Monarch butterflies on the way
I started checking the Journey North website for the Fall peak migration sightings. The map shows the darker red dots first appearing this week in the approximate Dallas latitude. Today's update (2nd pic) shows several new sightings in Central TX from yesterday. The square gray slider (currently under "Through 10/10") can be moved left to see previous weeks' status.
https://maps.journeynorth.org/map/?map=monarch-peak-migration&year=2021
In my yard in the past month there's been one here, one there. Today there is more than 1 for the first time. The SA Botanical Garden had plenty when I was there 2 weeks ago. This is the first time in 5 years that my milkweeds aren't constantly covered with aphids...what a welcome development!
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Great Way to Attract Butterflies Using Butterfly Brew!! :-)
Comments (17)Hi, I'm a noob when it comes to butterfly gardening. I really want to attract butterflies to our garden. I searched online on how to attract these insects and I found this blog post: http://finscar.blogspot.com/2011/06/invite-butterflies.html The post includes plants that a certain butterfly species feed on. I'm not sure about the post. I don't want to go buying plants that would turn out useless. Could anyone please verify if the plants mentioned would really attract butterflies? Thank you....See MoreMonarch Butterfly on my butterfly bush
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bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
7 months agolast modified: 7 months agoWe've had visits in the yard from occasional single and pairs for the past six weeks or so. Today we had the first mass visit (I've noticed) to the Gregg's mistflower (Conoclinium greggii):
They love this plant, but its size does seem to make a difference. They didn't start grouping on this planting until it became quite large (~5ft x 5ft). Our two smaller plants get little attention from an occasional one or two at a time.Can anyone ID the smaller BF in the upper right corner?
Dan H z8b SA, TX thanked bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfwbostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
7 months agolast modified: 7 months agoJinx: Thanks - Know I've looked that name up before, but couldn't remember.
We get a lot of eggs on the host plants, but rarely find cats that make it to maturity which I've assumed is due to all the lizards we normally have around here. Though the long hard freeze in February seemed to knock their (lizard) numbers back this year. This fall we've found mature monarch cats in the pool after high winds and this chrysalis out in the open:
Dan H z8b SA, TX thanked bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
Jinx