Want to share my latest interest!

This picture was taken Sept 5th

And this taken Last night @ 5:30.

Chris, what are they?

They're Monarch's aren't they? Great shots! I've never seen one up close & personal ~ just in NG or something. :-))

Thanx for sharing.

Joey

Joey, you are correct. Probably the last for the season. I started late but now I'm hooked for next year.

Here is a picture I took at 3:15 pm today. The one on the right just finished the change, and I missed it. darn!!! I'm hopeing for a butterfly by Sept 12 / 13.

Gees, too bad you don't have time-lapse photography. That would have been great! But at least you still have the difference! Great shot! :-D

Joey

That would be cool ! I saw a bit of the first one changing, reminded me of a lady wiggling into a girdle. LOL I have always seen the catterpillers on my milkweed but never seen them change or find the crystals so I decided to try raising some in an old fishtank that my daughter had a pet lizard in a long time ago.

Just need to feed them fresh milkweed till they change and watch the magic.

That is so cool!

Here's some photos that show the whole process.
http://www.butterflybushes.com/monarch_metamorphosis.htm

I didn't realize they were only a chrysalis for 9-14 days.

Thanks for posting the pictures Chris. Monarch larvae eat only milkweed, right? This is a very considerate butterfly!

The only caterpillar that I recognize is the larva of the black swallowtail. I sacrificed a lot of parsley and dill, before I started growing anise. Anise is huge, decorative, lasts all summer and comes back on its own every year. Now, whenever I find black swallowtail caterpillars, I just move them over to the anise. They're happy and I'm happy.

Wow Chris - You sure have your hands in to a lot of things. How interesting, but I am not much of a bug person. I do love the end result of beautiful butterflies.

I had to rescue several butterflies this summer. Last summer I purchased a greenhouse from my local Sam's Club. It is mainly a hard plastic, play house type of set up. We have had problems with the doors warping and not closing correctly. I haven't used it for greenhouse purposes, but as garden storage.

Well, since doors on both ends of building have just sat open all summer, the butterflies would fly in and then get confused and try to fly out of clear windows. Early on, I saw evidence of a couple of them who had been caught in spider webs in the corners and died.

On the mornings that I would see live ones in there just battering themselves against the window and making no progress, I would come to their aid and try to catch and release them. My dogs would usually make me aware of a live butterfly by their barking at them.

They are very hard to catch without a net. I was able to buy a net when I visited Harpers Lawn Ornaments a few weeks ago and that has worked well. We have been very lucky to have an abundance of the beauties this summer.

Thank you for sharing another of your interests with us Chris.

Ruby

dayli, You're right about the milkweed, I leave some wild milkweed growing in my yard just for them. And they live my butterfly bushes when they are butterflies.

I don't have many Swallowtails around looks like and other project for next year. LOL

Ruby, good for you netting the trapped butterflies, and give the dogs an extra milkbone for sending out the alert.

Chris

Dayli- thanks for the Anise tip. I have fed lots of parsley and dill to those guys.
Lady- paraphrasing --"-if you plant it they will come"- parsley, dill fennel or anise. I get them every year . But I've grown common milkweed for a dozen years and only found one monarch chrysalis. and don't find the cats very often.. P S I also have atotally flat yard. Isn't it boring?

just checked plantfiles. now I'm confused. I have florence fennel.for the first year. is that anise?

Hi Sally, I just checked the plant files too. I think the anise that I have is the one also called florence fennel. Mine looks like the picture by ulrich--it doesn't have the fat bulbs at the base (those are what I've always thought of as fennel.) I got my seeds from a friend of my mother-in-law and she just called the plant anise. I've grown it for about 3 years and been very happy with it. It self seeds (not invasively) and looks just like dill coming up but if you pinch a tip of the folliage it's easy to tell the difference--that strong licorice smell!

Dayli. I like the smell of licorice, do you have any seeds to spare? DMail me, I'll send a SASE or you could trade for 4 O'clock seeds

Do you use the fennel for cooking also, if you do how?

