Monarch Butterflies Flying South for the Winter

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The butterfly season is almost over and most of the Monarch Butterflies have emerged and will be heading south to mexico for the winter. Watching these majestic creatures over these past few months has been astonishing and we have learned a great deal through this experience.

It all started with a little bit of Milkweed and from there we stared seeing daily visits from Monarchs in our garden. Monarchs need Milkweed for their survival. The butterflies are attracted to the plant’s specific nectar. The life cycle for a Monarch from egg to butterfly is about 30 days. They lay their eggs on the leaves of the Milkweed and the eggs hatch after about three or four days. A tiny little caterpillar hatches and consumes the leftover egg as its first meal. The tiny caterpillar eats Milkweed for about two weeks and after weeks of caterpillars munching on Milkweed there was almost no leaves left of the plant. Caterpillars grows so rapidly that it sheds its skin five times and consumes its shed skin each time. When the caterpillar has fully grown it crawls off (traveling up to 30 feet away) to find the perfect spot to form a chrysalis. Once the caterpillar has chose a spot to transform it creates a small sticky disc to hang itself from and there it will sit for about a day in the shape of a J. Then the caterpillar is ready to begin transforming it starts to wiggle and squirm until the caterpillar’s skin is shed and a chrysalis emerges surrounding it body. The transformation or pupa stage takes about 10-14 days as the caterpillar is becoming a beautiful Monarch Butterfly. Once the butterfly’s transformation is complete it emerges with its wings all crinkled and wrinkled and has to hang upside down for a few hours while its wings dry and straighten out. When the wings have straightened and strengthened the butterfly is ready for some nourishment from flower nectar so it can brave the long adventure south to Mexico.

There are many predators, treacheries and possible sickness that the Monarchs have to endure and overcome. If you are interested in helping the Monarchs on their journey next year plant a Milkweed garden but don’t forget to pick up some free compost first.

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Monarch Butterflies are Emerging

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We have been releasing Monarch Butterflies all week. Most of them look great but there are the few sad ones that emerge with some deformities like bent or shriveled wings. Below you can see three examples of chrysalis and the one on the far right will not make it to becoming a butterfly but the one on the left looks like it will emerge any minute and you can even see the beautifully formed orange wings. The green one in front looks healthy.

Three Chrysalis the new green one, about to hatch is black and one that has gone bad
Monarch fresh out of the chrysalis
Release the Monarch
Monarch Feeding for the first time
Monarchs love Milkweed
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Posted in: Animals, Around the District, Community, Customer Infomation, From the Office, Monarch Butterflies, Pets and Animals, Pine Cove Water District, Raised Bed Gardens

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Butterflies, Caterpillars and Chrysalis oh my….

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PCWD is enjoying hosting the majestic Monarch butterflies and watching the hungry little caterpillars grow. We have been watching the Monarch’s for months now. They flutter into the garden leaving their tiny little egg behind. It wasn’t long before we started discovering tiny little baby caterpillars. For weeks we found more eggs and more caterpillars. Now, everyday we see the changes in these little growing caterpillars and we have started finding newly formed chrysalis.

Did you know that the percentage of monarchs that survive from egg to adulthood is very low? Some researchers believe that less than 10% of the monarch’s that make it to adulthood and others think it is less than 5% that survive to become a Monarch Butterfly. Here at PCWD we are enthusiastic about helping support these majestic creatures along their journey of transformation. It seems that the Monarchs have been enjoying the Milkweed garden dedicated to them.

