Sucha Deal!

(I meant to make this a 'New" Post, oh well...I'm getting the hang of this, lol)
**Just added** A list of Butterfly host plants toward the bottom of this thread**

I happend by the local HD this evening and found 4 Curly Parsley plants,
complete with baby ST's (4 Cats!).. Going to plant them with my other
4 Parsley plants in the morning. Was too too cool not to share it with
y'all, and a nice way to end the day. I will be posting the progress as
they grow.

Debnes

This message was edited Sep 23, 2006 8:09 PM

This message was edited Sep 28, 2006 6:13 AM

What a bonus!!! Can't wait to see them as they morph!

Janet

That is so cool!!!!

lucky find. I need to find more dill and parsley too. I have nothing left

Oh, yes. Some people avoid buying plants that have any caterpillars. We want the cats more than the plants. Good find!

I thought I was the only one that looked for them! I actually followed a Gulf Fritillary to the very back of a nursery once to find a passiflora vine. they have such great vision, I knew she would scope it out!

Thank you, and you and you, and you, and you...(curtseys)

Now... to manage these little ones.. It's dipping down into the 60s and maybe 58* by tomorrow morning. Should I keep these 4 plants out of the ground and bring the babies in, or what? There should be some more plants at HD too, I will check today. (we have 3 HDs in 5 miles of me).
I have a good cage thingy to set them all in, and room in my bathroom window area for it. What do y'all think?

All advice is gold to me right now..

Debnes;o)

Yay Deb! That was a great find :) Can't help you on the advice as I'm still letting the cats around here go through the cycle outside. I just don't have a good living place for them and I'm not sure I trust my ability to 'raise' them yet either...LOL!

Nice weather coming for you guys, we might hit the upper 40's this week - yesssss fall is here!

Great shots of the little buddies too - take out food? (grin)

~Sunny

Debnes, you could do either and it will be fine. It just depends on whether they can survive best inside or out. Mine can't survive as long outside because I have millions of different kinds of spiders.

I have about 28 cats inside on some rue right now because when I went to check on them I caught a spider eating one so I quickly started collecting them. They are on their plant sitting in my bathtub under a large window so they get plenty of filtered light. They seem quite happy and I can just wash the tub out when they make a big mess.

I'll move them to my wooden cage and put some sticks in it for them to pupate on. The entire top of the cage is now covered with Monarch chrysalises. I'm sad when all my cats are gone but hopefully I'll get more soon.

Paige!!
I found some Rue! It was 2.49.. ((Doin' the happy dance)).
I may bring one or 2 to the RU, for trade...
(pic)>Here's how I have the bst's contained now to keep the birds off of them...but i think I will keep it portable enough to bring in in a week or so.

~Debnes

debnes--that's so fun that you found the cats at the garden center! Now I'm going to check everytime I go to HD. Thanks for posting that!

BTW What is that cage(?) in your last pic? Did you make that or buy that? Looks like pretty good protection for your cats...

That's great! Where did you find it? I've found that the cats (the BST & GST) don't eat as much of the Rue as they do the fennel or parsley. I don't know if it's tougher or more filling to them but it's been lasting quite a while.

Hey debnes_dfw_tx
Looks like tyou have a new family. Here in Delaware when you find rue you scarf it up realy hard to find. I have several plants that keep coming back year after year. Been lucky that way. The BST really like it also the the parsley.
This year they seemed to stay away from the fennel oh well

sounds like the weather we are having with the temps dipping. Reight now the migration season for the Monarchs is in full swing

Liked your cage very portable

Tabasco,

I got that at Petco. It was about $15 and it's made to attach to a 10 gal aquarium. See the attachment for an aquarium at the bottom in this pic?

Sure is bflybo!
Thanks for joining us here, I was about to look for you... lol See the 2 cats there, such different coloring. I was wondering what you thought. I am seeing so many colors, but sure they are all bst. Just maybe not the same mom.. the other 2 are a few days younger (hiding in there). These 2 innocent ones are just snuggling up bc it will dip into the 50s tonight, should I cover them up with a cloth something?

:o)

Tobasco;)

Here is another cage option I have with a much finer screen topper ($10 @ Petco), for the 10 gal aquarium I have here. Seems very secure.

ooooO> Or all these 3 pieces could be used together for other bflies that require taller plants, and a lot more room.
So that's basically what I have to work with now, and where I found them.

