Joann Merritt's Essays

Swat Team Rescues Monarch Caterpillars
November, 2003

Don & I walked the trails at I-20 Pond, then picked up litter around the southeast entrance before leaving. As we neared the Cox Communications building Don noticed we hadn’t closed the toolbox lid after putting away our gloves so he stopped on the shoulder of the service road. While he tended to the toolbox I investigated a patch of milkweed growing in the ditch. I didn’t recognize the species, but evidently the Monarch butterflies did, because there were caterpillars feeding on the plant’s stringy leaves and white blooms. When a Highway Patrolman stopped to inquire what we were doing and I told him, he then asked another question “How do you know this?”. He then exited his vehicle to see for himself while I explained that we were naturalists who study plants, butterflies, birds, etc. He seemed puzzled, but satisfied with my answer.

Donna Kelly wanted to count and measure the caterpillars as well as to identify the host plant species of milkweed in order to send the correct information to the Texas Monarch Watch and Sybil was interested as well so a few days later the 4 of us returned, counting 9 live caterpillars plus 2 dead ones, identifying Whorled (Asclepias Pumila), Red flowered (Asclepias brachystephana) and Longhorn (Asclepias oenotherides) milkweeds.

Now fast forward a couple of weeks to October 3rd. While driving to my house Sybil saw 6 mowing machines chomping their way west from Rankin Highway & I-20 which was only 2 miles from our milkweed patch with its Monarchs-in-the-making. She and I tried to find the right person in charge to ask if that strip of approximately 100’ could be left uncut but we were unsuccessful. Negotiations having failed it was now time for the SWAT TEAM (Donna’s name for us) to go into action! We collected 49 caterpillars with their own stems of milkweed, placing them in what we hoped was a “container”. While I took them to the car Sybil quickly gathered an armful of milkweed for them to eat until they were ready for the next stage of their life cycle. For those of you not familiar with butterflies, their cycle is adult-egg-caterpillar-chrysalis-adult, etc. Sybil had begun to wonder if we’d have to stage a protest by chaining ourselves to a nearby highway marker or be Ditch-sitters but thankfully we finished just as the mowers were approaching.

Don returned from his golf game just in time to repair our old Environmental Observation Module, a large screened wooden frame box he had made some years ago in which to keep caterpillars and their host plants. We found well qualified foster homes for many of these caterpillars with other naturalists. Some were placed in empty plastic Peppermint Candy Houses, some in a new tented home from a San Antonio nature store, others were moved to a 10 gallon aquarium while the rest of them remained in our old EOM. They had to remain there as they had literally became attached to this home! Within a week all had made their chrysalides and eventually 40 of the 49 hatched, were tagged and released. One weekend Sybil, Rose Marie and Mary Frances all went out of town leaving me in charge of the above mentioned foster homes. Excitement reigned on that 3rd weekend of October when 16 Monarchs emerged from their sarcophagus (Gene Grimes’ name for chrysalis!) on Saturday. I was kept joyfully busy tagging and releasing butterflies and then watching them nectar and fly among the flowers in our yard.

Monarch Caterpillars And Chrysalides Go To School

And while there, they spoke more by their presence than pictures and/or words could ever convey. The 10 gallon aquarium with its live exhibit of milkweed, caterpillars feeding and hanging in their J-shape as well as both green and dark chrysalides with their shining golden spots visited the 2nd grade at Trinity. Emmy Ulmschneider’s science classes at Carver then kept watch on this exhibit until all 15 Monarchs hatched and the students had tagged and released them in the school garden.

And all this happened because we forgot to close the lid of our toolbox - sometimes it’s not all bad to be forgetful! This story illustrates one of the many reasons I am proud to be a member of the Midland Naturalists, the Llano Estacado Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas and the North American Butterfly Association.