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Florida Gardening

I went outside today and found this...

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Hadn't been gardening the past few days because of the weather, but previously, two mama Monarchs were furiously laying eggs. I expected the lizards to eat them, but I guess the lizards are all full of baby cats, because I found stripped plants and cats galore! I counted 12 in all, 5 on one plant all bunched together. Had to move a couple of the biggest ones to plants in other places because they had stripped most of the plants in the butterfly garden You can see in the last pic the cats of all sizes clustered together.

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Comments (7)

Glenn Jones(9b)
5 years ago
I guess this year you get them and not me. But I guess I can't have hordes of them every year.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
5 years ago
Looks like some won't be eating for much longer - close to pupating = )
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Rhonda
5 years ago
That's awesome Deb! Keep us updated with more pics.
dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
I had to move a couple of them to other plants this morning because they have almost stripped everything bare, but I guess that's nature. I don't think they will all make it, but I"m just praying the two little toads I found hopping around this morning in that garden don't gobble them up the minute they hit the ground to find a plant to pupate on. I Think the toads may have made short work of the lizards that were eating them, or the lizards moved on once the toads got big enough to be a threat.

Then again, I've never had toads here, so it's pretty cool. Don't know what kinds they are yet, but one baby looked like a barrens treefrog with his little brown stripes on his face. The two babies I saw today just look like Bufo toads, all brown and bumpy and fat. I didn't see my dragonfly that greets me every morning, so I hope nothing ate him. Maybe he/she is just down at the pond making babies.
dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
Just went outside to check on the cats and saw a frog eating a large cat, so I'm thinking that not many will make it to pupate. I'm going to remove the last two babies and put them onto plants where I haven't seen any toads. Praying at least a couple made it to leaves to pupate, but I doubt it. I'm going to cut back all the plants and put them into pots and bring them into the courtyard, where the next batch will have a fighting chance.
dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
My last few cats are getting fat, but they're running out of leaves and have started eating the stem tops to keep themselves going. I think I may lose one of them, because he's just too tiny and the big boys are stripping the leaves like crazy. Maybe they'll all pupate soon and he'll be able to make enough of a meal on what leaves are left and the stem tips to keep going.
dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
The last of my cats have disappeared. A couple were too small to pupate, so they probably crawled off in search of more food, which they won't find, but a couple were big boys, so hopefully, they're off pupating somewhere.

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