:o) Debnes

This message was edited Sep 24, 2006 9:10 PM

OK I will go to Petco and check out the aquarium aisle for screen cages and the like. Didn't think of that before, so thank you!

Let me know what you find :o)

Paige ~I found it at Green Mama's on Davis Blvd in NRH, it's a wildlife center too, so they had flats of it a foot tall. They had Fennel, and Dill too. They have Cigar plant, and all kinds of things we love for Butterflies and Hummers...In other words, I have to be careful in that place.

And Everyone watching this thread~
I decided to put 2 of the bst cats in an aquarium and take it to Ben's 2nd grade classroom for them to watch.

These pics aren't that great bc the lighting out there made everything yellow..so I b/w'd them to show how the set-up worked out. If I get some better pics I will post them in a couple days when I go back to check on the cats.

:oD

One more, only close up this time..

;oD

I've only been to Green Mama's once but will have to check it out again, just for fun since I don't need anything.

I've taken cats and butterflies to my son's school the last couple of years. He keeps asking me to bring them now but his teacher wanted to try and find a way to "tie them in" to something they were learning. I think she ought to just forget that "plan" and let them look at them while I have them. I told him I might just end up sending them with him in a bug hut for a day visit anyways.

I made a big poster for his class last year with all the different kinds of butterflies I have raised and included pics of the cats and all their stages. When we met his teacher before school started she said she had seen us last year and hoped she would get him (and me) this year!

My BST cats are really black again. Very Halloweenish! Only one larger 4th instar one has any hint of green.

This one is so black that he looks like velvet. (not sure if it will look like that in the pic, but trust me)

Paige, is the plant in your pics Rue? Debnes, both you and Paige are great for doing the show and tell. You never know just how something like that will be an influence on little minds and make great gardeners one day!

@Sheila :-D
Now Paige has helped a lot, I need to make a poster too with different ones and stages,,thx!!
I just love seeing the different colors of bst's, >>Especially that black one!! I havent seen as much green on the last few of mine either, but mostly yellow, black and even orange. The ones I'm sending now are the mostly black one and the orange one. The 2 left were mostly yellow, and the other one still had the gray strap around his middle but same size. All 4 about 1cm.
I;m getting excited about the school project. I asked his teacher yesterday if I could bring them, and her eyes just lit up!! "YES YES!!" she said. I need to wake Ben up now to get him ready.
...Here we go!


:-Deb

Ok,
Two of the cats are safely delivered to the classroom now. The teacher was delighted! The kids were verrrrry curious! Got them all stirred up...lol, left instructions.....(sigh)!

Here's a (little bit) better pic ..

;-D

When I got home I checked on the 2 I have here, and guess what>>

I think I have one cat that will be black like ^^ that one up there^^ .
What do you think Paige? Is it like your black one was when it was 1cm long?


:-Deb

It looks black to me. Mine are black and orange, some with some white and gray, but no green.

WHAT is in the bottom of that cage?? Sand?

Deb, Good for you! What exactly does local HD mean? Your find definitely makes me want to keep parsley around for quite a while. I am jealous of everyone having a Fall Season. We are in the 90's this week until Friday when we go down to 89 degrees.

Thanks again,

Chuck

I will pop in on that one, it's Home Depot Chuck.

Thanks Sheila!! I really didn't know it was Home Depot. I am going to our local HD right away to check around....lol. Our passionvines have just about had it.

Thanks again,

Chuck

Sorry for not making it clearer at the first of the thread Chuck, nice to meet you!! I hope you get a break from the heat soon:-D.
Been a busy day, looks like the HD question is solved.. cool!
Paige~ Yep that's sand...I thought it would work alright for sinking the pots in, and provide good dranage underneath the pots too. If I need to replace a plant it should be easier too. The cage is pretty heavy, can't be knocked over while left in the classroom with a bunch of 7-8ers.
I went back to GMamas today and they still have lots of Parsley and Rue, and a few Bronze Fennel and Dill.. And on 2 of the Fennels there were about 3-4 eggs, so I bought them & dropped by the class 5 min early and showed the kids what bst eggs look like and examples of 2 more of the host plants.:-D..
The Fennel is a bit thinned, (not too bad), however i'm still going to watch when they hatch so I can move them over to a nice fluffy Rue.. **Shiela** I am saving you 1 and Paige 1 if you want them, since I grabbed 2 more today...achooo. I think it makes me sneeze.
And Sheila, I noticed that some HD's don't carry it now, so save yourself a trip and call the different ones around you first.

