I think waiting would be prudent. I've had the same inkling though. I saw quite a few zebra long wings at my mom's only 7 miles away last summer, and they never made it over here. Of course then there were the PVS that I so desperately wanted to visit my garden that I planted probably 35 fimbriata plants. They stayed away, until... the end of the summer I was inundated with them. They ate all my plants several different times. Then I couldn't remember the time when I didn't have any. I think they'll find their way to your garden sooner rather than later especially if you have what they like.

khakitag, I suppose that you're right and that I should just wait. Maybe when I'm least expecting them, they'll show up here. I was lucky and got Monarchs when I first started butterfly gardening and got to raise 70 cats my first year and 500+ last year. I don't think I can do that with all of the different kinds of butterfly cats that might show up here or I'll be in the looney bin. lol

That's neat that you got so many PVS there. That sure was smart of your to plant that many A. fimbriata. You must have had ESP that you'd need all of those. ;-)

Cathy, I have mixed feelings about "translocating" (nicer word than kidnapping), butterflies and caterpillars.

As you may remember, In the summer of 2006 I took some Baltimore carts from a site about 20 miles away. they overwintered and emerged in June 2007. So my experiment would seem to be successful. Yet, as far as I know, none of the emergees mated and laid eggs. And that was the whole point of the trial. (Even though it was fun anyways.)

In the summer of 2006 I also found two PVS cats in an area containing one of the only colonies in CT. On a whim, I nabbed them and brought them home with some a.Serpentaria cuttings. Little did I know, the Serpentaria wouldn't hold up and, one cat died. I quickly took the other back where I nabbbed it.

Then last summer, 2007, without any provocation at all, a male PVS visited my garden. I was amazed after all the contortions I'd gone through to try to raise one myself.

That same summer I'd received two small dutchman's pipevine plants and had them potted in the garden.

Hopefully, this year I'll have some vigorous vines to fed any PVS cats that I find.

If you relocate the adults they probably won't ever find mates. If you relocate cats, and can provide food sources and proper habitat, you may have some success. I think my Baltimore butterflies needed a more marshy environment that my suburban yard.

Wishing for an early spring, Maryann in CT

Maryann, Like you, I have mixed feelings about translocating (I like that word better too) butterflies and caterpillars, so I had to ask here to get some opinions. I really think I'm going to wait until they hopefully show up here on their own instead of me bringing them here from somewhere else.

Yes, I do remember of your trying to get some BC's established in your neighborhood. I very much enjoyed reading about your adventures and was rooting for your success. I think you did a good job taking care of them and they did emerge and I wish they'd have stayed. I guess it's like you say, though, that they probably needed the marshy environment.

I'm going to try to get BC's here, but I don't even know if my place would be the right type of environment. I bought a Chelone lyonii at a local nursery last year because that was the only type of Chelone that they sell. The flowers are pretty, even though it might not be a BC host plant. I bought Chelone glabra seeds several months ago and wintersowed them and will plant those plants in the same general area as the other Chelone. I also planted about 18 Penstemon hirsutus plants there last year. The area where all these plants are at is beside a woods and in an area that stays wet through probably most of the spring. It's a low-lying area that stays wet after we get a fair amount of rain. It's not marshy at all though, so I'm not sure if this is even the appropriate habitat for the Baltimore Checkerspot but thought that I'd at least try to attract them here. Probably a more appropriate location would have been a field that stays wet through all spring and part of the summer. It's next to a creek and is overgrown with trees for about the past 20-30 years. I had planned to plant turtlehead in there for BC's when my dad said he'd clear it out, but then he changed his mind and I can't physically do it because of my back. A consolation is that some of the trees in the field are host plants for other butterflies. I still wish that we could have tried to get the BC's there though.

I'm like you and planted pipevine here last year. With our drought, though, it didn't grow a whole lot. I'm hoping that this year will be better and that the two vines will branch out. I can wait another year or two to get PVS because I'm not sure that I'd have much to feed them yet this year.

