Monarch Guest Speakers by Josie

Have you ever had a caterpillar on your nose? I haven’t but my cousin has. Her name is Lilu and she raises monarch butterflies. Last week, Lilu and my aunt shared their story with our group in a Zoom meeting and it was funny and interesting.
A few years ago my Aunt and Lilu adopted a caterpillar from a kindergarten teacher at her school. She took it home with two leaves from a milkweed plant. Two leaves turned out not to be nearly enough food to feed her new caterpillar.
They went to a garden center and bought a small milkweed plant, but the next morning all the leaves were gone! And there were caterpillar droppings everywhere. And there were 4 new caterpillars (the new plant had eggs on it). So they went back to the garden center and bought a GIANT milkweed plant.
One caterpillar made a chrysalis on the plant so they supposed that the other caterpillars would too.  But that didn’t happen. Soon they found chrysalises all over the house like the light fixtures, a shelf and there was even one under the bed.
The butterflies started emerging and laying eggs on the plant. They ended up buying another GIANT milkweed plant because they had 14 new caterpillars to feed. They raised the butterflies in their house for a whole year and released them one by one as they emerged. 
They raised over 50 butterflies before they decided to move the plants outside. My aunt took clippings from the branches and grew new plants for her yard. Now their yard is filled with Milkweed, caterpillars, and Monarch Butterflies. 
My cousin says the flowers on the Milkweed are beautiful and she can see the butterflies surrounding the plants from her window. And sometimes she still brings one in and puts it on her nose.