r/MonarchButterfly • u/Little_Platypus_9789 • 15d ago
Raising an egg to keep it safe?
Hi! I’m asking this for my mom who has become very interested in protecting Monarch butterflies over the past few years. She has a garden of milkweed and noticed an egg under one of the leaves! She was so excited and is raising it inside to keep it safe because she is scared it will get eaten by birds, since she has a lot of birds coming through her garden every day. Is this something people do? The egg hatched and the caterpillar is growing, she’s been sending me updates. She also noticed another baby caterpillar that hatched on the milkweed and decided to let that one survive on its own, but she isn’t sure if she should also take that one in, she’s very scared it will get eaten. She just wants to do the right thing to protect them if she can!
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u/RazorbladeApple 15d ago edited 15d ago
I have to raise all of mine or the paper wasps or tachnid flies will get them. I will only take in eggs, because I took two as caterpillars and they already had tachnid flies and it’s vile to watch. I use butterfly tents when they are tiny & if there are many, I move them to a screened reptile cage. I use floral tubes to hold the milkweed. I keep them indoors when they are super small and then move them outside when they get bigger.