I'm curious...how did you find out about the PVS colonies in CT? I wouldn't even really know how common they are in our state or any other butterfly for that matter. I go on the butterfliesandmoths.org website sometimes to look at the maps, but it doesn't have exact information about how many colonies of certain butterflies there are in each state. I can see what butterflies have been reported in my county, but I guess that doesn't necessarily mean that I will get those kinds here. Also, just because none of a certain type have been reported in my county (which is the case for several that I've planted host plants for and would like to get here someday) doesn't mean that I can't get them here. I'm going to at least try and see what happens.

I'm sorry that one of those PVS cats died that you had brought home, but I bet the other one made it since you took it back where you found it. I've pretty much made up my mind to just wait and see if the butterflies will show up here on their own. I think that's neat that you had a PVS show up there at your place, and I hope that you get more this year. I'm also wishing for an early spring. I'm raring to go! :)

hi
my son and I TRANSLOCATED lots of butterflys and cats last year, we would catch butterflys at my inlaws farm about 35 miles west and cary them in screaned bug boxes, I told timmy he could put them in the big cage and watch them till 2 hrs before sundown and they were all then relesed, I don't know if they stayed or not.
as for cats we would rescue cats from nuseries and road sides that were regularly mowed, and I saw several monarchs laying eggs just days after we relesed some, I don't know if these were the ones we relesed though.

giving them a little help finding your place could not hurt. after all you can buy butterfly eggs and cats, so moving them should be no prob.
good luck
michelle

Michele raised an interesting point about releasing them toward nightfall. I've heard that they tend to settle in and roost and may be more likely to stick around. I also know that it's better to release any of the silk moths then too because otherwise birds might get them.

Cathy, you're like me, all fired up for spring! Last year I grew Hot lips and I believe that is of the Chelone Lyonii type.

The Baltimore Cats did indeed eat it. But as you remember, they really like the english plantain which grows prolifically here as a weed.

You'd think with all the plantain, there'd be more Baltos but the only time I see them reported is in wet environs.

I found out about the PVS breeding site through a CT Butterfly Association member. It's a loosely gaurded secret,
ever since a collector went there and nabbed some adults for his, GASP!, dead butterfly collection. That's why I was so upset about loosing one of the caterpillars... It made me feel very irresponsible.

Good news though, nature conservancy has bought up several hundred acres near that power line cut that serves a perfect habitat for the PVS.

Spring's coming...Maryann

Michelle,
I'm so glad that translocating the butterflies and cats worked for you and your son. That would be interesting to know if the ones stayed or not that were translocated. I think I'll wait a few years and see what happens here. My paw paw trees aren't big enough yet anyway for any ZST cats. I can hardly wait to see if I get some cats on various types of plants I started here for different types of butterfly cats. I know that I have plenty of mallow for the PL's if that type of butterfly ever shows up here. I had all of the Monarch cats last year that I care to have (I raise them all inside), so I'll have to start shooing those butterflies away if I catch them trying to lay eggs. ;-)

That's great that you saved some cats from nurseries and along roads. I sure wish the road crews would stop their compulsive mowing along roadways. I'm so glad that you could rescue them.

Maryann, I'll keep that in mind what Michelle said about releasing them towards nightfall in case I ever would decide to translocate some, but I'm going to hold off awhile yet. I've been thinking about this and I suppose it's like finding buried treasure. If someone would tell me where it is and it would be right in front of my nose, I think that would take some of the fun out of it. Of course, having the treasure (butterflies) here would be great, but knowing I got them here on my own would make it even better. I might resort to translocating though if I don't get any after a few years.

Yes, I am indeed all fired up for spring. Guess what my wonderful hubby got me for Valentine's Day! Just what I wanted, 2 big bags of potting soil! I've been wintersowing since the beginning of December, always concentrating on nectar and host plants the most. Yes, I remember seeing Hot Lips on a website and it's the Chelone lyonii type. I forget if mine said that or not on the marker when I bought it at the nursery. I know it said Chelone lyonii but that might be it. If my seeds germinate, I'll have even more turtlehead here soon. Ha, I guess the joke would be on me if I have 50 turtlehead plants and no BC's, so they'd just better show up here! Ha. Oh yeah, now that you mentioned it, I do remember of you saying about the BC's preferring the plantain. I certainly have enough of it here yet have never seen any BC's in the big whopping two years that I've had my butterfly garden (lol). I can't help wondering if they won't like this environment either. My yard might not be what they are seeking and if not, I guess I'll just be happy with the kinds that I can get here. After all, my first year I couldn't believe that I actually got butterflies here, and I saw even more kinds that I hadn't seen the year before. This will only be my third year and I'm thinking that as my gardens are growing and my lawn shrinking, I bet I'll see even more this year! :-) I still remember people here being so helpful when I had Monarch cats and was afraid I'd do something wrong. I have you all to blame with my being so swamped with raising tons of Monarch cats last year! ;-)

