Writer’s Studio Word Challenge for 7/20/2024
Writer’s StudioWord Challenge for 7/20/2024
Use thesewords: Peak, Garden, Ecstatic, Plethora, Resemble,Inconsolable, Pistachio
I’m a Monarch Foster Mom
It’s themiddle of July and not the peak of the Monarch butterflies’ journeysouth, that comes in another month. I’m patiently awaiting the release of myfirst adult Monarch butterfly, hopefully by next weekend. This year’s gardenhas yielded few eggs and fewer caterpillars. I’ve looked at my records andfound that by this time in July in past years I had the following results:
2019-threereleased
2020-tenreleased
2021-fourreleased
2022-none
2023-seventeenreleased and headed for a personal best of 85. That resembles a victory tome.
In 2021 mynotes indicate I was losing a lot of caterpillars. I felt discouraged andpractically unconsolable. Fortunately, I found help online. The possibleculprits were the eggs of parasitic flies and wasps. Plus, infections from OE, Ophryocystiselektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite that leaves the butterflies weak, deformed,and flightless.
My 2022caterpillar season was shortened because of travel plans. Hardly any reason tofeel ecstatic.
Then came 2023.I put into action all of my newfound knowledge and was rewarded with a plethoraof chrysalises, that final stage where the miracle of metamorphosis occurs. Ilove the delicate pistachio green color that hides all the action oftransformation until that final moment when all is revealed, the green colorfades out to a clear window filled with orange and black. The case splits open anda podgy body with a wrinkled mass of wings somersaults out, hangs by spindlylegs, and begins the twists and turns that will inflate the wings with fluidstored in the abdomen. First flight doesn’t happen until the filled-out wingsdry and harden. Then it’s off they go. Out of my life. Missed, but notforgotten. They are wild things after all.
The odds areagainst each and every one. I hope that by adding to the migration numbers myefforts might improve the odds that some will make the journey, survive tillnext spring, and begin the cycle all over again. Since 2019 I’ve nurtured 256caterpillars to adulthood in my little bit of suburbia. Will one of mine makeit? I can only hope so.
Check out:
For guidanceand help:
Monarch Butterfly Life <questions@monarchbutterflygarden.net>
