Casa Oruga (Caterpillar House)

I was really busy at Casa Oruga yesterday. I found two more larvae on our milkweed,

one pupated in the 'Caterpillar Castle' after wriggling its last skin off,

two pupated on the lid in the 'Bug Bottle',

and left their last skins on the bottom of it,

the egg hatched,

the larva I thought was dying seemed to have rallied and after bringing in, rinsing, and drying off fresh milkweed leaves, I had lots of poop to clean up.

 The other larva on the ceiling of the 'Caterpillar Castle' is preparing to pupate.

It was still hanging there this morning

and when I checked 90 minutes later...

 The little hatchling is growing fast and has already doubled in size from yesterday.

If they all make it to adulthood, I could be releasing 11 monarchs this year. Fingers are crossed.

I'm going to have another look on our milkweed plants in the garden today for more eggs or larvae.