06 Oct Bleaching Eggs
BLEACHING MONARCH BUTTERFLY EGGS TO ELIMINATE O.e.
Here I am bleaching monarch butterfly eggs to remove the microscopic O.e. parasite that gets on eggs when an O.e. infected monarch butterfly female lays eggs. When the caterpillar is born, it eats the egg sack and then becomes infected with O.e. It can kill the caterpillar or kill it in the chrysalis or cause a butterfly to be born deformed and die shortly or even fail to be able to get out of the chrysalis; and that’s very sad to see.
O.e. accumulates more by the end of the season, such as now (southern Calif season is April thru October), so that’s why I’m bleaching the eggs that Julie kindly gave to me to raise on my abundant milkweed! REMEMBER: Prune your tropical milkweed sometime from mid October thru Halloween to 6-10″ stems and remove the leaves to kill off this season’s O.e. and save monarchs next year!
Watch as Susie demonstrates and explains how to bleach monarch butterfly eggs:
https://youtu.be/B51glCeqkCs