Counting down... MONARCH WATCH FALL OPEN HOUSE Join us at our Fall Open House at Foley Hall (KU West Campus) on Saturday, September 11th to celebrate the arrival of migrating monarchs coming from the north. This free event is designed to please children and adults alike. At the Open House you can learn about creating Monarch Waystations and see the magnificent butterfly and pollinator garden created and maintained by Margarete Johnson and the Douglas County Master Gardeners. Weather permitting, you will see an abundance of butterflies and numerous other small but important pollinators. On a good day over 20 species of butterflies visit the garden. The Biohouse, adjacent to the garden, will be filled with monarchs and other species. The Biohouse and garden contain numerous butterfly flowers. Bring your cameras. It is well worth a visit. As usual, we will provide refreshments, lots of show & tell (including a honey bee observation hive and some "Oh, my!" insects you may have never seen before), tours of our gardens and lab space, hands-on activities, games, videos, monarch tagging demonstrations, iChat videoconferencing, and, of course, lots of monarch caterpillars, pupae, and butterflies! We also plan to have a limited number of Monarch pupae (to emerge as a butterfly at home or at school) that will be given to each child in attendance, while supply lasts. If you can't be there, be sure to visit us online at the address below to see what we're doing - we plan on having at least a couple of webcams broadcasting the day's events. |
DONATE NOW! (pretty please) |
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If you enjoy the various educational, conservation, and research programs Monarch Watch offers throughout the year, please consider making a donation today - it's quick, easy, secure, and fully tax-deductible. You can even set up a recurring gift (monthly or annually) if you'd like. We rely on contributions from Monarch Watchers just like you to keep the program going - thank you for your continued support!
If you would rather mail in a donation or have questions, please visit Giving in Support of Monarch Watch. |
LIVE BROADCAST |
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We'll continue to experiment with broadcasting live video - see what's going on here:  *Note: to view our live video broadcasts, you must have the Adobe Flash Player (a free player that you may already have) installed on your computer. If you do not have it, you should be prompted to install it - or you can just get it yourself here:
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LIVE CHAT SESSION |
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Leave us your comments about our video broadcast, photos, and/or Monarch Watch in general during our open house event...or just chat with other online visitors:
*Note: the online chat requires that you have the Adobe Flash Player (a free player that you may already have) installed on your computer. If you do not have it, you should be prompted to install it - or you can just get it yourself here:
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PHOTO SLIDESHOW |
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We will take lots of photos during the day - see them here:  |
DIRECTIONS TO MONARCH WATCH |
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Monarch Watch is located on the West Campus of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.
via I-70 Turnpike: Take West Lawrence exit and continue South on IOWA street. At the 19th Street stoplight turn RIGHT (west). At "T" turn LEFT (south). Proceed past the stop sign (after stopping of course!) and then turn right into a parking lot (you'll see a large Greenhouse at the end of the lot) and find a place to park ;-) Foley Hall is the one-story building that will be on your right. via westbound K-10: K-10 turns into 23rd street in Lawrence. Continue West on 23rd until you reach IOWA street. At the stoplight turn RIGHT (north) and continue to 19th Street. At the 19th Street stoplight turn LEFT (west). At "T" turn LEFT (south). Proceed past the stop sign (after stopping of course!) and then turn right into a parking lot (you'll see a large Greenhouse at the end of the lot) and find a place to park ;-) Foley Hall is the one-story building that will be on your right. |
MONARCH PUPAE (CHRYSALIS) INSTRUCTIONS |
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Pupae require no additional feeding or daily care. Remove the pupae from the containers and place them in a suitable location out of direct sunlight. If pupae are kept at room temperature, the butterflies should emerge within 1-10 days. Emergence Cages. When the adult butterfly emerges, it must be able to hang and expand its wings. Therefore, pupae must either be hung up or placed near a rough vertical surface to climb onto. Picnic food protectors (available from some drug and discount stores) make good emergence cages. You can use a pizza box as a base, but put a rough surface (screen, old wash cloth, etc.) on the bottom. The pupae can be hung (attach the silk strands at the end of the pupa to tape or wrap dental floss around the cremaster, the black structure at the end of the abdomen) inside the food protector or placed on a rough surface at the bottom of the box. The new butterflies will crawl up the walls of the food protector to expand and dry their wings. Each emerging monarch will cling to its pupal case (if hanging; otherwise, the surface it climbs up onto). As they emerge, the adult butterflies will appear soft and their wings will be wrinkled and pliable. Their abdomens will be large and you may notice the abdomen pulsating as fluid is pumped from it into the wings, until the wings are fully expanded and become stiff. It usually takes 1-2 hours for a monarch's wings to harden sufficiently for flight. They are relatively inactive the first day and do not need to be fed. In this first day the wings will harden and the sensory mechanisms (eyes, odor receptors on the antennae, and taste receptors on the ends of the leg -yes, butterflies taste with their feet!) will become fully functional. Once the adult monarch butterflies have emerged, they can be used for classroom instruction, student projects or tagged and released. Feeding and Maintenance. The newly-emerged adults will not need to be fed the first day, but the next day they can be fed a sugar- or honey-water solution. Mix 1 part sugar or honey with 9 parts water and pour into a shallow dish. Place a clean plastic pot scrubber in the dish for the butterfly to stand on while it feeds. The food needs to be changed every day to keep it fresh. As an alternative, you can buy a nectar kit from Monarch Watch that includes everything you wouldn't normally find in your kitchen. This artificial nectar will not ferment; therefore, you only need to top it off every 2-3 days. If you have a large cage, the butterflies can learn to self-feed; the feeding solution should be placed near the top of the cage or close to the light source. Like most insects, monarchs will fly toward lighted windows or artificial lights. Your butterflies can also feed on the nectar in fresh flowers. The butterflies will live for 2-3 weeks if they are well fed, but they may live as long as 6 weeks if the temperatures are cool enough and you take very good care of them. Good Luck! |
