- Out of every butterfly egg that's laid,
one out of a hundred eggs will make it
to the butterfly stage because there are predators.
So if you find eggs and bring them inside,
then they have a much higher chance
of making it to the adult butterfly stage.
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It's almost a guarantee, they had this innate ability just
to find milkweed where wherever it is.
The Monarch butterflies are in decline because
there are a lot of pesticides being used now.
With the use of pesticides the amount
of milkweed has really declined.
And therefore the Monarch population has declined
because it is their only host plant
for the Monarch butterfly.
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I highly encourage everyone to plant their native milkweed,
native meaning what is natural to your environment.
So what they'll do is, the adult Monarch,
they just have an innate ability to identify it.
And the female Monarch will lay its eggs only on milkweed.
The whole idea of a host plant is that
the Monarch butterfly knows that when it lays its eggs
on a milkweed it has an instant food source.
What I do is I look around my milkweed
and I try to find all the eggs.
Because there are a lot of natural predators
for Monarch butterflies
and for Monarch caterpillars and for eggs
'cause they are a source of protein.
For example, wasps, wasps will come and eat the eggs.
Ants will also eat the eggs.
So I collect the eggs that are usually found
on the underside of a milkweed leaf.
I bring them inside.
I wait for them to hatch,
which is usually after two or three days.
And then all they do is eat and poop.
And really that's all they do.
It takes about two or three weeks
for a newly hatched Monarch caterpillar to get
to the point where it's ready to turn into a Chrysalis.
But like I said, the only food source is milkweed.
So what I'll do is I'll bring them
into a little rearing container
and I'll just keep feeding them fresh milkweed.
After about three weeks they will be ready
to turn into a Chrysalis.
They will hang, they crawl up to like
the top of the rearing enclosure.
And they hang into sort of a J formation
as the caterpillar and then they pupate into the Chrysalis.
And that's where basically they shed their skin
for their last time.
And it looks like a little green emerald, it's after 10 days
it will eclose from the Chrysalis and turn into butterflies.
So they have to hang for a couple hours.
Gravity is very helpful in that situation
that's why they crawl to the top of the enclosure.
And after their wings are dry
they're ready to be released.
You know, not every butterfly is able to fly.
Some butterflies are not healthy.
I even let those butterflies outside as well.
I'll put them on a flower
and then let nature take its course.
I'm here to help nature not to hinder it.
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Basically our goal is really to educate people because it
is time consuming to actually raise the butterflies
and you really have to dedicate yourself to that.
But if you just want to help the Monarchs, just
by planting native milkweed is really
the best thing you can do.
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