Monarch butterflies have made their way to Texas, but unfortunately not much milkweed greets them upon arrival. A harsh, dry winter preceded by drought and schizophrenic weather have left the sought-after perennial a no-show in many Texas gardens–and on roadsides and ranch land.
Milkweeds, that is, any Asclepias species, are the host plants to Monarch butterflies and the only plant on which they will lay eggs to continue their life cycle.
Reliable DPLEX correspondent Harlen Aschen wrote to the listserv that reaches hundreds of butterfly fans that on a 1000-mile trip from Port Lavaca, Texas, past San Antonio to near Abilene and back around Austin “we saw no blooming milkweed.”
Not good.
Yet that hasn’t stopped a tenacious group of butterfly lovers from raising caterpillars and hatching butterflies on “alternative fuels.”
Professional butterfly breeders have been experimenting for years to keep their livestock well nourished when host plants become scarce. Many of us who raise butterflies at home, especially in a year like this, also seek alternatives, since local nurseries seem to be having a hard time getting milkweed and keeping it in stock.
The recent news that the Monarch butterfly migration may soon become extinct because of a loss of milkweed habitat is driving the demand.
So what’s a hungry caterpillar to do?
My boys are hungry! Six Monarch caterpillars have pretty much decimated this pot
of milkweed seedlings planted in February. Good thing I have another one.
Photo by Monika Maeckle
No milkweed? No problem.
In the fifth instar, Monarch caterpillars will eat a variety of pumpkins.
Photo courtesy Ellen Reid
It’s a quandary. At my house, I planted Tropical milkweed seeds in February and have several pots growing, including two filled with seedlings only two inches tall. This will sate my caterpillars for a few days, at most.
I’m hoping that by the time the hungry cats finish up the tender seedlings, my garden milkweeds will have taken off. Or perhaps local nurseries will get more milkweed in stock.
Over on the DPLEX list, butterfly buffs–and the Monarch caterpillars–are getting resourceful. Several folks mentioned that by the time the caterpillars get to their fifth instar, or their final stage, before morphing into a chrysalis, they will eat pumpkin and cucumbers.
That’s right, folks. See it with your own eyes.
The Monarch butterfly on the left was fed with pumpkin during its final instar. Photo by Ellen Reid
“The butterfly on the left was fed with pumpkin during its final instar. The one on the right was reared on milkweed,” Ellen Reid wrote via email all the way from St. Arnaud, Victoria, Australia. “We couldn’t distinguish between them in any way.” Reid shared a photo of “pumpkin frass”–orange colored butterfly poop which is produced in volumes in the final stages of the caterpillars metamorphosis. Usually the frass is dark green or even brown, but “pumpkin frass” looks like the food that fueled it.
The frass, or butterfly poop, of pumpkin fed Monarch caterpillars reflects the food’s orange tint.
Photo courtesy Ellen Reid
Paul Addington tried feeding his Monarch caterpillars cucumbers. It worked. “These cats are eating the skin of the cucumber,” relayed Addington. “These were organic, but still felt like they were waxy, so [they were] heavily scrubbed first.” Addington said the caterpillars indeed preferred milkweed when given a choice. “All 52 of mine finished on cucumber, looked great and joined the wild,” he said, adding “UPDATE: must be fresh, crunchy cucumbers.…two-weeks-in-the-fridge cukes were rejected with enthusiasm….what an uproar!”
Dr. Chip Taylor, founder of Monarch Watch, chimed in to the conversation, letting folks know that the alternatives have been known for a while.
“These alternatives have been utilized by many people in the past. They only seem to work for fifth instar larvae that are less than four days from pupating. Many of the larvae will not make these transitions successfully.”
So Monarch butterfly caterpillars appear to be more adaptable than we thought.
Monarch caterpillars in the fifth instar will eat cucumbers.
