Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 52, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Sunnyg...way cool on those Monarchs!!! Thanks for posting those. We get to see the Monarchs as they are migrating through to Mexico as well.

So true Lucy, so true.

I'd forgotten how voracious they are. I usually concentrate on raising the uncommon and smaller butterflies so only have two or three milkweed plants in my yard as I don't want to attract too many Queens. They hummingbirds enjoy the milkweed blossoms so they are planted mainly for them.

The Queens are very abundant here and the more you plant the more they come! I'd seen only a couple of caterpillars during the year - but this batch more than made up for it. May end up taking them to the park on Saturday - there is plenty of milkweed there.

On a good note...about 20 of my Forbes Silkmoth caterpillars have pupated. I separated the twigs with cocoons on them and moved them to a separate cage. The rest should start forming cocoons this coming week. Then it's just sit back and baby sit them until they emerge as gorgeous moths to continue the cycle. Here's a photo of one.

~ Cat

This message was edited Oct 30, 2008 9:20 PM