:-D

Oh Chuck whats wrong with your Passionvines? Mine have grown back out so nicely now after tirelessly serving the Gulf Fritillaries. I had to take measures (organic of course), to save the plants and it worked out very well for me, and all the future Frits too.

;-Deb

Deb,

What kind of organic measures did you take? I was hoping that the passionvines would grow back before the December Gulf Frittilary egg laying. I would appreciate it if you could tell me what you did to get your passionvines.

Thanks,

Chuck

hi Deb Thought I would check out your thread on your cats... I have never done anything but supply host plants and let the butterflies come naturally... I find in my gardens they love the butterfly plant eat it up and also passion plant and I could not do well with herbs because they set up home on them... I am not sure but I think it was the fennel... I watched them there eat pupat and caught one as it was coming out. Watched as it dried and then flew away... awesome sight.. After they are butterflies they love orange cosmos... I go out to a garden full of butterflies everyday. I have the cosmos all over... It must really be fun to watch the whole process up close. Thank you for all the parents of those children for caring enough to share that experience with them.. They will remember that always....shirleyt

oh yes Deb just in case you do not know.....cigar plants root as easily as coleus...same treatment...shirleyt

Cool Shirley thanks for kind words and the info on cigar plant, I want some!! I now know where to find it too.
Herbs~ Well I started growing them from a bunch of seeds for cooking. They were behaving like perenials here, and then I saw all the caterpillars on them (mainly parsley), and realized they were significant host plants for bst's. Well that just changed my whole way of looking at herbs then. I grow them especially as host plants now. Just gotta have so much that there is still some herbage left for me to cook with.

Another idea is to have sections for Cats and for your own use. When eggs are laid, just watch them in a few days they hatch and start crawling around. Gently pick them up and carry them to the designated plants just for them. Rue works really well and gets very full , but I don't see myself using it in any recipes, ...yet. lol so that would be my main choice for raising them to maturity if I can keep the birds and wasps from eating them. That's what the cage over the ground is for now (pic above). So far so good.
They love these 4 herbs as hosts: Curly Parsley, Fennel, Dill, and Ruta Gravolens (Rue).
Here's one laying eggs on a tall Parsley flowerstalk..You can see my coleus there in the background, and in the shade a lot of Sweet Basil seedlings coming up. They dont bother the Basil at all, and I love to cook with that a lot.
Glad ya came over!!
Bless ya!
:oDeb

They could be moved at this stage, but notice how they stay close to the flower tops. The leaves are still safe below. But the cats are NOT safe at this point from preditors.

>>

This message was edited Sep 27, 2006 6:23 PM

Only one made it, out of those 3.. 2 were eaten by Paper wasps.

Hi, deb--

Your discussion about herbs caused me to google for more info and found this good article about Butterflies and Herbs from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Lots of good insights, but I particularly like the list of host plants. Many of them already mentioned, but a few new ones, too.

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/wildlife/handbooks/butterflyguide/8.html

I am planting more Sweet Violets in my woodland garden for the Fritillaries. I planted about 10 plants of parsley, both curley and flat leafed, but the swallowtails never seemed to find them. Some cats found my dill, though, but the birds found them and made a tasty brunch of them, and that crushed me! I was so excited to finally have some cats. They didn't find my Rue, although I am going to plant that again in a sunnier spot.

My milkweeds seem to be denuded of their leaves, but I have yet to find any cats. Is there something else that eats the leaves that I don't know about?

I did have a pretty good variety of butterflies visiting my little garden--more than last year--and that make me very happy--thanks to all the good info everone posts on the Butterfly Forum. So, Thanks! everybody!

Yep tobasco!
Every year just gets better the more we learn. Thanks for the site I am going to gobble it up. Just this year getting the 411 on Monarchs, and Gulf Fritillaries too, since I got the passionvines just this year too. Suppose I will be needing some Sweet Violet now, lol. And after I look at the site you gave me I will probably add a few more things.
Just now getting stocked up with milkweed beginning with the 2 Shelia gave me last month on a visit to Paige's garden. Both of them have wonderful gardens..
I have enjoyed raising butterflies soooooooo much! Everything about them! Adding new kinds as I go. The help here at DG has made all the difference!

Take care!
:oDeb