Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 57, 1 by mwperry

mwperry wrote:
Very interesting, Sheila. Those companies purport to have beneficial insects, but they certainly are not beneficial to our cats, are they. I won't trust anyone selling such now. Thanks for that vital info. Of course, there are companies selling lady bugs. I recently read that imported lady bugs won't stay the season through. But if they lay eggs, their offspring will hang around forever.

Do ya'll remember my telling about the two chrysalises I put in my garage to keep them cold in hopes they would not eclose this winter? Well, please note: I WAS WRONG. It is as someone posted above that some BFs might be programmed to emerge after a certain amount of cold time. That was right. My Eastern Black Swallowtail emerged three days ago. I panicked and did the only thing I could think of. Put her in the GH. It is terribly cold and there are no flowers to be found. So, I scrounged up juicy bits of nectarine, grapes, and butterfly brew that I made last summer. Neither the nearby local nursery nor Walmart nor Lowe's had any flowers. My little BF lived on my concoction alone for two days.

A flash hit my head today. Kroger! Yep, they had a variety of flowering potted plants for Valentines. Being unsure which had the best nectar, I chose Kolanchoe and daffodils. They worked. The BF got busy with her little proboscis and drank and drank and drank! She like both plants. I sprinkled tiny drops of water on the Kolanchoe flowers, and she loved that too.

I must tell you that for some reason she cannot fly. She flaps her wings and that raises her up a little, but not enough. She loves me. She can't wait to hop on my finger when I approach her. Perhaps she knows her food with follow!? Anyhoo, fate has it that she will live out her life in the GH. Someone said BF's only live two-three weeks.

Enter -- "Patricia, the Black Swallowtail"!

Martha

This message was edited Jan 26, 2009 7:48 PM