Chris - You need Ladybugs!!!! :-) Ladybugs always find my plants when the aphid population is at it's all time high each season and then suddenly there are no aphids! Ladybugs are very efficient that way! :-)
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 20
There are many ladybugs on these also, but there are thousands of aphids, so many that the cats are starting to get them on themselves. Some of the stalks of the plant and especially the seed pods are so covered that they are all yellow. Will get a picture tomorrow. very gross
Chris, I had a heavy infestation of aphids at one time too. It took putting on a glove and squishing them off with my hand. Double gross, the glove was yellow when I got through. It cured that infestation for a while anyway. I wonder if planting Guara near the milkweeds will intice them to move over to the Guara? I don't want them on my milkweeds especially since they also draw meat eating hover fly larva.
Careful not to harm the good guys. Ladybug larvae are pretty creepy looking.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/3550/
Sheila, are those lb larvae soft bodied? I haven't seen any of those in your picture, but I'll be on the look out. I try to inspect the mw before I give it the glove of death rub down.
I've also noticed little tiny brownish things under the mw leaves mixed in with the aphids. They're somewhat hard, could they be bad bug eggs?
Here are the aphids...gross!
Poor cat trying to find a good eating spot.
Deborah, If you're thinking of a plant to put near your MW to attract the aphids, you might consider an Oleander.. They are oleander aphids after all.
oO Just a thought..
debnes
This doesnt look like a good guy. Does he look familiar to anyone. Will post on bug ID later if nobody knows.
chris
I hear ya Chris.. They can make the beautiful MW look rather tattered. They kinda give me the willie shivers too. lol.
debnes
Hi Chris,
Did ya happen to get a look at the link Sheila posted?... I think yours is a ladybug larvae.
debnes
I have some Oleander seeds, Thanks Deb.
Yep, I'd say Chris's bug is the Godd Bug Lady Bug from looking at Sheila's picture link.
Chris,
Debnes is correct, it is ladybug larvae:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/1850/
:-) This is a good thing.
-Christine
I did look at Sheila's link, thank you. He just looked so evil, that I needed a vote from you guys to agree that he is ladybug larva.
Will dishsoap and water hurt the monarch cats?
Yes, it will suffocate them. I think Deb told me cats breathe from their sides.
Read these homemade sprays in this article. It's almost towards the bottom of the page. http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0218e/A0218E16.htm
Chris - Save the ladybug larva and the monarch cats by taking them off the plant and then spraying the plant with a strong blast of water from your garden hose to knock off the aphids. Then place the good critters back on your plants. The LB larva is what eats the aphids! With less aphids on the plant, the larva will be able to keep them under control! Cool photos, BTW! :-)
Just tuned in to this thread after several weeks absence! So much progress and so many great pics! Seems like there are lots of new butterfly lovers posting, too!
Here's a thought for the garden centers' caterpiller crises--maybe they should just put an attractive sign on the host plants that have a caterpiller and charge extra $$ for the plant. Or make the cat a 'special bonus' with purchase. Every mom with school children would buy them! After all, some people send away to distant sources to get cats...
Indiana_lily--you still have swallowtails eclosing this late in our season? That's pretty neat. I thought they were finished here...I haven't seen any around for a couple of weeks...I'd better not yank my parsley just yet!
Hope you're saving some of those Texas mistflower eupatorium greggi seeds for the round robin/seed swap, too, deb! Looks like a 'must have', even for us northern gardeners!
I love seeing all the exotic bf pics and I know I've said it before but you FLA and TX butterfliers really have some fabulous bfs and they come in such numbers to your gardens. Amazing!
Actually, we just had another one (our 8th) eclose today. We're going to release it in a few minutes. It's the the unusually warm weather that we've been having. I've been trying to keep the house temperature the same as outside so as not to motive them to eclose, but apparently, they know their own internal clocks!!
Ok, first of all I thought I read on here that the milkweed aphids eat the seeds. So if you cut off the seedpods would that help?
