I have always been a nature girl, even when I was very young -- my earliest memories at age 18 months are of animals, sunlight, insects, . . . When I lived in Berlin in 1989-1990 (the year the wall fell) as an exchange student, I lived in a beautiful house in the middle of no where (There are very rural ares surrounding the main city center). My landlord had filled the large yard with many fruit trees, berries, beautiful plants. The pear tree in the backyard had a "terrible problem" with caterpillars, and one day my roommate handed me a jar of 40 caterpillars! I had raised 2 or 3 caterpillars at a time at most, never 40. She said they were going to be sprayed, so she got them for me. I felt a little overwhelmed, but I also felt a sense of responsibility. I had a huge jar and kept all those caterpillars fed, cleaned and happy. I didn't know what they were -- I didn't even know if they were butterflies or moths (not that I cared). They finally formed their chrysalis's, and I hung twigs in my living room, and strung up all the chrysalis's using thread, and waited. One day, I opened the door to the living room and I had butterflies every where. I spent the afternoon catching them and putting them outside. It was amazing! :)
The sad thing is if people knew nature a little better, they would know a few caterpillars in a huge mature pear tree would never hurt it. They didn't need to be sprayed. They would turn and the tree would put out new leaves. Live with nature. There's a balance.
Butterfly Stories (Please add yours too)
So true starsplitter. When DH and I lived in town in a subdivision, I tried to grow flowers for the butterflies and hummers but didn't see very many of either. That was most likely because so many people in the subdivision sprayed their yards to keep the insects and weeds out. Now that we have several acres out in the country, I have lots of butterfly/hummer flowers for the BFs and hummers and herbs for the BFs to lay their eggs on. I also have numerous trees that were planted for wildlife. I have lots of BFs and hummers now and hubby and I really enjoy watching them. When we sit on the front porch, the hummers will hover right in front of our faces to check us out. I also have out feeders for the song birds and we plant a food plot of wheat and clover for the deer. We get a special treat around late July through August when the does bring their new fawns out into the food plot. I even have a "pet" snake now. An Eastern Ribbon snake took up residence in my compost box out in my garden last year. It has come out of hibernation for this year. I leaned down to pull a weed growing close to some cilantro and there he was. I leave him alone since they are beneficial snakes--they eat insects and small rodents. I love all of nature.
I have ringneck snakes in my compost. I love them and feel privileged to have them.
Have or maintain a number of perennial gardens. Tend to feel that gardening really is about control, but you can still use (and respect) nature and not continually fight against it. I never use herbicides or pesticides. Consequently have healthy soil structure and lots of insects. Because perennial gardening is about using a large number of different plants (the opposite from monoculture), never build up significant populations of harmful insects. Think good horticultural practices mean that the insect populations tend to look after themselves. I often find myself working in the middle of bees which is very relaxing. See, from my own garden, that many butterfies pass through; the most noticeable are the monarchs that use particularly the purple coneflower. Have planted numbers of purple coneflower cultivars, but only have extensive experience with the species and with older cultivars (especially 'Magnus'). Suspect the species and older cultivars are better for butterflies and will continue to rely primarily on them.
Am rather task driven myself, but wish more gardeners would show an awareness of the things you know about on this thread.
Sunny
I have lots of host plants and nectar plants for the butterflies. It's so great to see the butterflies come and even on a windy day like today I saw them fluttering around nectaring. And to see their caterpillars is so cool! This dark female Tiger Swallowtail emerged yesterday from a chrysallis I saved from last fall! And those caterpillars only ate a small number of leaves from an ash tree or a black cherry tree. No problem. There are lots of those trees out here.
This is a caterpillar of that species, on leaves from a native Escarpment Black Cherry Tree.
Absolutely gorgeous butterfly. Thanks for helping this girl overwinter. :)
Giant Swallowtails buzz my orange tree, and if I am lucky I get a few eggs and caterpillars. They might eat a few leaves, but I get these amazing butterflies in return. It certainly doesn't hurt the tree. It just puts out more leaves after the caterpillars make their transformation. Doesn't hurt orange production, although most of the oranges I cut up for the animals and birds visiting my yard.
If people only made an effort to learn what the insect is that is eating their plants, I think they would be a lot more tollerant and less likely to grab the spray everytime.
I got into raising caterpillars here on Dave's with people like Linda guiding me. In nature due to man's ignorance with pesticides and with introducing parasidic insects into our environment, the butterflies only stand a 2% chance to emerge and live to create another generation. I am trying to improve on my methods each year. Last year I was able to bring in 46 Monarch Caterpillars; of those I released 44 successfully!! This year if I am able, I plan to tag before I release.
I have raised and released other bfs to, just by paying attention to the caterpillars in my yard, and planting the host plants they eat. My list is not long, but I have only been doing this going on three years.
Monarch
Queen
Black Swallowtail
Great Swallowtail
Morning Cloak
Varietaged Fritillary
Gulf Fritillary
Silvery Checker Spot
Each one as I typed the name has a picture that flashes in my mind of the cats and the chrysalis, as well as the adult. I took pictures last year as the Monarchs I had were emerging. Their bellies are full with fluid and after they flip out of their chrysalis they have been in for only 10 DAYS, they pump that liquid out into their wings and have to dry before flying. This picture was snapped just as one emerged and flipped downward. I dare say this pic I could never duplicate.
That is an awesome picture! :) They are such marvels of engineering.
A few years back I took a course that certified me as a Florida Master Naturalist for Freshwater Environments. I did my project on butterflies. I wanted to do scat, but the reading materials were too technical.
We put together pictures of host plants, caterpillars, and butterflies, because I find there are many books with pictures of butterflies, a few with caterpillars, but very few with the caterpillar host plants. To me it would make sense to include each butterfly with the stages of development from egg to final instar and the host plant.
I have been raising butterflies since I was kid. I have always loved insects. I even kept an injured wasp. I can bond to anything. :) I grow a lot of milkweed, and this year I hope to have a lot more butterfly friendly plants.
I have to be careful, because my obsession is carnivorous plants, and so I keep those plants and my butterfly plants well away from each other. Frogs and lizards live in the plants, but the butterflies wouldn't survive.