Desperately trying to look after last 3 monarchs inside till we get some sunny weather. Two of them feeding ok on honey and water, but one has had a pslit proboscisfor four days. I am encouraging her to try honey and water and she has moved her proboscis over it. I see in Dec 2007 newsletter that tyhe longest one took was a week and hope she has enough strenght to make it. Will shift her into a warmer room. hope to have two fine days, Tues, Wed. to set them free. How can we teach them not to breed so late in the season !!!?
sorry don’t know that … I just found the information useful. If you google something like monarch split proboscis you can find a few videos of what it looks like, how to feed them and one on someone trying to fix it … I tentatively tried the ‘fix’ but was concerned i’d unzip what mine had zipped so decided to leave it to nature.
Yes it’s true that all Monarchs emerge with a split proboscis and then their job is to knit the two pieces together. This is an amazing part to watch and the video Jacqui has placed on here shows it well 🙂
Hello Blueskybee,
They are amazing creatures aren’t they. I never get tired of watching the caterpillars or the Monarchs. If the Monarch does not knit their proboscis together then they won’t survive I’m afraid 🙁 as they need to knit this together to be able to suck up the fluids/nectar to keep them going.
“How can we teach them not to breed so late in the season !!!?”
Hehe girls and boys will be girls and boys. But I feel your pain…
Right now I have a girl whose got a split proboscis. She’s about a week old, and she could do with more weight on. Anyway I find she’s actually had a wee bulge to her abdomen today but had to spend quite some time feeding. I think for her, I make sure there is a good lot of moisture and honey at the time she feeds on the plastic lid with tissue paper. I didnt expect her to last this long quite frankly but there are you never know.
I still dont think she will exactly have a long life, so I’ll keep her here, just the same.
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