New Thread for Daily Pictures
We came from http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1337932/
My last butterfly of the 2013 season. A beautiful American lady basking on a cool afternoon at the River Valley Nature Center. It got cold here early and I only get shots of snow, ice, birds and berries. Looking forward to Spring butterflies and flowers.
By the way, all you folks in the deep South and Mexico need to keep us snowbirds fed with lots of butterfly pictures this winter.
Thanks for the new thread. :)
I have 4 eggs I just brought in today. My milkweeds have not re-grown yet. They are just beginning to put out new growth. If I should need an emergency shipment of milkweed leaves, is there anyone that still has some?
I am just sitting here watching this , all frozen up here ,,
Steady l You might ask even as there are a few here , your southern gardening folks on those community threads . Just in case ,,
A few things to redo concerning mine here when spring returns , I am not getting many BF's anymore .. going to take some changing , digging .. not my favorite part gardening ,
Hard to beat sipping tea and sitting in the sun ,with the BF's watching the blooms .. ^_^
Thanks for the new thread shorthog. I agree with you, those further south than me need to keep some pictures coming. After the freeze we had there are none to be found around my house.
No plants here Marty, we had solid ice for three or four days, killed everything I hadn't brought in. The MW I was going to snip and root is no more. I do have a GST that I brought inside with some Rue still eating. They do over-winter so it will be ok I think if it makes a chrysalis.
This message was edited Dec 23, 2013 9:22 PM
Ju I did as you suggested and posted on the Texas forum and someone fairly close to me says she has plants in her green house. I think Im covered.
Hey !!! allright !!! Something worked !!! LOL ^_^
Glad to hear the welcome news for you steadycam3
Jan
Hey ya steady , Hows the Mustard , ? And MERRY CHRISTMAS ^_^ To you and all here !!!
Great news on the MW Marty!
Why fewer Monarchs are surviving the return migration video
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec13/monarch_12-24.html
I have 6 eggs now. I wish I knew how to take clear photos. I have the little flower on my camera that I can select and once in a while, I accidentally get a clear photo but I never know How I did it. I would like to show photos of my eggs and when they hatch.
Here are 5 of the six. The ones on the seed pod came out fuzzy. They are the oldest and probably will hatch first.
Nice video vitrsna! Glad they seem to be turning around the logging of the forest they use in Mexico. Hopefully it won't be too little too late.
Great that you are getting on board with protecting the Monarchs Marty.
I have 4 teeny weeny caterpillars!!
Cool !!!^_^ Is it "Larvae Love ?" lol
Thank you for pics earlier also ...
I think so, Ju. They are just so amazing. The leaves the eggs were laid on were yellow and beginning to dry by the time they hatched for two of them so I had to entice them onto some fresh leaves. Two of the ones on the seed pod are still there. I have three eggs that have not hatched yet.
Sheila...the logging in Mexico has not been the primary problem, and the Monarchs are not considered to be endangered here. It is the migration to Canada and the US that is endangered because of the heavy use of of pesticides and especially herbicides (by the US) that have destroyed so much acreage of nectar and host plants there. Also, the herbicides that are used for the genetically modified foods you are growing there are designed to kill everything but the crops. Good grief, you are even loosing your bees. Genetically modified foods are not grown in or even imported by Mexico. I agree that it is great to see Mexico replenishing the Oyamel forests but unless the US does something, you will likely continue to see fewer and fewer Monarchs migrating there. Possibly colonies of Monarchs will appear in the far southern regions of the States. People in the States are often quick to blame Mexico, when they should be taking a look in their own backyards. :)
That is referred to as "The Blame Game " isn't it ? Both are and have made mistakes ..
Were also the ones that killed most of the Buffalo and had been the first to use "The Bomb""
Kind of makes one long for "those were the days" when smuggling Raid , Black Flag, and DDT, was the argument of this category of argumentation ..
Anyway we have all killed more BF's than mosquitoes ( Guilty ) lol ???
Most are more concerned with; Immigration
Mass murder
Terrorism
Economics
Global Warming )or extreme weather
Humanities (Save the Humans )
Fun Huh ? ^_^ were Nuts Kiddo !!!
Really though , probably we will only be able to save as many of the Monarchs as we averaged with Buffalo . Something that is though , (sigh)
This message was edited Dec 27, 2013 9:28 PM
Most of you farther south really seem successful this year though , one egg , no larvae , is all that I had this year .
More larvae than I saw Monarchs for 2013 you all have individually ..
A few Red Admirals , Black Swallowtails , Cabbage white , was about all I saw Hatch.
2011 saw 50 species here , and 15 species of larvae also , BIG difference ...
Good luck Steadycam3
It is most definitely pesticide use, construction, fires, floods, hurricanes, & etc. That article said the illegal logging was no longer a problem, and forest were being replanted, which is great for that area. I agree if they don't do something in the US, they can't expect them to make it to Mexico.
When I first started raising butterflies and studied the different parasites that kill them. I saw an article from TAM University promoting the tachnid fly to farmers. We all know they don't die, and don't stay on that acreage where they were released. Now I see in the video they are studying the Monarch in TAM labs. Maybe they can come up with a genetic way to help them.
Sheila...I sure hope you are not talking about genetically engineered Monarchs?
SUPER MONARCH, bigger than the American Bald Eagle. Ha.
