Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Strange Week - young butterfliers everywhere!, 0 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Long story but a positive thing for the butterfly community.

This has been the most strangest of weeks for me!!! I get home one day from work and a neighbor's 4th grader in my front yard looking over my plants and he's carrying one of those mesh cat houses. Interesting!

The boy runs back to his father when he sees me driving up into my garage. I stop to get my mail from the community mail box and walk over. The dad is standing in his driveway and holding a small cup that comes from one of those American Lady caterpillar kits.

Hmmm...what have we here? Aha! A new convert!!! Woohoo!!! I can't remember the dad's name...but we always wave hello when we see each other - they live four houses away. Anyway, dad tells me his son got interested in caterpillars as his school had a project where they raised and released American Lady butterflies.

Ah, they're after my own heart! Of course I'm thrilled to come across these new converts!!! The dad tells me he's noticed all the plants and vines around my house and the butterflies over the years. (The neighborhood mailbox is in the corner of my front yard so everyone gets to look at my yard!)

I tell him I raise and release butterflies and moths and the son is at my side like a rapt puppy :o) He was wary at first thinking I was going to scold him for being in my yard...but now he's telling me how he raised six butterflies and found a caterpillar and put it in the Painted Lady cup and that now it has formed a cocoon...which he proudly shows me :o)

I stand there listening with mail in hand and realized one of my packages looks very much like a butterfly book I'd recently ordered. I open up the package and it is...so I had it to the child - who quickly sits on the driveway and starts looking at the pictures. The dad says I'm now his son's "bestest" new friend...ROLF!!!

I tell the dad I haven't seen any caterpillars lately but will collect them and let his son raise them...and they are both welcomed to look around my yard for caterpillars...but to make sure they take cuttings of whatever plant they find them on and to tell me about it as soon as possible or leave a note on my porch so I can make sure they have the correct larval host.

I found three Gulf Frit cats in my back yard this morning and have set up a nice cat cage with a jar lid set up with wet floral foam to keep the cuttings fresh etc. Will walk them over when I get home from work.

I also got a great deal on the recent Kaufman Focus Guide book off of ebay and ordered several copies. Will give one to the boy when they arrive.

...then at work two days ago one of the women comes up and hands me a note as I'm researching some anti-dumping violations with another department. The note says come see her before I leave. Rut roh!? I rarely deal with the department she's in but I am curious. I go over and she said she heard my voice and remembered someone mentioned I raise butterflies - okay.... turns out her daughter's school also had classroom project where they raised and released American Lady butterflies and now her daughter wanted her to buy three (!?!) of those meshed cat cages - and that they cost $29 or $39 each...can't remember. I give her my website and tell her to make her own out of rubbermaid containers and to check the local grocery store for similar pop-up hampers that will do the same job.

Then yesterday, one of the guys on my team tells me his daughter found a smushed butterfly on the grill of his car and she was mad at him. So now he wants to show her how they can raise and release butterflies!!!

FREAKY!!!

I passed along my website and the sites to our local NABA chapter as well as other related sites to all of these folks. Am still reeling from having all these folks come to me the same week. Am glad to have new folks interested in conservation!!!

I have my work cut out for me in the coming days. Will be showing all of them how to make their own cat cages, how to upkeep them, research larval host plants and pretty much monitor the whole life cycle of whatever butterflies they plan to raise.

WOOHOO!!!

~ Cat

...and this is the species that seems to bring them all around!