Secondly, I'm having a bit of a crisis. The massive pooping continued and when I got home today I had two more cats in slings. One more cat had pooped and so I was cleaning the cage. I was moving one of the sticks I put in there and I didn't realize that one of the cats was attached. I thought they were only attached by the sling, but he had what looks like a piece of saran wrap over the whole front of his body. I didn't touch him at all and he seemed ok. I held him near the stick and Mom tied some of his silk to it. He's kind of on his side; does he have to have his front against whatever he's attached to? He seems ok and is twitching every now and then (and when another cat got too near). I feel so bad - his sling didn't look like it was touching anything but the side of the cage. I didn't realize they lay down a whole layer of silk in front of them. As long as he's securely attached does it matter how he's positioned or where he's touching or anything? Thanks everyone!
Melanie
If the chrysalis has had a chance to firm up, it probably didn't do any harm. I have found the position doesn't make a whole lot of difference, as long as the top is positioned so they can climb out when the time comes.
A teacher at my daughters school brought this in as a big green caterpillar that she saw crossing the sidewalk. Next day went to school and it was in this cocoon. I should have put something there for size, it is about 2" long and about 1" in diameter.
Any ideas of where I should start looking to be able to ID.
I did not get a chance to see it as the caterpillar. They just said big and neon green. They dont remember seeing a horn. It pupated on the side of a glass jar and attached the other side to a papertowel that they had on top. I pulled off all the paper towel to get the picture.
chris
The closest I can get is possibly a silkworm cocoon. Has anyone ever raised one? Do you have any idea of how long it will be in the cocoon?
My little guy wasn't actually in his chrysalis yet, just the sling. He seems ok though. He's been chillin', turning colors and looks like he's going to chrysalize soon. I touched him with a leaf just to make sure he was alive and he twitched. I think he's gonna be ok!
In preparation for when they eclose...I know they need something to stand on but what exactly does that mean? All of mine are making their chrysalis on the side of my plastic critter keeper. I know you guys have said glass is too slippery but what about hard plastic? It's pretty roughed up and the cats have no problem crawling up and down it. I can add some sticks to the cage but I just wanted to hear others' opinions. I'm used to the Gulf Frits which hang, not swallowtails in their sling.
To prove how roughed up the cage is...I had read that the chrysalis of the ZST can differ in color. If they're on a smoother branch, they assume they're on a new part of the plant and make a green chrysalis. If they're on a rougher branch, they assume they're on an older portion and make a brown chrysalis. Chubby, my cat who I thought would never become a butterfly, is the one inside the chrysalis. Compare it to the green one I posted earlier.
This guy kept wandering in front of my camera so I figured he wanted to be a star.
Usually, they just hang out like this.
My little ZST is still brown. By the way, I think my theory about the bfs being in-between generations may have been somewhat true. I hadn't seen any Gulf Frits for about two weeks, and then this past weekend I started seeing them flying around again. This evening, I had one laying eggs on my passion vine! Of course, I brought the eggs in. Oh, and Dad saw two zebra longwings having butterfly sex today while delivering mail!
Melanie
I found out this week that when they pupate on hard plastic, they are just fine when they eclose. I was worried about that too. I had netting over the top, and when I got home from work, he had eclosed and was walking around on the netting. Even the sides of the plastic bin.
Whew! Thanks, now I feel a lot better. Tomorrow will be one week since the first one enclosed, so I'm hoping he might come out for the weekend.
I just wanted to show the change one Imperial Moth cat has made. Interesting how some cats look so different before they get around to pupating. It was early yesterday morning that I took the picture, then the phones were out most of the day in the area, so no internet. The cat is odd looking thing, but fascinating!
Here's a younger one that hasn't gotten to that stage yet.
Ooh Linda that is one wicked looking cat! Don't think I would want to pick him up at all.
Great shots Melanie.