But they have to be FRESH cucumbers! Photo courtesy Paul Addington
Like what you’re reading? Follow butterfly and native plant news at the Texas Butterfly Ranch. Sign up for email delivery, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, @monikam.
Related posts:
- Texas Butterfly Ranch Milkweed Guide
- Will the Monarch Migration Become Extinct?
- How to Get Native Milkweed Seeds to Germinate
- Persnickety Texas milkweeds, May Not Lend Themselves to Mass Production
- Tropical Milkweed: To Plant it or Not is No Simple Question
- Desperately seeking Milkweed: Be sure to buy pesticide free plants
- Butterfly FAQ: Is it OK to Move a Chrysalis? Yes, and here’s how to do it
- How to Make Seedballs
- Converting your Lawn to a Butterfly Garden
Silk moth caterpillars are fed a “cake” made of mulberry leaves and some other ingredients. I wonder if milkweed leaves could be adapted to this recipie, and whether the resulting “cakes” could be stored. If so, we might be able to feed the cake to hatchlings that appear before their food source is ready?
Recipie for silkmoths:
Gather mulberry leaves. Wash the leaves in cold water and remove any bugs, etc. Chop the leaves into fine bits. Allow to dry. Grind dry bits into a powder.
Dry powder can be stored.
When ready to feed, Mix powder with some water. Shape into little cakes.
Can we invent something similar for monarchs?
http://www.joannarosetidey.com/bombyx-mori-silk-worms/silk-worm-development-care/
Another version with good pix
Your site is so informative and great to read. You give hope. Thanks
I would be interested to know if the adults from 5th instar larvae fed on pumpkins and/or cucumbers have as many poisonous cardiac glycosides that deter predation as those who feed exclusively on milkweeds.
Found three caterpillars today on potted milkweeds. Manchaca, Tx.
If you are looking for native milkweed to feed hungary caterpillars and live near Wimberley, I have discovered milkweed where none was last year. I believe it was the 15 inches of rain and subsequent flooding that resulted in this treasure.
I first learned about feeding pumpkin from Jacqui Knight of Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust.
http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/
You can do a search on pumpkin on their website in the far upper right of the above webpage.
Several years ago when Jacqui told us about this. I did some searching and did find some references:
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bio12Tuat03-t1-body-d5.html
“Food of Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus [L.]) Larvae in New Zealand” by G. W. Ramsay
The most important thing to remember is that pumpkin and other alternative foods should only be fed to 5th instar Monarch caterpillars. If you feed earlier instars (larvae/caterpillars) they will not survive.
I think I have solved my problem as to what was stripping my milkweed. I never found any cats so I know it was not them. I have many rabbits, I think they did it. Hope they are OK. Will put red pepper around next time.
I may be soon running out of milkweed. I read that cucumbers treated with Bt would be toxic to caterpillars. I called our local co-op and asked about Bt, and they said that organic certification rules allow for some limited use of Bt, but that it would be applied on the exterior of the plant and fruit.
Does this mean any organic cucumber that has been thoroughly scrubbed would be safe for the cats?
As far as I know Bt is not systemic; therefore, it would not be taken into the plant tissue. You could peel the cucumber. That is what I did to my pumpkin. Then, cut it into cubes, put a hole through the middle, and then put it onto the milkweed stems. It worked.
THANKYOU soo, much my caterpillars r on the pumpkin,…, they have stripped all the swan plant leaves,….yesterday there were leaves, now none, the pumpkin peices r doing the trick.
Thanks.
It seems every website indicates that the monarch caterpillar will only eat milkweed. Well, my monarchs are a bit more adventuresome. Apparently monarch eggs were laid on my parsley, dill, cilantro, and carrot plants because caterpillars are feeding on each of these plants (there are more caterpillars on the parsley than the other plants). And no, these are not swallowtail caterpillars. I also have a number of them on the parsley and dill plants. So, if the monarch caterpillars only feed on milkweed, why are they doing very well on the parsley and other plants in my garden (I have only one milkweed plant and that has not been used by the monarchs)? Any ideas? Thanks.
