I am in Gulfport, Mississippi and I have not seen one. I have over 20 milkweeds in my yard. Several are around 5 feet tall(about as tall as me).

I live in Altamonte Springs, Seminole Cty, just N of Orlando. This is my first year raising butterflies, I especially love the Monarchs. I have released 19 Monarchs since May 5th. I have 4 about to pupate. I have three paroling the yard at one time, and a female laying eggs over the last two days. I have 4 milkweed potted plants, next year, I will have a milkweed garden. Mary

I forgot to say that I'm in central PA.

Definately less here in SW Ohio. I had one in my yard in mid June and none since then. No eggs on any of the milkweed in my yard. I went out butterfly watching in a nearby nature preserve on Monday. I saw Black Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails, Buckeyes, Question Marks, Sulphurs, but no Monarchs. We have had a very wet and at times cold spring. I have an explosion of ants in my yard and wonder if that has taken it's toll on the butterflies this year. There have been less than usual.
-Elisabeth

Good news today; 3 fluttering around. 1 male, 1 female, 1 too hyper to land. July 10th, 2008, New Milford, NJ.

I had at least one Monarch for the first weeks in June. This photo was taken on June 4th. I'm watching my asclepias closely. No cats detected yet, but we've had a lot of thunderstorms with huge downpours, so I don't know if that's a problem.

I "think" that I saw one more Monarch in the last few days, but was unable to get up close enough for a positive ID.

The BSTs and other STs are just now starting to be regulars. Only 2 or 3 in the garden and I had documented 5 BST cats back on June 4th on the bronze fennel.

Cameron
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Thanks everyone for your input. I will forward this info back to Chip.

According to Chip, "Most of the responses have been from
areas where the monarchs are between broods and sightings of adults
are usually low in early and mid July. So, this aspect of your
reports is not alarming. The general absence of, or low numbers of,
larvae, as indicated in your reports, is of greater concern. The
larvae present now mature into adults in late July and early August.
These butterflies produce the offspring (from eggs generally laid
from the 20th of July to the 10th of August) that become the
butterflies that join the fall migration. Again, with few exceptions,
unless you are all missing something out there, the number of
reproducing adults over the next three weeks will be low to be
followed by a relatively small migratory generation. This assessment
could be wrong of course and let's hope that this is the case."
Let's hope that we start finding some Monarch eggs!

I am in Chester County, PA and I've not seen any larvae or monarch butterflies yet this year. Only one or two swallowtails and only a couple of the cabbage whites are flittering around. I am hoping for more soon, though. We'll see.

I live in Ajax, Ontario which is near Toronto. Last year at this time I had lots of Monarchs in my butterfly garden and dozens more of caterpillars in the milkweed. This year, nothing. I have been very concerned about this. I hope it is only the weather to blame but this is a very drastic a change and I fear there may be a worse issue at cause. As a matter of fact, I see no Monarchs around my neighbourhood at all. I have found no info on this when I searched the internet. Not even at Monarch Watch. (My garden is a certified Monarch Waystation.) Has anyone heard any news about this?

Linda

Kansas City, Missouri - Only three so far, and no cats. Plenty of food to go around, but no takers so far. Definitely far fewer Monarchs than last year.

Central Florida here- I get two to three monarchs a day from what little time i spend in out in the heat. Unfortunatly, the predators are extremely successful and have yet to see any make it past eggs on milkweed, but they keep appearing :)

Up here in Northern Lower Michigan I've only seen 3 or 4 adults and only 1 cat that pupated a few days after I brought him (or her) home.
I am raising 8 cats bought from Shady Oaks. Does any one know if these "store-bought" monarchs will lay eggs that will migrate to Mexico?
-B

I live in Laurel, MD. I have not seen a single monarch, not in my yard, my neighborhood, not even in the public gardens I've visited in DC and MD. Wonder what's going on

In NYC, i haven't seen one Monarch yet. I've seen a few cabbage whites, one Tiger Swallowtail today and one small Skipper (?). I'm new to butterflies and don't know what to look for as far as eggs are concerned..or raising them, for that matter. I saw a leaf hanging from what looked like 2 long threads off of a witch hazel tree. In the middle was what could have been an egg. It was medium brown. I didn't know if that was a butterfly egg or something else.

