Sightings in my neighborhood are way down but I normally see fewer and fewer as summer progresses.

hello
we had tones of RA earlyer in the summer, but now they are almost compleatly gone. maybe they went further north, and will come back in the fall.
michelle

Haven't seen any here in NE Ohio for the past 2-3 weeks.

I haven't seen any either here in NE PA--I had them outside everyday too for over 2 months and then just gone..I'll see them next year with a ton of False Nettle for them..

Aggie

Well, now, that just figures. I guess I did buy my false nettle too late. A day late and a dollar short, that is me!

When did you get your false nettle, Gwynne? They like to lay on the smaller ones on my yard anyway. So if you had put some out awhile back when you still had RAs, they would most like have used it. Ones that you'll see for awhile include the QMs, Mourning Cloaks, and Fritillaries that you guys get in the North and we don't.

Susan

I got the false nettle over a little over a month ago. I have never seen Question Marks or Mourning Cloaks. I did see one VF once. Of course, I may have seen these butterflies and not realized what they are. I see mostly tiger swallowtails, which I love. And I see some monarchs too. Then there are some smaller butterflies which I cant identify.

If you have elm saplings around, check those - I mean even the tiny little ones about 6-12" tall. QMs lay their eggs on the top of the leaf, generally speaking.

You should see MCs in PA, I'd think. They may still be aestivating, and will come out in the fall. They are a large black butterfly with a white/cream edging on the wings.

Both QMs and MCs will come to fruit plates. RAs will, too. I'm too lazy, so I just put out rotting bananas (the blacker, the better, the gooeyer the better). It may take a few days, but you should eventually attract them to the fruit.

Susan

Thanks for the suggestion on the rotting fruit. I honestly dont know if there are elm saplings around. There are many established trees at the apartment complex, but I have never been able to tell one tree from another.

The number of RA are way down here in MN. In the early summer you sould go out in the back yard and have them landing all over you and walking through the yard would stir up LOTS. Now I only see a couple here and there.I go a good video of one eating some rotting watermelon and they LOVED that!!

Gwynne, I don't know if I had RA's here last year or not, being that I was new to butterflies and didn't know one from another until later in the summer. I did have one here this year but haven't seen it here for a good month, maybe even two. I have what I think is false nettle coming up in places but didn't notice any eggs. Of course, I didn't go looking through all of the plants either.

I've never seen a Mourning Cloak here either. I've never really had much luck with trying to attract any of those rotting-fruit butterflies, i.e. MC, QM, EC, HE...I saw the RA on it a few times. I have real good luck attracting blowflies and yellowjackets though.

I get a lot of Tiger Swallowtails here too. I'd love to know where they're laying their eggs. We live next to a big woods, so it would be a real challenge to try to find where they're coming from. I also get pretty many Great Spangled Fritillaries, but I don't have as many as I did last year. Of course, I have lots of Monarchs. I have yet to see any Viceroys at all. There are lots of different butterflies that I'd like to be able to get at my place, but I guess that will be up to them.

Cathy

I usually get one fleeting Red Admiral per year, but this year I have enough False Nettle around that they're breeding here! When False Nettle is growing in shade and in my wetlands it looks very different from when it's just in the full sun. I put some pots under a tree and the yellowish, nearly folded, somewhat shriveled leaves became green, flat, broad and horizontal. Those are the plants that finally got the RA's attention. I don't see them on my full sun plants.

We had a large swarm of red admirals in our neighborhood on June 23, 2007, & this was reported on the Journey North web-site, under the heading "other signs of spring." I saw a few RA's later in July, but none in August. The June 23 event was centered on a blooming basswood tree located across the street from out house. The butterflies also nectared on orange butterfly milkweed in our yard, but mainly they congregated in the basswood tree.