Miss Sherry

I found my first Monarch caterpillars of the season Sunday night, and I am so happy! I found some itty-bitty ones that I guess means they are first instar? And then I found about four or five others that probably weren't an inch long, but I wondered how I had missed them to this point. I knew I had seen a female laying eggs a couple of times and was wondering where my cats were. I decided they were being killed by something. I have also seen some eggs. And I had a very busy female in my backyard again today. Yea me! My butterfly season has begun!
Nancy

i'm hoping for some red admiral eggs as well. i've had my false nettle plant for almost a year and no action, i've seen admirals around but not on my plant. so we'll see...

Congrats on the monarch cats, Nancy! You'll enjoy them SO much!!
I think it may take having a lot of nettles to get red admirals, wildflowerchris - when I only had a few plants, I didn't get any either.
I haven't found any RA nests yet, but I found giant swallowtail eggs on the new growth on my orange tree this morning - YAY!
Sherry

Miss Sherry

Do you know if giant swallowtails prefer one citrus tree over another? I bought a lemon tree in January, but so far I haven't seen any butterfly activity around it. Plenty of bee activity though. And I only had one GS nectoring in my yard last season, so I know it may take a while for them to find me. But I am willing to buy another citrus tree if they prefer one over the other. I have heard about the Wild Lime but am having trouble finding one. Thanks for your help!

Nancy

I just bought 3 False Nettles and have seen RAs in my yard recently. When I got home there was a cat on one and I saw it building it's leaf nest which was amazing. I have a dwarf valencia orange in the garden and a wild lime near the retention pond. I have gotten no action on the orange. The wild lime had a number of eggs on it but it appears only one cat survived, which I am raising in the lanai. I recommend the wild lime highly.

By wild lime, do you mean zanthoxylum fagara, zebra lover? Zanthoxylum is an entirely different type of plant, Nancy. It doesn't make fruit we eat, and it has compound leaves, like its relatives, z. clava-herculis/hercules club and z. americanum/prickly ash. I had a z. clava-herculis, but the giant swallowtails rarely ever laid an egg on it. They love my ptelea trifoliatas and my orange tree, which is a Louisiana Sweet. The pteleas only have a few leaves on them now (they're deciduous and late to leaf out) but the orange is full of new growth that the GST put her eggs on. I had a Meyer lemon, and got a few eggs on it last year, but most of it died back in a freeze we had this winter - this Louisiana Sweet is cold hardier than any other orange tree I've grown.
Sherry

Yes the fagara. It isn't very attractive and it can get huge if not kept under control but it appears to be a winner for the giant swallowtails.

Thanks for the replies! I have made some notes, and I'll see what I can find! I sure would like some swallowtails in my backyard!

Nancy

I found this on the web. It might be why I am having a hard time finding wild lime.

"You may read on about all of the wonderful features of wild lime, but we do not sell it anymore. It has been found to be a host plant for Citrus Greening disease, which is just another nail in the coffin of the citrus industry in this part of the state."

The state being Florida.

I am not expert on this but I have two citrus trees, one tangerine and one orange next each other. Today I saw a swallowtail for about 5 minutes circling the tangerine and the orange trees, but it paid almost no attention to the orange one.

Now, the tangerine tree have some new leaves while the orange not so new leaves.. not sure if this makes a difference or not.

False nettle looks like some of the weeds popping up in my yard. If that is what they are, I want to plant them in my garden before my husband kills them. Miss Sherry, are they common on the coast? I do not want to put a useless weed in my garden. I want cats.

I don't remember seeing it when I lived there, tdr4, but then I wasn't looking for it. It grows in ditches and other very wet places.
New growth definitely makes the difference, fagopher - giant swallowtails won't lay eggs on old growth, at least I've never found any. The eggs I found this morning are on very new, small, tender leaves.
Sherry

Fagopher, I'm not familiar with citrus trees, so I can't help you in that area. I wish they could grow up here but they can't. I'm not sure what zone you're in but maybe you could grow rue there? I had some here last year for the first time and really like it. I think that the foliage is so pretty! I've read that some people are allergic to it, but I haven't had that problem and I'm allergic to pretty many things including grass. Good reason to rip up our lawn! LOL I'm including a link in case you'd like to read a really interesting page about rue. Btw, I got Black Swallowtails here last year for the first time on my rue (Ruta graveolens). I'm still hoping I see Giant Swallowtails here someday. I'm planting so many flowers outside that I don't know how they can possibly miss our place. :-D
Cathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Ruta graveolens

Where do you all get the false nettle? Is it growing wild or did you have to buy it somewhere? I have had hops for years now but have not seen any RAs looking it over. In fact, I haven't seen many RAs at all the past year or so. Murray

Murray, I found some growing in a ditch near here. I took some cuttings, and they rooted almost instantly, false nettles being one of the easiest plants to root. I continued to take more cuttings from the original plants to make more, and I've also transplanted tiny seedlings that popped up from underneath the mother plants.
You can order false nettles from Shady Oak Butterfly Farm in Florida - I think I ordered some from them, too. Their plants are always healthy, and their prices can't be beat!
My hops have never hosted anything but question marks for me, so, unless you get QMs or commas/hop merchants, then you probably won't find any cats on them.
Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Shady Oak Butterfly Farm

I found my first red admiral nest for 2008!
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Predators have a way of getting inside those nests, so I brought this one in to raise myself, as I'll do for any others that I find.
Sherry

My weeds are not false nettle. It looks like I will have to pull them up. I only live 45 minutes from Wiggins. I think I will have to drive and look for some false nettle growing in ditches.

At the price of gasoline, it'd be cheaper to order some from Shady Oak, tdr4!
I found two more RA nests, plus I saw an American lady laying eggs on cudweed in my garden. Plus the first batch of pipevine swallowtails has hatched, and I saw a palamedes swallowtail flitting around the redbays - my caterpillar numbers are increasing hugely!
Sherry