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Butterfly Garden

Rain vs monarch chrysalis

16 years ago

I live in Savannah, Ga. Has been raining nonstop for 24 hours, yes we need it but I am worried about our chrysalises. I have a large cylindrical butterfly habitat that zip closes at the top and the bottom, large enough to place two small potted milkweed down inside (now completely stripped by the caterpillars) There are about 12 nice looking chrysalises hanging down from the top of the habitiat and it has been outside this whole time. I put drying racks on either side with a boogie board across to block direct rain and the top of the enclosure is a hard plastic material, still am worried about them with all of this moisture lately. Will they be ok? Surely they get rained on when raised in nature, not by humans? Need reassurance! Thanks. Emily

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Comments (4)

Marie_NE_PA
16 years ago
I don't know about that but I picked up 6 wild cats and fed them in a plastic pretzel jug. one died, the rest went into chrysalis. 2 have emerged. one fell apart, one is very dark but looks like it may have died. The last one is looking real good so far. The only problem is that the ones that emaerged decided to do so while we were sleeping and my 4 year old missed it. Am hoping she can watch the next one emerge. She loves helping to care for and releasing her 'babies' . I wish I could put a picture of the enclosure I made. I got two 12-18 inch rings and two smaller rings. Using white netting (soft) from the fabric store I stitched around the big rings with them about 3 feet apart. I overlapped one hte side to keep them from escaping. I stitched the smaller rings 6 inches above the top ring and below the obottome ring. Gathered the ends and tied them and have it hanging in my office. When the butterflies emerged they woudl not go to the sugarwater so I picked a few flowers outside and stuck them in a jar. By placing the dogs dish inthe botom I had a nice place for the jar.
sandwhy
16 years ago
Emily - I have had a bunch outside all season and they [mostly] made their chrysalises from the top of my reptarium. We had about 8 inches of rain total last month here in the Chicago area - so far the monarchs in the cage have all managed to eclose with no problem. The rain just runs off of them.

I initially had the same concerns as you - and also the same thought: surely they get rained on in nature! And so they did in my cage. And they were fine. I'm sure yours will be too. :)

Sandy
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Karen Carroll
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I’m in Southern California and we are expecting a horrendous storm this afternoon with heavy wind and rain expected to last 3 or more days (flood warnings etc.) I put a black plastic garbage over just the top of the potted small tree with the chrysalis. Comments?
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How are you doing today Karen? I'm in Missouri but have been following the weather there. Very scary. I assume the potted tree is too large to bring inside. ? You may be able to just clip a little branch off that has the chrysalis on it and bring it inside and then use a twist tie to attach it back on there when the storms are over. Or if you leave a bag over it, be sure to remove it when the sun comes out because it will get very hot under there.

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?what to do with this little guy?

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