The monarch caterpillars in our garden haven’t been surviving over the past two years & I shared my disappointment with a friend in horticulture. It may have been due to neighbors pesticides, predators, or some other factor.

She suggested collecting caterpillars just after they hatch, and providing fresh milkweed leaves daily in a protected mesh enclosure.

This morning we awoke to this wondrous surprise!

@Sheril

They only eat Milkweed.

It is an evolutionary protection.

It makes them poisonous to birds.

There is more to this story and why they are dying off due to global warming.

It turns out that Milkweed seeds may not sprout if they were not subjected to a hard freeze over winter.