Just north of Pittsburgh, we have seen only a few Monarchs in our garden until this past week, when the numbers went up significantly (to 3 - 5 or more daily).

We saw one female ovipositing about 4 weeks ago. A dozen eggs were found, and later some signs of feeding, but no larvae could be seen. Yesterday, however, we found a final-instar larva climbing on a shrub, probably looking for a place to pupate.

The females in our garden this week are laying quite a few eggs. We have found literally dozens on all our milkweed varieties (curassavica, incarnata, syriaca, tuberosa).

We feel that the number of early larvae are heavily reduced by predation, and only become easily found when their sheer numbers swamp out the fairly stable losses to predators.

I live in Southwest Mississippi and I had one Monarch come through on July 1st. She laid eggs and I was able to rescue three cats. I consider this to be early for my area as I don't normally see any until August. Butterflutter

Great news, here in New Milford, NJ, July 15th. I believe the female that's been fluttering around patrolling my yard (and checking us out) for the past week or so left some eggs. I just found 3 teeny cats on my A. incarnata Ice Ballet! They're new plants, still in their pots. Nothing on my old established milkweeds, LOL. Haven't seen an increase in Monarch butterfly number though :(

One male patrolling my yard for a few days has disappeared. He's all we've seen so far this year. I've checked every bit of milkweed I can find within walking distance and haven't found one cat or even an egg.

I live in Chicago, and we have great-looking milkweed patches near the lake shore. I've seen a few Monarchs only (maybe 4-5?), but no eggs or cats.

What's going on??

Finally! 1st Monarch arrived in my yard today nectaring for hours on milkweed. I also saw another Monarch while I was at the grocery store today. I'm in SW New Hampshire.

I'm in Southern Ontario just outside of Toronto and so far I've only seen 3 Monarchs, two of which laid a few eggs. By mid-July there should be lots more. Plus I've seen no BSTs this year at all.

Could be all the illegal logging go on down at the Monarch Biosphere. Read an article which had aerial photos - looked like half the forest was gone. Can't seem to find the article now. It's a shame.

Here in metro-west Boston, I have seen a single Monarch on a handful of occasions in the past couple weeks. This might be a little earlier than usual around here. On July 7th, I watched a female who was alternating between nectaring and laying eggs on the Asclepias incarnata and tuberosa. She seemed to be laying dozens of eggs. This was the first time in 2 years of growing Asclepias I've actually seen a female laying eggs.

Here she is nectaring -

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Here she is laying eggs -

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Belton, MO and I've seen none yet this year. My milkweeds are huge and blooming with no eggs. I'll be at Powell Gardens in August for the B-Fly Exhibit. See y'all there. (I've only seen cabbage b-flies and 1 small yellow fluttering one in my yard. I also raise BST and haven't seen 1 yet - but saw one in Adrian, MO)

Roanoke VA area

I had 10-15 Monarchs in our butterfly sanctuary from April 25-30 and hadn't seen another until one fresh Monarch was in our garden today.Today I noticed a post on page 1 about Monarchs in NC.

mike

Things are looking up here in SE Ct.

Everyday now, I have seen at least one Monarch in the yard.

A female has been laying eggs on the tropical milkweed and I've been collecting them and bringing them in to raise. At least 12 now.

On my 2 mile walk on tues, I saw at least 4 different Monarchs.

Maryann in CT

Napa Valley, Ca 1 Monarch male patrolling milkweed as of 7-23-2008. This is early for me as usually see in late August.

Penny

I collected 4 cats in N. Indiana yesterday.
E

For what it's worth, in our garden in Union county NJ, we've been seeing monarch adults for at least a couple weeks. My husband says he's been seeing 2 at a time every day recently.

-- Lori

Saw one in my yard this morning. One cat, no eggs.

Jeff

I have cats, it seems like a lot to me! I have two very large cats, it seems to me that they are almost as big as they get before the starting their chrysalis phase. (I am a butterfly newb!)