Leroy, those are a eastern black swallowtails. NOT Monarchs.
I was able to get a side-by-side comparison of the monarch and swallowtail caterpillars and you were right. Thank you.
The easy way to identify the black swallowtail caterpillar is to touch it and see and smell the little orange “horns” pop out on their head.
Thank you so much for this post. I wish I had found it before I had to make emergency runs to the railroad tracks and prairie to feed our 44- 5th instars. There are organic cucumbers in my garden I could have used. Also I may have been saved from my first severe case of OE. We’ll do this the next time we have several 5th stars at once. Thanks again !
U people need to try Fennel. Jon Miller, Oklahoma City
I found this site while looking for information on Monarch caterpillars eating other plants. I live in Minnesota and grow hundreds of milkweed plants of different kinds all through my 1/3 acre yard. Today I found a Monarch caterpillar eating a mustard leaf and starting to prepare the silk in said leaf. I went back and forth between the laptop and the caterpillar and unless the eastern black swallowtail has develop the sets of alternating yellow, white, black, white and yellow strips what I have there is a Monarch. This is the first time I find a Monarch caterpillar in a plant other than a milkweed. I do believe the are starting to adapt even when they don’t have to. A big plus is that this year I have more Monarch caterpillars in my yard than ever before. Nice site.
Hi Carmen
I’m betting your caterpillar is not “eating” the mustard leaf, rather, it’s spinning the silk button to form its chrysalis. Monarchs and other caterpillars often leave the host plant to form their chrysalises. Keep an eye on it and let us know what happens. Good luck! – MM
Thank you so much for the tips! I live in California near Pismo Beach and was so sad to find Monarch caterpillars on milkweed that was completely eaten up. I took the two largest home. One made a chrysalis last night and the other is happily munching on an organic persian cucumber. 🙂
Is there a specific type of squash or cucumber that seem to be more appealing to the cats? I just tried cucumber and they are at least giving it a try, but not devouring it like milkweed.
Mine eat the thin skinned Persian cucumbers. I even have a tiny 1st – 2nd instar that has been feeding on it. The just eat the skin, btw
7/31/2019 I just found two monarch caterpillars eating my dill! So excited as we don’t have much milkweed around here anymore. I have pumpkins and cucumbers in my garden; I’ll try that to see if they’ll eat it! 🙂 🙂 This is from southwestern PA.
Those are likely black eastern swallowtail if they’re on dill. They look similar but have different antenna.
I got my catapillars eating organic cucumbers. They wouldn’t touch the cheap 99 cent ones. Guess they know what’s good.
I feed my Cats on; Milkweed Vine
(Cynanchum laeve), it is abundant regardless of weather. Monarch females will often lay eggs on them naturally as well. Easy to cultivate and grows just about anywhere, although it is considered a noxious weed in many states. It may well be what the wild population needs to survive for a while.
Help! My large caterpillars all seem to be leaving their plants, crawling through mulch and whatever else to go I don’t know where. Is this normal? There are still plenty of leaves on the milkweeds, many multi-leaved stems, there doesn’t seem to be any competition for food.
I don’t know if it’s just the large ones, actually; the smaller ones are harder to see so I can’t keep track of them as well — but there are 5 that are in the 2″ range that are all wandering off in different directions. They move fast too — they just pick a direction and start going very determinedly. Are they lost? Should I pick them up and bring them back to the milkweed? Should I leave pumpkin and cucumber about the yard, per some of the comments above?
When they’re ready to make their chrysalis, they often leave the plant. If you want to watch every stage, you’ll need to put them in a cage or container. See this link:https://texasbutterflyranch.com/2013/04/05/how-to-raise-monarch-butterflies-at-home/ Good luck!
