Monarch caterpillars in our backyard butterfly habitat that my husband and I created. These hungry fellows are eating the leaves of butterfly weed. Monarchs will lay their eggs on plants in the milkweed family only because it is the only plant the larvae (caterpillars) eat. Plants in the milkweed family are swamp or common milkweed; butterfly weed and blood weed.

Once the caterpillar is ready to make a chrysalis, it will attach the hind end with silk, hang upside down and make a "J" shape.

The caterpillar jiggles its body and the skin splits. It jiggles the skin off. As the skin comes off, you can see the light green flesh which turns into the chrysalis.

Butterflies do not make cocoons! (click here).

The Monarch chrysalis is dotted with gold trim. It takes about 10-14 days before a butterfly will come out.

What clue can you see that the butterfly is ready to come out of the chrysalis?

One joyous Sunday morning we ate our breakfast outside and watched for about 3 hours as our butterflies came out. Our butterfly is pushing the chrysalis open. When butterflies come out of the chrysalis, the body is fat and the wings are folded. The butterfly pumps the fluid out of its plump body into the wings.

The butterfly must dry its wings before it can fly.

Our beautiful butterfly is almost ready to fly!

HOME

MUSIC

NEWS

E-MAIL

FAN CLUB

BOOKING