Chris, glad you didn't just squish the LB larvae! That was my instinct before I found out what they were. You sure do have a lot of aphids. Maybe you can buy some ladybugs and release a few each night at the base of those plants. They will just fly away if you release them during the day. But it may be too late in the year to do that since you are fixing to get some cold weather.
All marvelous pics. dudes/dudettes! I'm mesmerized with all these little ones that we're blessed in the gardens!
Quick question - have tried looking it up but can't find thread that I saw it in. :-(
Once eclosed and new butterfly comes out, approx. how long for wings to dry, or they are ready for release?
Thanks - Christine
Christine,
I think it takes about 4 - 5 hours. But, you can pretty much tell their wings are dry when they start flying around the container, begging to be set free! :) That's been my experience anyway.
Thanks!
Had one emerge around 9 this morning, just had 2nd one emerge, and 1 cat change into chrysalis.
Whew...... it has been a busy morning! :-D
Christine
Here's our release from today. A very sweet one who I think is a bit cold and may be brought back inside with nectar. :( Anyway, here she is....
Cool looking sunglasses you cutie has on there! LOL!
Christine, most will dry and be ready to fly in a few hours, but they aren't ready to nectar necessarily. Sometimes not at all the first day from what I have read and been told. So I make sure not to hurry mine anymore. I wait until in the afternoon to release them. Even still I will have them close to flowering bushes and they still fly up into the trees and hang. Guess it is a stressful process.
The Botanic Garden here is having a butterfly tag and release Sat. With all of the warm weather the Monarchs have been slow to come down to TX. So I called the lady in charge and asked if she needed my Monarchs that would eclose this week, and she took me up on it gladly. Then came the shocker!
She told me to place them in envelopes,in a sandwich container with a wet sponge; then put them in the refrigerator!! I thought she was kidding but after looking out on the internet, I found out that is the way they ship them live. So I did it....quickly!
She has already got three and will pick up five more from me in the morning. Though I would take a picture to let you see how strange it looks.....But if you up north have bf's eclose and winter weather has set in up there, you can ship them south with cold packs in the box.
Sheila
Christine,
Monarchs take about 4 hours. Watch for them to expel a clear liquid. Before that they will expel excess brown liquid from setting the wings. Swallowtails can be ready much quicker. They don't migrate so their wings are ready to go much quicker - most also don't have the built-in toxin, so they need to get going. I plan on closer to 2 hours (or less) for any other than monarchs.
Either way (or species), after a couple of hours I let them climb onto my hand and take them out to a good sheltered spot to hang and finish drying. Monarchs like pine or cedar. The also like the bark on our bottle brush.
That way they can fly when ready. If you set them out when it is real cool they will have to wait for sunrise to warm up before flying.
Rod
Great going Sheila,
Yep that's the way they do it. envelops and refrigerate.. It slows down their metabolism and they sort of sleep. They hand out the butterflies that way at the big butterfly releasing events. Glad you could contribute to that, how cool!!
Felicia~ Ben and I loved the pic of Cory with the cool shades.. LOL! Very cute!
I know we had a few different answers to Christine's question, but this is only my observations. From releasing many species of butterflies at all sorts of times and conditions.
Hi Christine,
It takes less than an hour for their wings to dry enough to set outside. I have let some go after 15 minutes. The sooner the better imo. They are more docile to hold then and their wings are fully filled out. If you wait too long they can get injured from all the frantic flapping about. In the case of them needing to wait to be released, just make sure there is plenty of room in the cage.
With Swallowtails I look at the tails.. When they become flat and teardrop shaped they are fully filled and can be set out to the garden. I have timed this to about 15-30 minutes. If it's cool they will hang out in the garden until it warms up. They would love to bask in any sunlight at this point too.
They are usually more interested in mating than nectaring. They can go many hours (as long as a whole day, right Sheila!), without any nectar when first eclosed.
debnes
Silver Spotted Skipper on Zinnia.