I can see why you'd want to keep the location of the PVS pretty quiet because I certainly wouldn't want anything to happen to them like you said with that butterfly collector. I don't know if making certain things illegal would make the situation better or worse. Don't be too hard on yourself about that one PVS cat. You were trying to hopefully expand their range and that's a lot more than I can say for that butterfly collector getting the PVS. Jeers to that person and cheers to you for trying to always help the butterflies. I seriously don't know how butterfly collectors or anyone who takes an animal for a trophy can do that.

I'm so happy to hear you say that the Nature Conservancy has bought up that land! I hope many PVS will be there in the coming years.

34 days until spring! YAY!

Cathy

hello
this will be just my second year planting host plants and I think I'm going a bit over board, but I had so many BST in the yard last year, and many monarchs. this year I will have many more host plants.

cathy - sometime it seems cats in one area like one kind of host plant, and in another area they like something else. I'm just going by the posts I have read I have too little experence to have studdied this yet. but may the BC in your area dont like the plantain as much as some where else.
dose that make sence?
michelle

Michelle, I have to stop and think when I started because I'm getting my years mixed up sometimes when I talk. Let's see...late in the summer of 2005 I planted three swamp milkweed plants that I bought at a local nursery but it was so late in the year that I guess the Monarchs were already done laying for the year. I didn't have any other host plants for any kind of butterflies planted at that time. Then in 2006 I bought a packet of butterfly weed seeds at Lowe's and started them inside and them bloomed the first year and I got Monarch cats on those and my 3 swamp milkweed plants. I got seeds off of my swamp milkweed plants that year, so I started some in pots and left them sit outside, so I guess I winter sowed without really thinking about it except I didn't have them covered with plastic. They did great and I had enough plants come up last spring to make a 100-plant swamp milkweed patch. I also put some in 3-gallon pots last year and used them in my butterfly cage to feed Monarch cats. Right now I have 56 of those pots of swamp milkweed sitting outside in the pots, and I last fall before we got a frost I dragged in 20 tropical milkweed plants in the house that I had planted in one-gallon containers. I will also plant a tropical milkweed flower bed like I did last year with almost 30 plants. A lot of my butterfly weed plants didn't come back last year and I had to plant about 18 out of the 24 that I have in the garden. I'm not going to replace them this year if any die because I haven't started any and probably won't. I just have too many other plants to worry about. lol

So I say that 2006 was my first year with my butterfly garden because I don't count a few plants that I had out the year before. The swamp milkweed and butterfly weed were the only host plants that I offered in 2006. Then last year CalSherry sent me some tropical milkweed seeds. I bet I found about as many eggs on my 28 TM plants as I did my 100 swamp milkweed plants and not many at all on my butterfly weed.

Since I started coming here on the forum in 2006, I've learned lots about host plants for other types of butterflies and am trying to provide for lots of other butterflies. I'll list them here so others might consider planting them for the butterflies, although there are other host plants that a person can plant. Between the ones I planted last year and the ones I'll be planting this year, I'll be providing the following food for the cats and I'll list the cat that each type of plant feeds:

Garden Plants:
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)-Silvery Checkerspot
Celosia-Common Sootywing
Ironweed (Vernonia)-host plant for American Lady??
Plantainleaf pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)-American Lady
Penstemon hirsutus-Baltimore Checkerspot
Turtlehead (Chelone glabra & Chelone lyonii)-Baltimore Checkerspot
Dill, parsley, fennel-Black Swallowtail
Rue (Ruta graveolens)-Black Swallowtail & Giant Swallowtail
Gas Plant (Dictamnus albus)-Giant Swallowtail
Spider flower (Cleome)-Cabbage White
Verbena hastata-Common Buckeye
Snapdragon-Common Buckeye
Passionvine (Passiflora incarnata)-Gulf Fritillary (it's a long shot for me but hey...)
Tropical Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, & Butterfly Weed-Monarch
Mallow (Malva sylvestris) & Hollyhock-Painted Lady, Common Checkered Skipper
Rock Cress (Arabis arendsii 'Compinkie')-Falcate Orangetip

