A Famous Insect Visitor

First Monarch caterpillar at the ole homestead!

Being aware of milkweed plants and mowing around them instead of cutting them down has paid off for this on-the-cusp of being endangered beauty, and hoping future caterpillars -

Although, I was only able to locate this one, I’m hoping there’s more that I either missed or perhaps eggs yet to have hatched -

I opted to take this dude to the local

JC Monarch butterfly guru, my cousin PJ, to ensure its safety and successful metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly and release -

Although, sadly, there was only this lonely single Monarch caterpillar, there are oodles of Milkweed Tussock caterpillars -

And I mean oodles of them -

Like the monarchs, they eat milkweed, and also dogbane. What has me worried, since there are SO many of these dudes, is that they’ll take over, eat up and skeletonize the milkweed, leaving little food for future monarch caterpillars.

I’ll need to keep an eye on this. I would hate to intervene but will jump in if other monarch caterpillars appear and the milkweed plants are dwindling.