I have at least 50 Gulf Fritillary catapillars on my lovely Passion Flower vines. I know that the vines will come back usually but there are so many catapillars that I'm afraid that there won't be enough leaves to revive the vines. Should I cull the herd? I hate to do it but I'm afraid of losing my vines. They've eaten hundreds of buds and leaves already but I love the butterflies. I'm stumped. Any thoughts?
What To Do?
Call a butterfly loving gardener friend near you and let her host some of your caterpillars, we do that around here and it woks out well.
Good idea! Thank you Frostweed!
You are welcome, those butterflies are precious and need to be preserved.
I agree! I have butterfly feeders all over my property, plus I plant extra parsley, citrus, etc. for them. It's just that my Passion Flower vine was gorgeous, 100s of blooms daily, and now it looks doomed. I usually let them have at it but I've never had so many at one time!
Your passion vine will be fine, they are very strong, which kind is it?
Frost is right...my vines are eaten to the stems annually...have yet to see many blooms...but lots of cats!...isn't that why we plant passionflowers?
Plant more passion vines!! LOL
One is an Incarnata. I've forgotten the name of the smaller one but bought it because they told me it was fragrant, also purple though. I took the cats off of the smaller one, to give it a chance, and moved them to the 2 year old (incarnata) that grew though our mild winter, so it can take more of a beating.
Posting an image of an emerging Frit and the denuded vine on the left is the young one, the older one is on the right.
Ooops, not sure why it came through sideways. The younger vine is on the bottom.
I have a young blue crown passi that looks like your little one. LOL