Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 13, 1 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Continued from:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/755524/
What a week this has been! I see by all the new threads that the butterflies are booming! Some ups and some downs..
It was pretty sad to go out the other day and find my perfect little Buckeye had eclosed, wings together and dried.. but it didn't make it. Hopefully I will get another shot at raising them. That was a ripper!! I am wondering if the stink bug had actually harmed it,... oh well!
On the upside, I had about 2 dozen Black Swallowtails placed in the big hamper to eclose. 1 eclosed yesterday, and today 10 eclosed!!! I had raised them all inside smaller containers and gladware, kept them clean and fed and safe from predators. So far 99.5% success! I kept a couple of them out of the main eclosing cage bc of abnormalities I noticed, and even one of those 2 eclosed. The other one in quarantine had a small black spot, so it is still separated, not eclosed yet. The rest of them (about 13) will be eclosing all this week.
Besides the BST^, I still have about a dozen of 4 other species almost ready to pupate. Among them are Gulf Fritillaries, GSTs, Monarchs, Silverspotted Skippers, and some others out there in the garden with a lot less help from me, doing just fine.
Feel free to keep using this thread for posting any daily pics you have.
:-D
Here are 5 of the 10 Black STs. Today 8 males and 2 females ... couldn't get them all in one shot