Thank you! Sorry, I’m totally new at this and don’t really know what to expect. I just planted milkweed two months ago and am fascinated following this process. I’ve now found two them hanging upside down on other plants ready to make a chrysalis so I think you’re right, that’s exactly what’s going on – thank you, and sorry for the panic!!! The other three I guess I will just have to wait and see in two weeks or so when they emerge… 😀
Last year I planted dill, got quite tall. One morn went out and it was covered with monarch caterpillars. Within 2 days it was gone.
Those were Swallowtails, which eat dill, parsley and fennel. Monarchs only eat milkweed. Beautiful butterflies.
Would finding alternatives affect the fact that they store the milkweed toxin as a defense mechanism from predators?
Monarch caterpillars (11) just devoured our parsley plant. I hope it was enough food. I have pictures of them finishing it up
I’d be 99.9% certain, they are swallowtails, feeding on Parsley.
I wonder if they are swallowtails… I bought a milkweed plant and placed it next to the bare parsley and they are all on the milkweed plant now munching away.
Some of the monarchs in my yard have moved from the milkweed to eating leaves on my Monterey Almond Tree. Any info on this?
Hope they make it to Iowa as I will have a great milkweed crop.
Thank you for the info on the pumpkin and cucumber! I have lots of milkweed in my front yard and I have rescued (from the many lizards here in Houston) around 80 plus caterpillars now into a milkweed plant covered by a 5 foot net I bought in which to house them. We have released 30 plus butterflies over the month, currently have 24 crysalisis and too many caterpillars to count! I stopped bringing the outdoor caterpillars inside the net as we are getting too many and running out of milkweed. If I keep taking the milkweed from the yard, the outdoor caterpillars will run out. I’ll going to try the pumpkin and cucumber on the larger one’s.
I’m I Houston, running out milk weed too, I have 41 hatched in house since early September, I keep them inside cause of wasps in my yard, now have 86 cats, but my small bush in yard has no more leaves, I went to UT picked some branches home Friday, and this morning I found 15 cats dead after eating that branches, I think they spray something poisonous on their bush. Help!! I need food for cats!!
I am out of milkweed myself, but have resorted to using both butternut squash and cucumbers (both without any of the shell in case it had any pesticide) and it’s working so far.
There are many large milkweed plants at Lanier Middle school (you will see many Monachs flying around) that the students have planted and I am taking any small cat I find there as I have read that the smaller one’s still need milkweed.
Thanks for reply!
Too late now, I have to release them all to my almost bold-headed milkweed bush, and let the nature take the pick. I am cutting the branches and plant them in soil, hope to have more bush when spring comes.
Mine where eating my kale in the garden I live in New York. It’s obviously got to cold so I brought them in. They are doing great. They are still eating kale that I change regularly and butternut squash but I am trying to find some milkweed plants to grow in the house for them but the kale and squash seem to be working. I had 15 but am down to 13 but that’s ok. Better then them all freezing in this cold. They demolished my kale but I let them. We don’t really eat it anyway other then a few time in pasta I make. So it was amazing to see them on it. So if u are in a pinch u can try that. They seem to love it.
Are you sure they were monarchs? More likely a checkered white, which hosts on kale. Take a look at the caterpillar here: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/leaf/checkered_white.htm
Thank you for the Kale info! I gave them some this morning and I’ll see if they like it. There is no milkweed to be had. The outdoor caterpillars ate everything at the front of the house. Right now I have 89 crystalis at last count and 30 plus caterpillars. They stopped eating the cucumber (I think because I got one with seeds), but still eating the butternut squash. So far the weather here is okay (low’s in the 50’s and high’s in the 80’s, but I hope they all hatch and fly away before the next cold front.
I have some good, healthy milkweed plants and found my very first cat this morning after 3 years of growing them. I was so excited! I have seed pods from last year, still, and should have quite a few this autumn. I wish there were a way to get some to those of you who live in a milkweed ” desert “.
I’m so curious. Where do you all get your monarch caterpillars? Or do you put the kale, milkweed, squash out and they will just come to the food. What a wonderful thing to do.