But their are numerous other smaller cats; I am afraid of disturbing them by rummaging around through the leaves of my Swamp Milkweed, so I am unbale to get hard numbers until someone tells me how much bother they can take.

I am in Ogle County, Illinois, and all our plant cycles are two weeks behind 'normal' becuase of a very cool, very wet Spring.

I have found 5 more small, maybe 2nd or 3rd instar over the last 3 days. Of the 4 found last week, 3 have pupated. I think they are all males. 1 is pupating right now. I also found 2 that were injured, and didn't make it. So, in total I have found 11.
Maggie

I live in Riverview, FL just west of Tampa. I have 5-6 Monarchs in my backyard every day.

I haven't had alot in my garden, but then again, I rarely do. I have had some strange behavior though. The most I had seen at the same time was 3 (2 males, 1 female), probably last week. An extremely territorial male, or males. About a month ago, all this one male did was patrol the garden and check out humans. Everytime I went outside, no matter which door I came out, there he was, swooping down to a few feet above my head. And everytime he encountered me or my 7yo, he'd swoop down past our heads. Constantly while on patrol. God forbid another monarch came into the yard; he chased it off. The other monarch would try to sneak back in, and he wouldn't tolerate it. It was pretty funny. He's not bothering the yellow swallowtails, thankfully. Now, it seems there's another male doing the same thing. I assume different, because don't they only live a few weeks? Well, whatever, it's happening again.
I currently have 7 chrysalids (all pupated during the last 48 hours), 1 possible 4th instar cat, 1 possible 2nd instar cat, and 1 possible 1st, so there has definitely been a female leaving eggs.

Since my last post 2 weeks ago, Monarch activity has really increased. There are usually 1 or 2 Monarchs flying around the gardens each day, that I observe. A caterpillar reached 5th instar and disappeared from the Asclepias tuberosa in the pictures above. I think it went somewhere to pupate, but can't find it.

I've watched females lay eggs on 4 more separate occasions, on July 19th, 22nd, 29th and today. The females are using all the species of Asclepias growing in the yard, A. tuberosa, incarnata, syriaca, and curassavica (also have winter-sown seedlings of A. purpurascens and variegata but they are quite small). Just this morning I found several cute little caterpillars on an A. incarnata and an A. syriaca, so the female Monarchs are busy!

After reading tdogmom's website one day, I realized that raising them sounded pretty easy. So I've collected a few eggs. There are two 2nd instar cats and 4 eggs in a container in the kitchen! :)

Today I saw my very first monarch of the summer -- Northern Virginia four miles outside of Washington, DC.

Don't know its sex because I saw it through the window.

zee

Two monarchs nectaring on my purple and swamp milkweed blooms this week. First monarchs of the year for me. Not paying any attention to the tithonia.

I'm in a suburb of Baltimore. Some skippers, but no other BFs. last year had a lot of swallowtails and monarchs

I saw a Monarch female ovipositing today, and when I checked for the egg found lots of 1st instar cats. There two monarchs a little later flitting around and spiralling around each other. So things are looking better here finally. I wasn't going to bring in Monarch cats this year but guess I will since it seems to be a rough year for them....

Linda, I saw the first Monarch that oviposited on my milkweed 3 days ago. I collected 4 eggs because my milkweed patch is so big now, that in this heat I could not manage to check all of the milkweed. I have seen 3 Monarchs in the garden, but two of them were male. Just the one female that bestowed eggs on me.

Susan

@drzoidberg: Hello to a fellow Marylander!

(For those not from around here, that's pronounced "Merlinder")

Jeff

hello
the summer monarchs finaly made it here
I'm seeing 4 to 5 a day and have had several laying eggs on the milkweed and honeyvine.
I'm sure glade they finaly got here, here I was with dozens of milkweed plants and no monarchs
michelle

I bought a seed kit and have a colorful milkweed growing.Some purple flowers and tithonia which hasnt bloomed yet.But the milkweed that is orange and yellow is covered with tiny little orange things(so many you can barely see the stem).Not sure if they are butterfly eggs there are GOBS of them.Will check them tomorrow and maybe snap a pic.We have another type of milkweed that grows wild in our yard which I have never seen bloom yet.Probably does but I never caught it.They have huge pods on them so I will check those tomorrow too.We mow around them.I have seen alot of butterflies this year.I will pay better attention to see if there are any monarchs.I have noticed an orange one that had brown circles on its bottom back that was resting on our back deck.And some large black ones with blue on them.We normally see monarchs around here when the sunflowers bloom and they are just now foming their flowers so I will keep an eye out.I am trying to collect seed from the flowers that have grown from the kit so I can fill in the rest of the garden with them next year.

