I had that exact same thing happen to me last year. Unfortunately, the TST decided not to visit my wafer ash this year. :(

Wow, it looks like your wafer ash is popular with both species this year! It's great that you're having such a wonderful butterfly year! Congrats!
Cathy

He-he! Awesome find! I don't recognize the orange eggs--who laid those?

Wow!! Now I know I need to get my Ptelea trifoliata tree planted ASAP. Congrats on all the TST and GST eggs.

Sandy

A giant swallowtail laid the orange eggs, bernergrrl, and I'm 99% sure a tiger swallowtail laid the green ones. There's a remote chance that another giant swallowtail could have laid them, since they are known to lay green eggs, but they're usually a sort of yellowish/orangish green, not bright green like these.

Yes, I am having a good butterfly year, Cathy. It's even rained some today, now if it'd just rain a LOT! We need it!

KC, I'm going to order two more Ptelea trifoliatas this fall to plant in a raised bed with this one (it's in a container)that I've got in my front yard area. It's mostly shady there, what it likes down here, and well drained, another must. I never have enough of it to feed all the caterpillars it gets. Most of the GST eggs have hatched today, and I've cut off the ends of the leaves where a hatchling went to the end and put 3 or 4 cats (on their leaf tip)on one big leaf. I've actually done this with two big leaves and have eight cats on the two leaves. At this stage they just nibble the edges, and I don't want to waste big leaves by each cat having their own leaf - the leaf will go bad before they can eat it all. I'm bringing the cats in to raise myself, since they're considered great food to the wasps and predatory stink bugs. I'm planning on transferring the tigers to wild black cherry after they hatch, since I've got plenty of that. Would you believe I've got 3 tulip trees in pots in my garden, close to the pot with the Ptelea trifoliata in it, with LOTS of new growth on them that the Mama passed over for the one Ptelea trifoliata? Like I said, you can never have enough of this plant!

Sherry

I've got one planted and one in a container. The spot where I put one at my kids' school is not well drained, which is probably why 2 of them have died in that spot.

I'm raising all my GSTs on the tree in little wedding bags. That way, I don't waste any leaves since I've needed all I could get the last 2 years.

Unfortunately, I'm not having the problem of too few leaves this year. Have just 4 GST cats. The other 3 eggs I had were duds. :(

I'd say about 20% - 25% of this bunch of GST eggs have been duds, KC. Giants always lay more duds than any other butterfly that visits here.

I brought in all the hatchlings late yesterday. It's continued to rain lightly, and it's supposed to keep raining about all weekend. There's a tropical system in the neighborhood. Tropical rain is so different from summer thunderstorms - no thunder and lightning, just rain, light or heavy. I'm glad to see and hear it!

Sherry

I have been waiting for GSTs but have only seen one flitting through my yard in March...very scarce so far this year! Haven't seen a single TST!
I'm so jealous!
I have had several tries at growing Hop Ashes & even had a big but sick tree given to me that died. ;o( I have a tiny Ptelea trifoliata that I bought for a big price at the Texas Discovery Gardens plant sale last fall. It was in a 5 gallon pot & the roots were to the edges. The Director said first the P.trifoliatas have to establish a big root system before they can get very large...but one is only 4-6" this year & the other that I bought may be dead! I planted it in the shade but the other plants are hiding it right now! I also bought a Prickly Ash & it has doubled in size but no cats on it either.
I finally have rue that is surviving but haven't had any cats of either GST or BST on it. The BSTs seem to prefer the MBW & I just found a few on my Bronze fennel that is about 5 ft tall! I so far have released 6 BSTs that I've raised & 5 have been male!

Lila, Ptelea trifoliata is a very tricky plant to grow. My biggest plant didn't make any new growth this spring, so I cut it back to the ground, because plants have done the same thing in the past and come back vigorously several years later. The plant in the picture is in a container, and I think the place I plan to plant it is ideal, which is what you need to grow a good wafer ash! I plan to order two more, maybe three more, for the raised bed where I plan on planting this one. They need mostly shade down here, probably more sun up north, plenty of water but good drainage and rich soil that you fertilize, preferably with chicken manure. The fact that this one is doing so well in a container makes me think it'll do well in a raised bed. My others have all been planted right in the ground, and they didn't do well in wet weather. I can also work chicken manure into the soil around the plant in a raised bed much more easily than in the ground.
Let's hope growing it that way works well!

I've got tons of rue, and no BST or GST has laid an egg on any of it. I've transferred some of the GST cats to it, and the BSTs had to finish up on it, due to me not having enough mock-bishop's weed. And I don't know how many more new MBW plants are going to come up, since the cats have eaten most all the seeds. There are some left on the bottom parts of the plants that I left. I need to look for MBW growing roadside and get seeds to sow in my garden.

