How to improve the classroom experience with monarchs

I'm grateful to teachers who offer their students a chance to see monarchs. I encounter many grown-ups who tell me seeing butterflies emerge was a memorable experience from their own childhood.

Here's a list of steps teachers can take to improve the classroom experience...

Make sure you don't miss eclosure

Isn't that one of the main reasons you provide monarchs? What a shame to miss it!  Eclosure timing is easily controlled.  Other transitions--hatching, molting, forming the J, and forming the chrysalid--are harder to see.  But possible... and rewarding!

Make sure monarchs are easily visible

Improve visibility.  House caterpillars or butterflies where you can easily see them through clear glass, or an open lid.  Glass aquaria aren't expensive; used ones are available.  Provide good lighting. Caterpillars like light.  LED lights won't overheat them.

How to encourage egg-laying during cool or cloudy weather

When the weather turns cool (below 70 F), cloudy, or rainy, laying slows or stops because monarchs are so affected by temperature.  They prefer 84 degrees F. 

Your potential for future eggs is good if you have several mated females.  When warm weather returns, they'll probably lay.  But what to do if you need eggs now?  Here's what I tried:

How to read a butterfly's mind

It's easy to read a dog's mind.  Dogs are wildly expressive!

Butterflies are slower to give up their secrets.

Those of us producing eggs for schools are under pressure to deliver the goods.  We need to predict if the butterflies will lay enough for the orders we have.  

So, we have to read their minds. "Feeling romantic?  In the mood to lay?"  Here's how to find out what's on their mind.

Watch a newly-hatched caterpillar deal with danger

When they first hatch, monarch caterpillars are only about 2 millimeters long. For tiny critters, the world is a dangerous place.  Watch a freshly hatched caterpillar deal with two hazards...

What do monarchs and penguins have in common?

 

Think carefully... the clock is ticking...  make a guess before clicking on "Read more."

How to ensure that females lay eggs

I've described the entire breeding strategy and setup elsewhere.

But if you opened the honeymoon hotel and no eggs appeared, here are some tips.

Because non-reproductive butterflies begin to eclose about mid-August, the proportion of non-breeders increases.

It's confusing...  How can you spot the ones that can breed, vs the migratory ones? And for the recently eclosed butterflies that might be breeders, how do you know when they are ready to mate or lay?

How to avoid injuring butterflies in the breeding tent

When working with tiny critters, injuries can happen.  But you'd be surprised what the most common injury used to be in my breeding tent--before I learned how to prevent it.

Butterflies spend most time clinging to the wall and ceiling of a tent--and most tents have mosquito netting. The mesh cubes used by teachers to hold butterflies have similar material.

Butterflies have two huge claws on each foot--used for clinging to foliage.  These claws attach very firmly to netting.  When you pull butterflies off netting to transfer or feed them, this can exert s huge force on their legs and claws.

It's astonishing how much force.  When I was unaware of the danger, sometimes when I picked up a butterfly, a large object it was clinging to would come along as well.