#monarch caterpillar

[crazycaterpillarlady]

The biggest in the lot and the smallest ♡

[samimarkart]

caterpillar prints, hand carved and printed with a unique hand painted background on each. multiple available, $11 each including shipping. message me if interested!

[lammienade]

[julesofnature]

“Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is the true prosperity.”

~Eckhart Tolle

[duskffyart]

Totally not up at 2am crying over newly hatched caterpillars

Tiny baby you are so small!!!! How is it you become a butterfly in 2 weeks???? You are so amazing lil tiny baby 🥺😭🐛🦋

[rhysiepuff]

Yeah sorry babe I can't get up. Yeah I've got the caterpillar on my lap.

[mac-cheez]

Newest Painting!!!!

(There's no red splotch, you're a red splotch)

[shelovesplants]

Monarch caterpillars🦋🐛🙌

[anipgarden]

Me: I haven’t seen any larger-instar caterpillars yet. The wasps must be eating them all or something.

The larger-instar caterpillars: hey I’m outside let me in

WHY

ARE YOU CHRYSALIZING

ON A SHEER VERTICAL SURFACE

OUTSIDE MY FRONT DOOR?????

You couldn’t find a branch or a horizontal beam on a fence? You had to go for the wide of the foyer?? Not even the ceiling?? Or the overhang by the garage?? No, right by the front door? On a 90 degree vertical surface???

[rjalker]

once again making a variation of this post:

If you are going to plant milkweed to help monarch butterflies, you are not allowed to get mad at other insects who come to the plant and eat the caterpillars. They are also starved for the habitat that milkweed provides, and they are not evil or bad or cruel for continuing their natural role in the ecosystem as predators of small caterpillars.

Planting milkweed helps monarch butterflies. It also helps more species than I can count or even list off the top of my head. Milkweed does not exist for the sole benefit of monarch butterflies.

If you want the monarch caterpillars to not get eaten, then you can buy a butterfly cage or build one and bring any caterpillars you find on the main plant into the cage with some potted milkweed, and keep them in there until they emerge as adults.

Nature is going to keep doing its thing whether people have decided monarchs are the most important species on that plant or not. The species that prey on monarch caterpillars are not being mean, or cruel. They do not know that monarchs are endangered, and neither do the monarchs. The predators of monarch caterpillars are playing the same role they've played for thousands of years - population control.

It's not their fault monarchs are endangered. Habitat loss and climate change are the reason monarchs are endangered.

You are not allowed to blame native species for doing their job on native plants in their native ecosystem.

If you look at a milkweed plant covered in half a dozen or more different species and your response is "Ugh! But I planted this just for the monarchs!" you need to learn and care more about habitat restoration instead of only caring about the pretty butterflies.

If your single milkweed plants has half a dozen different species living on it and this upsets you, then you really need to start thinking about the word ecosystem and start realizing, "oh, if this single plant is enough to attract all these species, then they must be desperate for habitat".

If you're mad that monarch caterpillars are being eaten on milkweed you planted, then here are your options:

Get a butterfly cage or build one. It should remain outdoors. Get several milkweed plants that are in pots that can fit inside the cage. Check the main milkweed plant for caterpillars whenever possible, and if you find them, transfer them into the butterfly cage onto the milkweed in there. Keep them in there until they form chysalises and emerge as adults. If you aren't home very often, you can look up youtube videos of how to gently remove the chrysalis and hang it up outside so the adults can fly away whenever they're ready to.

Plant more milkweed. Plant as many species of milkweed are native to your area that you can get your hands on. Spread milkweed seeds wherever it will be able to grow. Encourage your neighbors and friends to grow milkweed. Save the seeds and give the seeds away for free, and spread them in wild areas where other plants are allowed to grow (Try to avoid areas that get mowed down or tended to)

Figure out a way to cope with the fact that the natural cycle of life doesn't make exceptions for endangered species. It is not wrong or bad or evil or mean or cruel for monarch caterpillars to get eaten by their natural predators. Take pictures of the other species you find on the milkweed, research what they are. If you use iNaturalist, make observations for them. Learn to appreciate all the species native to your environment, not just the pretty butterflies.

Actually, planting more milkweed should be your #1 priority. The point of planting milkweed is to restore habitat. If the only habitat available is the single plant in your garden of otherwise non-native species, then yeah, you need to plant more milkweed.

[ainawgsd]

Baby! I was walking the flower beds this morning and saw this baby on the purple milkweed

After I ran back inside to grab my camera I noticed this BIGGER baby on the orange butterfly weed next door!

[authorpocketcow]

please say hello to "Tiny Tim"

Tiny Tim is a recently hatched monarch caterpillar from my mom's milkweed plant and they look like a Caterpie 🥹

Tiny Tim is VERY small!

For size comparison, this is Tiny Tim next to a 10-ish day old caterpillar

Tiny Tim is in a tiny jar by themselves until they get a bit bigger 🥰

[betterdonutgalaxy]

My son that I forgot about for a while but now they have some full art!! It's a lil candy cane caterpillar!

[chequerootlurks]

I don’t want to spam @onenicebugperday with monarch butterfly submissions, lol! The photos above are from the Chicago migration.

Yesterday there were more than today.

The pics below are from Upstate NY (Old Forge area). The caterpillars there are a busy making chrysalises and turning into butterflies.

[sigmastolen]

Very Important: babies have arrived at my work

1. the milkweed exploded in flowers over the weekend and there are already largish monarch caterpillars on it

2. at least one baby mantis has emerged from the breakroom ootheca!!

3. the house finch eggs in the nest behind my desk have hatched!!!!!!!!

(l: 4 bluish specked eggs. m: mama bird. r: indistinct baby birds???) (i need you to trust me on this one; i know the picture looks like smears or glare on the filthy window but i swear mama bird was feeding babies even if all i could see was her smacking her beak when she lifted her head)

[caffeinatednightmare]

I'm raising monarchs right now and they're so cute I needed to draw one