I’ve had a couple of rouge milkweeds growing in my flowerbeds this year and I discovered that I have two Monarch butterfly caterpillars munching on the leaves. Adult Monarch’s lay their eggs on the leaves of milkweed plants. When the eggs hatch into caterpillars, the caterpillars eat the leaves and metamorphose into a chrysalis and eventually they transform into the beautiful butterfly many enjoy seeing and photographing. I discovered these caterpillars Sunday evening and we had a storm blow through Monday that had quite a bit of wind with it and the plant wasn’t standing upright. The caterpillars were eating away Monday when I checked on them after work and Tuesday night I noticed that they disappeared. Next year I plan to plant a little garden just for milkweed so I can hopefully contribute to an increased number of Monarchs in our yard.
