It's been really really hot here too. 98 w/ heat index of 107 ! We finally gave up trying to work in the yard late this afternoon and even this evening I was trying to get a few things done and just ended up letting the sprinkler spray me. First we had monsoonal rains and now it's hot and dry. Hopefully ( depending on which window the weather man is looking out of) we are supposed to get back to our "brief but cooling" afternoon showers. I'm really puzzled by the no Monarch thing. Last year not many Queens at all and Monarch everywhere. This year it's the opposite, well not as many Queens as there were Monarchs last year. Mrs. Ed. I put rotten fruit out in the mesh bags too...save them when I buy fruit by the bag which I know I won't eat all of but throw the extra's in the freezer to thaw for the bf's.
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 63
hey MJ, this is actually one of those baskets from a 3-tiered metal basket. Mesh bags sound more flexible (ha) in many ways!
Well Dang...just blow me way!! Thanks for correcting me on that!
Finally I got a butterfly pic.
American Lady Vanessa virginiensis
Beautiful shot AJ!! I love the American and Painted Ladies. Of course any of the ones I am looking at are the ones I love! LOL!
Sorry Nanny...but hey, I don't get Spicebush so that is a great picture to me!!
Good going on the bait stations Mrs. Ed!!!
Welcome back Cindy...and congrats on the YOTM!! I got that a while back in October of all months! Then I had a party recently and the lady on the committee came. The first thing as she walked to the door was...."can we give you yard of the month again?" LOL!! I told her.. see that is why I was shocked when I got it in Oct!!
Mrs.Ed, do you set the bananas out on a log for them? and if so, do you get a lot of ants?
I think that would make it easy and I would love to do it but i am afraid to encourage the ants.
Josephine.
OMG, be careful what you wish for! All these eggs and cats and the BST mamas just won't go away! And I just found a few more eggs on the pipevine. And a few more tiny cats on the Spicebush...how did I miss those eggs? First, here's one of the Polyphemus Moths that emerged last night.....one more to go! A male...funny how the paper towel complements his coloring!
And at least once a day I check on the cats still out there on the Spicebush plants....I've also brought some in. I take off the "sleeves" that protect them and empty out the poop that collects in the sleeves. So this morning one of the cats has finished off all the food on its branch. I knew it would be hungry, so I fastened its branch to another unused branch to see if it would go over on its own. It did it! There began Spicebaby's little adventure. It was moving as fast as it could...not very fast!
It stopped off at a stem branching off from there, checked out the foliage!
No, that won't do. Back to the branch, and up it goes!
Crawls off on a side stem and says "Okay, this is fine...you can put that thing back on now." Spicebaby is home! Until it eats everything on that branch, anyway!
Oh Linda, what a beautiful cat!
Josephine,
Yes, I have that on a log with a split in it, which I have been putting brew into. I have not seen ants on the fruit or brew. Lots of black flies though. In the fall I have lots of honeybees, yellow jackets and bumble bees too. I've also had a bald-faced hornet or two this year.
In that case I will give it a try and see what happens.
We certainly don't have the fire ants and such that you get down there. But I have lots of red ants in the front of the house and they didn't move to the brew or fruit. I don't have too many problems with them in the hummingbird feeders either.
We do have fire ants, the seem to pop out of nowhere, but we are having good luck sprinkling their nests with grits, they take them in and they die, but sometimes it takes a few applications to do the job.
We are happy because of no poison.
I thought I had posted this somewhere but now I can't find it. Is this a Peacock?
I'm used to seeing the White Peacock's, but this one just looked a bit different.
Not sure about the grits and fireants...but a while back there was a thread about using grits. I'd been putting amdro on the mounds - yes that's plural. Back at the ranch in one of the back fields there was a large patch of about 20 feet by 20 feet literally covered with mounds of fireants. The amdro didn't seem to do much damage - they'd just move to another place. Well, I put out two containers of grits all over that area and I haven't seen any fireants!!! Not sure if they moved further in the woods or if the grits killed 'em :o) Am hoping the grits did the trick!
~ Cat
ps...was at the ranch this weekend and I think I found some Reakirt's Blue caterpillars. They were feeding on Golden Dalea - which is another surprise because I'd never seen that growing there either. Guess the rains we had last month got lots of the native plants to sprout and grow :o)
Here's a Reakirt's Blue caterpillar...least I think it's that - no telling for sure since lots of the blues and hairstreak caterpillars look alike.
~ Cat
msjponies - it's a Variegated Fritillary :o) Those butterflies have the most awesome chrysalis!!!
~ Cat
It's the first time I've seen one of these in our yard. What do they use for a host plant?
Variegated Frits use violets, flax and passion vines.
~ Cat
We planted a huge wildflower bed this year. And I have alot of passion vines...so I guess that's why their here this year!
mjs....look up the VF so you know what cat to look for if you want to raise them. The caterpillars are just a little different than the GF. But the chrysalis is a whole lot prettieras Cat said!
I found the cat and it is different looking from the Gulfs so will be easy to tell apart. I've got enough passi's and I'd seen the V. Frit. for several days. My Butterfly book is "Florida butterflies" and didn't even list this one so had to the internet to find the pics of the cat. I think I need a better book. I take it outside while I'm working in case some body new shows up.
The passie I've seen the VF cat on is Maypop.
In my area, variegated frits only use maypops/P. incarnata - when the gulf frits have chewed the maypops down to the nubs, they use common violets.
Grits to kill ants? I'll have to try that, since Amdro have proven practically useless here, like you say, they just move over.
I'm finally beginning to get a lot of gulf frit cats, and I got the first good picture of hatchlings I've ever made.
Sherry
Cute little twins you have there Sherry!
I've got Maypops so they should be happy. Course supposedly the Zebra Longwings only use Maypops, and they used my Lady Margaret, and I just caught one on my white passi. ???
I had those on Maypop, Incense, P. lutea and P. caerulea.
Maypops sound like such a "sweet" plant! LOL.
New visitor to the yard/brew station
Hackberry Emperor
Slightly out of focus, but wanted to show how funny it looked from behind (can you see the eyespots?)
That is pretty funny.
Pearl Crescent.
This message was edited Jun 23, 2009 7:37 AM
Top view.
I planted a Butterfly Bush yesterday and have had two different visitors already.
This one was really thirsty. You can't even see it's head, its buried so deep.
Very pretty AJ.
This guy popped out very early this morning. Carried him out to dry on the zinnia's as the sun comes up.
I think I had a Red Spotted Purple this morning.. it fly away quickly but I knew it wasn't a black swallotail... my first RSP ever & I am so thrilled. It was the first large BF of the season!
I saw this blue tonight and thought it might be a Summer Azure.
and then I saw THIS…
And so I'm totally baffled, because this plant is not listed as a host plant for them. (Oak Leaf Hydrangea). Anyone know different?
Great shots on here :-)
Here's my first Anise Swallowtail...what a thrill!
This message was edited Jun 23, 2009 10:12 PM
