Well, sadly I have had to euthanize 2 monarchs today. One was from my own tent and the other was wild caught. The OE spores on these butterflies was off the charts for me. I still have several pupae waiting to eclose. Do I euthanize them and do a massive cleanup? The cleanup is going to happen no matter what. But should I get rid of the butterflies I know have the spores? And what about all of my milkweed plants. I have scores of plants throughout the yard. Do I rip them out?
I don’t know the answers. I don’t want to contribute to a problem. Maybe I shouldn’t raise so many at a time. This is difficult because I love watching them eat and grow, pupate and fly away. So many of the caterpillars were being eaten by wasps . I just wanted to save a few.
I wonder what the best way is to testy plants. My thought was to take some clear tape and just sample some leaves from each plant, look at the tape under the microscope and then make decisions based on that.
Buzzing Blossoms 