Sabotaged

The caterpillars in the backyard exploded. They ate all of the leaves off of the milkweed and then in mass left the plants, likely searching for food or a place to make their chrysalises. They were absolutely everywhere. 

At one count I found over 90 chrysalises in the backyard. Many of them ended up on the fences on the perimeter of the yard. 

Then a few of the chrysalises started to disappear. New chrysalises with days until the butterflies were ready to emerge were gone. Older chrysalises with only a day or two left before they were ready disappeared.

Over 2 days, something took fifty of the chrysalises around the yard. After some research and finding a few droppings, it looks like rats invaded the yard and had a feast on all of the chrysalises. The rats likely live in the ivy in the neighbor's yard. 

In essence, our dreams of butterfly clouds were sabotaged by the nasty pests. (And you know they'll be back for my garden!)

:(

We were SO sad!

I ended up getting us an enclosure to protect the few chrysalises that we do have.

I rounded up all of the chrysalises I could find and put them in the enclosure. Fingers crossed they stay safe now.