Cathy, I don't really know the answer to your question, but I do know that I started out with a lot of eggs (in the past) and always ended up with probably close to 25% of the initial numbers. Somehow GSTs have a knack for disappearing on me. Suddenly, I might have 10 cats and the next day I would only have 3. What up?

All butterfly larvae are at risk for parasitation or disease. I lost all of my RAs this year to parasitation. I have so many predators in the garden this year, it's pitiful. The heat and drought are contributing factors. Insects are going where the food is, and my garden is at the top of the list this year. If they can't find it in rural areas, they come to cultivated gardens in the city for a feast. Wasps, Robber Flies, Ichneumon wasps, birds, all are just trying to survive this year. I killed 3 Wheel Bugs (aka Assassin Bugs) which are predators of lepidoptera and other insects. They can also inflict painful bites (said to be worse than a bee or wasp sting).

So, my only response is that it really is kinda normal for GST cats to disappear either thru disease, parasitation, or predators.

I am so sorry you lost your babies. GSTs are so slow moving IMHO, they are extremely vulnerable to attack from predators.

Susan

Cathy, Recently, I brought in about 10 Queen eggs & tiny cats & only one made it to pupate & then it started turning black & died. I am discouraged about it too but there are at least 2-3 dozen adults out in my garden right now!
I personally don't bring in eggs but collect small cats & seem to have better luck with BSTs & GSTs that way. I currently am raising 6 tiny BST cats that I did bring in as eggs because of my lack of host plants...my fennel & parsley have all died due to heat! I have a few plants of Golden Alexanders that I planted last fall from seeds & the BST mamas ignored them until they had new fresh leaves & the other plants were gone. That & rue are the only plants I have left.
I have only seen one GST cat so far & it ended up dying in my vase inside my container...I was so upset!
I know that the cats will eat each other & the eggs & maybe that is what happened to a lot of your's?! If you have 25-33% success... that is still a lot better than 1 out of 100!!!
Take care & don't give up,
Lila

Susan, It sounds like you might have had the same trouble as me when you were raising them, with their disappearing. I don't know if they're cannibalistic or not but I have noticed how they stray off of their plant food and seem to wander around like they're looking for something and maybe never find their way back to the host plant, thus starving. I don't know if that's the case or not but I know that some/a lot seem to have a knack for crawling off of the rue and never finding their way back on. In the past I even put them back on, but I think that they managed to crawl back off again. It was so frustrating! Then last year for some reason I had lots of luck raising them and I thought that between leaving them alone (not attempting to put any back on the rue cutting) and raising them in a container on the back porch (rather than bringing them in the house) was the secret to raising them successfully. I guess not. I did everything the same as I did last year and am back to having only a fraction of the GSTs live.

I am having the same problem as you with so many predators this year. I'm guessing that it's because it's so dry. I even saw tachinid flies just sitting on the milkweed waiting to find a cat to lay their eggs in. If I could have killed them, I would have. I always smash any fly pupae that show up in my containers (of course, a caterpillar with a string or pupa with a string is always a telltale sign that I'll find at least one fly pupa on or under the paper towel that I have in the bottom of the container.

Sorry to hear about all of your RA cats being parasitized. A lot of my RA cats were parasitized too that I brought in. I thought the poor things don't stand much of a chance, the darn wasps get to them before they even have a chance to grow much at all!

I feel especially bad for the Monarchs here because it's pretty difficult for me to collect the eggs and cats from the milkweed these days, so I imagine that mostly all of them are being parasitized and eaten by predators. I just do what I can do. I just hope that my garden won't eventually all get turned back into lawn, but I did plant grass in some of it to downsize somewhat.

Lila,
Sorry to hear about your Queen cats. That would be discouraging, but it's also ENcouraging that you have so many adults out in your garden. So something must be going well.

I usually try to bring in eggs if possible of whatever species I'm raising, but if I miss them as eggs, then I try to bring them in as tiny cats. I always bring the GSTs in as eggs because I only ever see the GST mamas lay on the flower heads/seed heads and so they're relatively easy to find compared to if I'd have to go combing through the entire plants (and I have 15 altogether) for cats. Also, I'm allergic to the rue so the less I come into contact with it the better. It does make me wonder, though, if I'd end up releasing more GST cats if I'd wait awhile and collect the cats like you do.

I don't know if I mentioned it but I have 8 GST cats on small potted wafer ash trees that I have left on the plants and not brought them in. I've watched them from the time that they were eggs and they all hatched and are doing fine, as opposed to my far worse success rate of bringing eggs in on the rue and raising the cats inside. The cats on the potted trees pretty soon won't have any more leaves to eat and at that point I'll bring them inside and raise in containers. I just hope that they will readily switch over to the rue.

It's been hot and dry here too and the dill is all gone. I still have some fennel though and of course the rue, so if any BSTs ever do decide to show up this year, they'll have enough to eat (my parsley has seen its better days but doesn't look as bad as the dill).

Yes, if the GST cats eat the eggs and each other, maybe that's what happened, I just don't know for sure. I guess I have to look at it like you said, that at least the ones I end up with are still probably a lot more than if they were outside. I'll continue to bring them in (only I think this mama I've had hanging around here is done laying eggs because I haven't found any lately) and hope for the best.
Thanks to both of you for your insight.
Cathy

Lila, my Fennel is not at its best either. The heat has been atrocious. We had 10 days of 108-113 degree days. It was just almost intolerable for me to even be motivated to get out in the garden to water in the mornings. It would reach 100 by 10 a.m.!

I grow my Fennel in partial shade and water it frequently during this kind of weather. I think the part shade helps a lot. I started off in spring with the most gorgeous patches of it - 4 and a plant in a 20 gallon tub. But virtually no BSTs. I have had a Mama visit several times, but the cats and/or eggs are quickly disposed of by the predators.

Cathy, a couple of years ago I had an explosion of RA cats on my False Nettle. I raised 50 plus larvae. BUT, it was late summer when they came, and I don't know if that had anything to do with the survival rate or not. I darned sure cannot SEE the eggs on FN at all!

I haven't raised any cats this year. But, yesterday I found a Spined Soldier Bug with a cat in its grip, half drained of bodily fluid, and it was a sphinx. It was on the Cynanchum laeve, and altho I was perturbed by the death of the cat, I was excited that I might get some Erynnis obsura cats again.

I wish you luck, once again, with your GSTs.

Susan