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http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/962703/
I am sure hoping we have a lot more butterflies this year. Still getting over the slump, and a few personal events. Definitely on the up-side now.
Good news is I received a brand new computer. Looking for a fresh start all the way around.
Already getting BST eggs. Here on Bronze Fennel...
Linda, that is an interesting moth.. I found one also but since my camera isn't digital y'all have to wait!! hahahaha
not much at all to be seen here yet...
debnes..good to have you back... how large is your fennel & where have you plcaed it in your garden? Would I just buy a fennel bulb or seeds? I am having a hard time finding the plant & I want to grow it in a container for the butterflies.
Hope to contribute some pix soon, but so far I've seen nothing. I have a puddling area all ready and collected some nice wood or a bait station… Hoping for a Mourning Cloak this year.
I hope you get one, Mrs_Ed! Those are pretty! One of the GST eggs hatched...yay! I saw a cute little green butterfly (or moth)....but only had time for one pic and that didn't turn out right at all. It was cloudy and windy, so hardly any butterflies around today. Two more moth cats made cocoons today.
Hear ya about the wind Linda... Hard to get butterflies to light. I love your cocoon pics in the last thread.
I was thinking the same thing when I put out the bait MrsEd, Mourning Cloak, lol.
Cindy, All the herbs for BSTs were planted last year, because the fennel and parsley are very hardy here in north TX. I put them right in the ground in the host bed. I let the parsley go to seed and replant itself. The fennel plants look like they are the same ones from last year, as the have thick stalks above the root line. They are all over 2' tall. The green fennel was from seed I bought from the spice section of the grocery store.
Nice Duskywing nanny!
The only plants I absolutely have to have in pots are the citrus. And yaay! They are all coming back.
Here is one of the Lemon blooms..
Thanks for the ID!!
I need to get some green fennel. I have started some of the Bronze from seeds.
Alright Deb... It isn't fair, I am south of you and my parsley is 3 foot tall and no BST eggs yet!!! Also not a Monarch in site on my MW.
I did get to raise a few Varigated Frits this year though. I put out the bait and got the Question Marks and one Tawny to come around but didn't stay long because of the wind.
LOL Sheila, I am still in awe about your Vfrits. I meant to ask you~ Which pansy you fed them on?
Cindy~ Have you clicked on the icons at the bottom of your home page. Or to the right column where it says "Go Gardening". Call the numbers and see if they have any herbs in stock. Calling ahead really saves a lot of gas and time.
This year in September we will have to remind everyone here to get the herb seeds in the ground, or even small plants of them.
It is still early in the season, and my parsley is already making stalks which will flower. I think I will cut those off and place them in a cage with wet oasis foam. (I can't toss them because there have been at least a couple egg laying events, and I don't want to lose any cats.)
Trimming the flowers off will keep the plant going bushy and full with foliage. As soon as flowers are sent up, the plant uses all of it's energy to make seed instead of foliage.
In late Aug or Sept the plants can be allowed to go to seed. As they brown and dry they can be pinched and sprinkled about in the bed underneath the mother plants. This is such an excellent way to propagate. Any extra seedlings can be dug up the following spring and spread out 12" or shared with others..
Looks like it's going to be another windy day, and maybe some rain, (I hope).
We saw a BST today !! Flew by while we were sitting out on the porch..... yeah!
WOW. Did you have some in chrysalises still? Be sure to check them!
I have a few and I'm checking them every day. The dill seedlings are barely up though, so I don't know how soon to expect them to eclose.
I actually have 3 chrysalids now, 1 bst, 1 skipper (of some sort), and 1 gulfrit... been watching them.
LOL Deb, I meant Nanny. You know, up here in the cold states! I think I have 5. I can't remember. I've been worried that they might eclose before anything was ready for them.
It still have the one and I keep checking it...but I did open the back up so if I forget and it ecloses, it can get out. I do get distracted this time of year!
My dill has hardly sprouted too. But the wild Queen Ann's Lace is up almost 2ft in some spots!
This message was edited Apr 27, 2009 8:17 AM
One of my 2 GST cats. Just think, this little "bird dropping" will be a big beautiful butterfly...if it survives, that is.
And the last Polyphemus Moth cat...it was the smallest one, hatched later. I keep telling it it's big enough to start making a cocoon. But so far, it won't!