My BSTs have all pupated, as have all the gulf frits, so now I'm just raising the giant swallowtail cats and one spicebush swallowtail. I've recently released four spicebush swallowtails, two males and two females - they've been common this year, I'm still finding more eggs.

I'm jealous of those silvery checkerspots of yours, Lila! And you get bordered patches don't you? They don't even occur here! :(

Sherry

Miss Sherry...I finally saw a female GST today...she was checking out my Mexican Lime I have in a container but didn't see her actually lay any eggs. She was also checking out my rue plants but again...didn't see her lay on them while I was outside. I will check again later today. My Prickly Ash is planted way out back & seems to be doing well(about 2 1/2 ft tall) so I'll have to check it also. I dug up what I think is a different type of shrubby Prickly Ash that grows locally & only got part of the root but it is leafing out. I have it in a part sand/potting soil mix & it is near some other rue plants I have growing in my side yard in part shade. I'm not going to plant it unless I see GST activity on it...it is very thorny & prickly & I don't want it unless it turns out to be one of their host plants!!!
I also brought in a 1/2 dozen more BST cats from my MBW, fennel & even found one on my parsley & one on my rue. I want to keep the rue for the GSTs just in case!
Now my BST release count is 1 female & 7 males!
If you or anyone else needs seeds from my native MBW seed...I'd be happy to send you some. I still have a lot growing in areas of my new meadow that gets some irrigation!

Thanks, Lila, but I think it'd be better if I look for some local MBW. There might be a slight difference in the plants that grow in your area, in which case, they might not do as well here. Also, you need to keep your own seeds - it takes a lot of it to feed black swallowtail cats to pupation. If I can't find any, I'll let you know. I really like this "weed" since it's the only member of the carrot family that grows wild here that I know black swallowtails like. There are several others in this family that grow here, but I've never found any cats on them.

It's good that you're waiting to plant the new prickly ash. I had a hercules club plant/Zanthoxylum clava-herculis that grew well in my garden, but the GSTs only laid ONE egg on it. I've heard that they really like wild lime/Z. fagara, though, and they may also like prickly ash/Z. americana.

I got this picture of a GST hatchling eating its egg - they have spikes when they first hatch. They must lose them the first time they molt, though, because after that, you never see any spikes!

{{gwi:490686}}

I've found a few more GST eggs - fortunately, I've got plenty of rue, which they accept readily.

Sherry

I've never seen them hatch so thanks for the pic.

I found two more GST cats, one on the satsuma tree and one on the orange tree. I brought them in to raise, and put a stem of rue in with their citrus leaf - they both got on the rue. When GSTs eat citrus, it's only because they have no other choice, it's definitely not preferred, at least that's what my caterpillars tell me. :)

So they're at all different stages. Here's a picture of the second largest cat - the biggest one is on rue and is presently hanging from the leaves in a fashion that wouldn't make a good picture. Once these cats start growing, they really grow!

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Sherry

Love the pictures...Sherry! Thanks for sharing them with us! I love the GST cats...they are so UGLY! ;o)
I have a bunch more first instar BSTs on my MBW & fennel but will leave them out until the 20+ I have in my boxes pupate. I now have had 8 male BSTs eclose & still only 1 female.
I didn't see GST eggs on my rue, prickly ash or new dug up plant...it is more like a shrub than a tree. I will wait & see if I end up with any GST cats. I've raised them other years but not any so far this year.
OBTW...I tried bringing in more PVST cats only 3-4 per box & they all started to shrivel & die so I put them back outside. I then brought in 3 late instar cats to see if they would do OK & again...they quit eating & were spotting something all over my cage so I put them back out also. I am seeing more PVSTs than any other BF right except for my GFs so I've decided they are doing OK without me! I will bring in monarch &/or queen cats & eggs once I see some but no more PVSTs. The BST cats are doing fine in the same boxes I had the PVSTs! I don't get it!

I don't get it either, Lila, but I know that pipevine swallowtails do a good job of raising themselves. And, of course, they're not nearly as popular with predators as other caterpillars - only certain predatory stinkbugs will eat/kill them here, and that's only on rare occasions. I just released a female PVS, by the way, to add to the crowd out there!

Flies like to hang out on the Ptelea trifoliata. A very small, yellow, clear-winged fly was on top of one of the giant swallowtail eggs today, and since it looks like they're all about to hatch anyway, I brought them in on their leaves. Does anybody know what kind of fly this is? Could it be a fly that sucks the inside of eggs out, and maybe that's why I find so many dud GST eggs? Could it be injecting something into the eggs? I sure hope not!

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Sherry