First Monarch on August 2nd in Falls Church, VA (near Wash. DC). Nectaring. No activity on the Milkweed(s). This is well below normal for our yard.

Very few STs and others. Hoping for an upturn through August.

I'm seeing Monarchs just about everywhere, from my garden, on my way to the store, on my way to work, fluttering just about everywhere. Granted, it's only one here and there, but still great to see them around. I had quite a few yesterday; 3 on one butterfly blush and I saw 2 on the other side of the yard. I didn't see 5 at the same time and they could have gotten over to the other side quickly, as they normally do. Even my neighbor, who is nature challenged, just asked how butterflies mate. I found this strange, but then realized he saw the back to back flying. He was pretty amazed, and I was thrilled.

I currently have my first 6 chrysalids of the year, 3 of which should eclose today (I can't wait to get home!) and the others should follow, and 8 cats in just about all instars. This is a personal record for me, I think the highest count I've had was 12 released in one season, and I'm already at 14, unofficially. With all this mating going on, I could've had so many more, but unfortunately, I'll be going on vacation soon, so any new cats will have to fend for themselves, which is never good.

Hopefully they'll be no more casualties, only having 1 monarch issue to date. It didn't eat for 5 days and was euthanized...

Yippee; 3 females eclosed! My resident male is going to be v-e-r-y happy ;)

just a quick note on Monarchs in coastal NC..saw my first one of this season,a lone male, nectaring in my milkweed garden around noon y'day. Was delighted to see him, now to get busy potting up some of my mw that has outgrown its containers, & get ready!! JoyG

I have not seen any butterflies but have found an egg!

I saw my first Monarch last Sunday, August 3rd and today I have 40 cats! I didn't think that I would ever have Monarchs and now I'll be scrambling to find more milkweed.

Kathy

I released 6 monarchs this week in Newport News, VA, but before releasing them I had begun seeing them around quite a bit in the last few days.

I have a female or two laying lots of eggs; she/they were ovipositing over every milkweed in my garden. I have about 6 pots of curassavica and she/they hit every one. They're hitting the horrendous looking syriaca, even hitting the tuberosa, which has rarely been used in my garden as a host. In the last 3 years, I've only found one 5th instar cat on my tuberosa. I took a pot of curassavica out of my cage because I was pressure washing the deck, and she hit that one in the few minutes it was outside the cage (with 2 1st or 2nd instar cats already on it).
I'm definitely seeing more monarchs this August than in previous years. This is my 3rd year rearing monarchs and have never seen so many cats & eggs. It's killing me to go on vacation; this could've been one heck of a year for me :(
Hopefully some of the cats will make it until I get back, and hopefully they'll continue to lay eggs.
New Milford, NJ

I am seeing a female Monarch laying eggs nearly every day, during the sunny and relatively dry periods that the weather permits. Now you can measure the rain that we've gotten this summer in feet, not inches - just got 5 inches of rain in two hours last evening. But we are getting enough sun the pollinators are pretty active.

I've found numerous eggs on the Asclepias syriaca growing wild out back and on the incarnata which is the most numerous species growing in the gardens. Many of the eggs appear to hatch because I see little holes where they've eaten, and even frass sometimes, but often can't find any cats.

I now have 5 containers in the kitchen with caterpillars in various stages. The oldest 2 cats just pupated yesterday! Yippee! Another 3 containers contain between 2-4 cats each (instar 1-3). Honestly, I can't be sure how many are in these, because they seem to get "lost" esp. when they are small. And I collect an extra little cat here and there from outside.

The last container has 6 eggs that I collected from this lovely lady immediately after she laid them on August 8th -

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