Yesterday, I spotted what looked like a PVS butterfly doing that thing they do when looking for host plants on the front of my property. They just seem to light on plant after plant, probably testing them with their feet. I told it to go to my yard where I have pipevine plants, but it didn't, as far as I know. When I came back with my camera, it was gone. There was a VF out there also. We've had a pretty windy spring, hard for the butterflies to fly in that. But on the other hand, we've been blessed with rain lately! I checked the drought map and our area is looking pretty good again!
Oh....I found little cats in folded or rolled-up leaves of my Velvet-leaf Mallow! I'm really hoping it's the Texas Powdered Skipper cats. Might be...there was 2 kinds of cats on my mallow before. One was a moth cat. If I could just remember what the moth cat looked like...then I'd know which this is.
Nice cats Linda!
What is your Polyphemus cat eating?
It's eating Texas Red Oak leaves now. They had started by eating only liveoak leaves, but the liveoak pollen was getting to me, so I started giving them some of the other oak leaves.
another little cresent the other day.....
Sweet pic nanny, though I am certain it is a Sulphur, would need a dorsal view to be sure exactly which one.
Linda do you have a long list of host plants for Cecropia? (fixed, lol)...I am the lucky recipient of 22 eggs from DonnaB. I know I have several on the short list, but curious what you have on it.
Debnes
This message was edited May 1, 2009 7:07 AM
Yesterday I caged the first batch of Black STs, and this morning the last of my overwintered Black ST eclosed . Finally a female...
The Frit came out yesterday...
Caught a Cabbage White still for a moment yesterday.
DonnaB in MS sent me some of the Cecropia Moth eggs to raise....so stay tuned!! No they don't look too impressive right now but wait, the cats get about 4 inches long!!
That's cool! I'm really glad you two get to raise these moths! I have these sites bookmarked. There seems to be plenty of host trees they use, which really should help normally. Mine just came along too early in the year to have many choices at first. Besides live oak leaves and red oak leaves, there were also a small group of cats that I switched over to cedar elm leaves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_polyphemus
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/polyphemus_moth.htm
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/polyphemus/polyphemus.htm
Thanks LInda!
Awesome sites.
Cool Sheila, You got yours too :-).
Nice little CW!
This message was edited Apr 30, 2009 6:12 PM
Oh I think you are right...gotta brush up on my BF's!!
That's cool nanny! We're always around, and love seeing what you have to share!
;-)
Josephine got hers too. I heard from her today.
Haven't heard from Dale yet.
Cecropia eggs Deb not Polyphemus lol
Had a bunch of SweetBay Silk Moth eggs hatch today and dang if I can find the Sweet Bay Magnolia tree. I put in some new growth leaves of regular Magnolia which they ate a little off. Put in some Black Cherry a little while ago to see if they will take that.
Thx Donna... I haven't been all here lately. Thinking one thing and another comes out. Maybe I got caught up when Linda mentioned Polys, lol. Criminy!
:-
Wooohooo, congrats Sheila! Please post pics. to share. Donna I'm looking forward to hear what your 'lil ones will eat with great anticipation.
Still looking for a l-o-n-g list of larval hosts for Cecropia... Came across this very detailed pictorial...
http://www.wormspit.com/cecropia.htm
I'd definately want to rear some of those awesome caterpillars! I'm praying too I'll be blessed with grandkids to show them those. Fascinating god's creatures!
wish I had mailed the eggs to you now Kim.
Oh Thank you, Donna. I was just having many plans and was undecided. Now I know a trip to Maryland visiting family is in order some other deadline to meet, comes June I'll be focusing on back home project then. Thanks for the kind thought and offer.
Oh BTW; where are all the bees this spring? I've seen very few butterflies around for nectaring, I've all kind of nectaring plants / hostplants just beckoning for visitors. ^_^
Well, I must join in the fun, as Donna said I got my Cecropia eggs yesterday, I am very excited about them, I plan to feed them from my huge Arizona ash tree, so i shouldn't be short on food.
I am also raising about 50 Polypemus moth cats right now, oh my goodness, what a mass of cats, they eat incredible amounts, luckily oaks are readily available.
Those of you within driving distance are welcome to come and get a few cats, I have plenty to share.
Josephine.