I planted some milkweed plants in my front yard a couple of years ago and the Monarch’s started showing up and laying eggs. We would notice many cats and then the next day they would be gone. We figured out that the lizards were eating them. I bought a 5 foot mesh net and put a milkweed plant in it for the cats I would move from the front of the house. We’ve released 50 plus Monarch’s so far with many more to go. The cats like the butternut squash and cucumbers. They didn’t like the store bought kale so much. It’s been great to see them grow and has been a great experience for my kids.
South Florida- I checked my dozen or so Monarch Caterpillar only to find that their source of food had only a few milkweed leaves left. I frantically called both Lowes and Home Depot, they had no milkweed in stock. Searching the web I encountered your .com in search of food alternatives. You mentioned squash and cucumbers. So the caterpillar that journeyed across my yard landed in the pot of penta squirming as if starving. I sliced several pieces of squash and placed it nearby. The caterpillars quickly began to feed. Thank you for your information. It’s very helpful.
Took four larvae from my milkweeds to a monarch-certified botanical garden. Such a certified garden may be an option for those without their own milkweed patch.
Thanks for the tip. The squash I had, acorn squash, did not work for my caterpillar. Some ate, but died in the same spot. Others did not form their chrysalis completely. Part of themselves was outside the green lopsided chrysalis.
A piece of research indicates that farming monarchs produces butterflies Forget how to fly south. I Make no attempt to judge the merits of this finding. But what happens if these confused creatures are flown to Mexico and released there? Do they then become unconfused, and remember how to migrate again?
Just to clarify the study, this is Tony Gomez’s response:
https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/when-monarch-science-fails-to-take-flight/
A small excerpt from the article above:
”To the monarch science community: Stop blurring the lines between mass breeding and raising butterflies for release. On page 4 of this study, you refer to home raisers as hobbyist breeders which is a completely misleading term which does not apply to the vast majority of us.
To the attention-seeking media: Stop making conclusions about things you obviously know nothing about. It’s irresponsible at best, and potentially harmful to our continuing monarch conservation efforts.
To our monarch community: Let this be your wake up call to always ask questions when the methodology, conclusions, and media reports on monarch research don’t make sense. 🦋🧐
If you want to read the actual research report it can be purchased for $10 or viewed at any local library with a subscription to PNAS.”
Just a thought.
I MHOP, global warming will screw up the timing as well as lack of habitat, pesticide, etc. I will continue to raise monarchs from wild eggs for release. This year I will hit the window releasing them precisely timed with when they migrate comes through on the highway south here in the northwest corner of Arkansas. I have raised 5 generations this year with the last emerging precisely when it is time to catch the ride south. That will be around 40. How do they time it? Good question—they just SEEM to know. 5th year with this same experience with timing being consistently accurate. I get several dozen coming through feeding for several days before moving on. After several days ‘nary a one is lingering in the yard. Poof! They’re gone.
I can understand being in a pinch and needing something to feed the caterpillars but I feel there is a reason monarchs eat milkweed (it may be why they taste bad to birds and are left alone) and it would be better to encourage growing more milkweed than feeding caterpillars alternatives.
I just raised over 3 dozen monarchs inside with about another 20 that died from OE in the San Diego area, some were raised on squash. Last year, none survived OE inside and we have alot of predation outside (wasps, lizards, ants, hornets, CA towhees)… It looked like all of my plants of red tropical milkweed had OE or blackspot that produced sick cats. This year the three plants I bought from Home Depot had OE (two red, one gold), but the plants from Lowes didn’t (three gold). I ran out of milkweed and couldn’t find any store that had any, so I tried cucumber, but only a couple cats would eat it, then bought and scrubbed clean a Kabocha squash (grocery didn’t have butternut), and the cats ate that, but preferred milkweed. It seems that the squash cats were more much more susceptible to OE, so about half died, maybe the sugars in the squash make OE worse?