Bushes:
New Jersey Tea-Spring Azure, Summer Azure
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail

Trees:
Black Willow (Salix nigra)-Eastern Comma, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple
Hackberry tree-American Snout, Hackberry Emperor, Mourning Cloak, Tawny Emperor
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)-Spicebush Swallowtail
Paw Paw (Asimina triloba)-Zebra Swallowtail
Tulip Poplar (Liriodenron tulipifera)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple, Spicebush Swallowtail, Viceroy
Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple
Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail

Plants that were already growing here before my getting into butterfly gardening:
English Plantain-Baltimore Checkerspot, Common Buckeye, Painted Lady
Viola sororia-Meadow Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary
False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica)-Red Admiral

Sorry for the long list, but I thought it might help others.

Yes, I remember reading that the cats in one area might like a certain type of plant but not in another. That's why I'm trying to have a few bases covered by trying to plant at least two kinds of plants for each species I want to attract here, what I already have or kinds that are supposedly in the area. I sure hope that I can get some BC's here so I can report back what kind of plant(s) they like here. Like you, I don't have a lot of experience either since I haven't been planting for the butterflies/cats. I also feel like I'm probably going a bit overboard with the host plants but this is addicting! lol

You can never have too many host plants! Especially that ones that you can eat, like parsley or carrots, or have beautiful flowers like the milkweeds and lupines.

And of course we all need trees so you might as well plant ones that are host plants.

I was extremely happy to have planted a large second crop of carrots last fall when I had a late BST leave me over 50 eggs which I raised on carrots and are overwintering in the garage.

And having a lot of milkweed plants to harvest monarch cat food from right there in your backyard sure beats driving around the nieghborhood with a bucket of water and a pair of clippers! Even though common milkweed grows everywhere here, it's just easier having it on your own property.

Cathy, you got a great Valentine's gift. One year for christmas I got a whole set of matching fiberglass garden tools. Shovel, rake, hoe and edger!

Maryann in CT

I have tons of sassafras trees at the edge of my yard, will have to check those out this spring.
Jill B.

Maryann, I also think the more host plants the better. Wow, I guess you had a bonus last year with the BST on those carrots! Hmmm...maybe I should plant some of those yet. Of course, these other humans in the house would want to eat the carrots! :-O I already have makings for a salad with my plants from growing lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers this year. Instead of just growing butterfly food, I'll also be growing some people food. I actually love broccoli and cauliflower but haven't bought seeds because they might get loaded with Cabbage Whites. I don't mind them going on the cleomes but I kind of would like to eat those other two I mentioned. Oh, to think of the CW's I killed in the past! :-O

I suppose I'll find more plants that I like and think the butterflies would like and plant those in the coming years, but I think I have most of them that I want now...I think!

Oh my, yeah, I think I much prefer having the milkweed right here to get the Monarchs instead of running around for it and them. Common milkweed grows around here but I don't have any planted.

Yes, I was very happy with my Valentine's Day gift. I bet you were with yours too that year you got those garden tools. That would be another really good present.

Cathy

Jill, Yes, check those trees out and hopefully you'll find some cats on them. I'm going to look at mine closely this year. I'll have so many different plants to check for cats this year that it will keep me busy all day doing that! lol
Cathy

Cathy, it's ok to eat the carrots too! Just check the greens for bst cats and eggs before tossing them. Every day I'd check those carrot tops and everyday I'd find more tiny caterpillars. I hope I got them before the parasitic wasps found them. One year I overwintered four BST cats and two hatched out ichneumon wasps instead of butterflies. It was sad but fascinating nonetheless.

My mother is so funny because now, before she uses the parsley for cooking, she inspects it well for BST!

I gave up on growing broccoli or cabbage for eating. Once and awhile I'll grow a few plants for the CWs. I always have plenty of them and they are just as pretty as falcate orange tips and even prettier than many of the plain brown skippers I get!

Maryann in CT