How to overwinter Danaus plexippus

[Paul K]

I found male on parking lot in Toronto Canada on Oct 27.
It is too cold here now for it to fly south.
I brought it to my apartment.
The problem is too warm inside and it wants to fly south.
Did anyone tried to overwinter D.plexippus?

Paul

[leptraps]

Just let it fly. It will continue to fly south. We had a heavy frost on Tuesday and on both Wednesday & Thursday I observed a single Monarch flying south. Unless there is an extend hard freeze, Monarchs will continue to move.

This goes way back to the late 1970's. It was during the Thanksgiving weekend I went out to get firewood from behind the shed, I found several Monarchs hanging under the Eve of the roof of the shed. It was a cold day followed by several more. The weather warmed up in early December. When I went to check and see it they were still there, they were gone.

[Paul K]

Danaus only survived 3 days in my apartment.
Before get a bit warmer here he decided not to fly south and die.
🙁

[leptraps]

Evenidently you did not feed it. I mix some sugar and water (A small amount of egg white provide protein) and place in a Petri dish. Hold the Monarchs wings with your thumb and forefinger, extend the proboscis with an insect pin into the mixture in the petri dish, the Monarch will go limp as it feeds and you can release your hold. It will sit there sucking up until it is satisfied. It will recoil the proboscis and start to walk about.

After it has finished feeding, hold it between your fingers again, fill a small glass with room temperature water and give the butterfly a bath. Just dunk it slowly two or three times. If you do not bath the butterfly, the sugar water is a sticky solution and when it is dry it will virtually glue the proboscis together and it can also effect the compound eyes.

This also works when you keep females for ova. Feed them several times daily followed by a bath.

Moths are a little different. I make bait with bananas, sugar and water. Place the mixture in a Petri dish and cover the dish with aluminum window screen. The moths will find the bait and insert their proboscis through the screen and suck up the juice.

I use small cage's for moths. Bigger cages for sphinx moths.

Do not use the above process out side. Ants love sugar and they will also feed on moths caged with the sugar solution..

[jshuey]

My office conference room is on the second floor and the room-long window faces due north. Yesterday I saw 3 monarchs fly up and over that window in central Indiana during a 2-hour meeting - so they are still moving southward on warm days.

John

[Paul K]

Indeed I didn’t feed it as I was suspecting it will have enough energy to sustain live. There is no more food source here in Ontario.
Also during cold days I suppose they are not feeding too.
It could be warmer temperature inside speed up metabolism process and drain the energy stored?

[papilio28570]

Metabolism didn't speed up. It simply dehydrated from lack of food and low indoor humidity due to heating or cooling system.

[leptraps]

I observed a female Monarch nectaring on one of my buddleia bushes. It was a sunny and warm November 2 with a temp of 67°. I went to get my camera to photograph it but when I returned, she was flying off.

I also collected an exceptionally large
Female Atalopedes campestris on the same bush. I actually collect an Atalopedes campestris on December 12, 2002. That is the lastest date that I have ever collected a Skipper.

I also saw but could not collect several Colias philodice.

We had a heavy frost on Monday and several cold (Low 30's) nights, but not a hard freeze, yet.

Scott County, Kentucky received 4.5 inches of Rain between Tuesday and Wednesday. North Elkhorn Creek is out of its banks big time. I only have three bait traps set out along the Elkhorn Creeks plus one in my yard. Due to some issues at home, I will have them all taken down with the exception of the one in my yard.