The only buckeye I have seen was on my lantana bush. It stayed on it for a while.

It sounds as if you are having a great year.

This forum is a great place to learn about butterflies. What kind of bush is a spice bush? Please excuse my ignorance.

kay

I'm glad you got to see a buckeye. They're not real big butterflies, but I just love their design! I agree with you that you can learn a lot on this forum; I certainly have over the past 5 or so years.

There are various types of spicebushes that the Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies will lay their eggs on. The ones that I have, Lindera benzoin, is the one that I've heard the most about on the forum. The leaves have a spicy smell when crushed. I'll include a link if you'd like to read about spicebush.

Cathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Spicebush

Admirals like rotting fruit and would stay at a fruit feeder longer. If you can put it up a bit, maybe the night critters won't get into it.

I have mine on the top of a 30 gallon trash can. I pushed in the lid a bit and sat a plate of fruit--mashed bananas, nectarines, they love pears, apples, plums, cantelope, watermelon. I save rinds of fruits and just throw them into a pile at the back of my property.

Hackberry and Tawny Emperors, Mourning Cloaks, Red Spotted Purples, I've seen Wood Nymphs, too at the fruit, Red Admirals, Viceroys, Question Marks and Commas.

Congrats, Cathy! Has it been that long since we first meet here on the forum? 2005? Wow - seems like just a couple of years ago. I joined in 2004. Time flies when you're having fun!

This has been a good butterfly year here, too. Altho I have to admit I haven't had a bad butterfly year in several years now. I may not get Monarchs every year, but I always have something going in lieu of. Always have BSTs without fail. Hanging the fruit feeder (I use one of the wire suet feeders for birds and just put the fruit inside of it) is a big boon to attracting the fruit feeding butterflies. Since I've done that I always get the Red Admirals, QMs, Hackberry and Tawny Emperors, and sometimes a Gemmed Satyr and some diurnal sphinx moths as well, like the Snowberry Clearwing and the Nessus sphinx.

The hummers like the fruit feeder, too, because it attracts the fruit flies and tiny insects that they like to eat. I hang the feeder about 3' from the hummingbird feeder, so it is close to them. I read the other day that hummers are really insect eaters, and only consume nectar and sugar water to give them the energy to hunt their main meal of insects. Have you heard that?

Anyway, it is good here and things are really picking up as they always do in August thru fall.

Susan

Runmede, I've never tried anything other than a banana mixture a few times and I set out watermelon rinds this year to see if I'd attract any butterflies. I don't know why, but they just don't seem to like that stuff here. The flies and wasps do though. Wow, do we ever have a lot of horse flies here this here. I barely step outside the house and there is usually one swarming around me. I have to carry a fly swatter with me wherever I go in the yard and garden or I get nailed. Those darn things hurt! Just yesterday when I was outside in the garden I killed 6 in about half an hour and came in then because it seemed that's all I was getting done. I don't know why they're so terrible this year.

You mention putting your fruit feeder on top of a garbage can. I wonder if that could actually be my problem, not sitting it up fairly high. I was putting mine about a foot up off the ground.

Susan, Yes, can you believe that it's been that long since we met on here! Actually, I think I joined in 2006 when I got my first Monarch cat and was panicking that I didn't know what I should do to raise it. Ha! I have to laugh now when I think about it. I think I planted milkweed here in the late summer of 2005 along with some other plants but didn't get any cats until the following year.

I'm glad you're having a great butterfly year too. You're lucky that you haven't had bad years lately. I was getting pretty discouraged the past two years and started thinking that the butterflies were really on the decline. I've had Monarchs every year though since that first year that I got them. I think that's the only kind of cat that is reliably here year after year, especially in great numbers. I have hundreds of eggs every year, which is unfortunate this year because my tropical milkweed isn't very big at all because of how dry it's been here this year (and also HOT and HUMID).

It sounds like you and runnymede have super luck with the fruit feeders and wow, you sure get a variety of butterflies there. I have yet to see any kind of emperor. Maybe when my hackberry trees get bigger, I'll see some butterflies that I haven't seen yet. I also have wild black cherry, paw paw, wafer ash, paper birch, black willow, tulip poplar, and a few other kinds that I've planted for the butterflies to lay eggs on.

I think I remember reading that too, what you said about the hummingbirds mainly eating insects. I think that they must use the sugar water to wash them down. :)

Wishing you continued success with the butterflies!

Cathy

Those of you who put out fruit - doesn't it get covered with ants?

Deanna

Sorry, meant to ask this on my other post - do you mash up the fruit?

Deanna

Deanna, there is a way to solve the ant problem, but you need to use a hanging feeder. I coat the hanger with Vaseline and that way the ants can't get to the feeder. The suet feeder comes with a small wire hanger, and I fashion a longer hanger with a metal coathanger and thread it thru the smaller one. I then coat the entire thing with Vaseline. Doesn't take much. Fruit in open dishes are open to attack.

With the suet hanger, I just peel some of the skin down, fold the entire banana in half and stick it in the suet feeder. A lot of people make a fruit mixture and they do mash it up with other sugary things like brown sugar, molasses, beer, etc. I have found that is overkill for me. The butterflies will come to the banana feeder just as well as they do the slurries. In fact, yesterday I put a banana in the feeder that wasn't very well rotted at all, and still the Hackberries were all over it.

Susan

WOW Cathy! A White Admiral? Really? Congrats.. you lucky duck! Sounds like you are having a terrific butterfly season there, and I am happy for you! I have been missing your posts in other spots on the net, and I am happy to see some news from you. I am waiting impatiently for the Monarchs. Have only had one big male in the yard so far. Have been seeing lots of butterflies though and have been raising some Sleepy Orange, Cloudless Sulphur and Black Swallowtails so far this season.~~Angie
P.S.Your Pawpaws are thriving, and I have a huge patch of Anise Hyssop!

Hi Angie and thanks! Yes, I was really excited about seeing it! I don't know if they're rare overall, but this is the first time I've ever seen one on about 5 years.

I don't get online a whole lot and when I do I mostly read because my arms got bad again. I try not to type a whole lot but do get carried away once in awhile. I'm glad to see you on here.

Gosh, I hope that you soon get Monarchs there! I kind of cringe when I read of other people not having them and I have tons of eggs with not enough milkweed. This has been a very dry year and all that I have is the tropical milkweed that I wintersowed and it's not much taller than the day I planted it in May, which is a few inches. I saw 4 big Monarchs on one tiny plants last week when I was hunting eggs to give away. I really felt bad for them and brought them down to the little section of butterfly weed that I have. They don't like it nearly as much, but it's better than starving. This is the very first year that I don't have enough to feed the Monarchs, but it's something that was beyond my control. We watered the plants by hand but still a lot of them died. I haven't raised very many of them this year, but the other kinds have kept me busy.

I'm happy that the trees are doing well for you. Mine are doing well too. I hope we get zebras on them someday. Don't you just love the smell of that Anise Hyssop!

Cathy

Cathy, I know exactly what you mean. All of my Tropical MW is in pots on my front porch, and I did wintersow it. We planted a huge grouping of it in the yard at Rachel's house, but she has been too busy to take care of it, and it has not thrived due to the intense heat and lack of rain. I do have about 20 nice sized plants though, if the Monarchs would ever show up. I am really worried about them due to the losses in the wintering grounds of Mexico this past winter. I am seeing an abundance of Tigers this year, including the dark form females. So far, no Zebras and no Giants. We have Skippers GALORE. Every buterfly bush is covered with them! I have only found and rescued 8 little BST cats so far. Hope your hands are better soon.