u/broccolista

Finally went to IN-N-OUT after months of craving it. And it did not disappoint!😋

What do you think I ordered here? (Will show receipt in comments).

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EDIT: Receipt is in the comments. Thanks everyone for the awesome guesses!

These caterpillars are gobbling up milkweed so quickly, I never imagined I’d have to replace it so often!

They just ate through two big pots of milkweed and two vases of cut milkweed. So I dug up two gorgeous plants from my garden, put them in pots, and replaced the other pots that were getting really bare.

Well, those hungry caterpillars went straight to the top of the plant and started gnawing at the tender stem about four inches down. That means tons of beautiful, tender leaves at the top are going to go to waste! They will dry out and nobody will want them.

WTF lil jerks?

This caterpillar was doing great earlier today. Hanging in a J, antenna looking all tattered, head turning shades of green…. I thought I was about to witness another caterpillar pupate!

But, I didn’t notice any ‘churning’ movement like the last pupation I got to witness. It was taking so long and I was outside in the 95 degree weather so I gave up and went inside.

Now, a couple hours later, I thought I’d find a chrysalis, but all I see is him hanging straight and looking lifeless and having this weird hourglass shape.

Do you think he’s dead? What might have caused this inside a butterfly enclosure? I don’t see any threads hanging off him or any goo. No black liquid drops. What could it be? He’s under an umbrella in shade, but do you think the 95 degree heat was too much?

He’s in an enclosure with several chrysalises and a couple other caterpillars. Should I get him out of there?

I have raised a few caterpillars now, and has anyone else noticed a super-hyper phase they go through before they finally head up and do their J-thing?

Feels like a toddler terrorizing the place, running all over!! I’ve seen it a few times now and I worry about other caterpillars or chrysalises in his path!

This one has done sooo many laps in just the brief time I’ve been watching him today. He walked around the rim of a pot 10+ times, and seems to have zero interest in eating, just running around like he’s had 20 cups of coffee! Everybody else is taking a nap or nibbling peacefully. Has anyone else notice this behavior?

This caterpillar decided to molt on this leaf, but it seems they usually go on the sides of the enclosure to molt, so that already seems different. And now there seems to be some yellowish crusty stuff on his head with one antenna shorter than the other.

Does this look normal? Or might he have perhaps been bitten by another caterpillar?

So I looked away for two minutes while I wrote my last post, and looked back at my caterpillar and look what was happening! The chrysalis was forming!😮

I’m in tears! One of the most beautiful things I’ve witnessed.🐛

(Video parts 2,3, and 4 below.)

Here is my caterpillar hanging in his ‘J’ position, beginning the process of pupating, while I stare at him, fascinated by what must be going on inside his body right now!!

Just got home to find his antennas limp and tattered and his body looking like a lot is churning around in there!

What exactly is happening at this stage?

We went to a local nursery that also sells their plants wholesale to other nurseries in the area, and when I came across their milkweed, I was so surprised that they don’t do anything to minimize the spread of aphids.

These Narrowleaf milkweed plants were only about four inches tall, and most of the stems were completely orange with aphids. I believe these were priced around $8-10 per plant.

They have a sign explaining that they don’t do anything to prevent aphids, but personally, I would never buy milkweed that looked like this! I squish any aphids I find on my plants, but I can’t imagine squishing this many aphids! Yuck!

I know aphids are not harmful to Monarchs or caterpillars, but would you buy milkweed that looked like this?

One hundred percent of the time when I go out to my milkweed garden, this little guy is walking all around one small milkweed plant! The same one, every time. He has completely claimed it, and he runs a very tight ship! He moves quickly and seems to be inspecting every leaf.

Is this just a really big ant?🐜

Is he harmful to Monarch caterpillars or eggs?

Yesterday I posted a photo of my first Monarch caterpillar, Rex. He was happy and munching milkweed like crazy. Then, only a couple hours later, I noticed some poop on a leaf (I think it’s poop?) and not long after, Rex was dangling from a leaf with a slight curve in his tail.

I thought maybe he was beginning to pupate, but we noticed some black drips below him.