It's never just one thing is it. It's like the perfect storm of bad things for these creatures. Remember the terrible rains a few years ago in those Mexico forests?
I'll have to check my data from Butterfly monitoring to see if there are any trends the last 4 years besides BAD. 2010 was a good year. Last summer not so great but the year before was terrible.
I decided to post some pix from 2010. Miss them!
My 4 babies are a qtr inch long now. I can see them without a magnifier. chomp, chomp.
Wow Mrs. Ed...can you imagine the size of those caterpillars?
Yah, Talk about some Chomping!
Oh no, not meaning that....LOL! Just meaning the parasites that lay eggs in the caterpillars. Figured they are working on something to have so many caterpillars there that were in that video. But hey if they could make the Monarchs resistant to pesticides, that would work too!
Why not work on the herbicides and pesticides? To develop more organic and less lethal ones? Are we not smart enough to do that? More Monarchs is not the answer if they don't have anything to eat and/or plants to oviposit on. That seems the obvious focus to me. We don't need more Monarchs, we need more safe habitat for them (and for us)...don't you think? This would take care of your bee problem too. Of course if we are going to grow all of our food and plants in petri dishes...hey, who needs bees?
Computerized , purified , synthesized , pills and capsules .. No raw food or live previous for ingestion or consuming .
Five mineral supplements , decorated in fun colors , three times a day , for meals ..
Hey ,, Mr and Ms Spaceman ,, good grief .....lol
Of course if were still here , people , ya know .. We will all be enhanced automatons anyway ,,
So you all want to live forever ???
Barbaric joke ....he , he ., but not funny ... ^_^
Apologies , I know ,, we were talking Butterflies though , weren't we ?^_^
Vitrsna is quite correct -- we've been shaking our finger at Mexico for cutting down the oyamel trees at the same time we genetically modified crops allowing them to be sprayed with pesticides and have devastated milkweeds in the process. Monarchs get all the press, but this has hurt many other invertebrates as well. One thing I liked about this PBS clip was that they mentioned that the monarch is NOT endangered. That's something that almost always gets lost in the story. Monarchs are one of the most opportunistic species of butterflies on the planet. When pressed by a knowledgeable reporter, the scientists in the forefront will grudgingly admit that the species itself is not at all threatened -- that it's the migration phenomenon that is in trouble. Monarchs themselves will outlast us all.
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Thanks for weighing in Dale and for "getting it". Your comments are much appreciated. I've seen Monarchs eclose in the morning during a rainy season and hang from the Aereca palm trees in rains and storms that i couldn't stand up in, thinking through the night that i would wake up in the morning to find dead Monarchs all over the garden, but they always survive...strong little buggers. Beverly
As said before about the Buffalo comment , they will or would be some ,(Monarchs) As for migration us here in the north won't be seeing them or as many for the time being if the migration comes to an end .
Farther south does not see the migrating Buffalo anymore , Northern states still have range Buffalo .
Reverse the north , south same thing with the Monarchs ...The bf's are still going to be there farther south ..
About the trees in the winter hibernation or breeding grounds , Keeping the old trees was the argument to keep the BF's from freezing during a few cold nights . Having to keep a canopy cover being the thing .
As far as pesticides ,, I don't believe that is as big as habitat destruction (thus with my own eyes have seen happen )
People win the use for now of former habitat (a no choice reality thing ) .
Win a few, lose a few " has to do for now ... reality ... p...u....
I forgot ; etc I agree with both of you ...
This message was edited Dec 31, 2013 3:01 PM
Well, since things have been slow...I have a couple of sightings from a week or so ago. My normal lens broke...I am not as happy with the other lens I have, but they are actual live butterflies!
Have a great New Year and hopefully I will have some more visitors soon.
Russell
Dale, what does it mean, "it's the migration that is in trouble"?
Dale can correct me if I am wrong. I think it means that there will be local pockets of Monarchs, but many of them won't be making the large migration that we are accustomed to seeing. We already see it in deep South Texas and Florida where we have Monarchs year round. Many of these individuals aren't migrating to Mexico. They have found suitable habitat where they are and they are staying put. Behaviorally, they are changing their patterns...possibly because they don't need to move as far to find fertile grounds...survival of the fittest could be at play here. If it is safer to stay in South Texas where there are plenty of plants I need to survive, why would I travel hundreds of miles to breed? Creatures are opportunistic, and over time behaviors change...maybe those who don't migrate outnumber those who do in the future. That builds on itself and suddenly, the migration is over.
Russell
Thanks, Yakmon. I understand. I wonder what that might do to the mixing of the gene pool. each local group would be limited. I am supposing that the migration to mate would be serving the purpose of increasing the diversity of the pool and thereby strengthening it.
Of course if and after all that takes place,, We might see them again in the north. Like Buckeye and several , that short migrate , Probably because of their huge numbers .
All insects are opportunistic .. agreeing again aren't I . .. Like mosquitoes , You only see them in wet warm or hot weather here ,, Farther north and out west from the coast to Alaska , their big enough you need a gun or steel bug swater to knock those down or out ..and their about almost all the time .. It is not always the cold that stops them .
It does not always make sense to category learned .. we will see though , won't we ...?
Update: I have 6 tiny caterpillars now, one is looking like he's approaching 1/2 inch!
