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’m a huge fan of songs that stay with a singer for a lifetime, and you get the privilege of hearing them sing that song as their voices change over the years.
There’s so much richness and depth to an older singer’s version of a song they once sang with velvety smooth vocals as a younger person.
What are some songs you like that a singer sang throughout their lifetime?
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!
Having watched more episodes of Hot Ones than I'd like to admit, I've noticed certain traits in the people who seem to have better spice/heat tolerance. People who I would describe as non-reactive, emotionally "contained" individuals verry frequently do well in the hot sauce challenge. Look at Lourde, for example. She strikes me as an unemotional type, and she did not even react to the hottest sauce except to say "yum."
Sean Evans himself does not seem like an overly emotional person, and there are times he gets through all ten sauces and never reaches for his water.
Gordon Ramsey was the most dramatic episode I've seen so far. He had huge reactions and this seems in keeping with the drama we see from him on his own shows.
What I'm talking about is not someone with an animated, energetic personality. I'm meaning, if you observe people you can sometimes tell how they might handle a crisis, would they flip out, or would they approach problems in a very controlled manner, staying calm throughout the event. Or someone who seldom cries or expresses their feelings. That is the unemotional type I think might possibly do better tolerating extremely hot, hot sauces.
What do you guys think? Do you think there is any connection between spice tolerance and a person's ability to contain strong emotions?
Just wanted to thank all the helpful beer experts who responded to my earlier post requesting help choosing some good local IPAs I could gift my guests who are beer snobs!
You guys were so helpful. I went with several recommendations as well as the recommendation to go to a beer shop and ask their advice. Based on popular recommendations from you all, I told them I wanted some Cellarmaker, some Ghost Town, and some Altamont, and asked for their help in choosing others for a total of ten beers.
I guess I can’t post photos in this subreddit, so here’s a link to my haul photos in r/beerporn:
https://www.reddit.com/r/beerporn/s/ZtW6cz0xYP
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
Oh, and I tried a Pliny the Elder while I was there - yum!
Thanks again for all your amazing responses. Your beer knowledge is impressive!
Cheers!
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!
We're having guests this weekend who are beer snobs. I'm not much of a beer drinker, so I really am clueless what buy for them. They'll be visiting me right after going to Russian River Brewing Company and drinking Pliny the Elder, so I feel like that's a lot to compete with! I live in the Bay Area, so something local would be a bonus, but I'd just like to have something they won't turn their noses up at. Your recommendations are much appreciated!
UPDATE: Thank you for all the incredible suggestions you guys offered! I'm so grateful for all your comments and it really helped me choose some beers that I know my guests will be excited to try!
I did a follow-up post to show you guys everything I got, in case you're interested: