What color should young monarch caterpillars be?
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Here I am again having lost 25-28 monarch last month due to what I feel is Gardeners where I live spraying round up for overgrown grass in our Village here in Camarillo Ca. I got a new plant and the old one which was void of any leaves having been eaten has now developed new leaves. I found a teeny Cat on it and on my new one I found 3 sizes 1/2" to 1". They seem to be pale in color. Maybe they don't get vibrant stripes this soon,, but seems they did. Am I wrong, and do I maybe have some new Cats that I will not allow the spraying to occur with this batch. They only spray about 1 time a month or two. Am I just not remembering the color of the young ones. So happy to have found 4 and possibly will find more, Thanks for your responses.
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Greenish yellow with white and black stripes.
I would wait and see, all butterflies and moths are being affected and every one counts as a plus.
Monarch caterpillars are yellow, black and white striped. The y will look like this from the very beginning but be very small. You can bring them into your house, place them in a glass canning jar using a metal canning lid that has punched out holes for air. Give them fresh milkweed leaves daily--cleaning out the poop from the jar--and within about 5-10 days they will form a chrysalis--they usually attach themselves to the canning jar lid. You can then remove the leaves, etc from the jar and leave the chrysalis to hang in the jar until the reveal their butterfly self-about 10 more days. You can then release them outside. I have done this with many, many monarch caterpillars.
Penne, You can put them in a jar right now as long as you give them milkweed leaves to feed on. 2-3 per day. My milk weed leaves are about as big as my palm/hand and they usually eat 2 per day but I keep 3 leaves in the jar. Keep the jars out of the sun-so don't put the jars on a window ledge. I punch about 8 holes in the lid. I use a quart size canning jar--wide mouth works well. I would put all of them in their own individual jar right now. It is amazing how fast they grow and they should all make it to the chrysalis stage and then butterflies! I gently take them out of the jar--they will cling to your finger. Handle them as little as possible. Their wings need to dry before they will fly away. I take them outside and put them on my shrubs. They dry their wings and then they fly away.
The chrysalis will be a beautiful light green color with a gold stripe. After about 7-10 days the chrysalis will turn black and then you will be able to see some orange as it becomes more transparent. This happens right before they come out of the chrysalis so don't panic if the chrysalis turns black. This is normal.