An Ophryocystis elektroscirrha epidemic in my home

So since my incredible 2 month opportunity working for NJ Audubon as the research technician for the Monarch Monitoring Project I have been captivity rearing monarch butterflies. Out of every 200 eggs that a female lays, usually only one will survive to adulthood in the wild. In captivity, without the absence of predators, there may be only one out of a large bunch of caterpillars that doesn't survive to adulthood, making rearing monarchs beneficial if done correctly and carefully. Generally, if you're lucky, you'll have success. That's how lucky I was this fall when I was raising monarchs for the monarch monitoring project, and using them as a teaching tool for the general public. I raised about 50 monarchs during the duration of my work, and I had only one butterfly emerge deformed, and only one chrysalis turn funky indicating it may have been diseased. That's a pretty good turnover rate of success; all of the other monarchs emerged healthy, so they were tagged and released to be on their way to Mexico. If you don't know much about tagging, basically what it is is a small "sticker" that researchers and volunteers place on a monarch butterfly's wing, so that if that butterfly is recaptured or seen again, we can learn a lot about its travel. From tagging, we know today that monarchs migrate to Mexico every fall, and begin returning to the north again in the spring, where a series of generations reproduce again before their next migration. 

A tagged monarch

Anyway, so the fact I was raising monarchs all season for my job, resulted in me taking a huge tent filled with chrysalids and caterpillars home with me when my job ended on Halloween. At this point, it was actually really late for monarchs; they should have all been on their way to Mexico already, because once a deep freeze hits they won't survive. So with 13 baby caterpillars still munching at their milkweed, and 4 unemerged chrysalids, you can imagine how nervous I was contemplating what I would be doing with these butterflies as they continue emerging around Thanksgiving and beyond, a time most likely too cold to release them outside.. doing that would be basically sentencing them to their deaths.

Some of my caterpillars I raised!

Unfortunately though, I soon realized this dilemma was no longer an issue, (unfortunately), because the parasite OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha) has plagued my babies and more and more of them seem to become infected each day. Basically, OE is a spore that infects monarchs of all life stages and is deadly. It only takes one to be infected to infect all of the others. I noticed that OE made a presence in my monarch enclosure when one emerged and was stuck in the chrysalis. This is a sure sign of the disease, so I had to do what needed to be done; I immediately euthanized her to prevent her from suffering and from any more infections spreading. I checked my remaining caterpillars and as I expected, it was already too late for them too. The presence of small spots in between their bold stripes is not normal, and is a sign of infection. Looking closer, many of my chrysalids that had not emerged yet also appeared funky; partially green and partially brown. Indication of OE or parasitism of the tachnid fly, I knew it was OE from already seeing many parasitized chrysalids this fall. I knew I was dealing with something worse. Depressed and sad that I won't even have the opportunity now to be stuck with 17 butterflies in my home all winter, I have been lucky enough to have 2 emerge so far that appear healthy. With the help and expertise of Lincoln Brower, one of the most prestigious monarch biologists in North America I was privileged to have been been in contact with during my job and afterwards, I may be able to overwinter monarchs in my own fridge! So far, I have 2 and I will see if they make it through the winter. It may sound harsh, but it mimics what they would be doing down in Mexico, in a torpid state, where they are saving energy by slowing metabolic processes, but very well alive and very well able to wake up and move once temperatures rise.

As for the others? I still have 10 chrysalids in line to emerge, and it's basically a gamble on each one of whether it will be healthy or not at this point. I relocated each chrysalid with dental floss to a small quarantine enclosure, and bleached the initial tent they were housed in extensively. I had been bleaching and scrubbing it in between each infection, but it was much easier to basically douse it all when I got everybody out of it. I still need the tent to provide a feeding station for my overwintering monarchs once a week. It takes a lot of energy to survive through the "winter", even if it's in my fridge, and these butterflies are going to need food to help maintain lipid storage. Normally, monarchs would be clustered on trees in Mexico, in a preserve of forest maintained at about 40 degrees. That's exactly what my fridge is set at, and although not "nature's" refrigerator, it should do the trick. Monarchs will flutter about on warmer days, searching for water. Dr. Brower instructed me to feed my monarchs every week and let them flutter under a heated area for a couple hours, to mimic their environment in Mexico. Now that my tent is disinfected, it's all ready for that.

One of my healthy reared monarchs from this season

I can only hope for the best at this point, and if my monarchs don't make it through the winter, at least it was worth a shot. I'm hoping if they are healthy, and can successfully overwinter, that I can release them at my wedding next June! Would be the perfect timing for them.

For more information about the monarch monitoring project and what we do (well I did).. since my job is over now :( , check out the MMP blog for status reports and updates from this past season, the MMP website, and Facebook. Wish me luck in raising  the rest of my "children".. that they will come out healthy and hardy and ready to go in the fridge too!