Towards the end, knowing that people here have said that squash only works on big cats, I babied the five remaining caterpillars, two that hatched from their eggs and 3 that were 1st or 2nd instar cats that were raised largely on squash. Three of those cats died of OE, but two survived into healthy looking butterflies, one was the last egg hatchling! The defoliated milkweed plants kept trying to leaf out (I watered with a bit of hydrogen peroxide in the water to try to kill OE), and I kept moving the first instars onto little leaf buds using a small ring of a toilet paper tube. During the days of the first instar, the squash cats were raised on tender milkweed buds, but were only on about half milkweed in the second instar. After that, the cats would get a few small buds of milkweed every two or three days.
I would move the cats to the milkweed leaf buds, they didn’t seem to find them on their own since the buds were so sparse on the leggy plants; these last squash cats were not as energetic as the all milkweed cats. The one squash lasted over three weeks in the refrigerator to feed all of the remaining cats. I cut the squash into thin pieces with a slit and hung the pieces on the milkweed plants near the cats, or with the earlier escapee cats, in closed tubs with paper towels. The cats here seemed to do much better when I didn’t rinse the squash, maybe high moisture makes OE worse?
So… lessons learned: “Silky Gold” tropical milkweed is healthier than scarlet in this area; buy milkweed from Lowes, not Home Depot; CATS CAN BE RAISED ON A COMBINATION OF MILKWEED AND SQUASH FROM EARLY INSTARS, if you baby them (I checked on them every couple of hours during the day) – but they are more susceptible to disease than cats raised on all milkweed. Hope this helps!
Perhaps Nature is telling you not to raise so many cats? — MM
I was able to save many when I ran out of milkweed by feeding them cubed butternut squash and cucumbers. I would put them on top of sticks so the mess it created would fall below and not into the food.
I was in my garden today and found 2 fat monarch caterpillars eating my dill weed plants. They were not there yesterday that i noticed but today they are. None on my milkweed plantation though. I was concerned maybe dill would be toxic to them but there they are. Maybe i should move them over to the milkweed, but the one that was there was killed by some dumb beatle and sucked dry. I suspect thats why no worms on the milkweeds. But the dill of all things? If they like dill i have no problem planting lots all over the farm.
Lots of Monarchs this year! I have milkweed, but there were so many cats on a bush that I knew they were going to run out. I c
ould not find milkweed plants anywhere! So I tried zucchini speared on milkweed stems and cubes of pumpkin. I have 14 very happy instar 5’s munching away.
[…] Alternative fuel for monarch caterpillars works only in the most developed stage of growth. […]
[…] Alternative fuel for monarch caterpillars works only in the most developed stage of growth. […]
I put my monarch caterpillar in front of a stem of [iceberg] lettuce… I took the fact that cucumber is just crunchy water, and so is lettuce in a way–I had a shortage of milkweed for a day or two, so I’m delighted to see he is checking it out and nibbling.
Last year, I had two monarch cats decimate my blue passion flower vine.
I was happy to see them there as the crop of cats had completely stripped my milkweed.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the vine will come back. But, with the lack of milkweed…maybe?
They don’t eat anything but milkweed in the caterpillar stage.
I am from south central Texas & believe I have found a Monarch caterpillar in our pasture. I read that they will eat thistle, yet this guy seems to have no interest & I can’t locate any milkweed. Help!
Monarchs only eat milkweeds.
I ran out of milkweed and now feed them butternut squash. They like it!
I have a monarch caterpillar living on a robust milkweed plant in my garden. I check on it daily. Today I looked for it but couldn’t find on the milkweed plant. I thought a bird must have gotten it but spotted it out of the corner of my eye on a cabbage plant growing adjacent. The caterpillar had crawled down the stem to get to the cabbage. AND it was eating quite a bit of a cabbage leaf! This was not a case of not having enough milkweed. It seemed the caterpillar preferred to munch on the cabbage!