  • Majestic Monarch Butterfly
  • Big and little hungry caterpillars
  • Monarch caterpillar’s make a J shape befor forming a chrysalis
  • One hungry caterpillar and one ready to transform
  • Caterpillar and a chrysalis
  • Beautiful chrysalis at the office
  • couple of chrysalis hanging in the rain
  • More caterpillars coming to join the chrysalis

Did you know that Monarch Butterflies don’t make a cocoon but the actually form what is called a chrysalis. For the most part, butterfly caterpillars do not build cocoons, but instead harden into chrysalis during their transnational pupal stage. There are a few exceptions but primarily it is the moth that surrounds itself in a cocoon for protection during its pupal stage. The major difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon is that a chrysalis is the hardened body of a butterfly pupa, whereas a cocoon is an external structure constructed by larvae to protect themselves during the pupal stage. The life cycle for both the moth and the butterfly is very much the same. Starting with the adult female laying eggs, which hatch into caterpillars. As caterpillars grow, they molt and shed their skin four to six times before transforming into pupae. The pupa is the final stage of development, during which metamorphosis takes place over a period of about two weeks. At the end of which an adult butterfly or moth emerges. For Monarch butterflies like most butterflies the chrysalis is the pupal stage of butterfly development. Just before its final molt, a butterfly caterpillar spins a small disk of silk to attach itself to the underside of a leaf or twig. The caterpillar sheds its skin one last time as the pupa emerges. The outer surface of the pupa hardens into a protective shell, which often takes on a color and shape to help blend it into its surroundings.

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Posted in: Community, Customer Infomation, gardening, Monarch Butterflies, Pine Cove Water District

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Hungry Little Caterpillars Keep Growing

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We are finding more Monarch caterpillars everyday in our planters. They are eating a ton of Milkweed and getting bigger with each day. Soon they will get big enough to shape themselves into a J and start spinning a cocoon. From there the transformation from a chubby little caterpillar to a majestic Monarch butterfly will begin.

How many caterpillars do you see in the above picture?
This little caterpillar has ate this Milkweed leaf down to a nub.
Just hanging around upside down.

Answer to the fist picture: 4 Caterpillars are pictured

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Posted in: Animals, Community, Customer Infomation, Garden, gardening, Monarch Butterflies, Raised Bed Gardens, Uncategorized

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The Butterfly Effect at PCWD

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Did you know that now is the time that the beautiful orange and black Monarch butterfly is laying eggs and baby caterpillars are starting to hatch? Many believe that butterfly bushes attract these majestic creatures and while they will feed from the butterfly bush nectar it is actually Milkweed that Monarch butterflies need to sustain life. To the Monarch the Milkweed plant is their home where mate, lay eggs and hatch baby caterpillars. It is the Milkweed plant that is the perfect nutrition for a baby caterpillar to eat and grow strong enough to cocoon and eventually become a beautiful monarch butterfly.

 We have lost much milkweed from the natural landscape with shifting land management practices. Planting milkweed is a great way to help other pollinators too because milkweed provides valuable nectar to many types of bees and butterflies. Planting milkweed will assist the monarch populations, and their incredible migration. Here at PCWD we have dedicated and entire planter to support the these beautiful butterflies.

Last year we started collecting Milkweed seeds from the plants we already had and were even donated some seeds from some of our very generous customers. We currently have a few variety’s of Milkweed blooming in while, yellow and orange in our Monarch garden. The Monarchs are loving the garden and everyday we are we are finding more eggs and newly hatched caterpillars. The caterpillars are growing at a rapid pace and before we know it we will have beautiful little cocoons all over the garden.

The Office Monarch Milkweed Garden
The majestic Monarch enjoying the Milkweed nectar and laying eggs on leaves.
If you look closely you can see a little egg perfectly placed on the leaf.
Tiny little hungry caterpillar is snacking on the Milkweed and growing more everyday.
Black and yellow baby caterpillar.
This is the biggest baby we have found so far.

Stay tuned for more information, updates and pictures of our Monarch Milkweed Garden.

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Posted in: Animals, Around the District, Company News, Garden, gardening, Monarch Butterflies, Pets and Animals, Raised Bed Gardens

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Great BBQ Last Saturday!