This morning when I went out to check on him, I found him shriveled and dead in the soil with goo coming out of his head and tail.😔😢💔

I want to understand what might have happened to him so I can prevent this going forward. I have bought a butterfly enclosure, and I plan to put my other baby caterpillar in that today.

If you all don’t mind looking at the photos, can you please help me understand what went wrong? Here are a few things to note:

- I did water the milkweed yesterday. I watered only at the soil level, but a light mist of water did get on the leaves accidentally.

- I saw an awful-looking reddish colored wasp nosing around some other milkweed flowers nearby yesterday.

From your experience, what might have caused this?

Do I need to pull out the milkweed? Should I dig up some of the soil around where he is, so it doesn’t contaminate the area?

I’m so sad to lose him and recently bought 15+ milkweed plants, hoping to begin attracting Monarchs. This is so upsetting.😢

If anyone has advice, I would so appreciate it.

Thanks.

(Photos are all from yesterday and today.)

Last week I discovered that some showy milkweed I purchased had a little tiny caterpillar on it that came from the nursery. We named him Rex. He was suuper tiny, and now, maybe six days later, he is almost the size of my pinky finger!!

Then two days ago, I discovered “Regina,” who must be a little hatchling from an egg laid at the nursery. She is itty bitty!

Both caterpillars are fast munchers and fast little walkers! I look at them at 10am, and by 11am I can’t find them anywhere. I search all over (Rex has moved plants twice already!) and I start to feel sad that maybe a predator might have found them, and by noon, I find them happily munching away with no concern that I’ve been worried sick about them.

I’ve decided I can’t keep having a heart attack every few hours, so I’ve ordered a butterfly enclosure.

My question is: How do I make the transfer without touching/bothering the caterpillars? Do I just snip the leaf they are currently on and set it next to a milkweed plant inside the enclosure?

Last Christmas a friend gave me two Monarch chrysalises, but the Monarchs ended up dying before I could release them.😔

It broke my heart to lose those beautiful butterflies.

So I decided to get a bunch of Milkweed this year and hope for another chance at raising Monarchs.

Well I went to the garden center to buy Milkweed, and guess what I discovered the next day? A tiny Monarch caterpillar munching away on one of the plants I bought!!🐛

I’m so happy!! In just a couple days, he has tripled in size!! I have quite a few Milkweed plants, but if anyone has any suggestions on how I can ensure this little caterpillar lives his best life, I’d love to hear them!❤️

I've just traded my bedside table for the nightstand with drawers shown in the photo. My plan is to use the top drawer to house my charging station for iphone/airpods/apple watch, laptop charger, and a power supply with USB ports.

I'm hoping to finally have a cord-free area by my bed so the robot vacuum will stop eating all my cords!

My question is about how to route all these cords neatly into this nightstand? I bought it used, and don't mind cutting up the back to make this work. Should I cut a big rectangle out of the back of the nightstand, and then slice off the back of the top drawer so the cords can pass easily into the drawer?

Also, I'm not really sure what would be the best way to deal with my laptop charger. I sometimes sit in bed with the laptop just plugged into the charger (10ft cord) while I'm on my laptop. Should I just open the top drawer while I use that charger, (plugged into the power supply kept in the top drawer) or is there a tidier solution, maybe routing it out the back? If anyone with experience on this wouldn't mind offering advice, I would love to hear your suggestions!

Thanks to everyone who gave IPA recommendations in r/beer for local IPAs in the Bay Area! I was looking for advice on beers to get beer snobs and wanted to share my haul. Hope I did ok!

Here’s what I got:

Ghost Town - Cave Dweller
Ghost Town - Purgatory
Cellarmaker - Flying High
Cellarmaker - Pacific Crush
Altamont - Smoke Dank
Danville Brewing Co. - Masters of the Bruniverse
Mare Island Brewing Co. - Nuclear Sandwich
Alvarado Street Brewery- Mai Tai IPA - Tropical
Original Pattern Brewing - Cosmic Dust
Original Pattern Brewing - You Gotta Be Green

Thanks again!