Bluetooth sensors attached to butterflies with eyelash glue are helping scientists study monarch migration patterns from Nebraska to Mexico.

Pictures from my front garden this weekend. Golden Colorado

This is my friend Monty. She was a flightless Monarch but she was the coolest gal I’ve ever known. I met her at the farm I work on, and looked after her for a while. Once I found out she had OE, I built her an enclosure and fed her fresh flowers every day. I wanted to give her the best possible life she could have while keeping the rest of the population safe from infection. She passed away today, and although I knew it was coming, I’m pretty heart broken. I thought this sub would enjoy these pictures of my friend.

While she was living with me, we spent a lot of time educating myself and our community about Monarchs, and how to preserve their natural habitats. She was deeply beloved by everyone who got to know her story, myself especially.

rest in peace my sweet Monty, I hope you get to fly in your next life.

Healthy catapillar

I found this beautiful girl tonight in the middle of a parking lot. It's been getting way colder at night in my area, so the little lady was pretty lethargic when I found her, and there weren't any plants around to rest on. She's all warmed up now and enjoying some tasty sugar water on a napkin until morning when I'll release her into my pollinator garden!

On a different note, if anyone with more experience caring for monarchs has any advice on keeping them comfortable, I'd love to hear it! Right now, she's just been given a 1:6 ratio of sugar water soaked on a piece of paper towel, and I have a plastic colander over her for safe keeping lol.

This beautiful boy emerged today

Hey yall.

I am in central texas and I cold stratified my seeds too early. I was eager but I may have also put too much moisture in the bags.

Setup

-Ziplock bag

-Play sand

-Water

-Seeds

Seeds that I have

-swamp

Butterfly

Common

Snowy

I put them in the fridge at least a month a go and forgot about them.

My ultimate question is can I save them?

Should I just plant what I have? Texas has two monarch/milkweed seasons. I would grow these indoors and propagate for next year

I chased this all over the yard with my nikon for 30 minutes but it finally let me get a picture

Yesterday there were two females laying eggs. And today there’s another one. I moved one plant into the enclosure that had a few eggs on it. And I’m checking the leaves of the other plants if I see a leaf with an egg or two I’m moving that into the enclosure as well. Eeek-so late in the season. But…..

Now I can dismantle this enclosure and concentrate on the other one.

There have been females laying eggs in my garden in the past few days. Sometimes I’ll see one on a leaf and it looks like she’s laying an egg, but when I go to inspect the leaf, I don’t see an egg.
Does it take a little while for the eggs to get big enough for me to see them?
Or was she just on the leaf acting like she’s laying an egg but didn’t ? I have a very large enclosure and all my milkweed is in pots. I’ve moved some of the pots into the enclosure and found some eggs on leaves that I’ve also moved into the enclosure. I’m just wondering why I’m not seeing even more eggs.

I released this guy yesterday and lucked out with a shot of it on some pineapple salvia. Hard to believe it’s mid-October!

Still waiting on this little one, and three others to eclose! 🥹

Is it normal for them to still be emerging this time a year?

The monarch caterpillar’s chrysalis, which it spun on the back of my house, transformed from opaque turf-green to folded-up-monarch-butterfly-window overnight. I hope to capture the emergence process on video tomorrow. FYI—I’m in central Virginia ☑️

I had two monarchs in separate years that were unreleasable due to disease. One whose wings curled badly even though he hung properly, the other whose wings disintegrated in less than 78h (his chrysalis had been iffy coloured…). But otherwise both boys were full of life, so I housed them in a makeshift habitat. Note that I didn’t house them together; the first was from 2023, the other in 2025. And they lived full lives.

And I found out that if you mist them lightly, they’ll take that water, and with their legs and proboscis will preen their fur! It was incredible to watch. Then they wipe their antennae and eyes with their legs, before fluttering wildly to dry off.

Just thought I’d share this interesting observation. The photo is of the second butterfly the day after his emergence, having homemade nectar, already with his wings disintegrating. He lived from late October to late March.

Husband found a monarch butterfly in a leaf pile who is missing her left eye and left antenna. B/c she has head trauma and the weather is now too cold here in Southeastern PA for her to safely fly back to Mexico, she will rehab with us and be a well-loved and cared for, permanent resident in our home.

I named her Autumn 🧡 🖤

UPDATE AS OF 10/19/26: unfortunately Autumn’s head injury was too severe for her to overcome. She passed at some point over night last night. 💔