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Last Saturday Pine Cove Water District had the pleasure of hosting a fun and delicious BBQ for the residents of Pine Cove. We’d like to thank everyone who came out and enjoyed the community mingle. A very special thanks to CSA38, Pine Cove Property Owners, Cal Fire Station 23 and all the other first responder personnel that helped put on this event and participated in answering questions to provide better understanding for our community. We hope all who came out enjoyed the delicious food, camaraderie and an ice cream to cool off on that hot summer day. If you weren’t able to make it for this BBQ we missed you! There is more ice cream here at the office, so when you come by to pay your August bill don’t miss your chance to leave with a cool refreshing ice cream treat.

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What’s blooming in PCWD

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Around the district there has been a variety of beautiful blooming flowers. A month ago, you could see and smell the beauty of the lilacs around every corner. Here at the District office we have three apple trees that were in full bloom with stunning apple blossoms in may and we were a little concerned when we had those few late May freezes that the apples may not survive. Fortunately, the apples survived the late spring cold weather and now we are looking at hundreds of growing apples. Under our three beautiful apple trees is a raspberry patch that is about to gift us with hundreds of sweet red raspberries.   If you drove past the office in the last couple of weeks you may have noticed the incredibly large tea-rose bush that was covered in pink and white little roses. We also have a variety of milkweed plants that are also in bloom here at the district office and around the district office. The most wonderful part about the milkweed plants is that Monarch Butterflies are attracted to them.

Gardening in our little mountain town can come with its fair share of challenges. If it isn’t the droughts, we have experienced in years past complicating our gardens it could be a late freeze, gophers, bugs or even deer. Here at PCWD we want to help our customers in whatever way we can that is why we offer free mulch and woodchips for free to all our customers. We want to help you make your house and garden thrive. 

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Earthquakes…You Prepared?

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Over this past month we have experienced a few larger sized earthquakes. Luckily for our little mountain town none of them have caused any massive damage here. Earthquakes can be extremely destructive causing down power lines, loss of water, destruction of roads and homes. In the event of a massive quake in our area are we as prepared as we need to be for our survival?

Its great idea to think about how to earthquake proof our home now to minimize the extent of the damage. Starting with anchoring bookcases and large furniture to walls and install latches on drawers and cabinet doors to keep contents from spilling out. Learn more about our community’s disaster preparedness plans. Create a personalized family plan with escape routes and emergency meeting place. Its recommended to establish a contact person to communicate with concerned relatives and it is a good idea that this person be out of state because if all the local lines are tied up they can help. It is important that all adult and teenage family members know where the gas, electric and water main shutoff controls are in your home and how to turn them off if there is a leak or electrical short. Keep the tools necessary for emergency shut offs close by.

Put together an emergency kit and make sure all household members know where it is. Some important items to include in your kit are:

  • WATER – 1 gallon of water per person per day for at least 3 days. (Store a longer than 3-day supply of water, if possible).
  • FOOD – Store at least a 3-day supply of non-perishable food for all members of your home, including pets. Include a non-electric can opener for canned food.
  • FLASHLIGHT/RADIO – You will need to be able to charge these items without electricity. Your flashlight and radio should be either hand-cranked or battery-powered, and stored with extra batteries.
  • MEDICAL – Include first aid kit, prescription and non-prescription/over-the-counter medications, and medical supplies.
  • SANITATION – Pack supplies for sanitation, such as hand sanitizer, towelettes, paper products, and plastic bags, to use if water resources become limited.
  • BATTERIES/CHARGING DEVICE – Include mobile cell charger it should be hand-crank, solar, or able to be charged from a car outlet. Batteries will be necessary for flashlights, radios, etc.
  • CLOTHING AND BLANKETS – Long sleeves and long pants, thick-soled shoes, and work gloves to protect yourself after the earthquake, and a sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person, if you live in a cold-weather climate.
  • WHISTLE – Include a whistle to signal for help.
  • CASH – Store cash in case ATMs are not functioning after the earthquake.
  • FIRE EXTINGUISHER – Earthquakes can cause fires to break out; have a fire extinguisher so you can put out any small fires. Use a fire extinguisher only if you are physically capable
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Posted in: Customer Infomation, Emergencies, Pine Cove Water District

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