Butterfly Activity is Picking Up

11 years ago

After our scorching summer temperatures, I wasn't sure what to expect as we get closer to Fall, but so far, it seems activity is picking up. I had Gulf Frits all summer long and have probably released near 100 - still have them and they are still laying eggs so I expect that number to increase.

Monarchs seemed to hang around in low numbers all summer which I've never noticed before... I released three small batches (two or three at a time) and then just in the past few weeks, their numbers have also increased. I released 6 this morning and have 5 more chrysalides, and 11 cats. I continue to see more and more in the yard as I guess we are nearing migration time, so hopefully my tropical and swamp milkweed will hold out until then. I fought aphids all summer on the tropical and they are in really bad shape. :-(

And the Black Swallowtails, which were very low in numbers all summer seem to be making a come back. I currently have 20 caterpillars and around 8 chrysalides. I released one male today.

My lone Giant Swallowtail emerged last week, and I found some eggs on the rue, so we shall see.

Hope everyone else is beginning to see more activity as we head into Fall.

~Laura

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Comments (7)

susanlynne48
11 years ago
Laura, it is picking up here in OKC FINALLY! I had a BST mama laying eggs today, as well as the continuation of GFs, and Monarchs have been floating around as well. I had a few American Ladies for awhile, but it seems like they have moved on. I've had very few little ones this year - Checkerspots, Hairstreaks, Skippers - not the usual high numbers.

I killed another - get it, another - Assassin Bug today. These things are brutal, so I attack them with the scissors. I know, yuck, but I don't want to swat at them or even attempt to handle one. Predators have been plentiful this year.

This BST loved the Lady in Red Salvia!

Susan
MissSherry
11 years ago
It's good to hear you're getting more lep activity, Laura!

And that picture is gorgeous, Susan - any kind of salvia is beautiful, but I especially like the red ones. My S. coccineas have reseeded themselves every year, and I find volunteers every spring that I leave just where they appeared. I imagine yours will do the same.

Sherry
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I'm not surprised you've got snow, KC. I heard on the radio that the record temperature for this day in Gulfport is 39 degrees, and that record will probably be broken, since it's supposed to reach 38 degrees tonight. It's supposed to be 36 degrees up here! I brought all my caterpillars, chrysalides, and cocoons into the unheated guest room, with the window cracked and the door shut. I don't want to put them in a warm room, because when I put them outside, I want the temps (and humidty) to be reasonably the same. I'll wait and bring them back out when it warms up, which is supposed to be right away. I brought in a lot of pipevine swallowtail caterpillars, having heard about how cold it was going to be. I don't know what I'm going to do about the pearl crescent eggs outside. I think I'll put a stem of the asters in water and see how it holds up - if it does well, I'll bring them in, too. There was a weak tornado or strong straight line winds in Gautier last night that turned over mobile homes. - the difference in the temps between what we were having and what we're now having is extreme. That last picture looks like some type annual red salvia. I'm wondering if it was 'Lady in Red' - I can't remember what it was. Sherry
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I am having more activity in the last 2 days. Rain and cold yesterday, and chilly weather this morning. I was able to stand very close to a feeder this afternoon, while a male RT was sipping for quite a while. I have 5 feeders up,and this one male bully chases the others away, guarding all 5 feeders. He perched on a limb,and stayed for about 10 minutes. I think they are getting more friendly and I am anxious for one to feed at the window feeder.Grandchildren,gardening, hummers and photography keep me quite busy,and I love this season!
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Hi Scarlet - Thank you and I am very sorry that your veggies did not turn well, we all learn after we failed and try not to make more mistakes again. I grow some some veggies in pots, always the tomatoes but they have to have room to grow unless they are the dwarf size and can be grown in a smaller pot and of course the red mulch is a big no. I don't put any mulch in the containers because I like to test the soil for watering and also with the humidity here it can create problems, You have to look for veggies that can be grown in containers, I had success with Renee garden seeds for containers. You can do well with peppers, herbs, lettuce, dwarf kale, some zucchini and cucumber varieties will need a bigger containers. Growing in the ground or raised bed is easier but sometimes not possible due to space or in case with the tomatoes and the nematodes. Don't give up and try to find better containers. I have some inexpensive plastic tubs and growing celery, parsley and cilantro, sometimes I do lettuce in them or start seedlings, all my containers have multiple uses. Hope to see you on the forum more often and asking questions, that is why we are her for, don't give up! Hi Becca - I hope that you solve the problem with the tomatoes, that is the main reason that I plant more than I need, something happened or they get diseased, I have other ones. With the weather and the bugs here it is not the easiest thing to do to grow healthy plants unless we are very careful and spray if we have to. Good to know that you are getting beans and greens, the other veggies will follow, broccoli and cauliflower take a long time. Try to get some transplants of a different tomato variety and put them in a different place if you can, to see if you have better luck, I plant heirlooms and hybrids for the same reason, something has to do well. Eventually you will get to know what does better in your conditions. Silvia
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Jeanie, And that is what I dislike about the current state of free enterprise in the USA. These companies will do anything to make a buck, even if it means pushing seasonal and holiday items on us consumers earlier and earlier every year. I try to avoid rewarding them by purchasing early. By the time I'm ready to buy, they've had the stuff out so long they're starting to cut the prices to clear it out so they can push the next seasonal or holiday stuff on us. I love buying Thanksgiving towels, dishes and stuff the day before Thanksgiving, just to spite the stores! I was in Hobby Lobby (which I love) a couple of weeks ago and all the summer stuff was on clearance and fall stuff was in the store. There's probably some Christmas stuff there now too, and if we're in Ardmore tomorrow for anything, I'll pop into the Hobby Lobby just to look and see. Jay, I saw mums (in full bloom already in mid-August) and bulbs today at the Wal-Mart in Gainesville. Needless to say, I didn't buy any. I have an even better one though.... We were at CostCo in Lewisville and I was looking at the magazines. They had several, of course, with Fall cooking and Fall decorating and all that, which isn't really surprising. However, my brain is still stuck in summertime and August and picking peppers, okra and melons, etc. I'm not really ready to think about fall baking or fall decorating, nor is my brain thinking about Halloween, but they had the Halloween issue of some magazines too. Can we please at least make it to Labor Day before they start shoving Halloween stuff down our throats? But then, on the next shelf down they had a special issue of a cooking magazine and guess which issue it was? Christmas Cookies! Sure, all of us are just dying to buy a magazine full of Christmas Cookie recipes (and nothing else) in mid-August. I really don't even want to think about Christmas cookies until Thanksgiving is over. I spent the whole day running errands and shopping and by the time we got home it was too warm and humid to work in the yard, but tomorrow I intend to be out there in the garden removing another row of tired summer plants to put in plants for fall. I'll save the Christmas cookie baking and daffodil planting and the planting of mums in a big container for a more appropriate time than mid-August. The NWS shows high temps for us later in the week in the mid-90s which, based on their recent track record, means we could be close to 100 degrees by the end of the week. I just don't think the mums would be happy to move from the shade cloth of the garden center to a container in full sun and 100 degrees. Susan, We're seeing more hummers and butterflies every day. It is like they've been lying low and keeping a low profile and finally feel like it is time to come out a bit more now that the weather is milder. I am seeing some greenthread daisies greening back up and putting out some new growth, and some are blooming already. The rain really has revived them here, so maybe it will revive some of the other late summer and autumn natives that bloom when monarchs are migrating. The liatris are starting to bloom a little, and so is the goldenrod. We even have a handful of native rain lilies blooming in the pasture. I am just happy to see anything at all in bloom out there in the pastures. About all we've had lately are the snow-on-the-prairie plants, which at this point are stick-on-the-prairie plants because something (I'm guessing grasshoppers) is eating everything but the main stalks. Dawn
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susanlynne48
11 years ago
Oh, yeah, MissSherry, this is the 3rd or 4th year for the LIR Salvia. It reseeds nicely. The S. darcyi is blooming now, too, and the hummers love it and the LIR. I like the darcyi because it has the BIGGEST Salvia blooms. There are just a few Salvia that produce large blooms, and this is one of them.

