This message was edited Apr 11, 2006 7:06 PM Sorry Picture are not loading right now will try later when they get the problem straightened out
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This message was edited Apr 11, 2006 7:47 PM
a look inside the butterfly cage
another try
another
and another
That is so neat! Did you collect the cats, or order them? Are they Monarchs?
Billy -I collected them on the milkweed around my home.There is mostly Monarch but I thinkthere is 4 or 5 Gulf Fritterly chrysalis in there ,one of the gulfs was born today.I'd post the picture but it didn't come out to clearly.I've got one passion vine just loaded with the gulf cats.At some point I'll build a cage for the gulf's too.
This message was edited Apr 11, 2006 11:59 PM
I think the cage is really neat. I usually find the empty cocoon. Mine are on Butterfly Weeds too.
I try to count them but,well I think there is over fourty of the chrysalis and another 10 cats in their 5th instar.I've slowed down on collecting the small cats because I'm running low on mature milkweed.I've had to buy over 30 one gallon pots of milkweed so far and I don't think I'll have enough to get what I have to the chrysalis stage.
Don, can you sow seed and grow some? I grow the asclepias curassavica because it is so easy to germinate and grows really fast. The monarchs love it. If you want seed, I can collect you some fresh ones.
I love your cage idea, I rarely get to see mine once they leave the plant to make a chrysalis. I always wonder if something ate them.
Have you ever ordered butterflies? Anything that would feed off native plants but not be from your area? And that would survive?
Susie,
I never realised how much the large cats would eat.I've got several hundred of the milkweed started and I've got alot of seed it just doesn't grow that fast.I've got one section of my back yard that looks like a milkweed farm (LOL).
The cage has been the most interesting thing for me in a while.Watching a cat turn into a chrysalis is a real thrill.Then watching a butterfly come out of the chrysalis is just as neat.
Thanks for the seed offer but the larger plants I have are giving me plenty of pods and everytime I check the plants for cats I check for spliting pods.It seems I always have 4 or 5 drying out in a open mayo jar on my plant table.
Those little gecko lizards were eatting the little cats that's what forced me to build the cage,and it's been alot of fun.
billy,,
No I never have.I'm really new at this whole butterfly thing.My plan was to grow as many host larval plants for the ones in my area which are alot ,and my yard just ain't that big.I do have an area behind my home that surrounds a 3or 4 acre sinkhole that I plan on using for alot of aggressive vines and invasive weeds .Now all I need is the time to do it(LOL)
I think you're doing an exellent job of saving a species. It would be incredible to watch them. The thrill of putting a cat in a jar and taking it to school when you're a kid never wears off does it?
I hear you on not enough room and not enough time. I'd love to even have the sinkhole. Laugh!
I love your b'fly cage!! I've never heard of that before. Where and when do you collect the cocoons? What is the cage siding? It looks like sheet plastic. Is it in the sun or the shade? Do you also have water in there for them? As soon as they hatch and can fly do you turn them loose?
Diane
Diane-It's made out of screening.(fiberglass) I collect the cats off of milkweed around my home and put them on the milkweed plants inside the cage.They just eat the milkweed ,then when they reach the last instar they climb to the top of the cage and hang in the J shape until they form into the Chrysalis and then it takes about a week to 10 days until they emerge into butterfly's.It happens around 7:30 to 10:00 AM and if it's real sunny they hang from the shell of their old chrysalis and unroll and dry their wings.I usually then take them to a nectar bowl I have hanging and place them on it until they feel the urge to fly away.Yesterday was a recorded for me ,about 20 or so hatched and about an hour into the release process I found one by the nectar station on the ground with one lower wing missing.A few moments later in my travels between the cage and the nectar station the one with missing wing had some how attached himself to the back of my shirt and was just clinging to me .I really didn't now what to do with him.So I finally put him down next to a water source and near alot of nectar flowers and left him .After about a half hour of releasing the rest of the new borns.I went back to check on the 3 wing guy ,he was gone.Looked all around and couldn't find him at all.
Now really the one thing I'm really curious about is how many of these babies will stick around and how many will just head north for the summer and head to mexico this fall and winter.I will keep you posted
Enjoyed your tale Donlaclair. You wonder if the broken wing hampered his flying. Love the ride on your shirt. How touching! We used to have a lot of Luna Moths when we first moved here in ''76'', but each year they seemed to have a crumpled damaged wing and eventually we saw them no more. Then we had the Cecropia moths and a wasp drilled into the cocoons and they never came back. Yesterday we had a Monarch, I think. I don't know if we have Viceroys. I kept trying to get close. He was either newly hatched or very tired from a long trip. I left him alone after he landed and then flew from me. He flitted close to the ground like he was heavy.