When I bring in an egg, I immediately trim down the milkweed leaf on which I found it. The egg probably won’t hatch any time soon and in the meantime the leaf will dry and curl. If there is too much dry, curled up leaf it can be hard to spot the egg to see if it has hatched.
I then put each egg into its own container. I use “bug jars” I buy in bulk from Oriental Trading or Amazon, and tuck a piece of cut up pantyhose (rummage sales are a great place to get piles of pantyhose for pennies) between the lid and the jar.
Any jar will work if you put a piece of nylon over the top and rubber band it down. I don’t recommend mesh unless it is VERY fine. Newborn caterpillars are incredibly tiny Houdinis.
See the tiny air holes on the lid of the jar above? You’d think there were caterpillar exit signs posted on those things given how quickly the newborns will run right off the lovely piece of nice fresh milkweed I’ve just given them and make good their escape to explore my living room!
Hotel Daisy is now full up for eggs today:
It’s always hard to leave the rest of the eggs outside knowing so few will survive. Only one in every 200 Monarch eggs becomes a butterfly, or so I’ve read. My BBF (Best Butterfly Friend) S rushed to my rescue and took an additional 13 eggs, so between the two of us we guaranteed the survival of nearly 50 Monarchs today!
Grow Monarchs Grow!