Thanks for the compliment on the photo. The LIR is in its full glory right now. I have one that is reseeded in shade and it is blooming like crazy, too. I guess this is one that will do well in shade to part shade as well.

I just wanted to say that I finally figured out how to collect the GF eggs. They are laying them on the curled end tendrils. I have found about 8 or 9 so far. Something is getting the ones layed on the leaves, and probably on the tendrils as well, but the tendril-eggs seem to be able to hide from the predators because of the way they curl. I mean I have 3 mamas laying eggs, and this is ridiculous. I usually have no problems locating cats and eggs, but it has really been bad this year.

Another surprise this year - the Oleander aphids are on the Passion vine, too! I have pulled many leaf tips thinking it was an egg, and it's an aphid. I have never known them to attack anything other than milkweed. But, I find them in clusters on the Maypops, just like you would milkweed.

I tell you, this has been the oddest year for bugs! Yesterday I got another Assassin Bug. I've had lots of those this year, and I don't like them. They are mostly eating the honeybees on the Sunflowers. As if the Honeybees don't have enough problems.

Susan
christie_sw_mo
11 years ago
I've had a Buckeye explosion this week in my yard but I'm still waiting for my other butterflies to pick up. I was hoping Isaac's rain would bring them out of hiding.
I still have way fewer than normal Black Swallowtails and Variegated Frits. I do usually see at least a couple Variegated Frits when I go outside but haven't found any eggs or cats on my p. incarnata for several weeks now.
I'm not finding any Gulf Frit cats either even though I've had those around for a good part of the summer. I've had as many as six on my zinnias at one time. They must be leaving eggs SOMEWHERE. I'm going to do a closer inspection and look at the tendrils as you said Susan.
I haven't seen any aphids on p. incarnata but I had some on my Bronze Fennel for the first time.

It's encouraging that you're seeing more butterflies. My goodness the season will be over soon. : (
alch21
11 years ago
Activity is just now picking up in SC. Lots and lots of Monarchs came this past weekend. Hoping all of this wonderful activity will continue after months of not so much this Summer. We have had too much rain unlike the rest of the country. keeping fingers crossed for an amazing Fall !
ethel_o
11 years ago
The butterfly activity here is practically non-existant.
The sedums used to be covered with Painted Ladies; now there are none. A few bumble bees, but no butterflies.
Could it be from the monthly mosquito spraying all summer?
weed30 St. Louis
11 years ago
It's picking up in St. Louis too! Up until now it's been the worst year ever for me. In the past week I've found a couple dozen BST eggs, and I'm sure there will be more when I go out tomorrow. I also found about 20 eggs on my friend's parsley...I got her started on butterfly ranching this year :)

Sadly no GST eggs so far. I had 3 last year for the first time ever. So magnificent!

Butterfly Activity is Picking Up

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susanlynne48

MissSherry

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