Chris

I went to a local State Gamelands last evening and managed to find around a dozen monarch cats. I put them in my butterfly cage with a couple of milkweed I dug and potted and my wife took them off to the local school this morning. I've been doing this since my kids were in grade school. I only have one kid left in senior high school now but their former teachers still ask if they are going to get any caterpillars each year.

Hey ladygardener...........I've been to Albion!


early_bloomer

Hi Early, Going to the fair? Been to, by and past Springboro many times.

Chris, I think that what I have is the herb form of fennel without the nice fat stems that vegetable fennel has. I've clipped some of the folliage to use in salad and I've used the seed in cookies, but to tell you the truth, I'm not a big fan of licorice flavor. ( I never eat the black jellybeans.) The last couple of years I really have grown this plant just so that I can save my parsley and dill without starving the black swallowtails. I haven't saved seed this year and I've already tidied up that part of the garden. But I do have a little seed left in a bottle on the spice shelf labeled '04. I'll send it to you if you want. Just d-mail me your address. It should still be okay to use.

Thanks so much for the Monarch transformation link. I had one change yesterday and I missed the whole thing! It happened in less than 2 hrs. I had no idea that what you see once they pupate is actually under the skin. I alway thought that the hanging cat just morphed into this little cacoon. Does the last sheded skin fall off or is it absorbed as part of the pupate? I'll have to look on the bottom of my cat cage to see if it is there. So in 9-14 days, I should have a new Monarch.

BTW, this is my first year seeing Monarch cats around here (about a month ago). I've always seen the butterflies but never the cats - just the EST ones. I've had milkweed planted forever and it looks like it is finally paying off!

Joining in a bit late, but thought I would share with you some things that happen in our neck of the woods-Chesapeake, VA. I have grown parsley for several years specifically for the Eastern Black Swallowtails, and last year added fennel for the beauties. I always thought it odd that there would be many large caterpillars on the plants and then later that afternoon or the next day there were all gone. One day as I was watching out the window, I saw a pair of Cardinals hopping and swooping around the fennel (which is about 5 feet high), and watched--in horror--as they consumed the fat green caterpillars ! So much for my helping out the Eastern Black Swallowtails! However, it's just another part of the life cycle, and I'm sure that they don't get every caterpillar.

I may decide to grow milkweed and try to lure monarch next year. Maybe I'll have better luck with them? LOL.

This may be good time to mention that I used cheap netting from the fabric store as bird netting on my blueberries. (The black netting was always stuck on the twigs and pulling berries off, and even caught a bird's leg once, so I had to cut it to free the bird) The netting at the fabric store was 72 inches wide, and lighweight. I draped it all over and clothespinnd it together.(my bushes are only about four feettall) Also used it to surround hollyhocks, and seemed to keep the groundhog from eating it further. I might even sew it into kind of a bag next year to go top down over some plants. Comes in lots of colors, green blends in pretty well and I thought it would disguise the ripe blue berries. I guess with butterflies, you'd have to put it on when you see the cats and take it off to get eggs laid....well I don't know how practical that is after all.

Need to update: The crystals that are in the above pictures remained that way for a long time, About a week ago the oldest one fell off the top, I found it at the bottom of the tank, I thought that maybe it was a gonner since the weather had gotten quite chilly at night. It looked alright, but I had my doubts. Tuesday I look at it before going to work and it was a really dark color, I figured this was it, it was gone. Then I got home yesterday I noticed that it was moved and on futher inspection I spotted my butterfly. Lying on the bottom!!!!

I put my hand in thinking it was dead, but it climbed on my finger and walked around, part of it's wings are stilled folded over, I placed it on one of my butterfly bushes that still have blooms on it. Hoping it will be alright.

Last night we had some heavy winds and 2 1/2 inches of rain, I was concerned. When I left this morning it was not quit daylight and still raining. So I could not check on it. I looked after dinner tonight and it is in the same place I left it. Alive and looking like it did yesterday.

I hope we get a nice sunny day tomarrow, that's what it really needs right now. He is the last of the season so the odds of him making it are slim, but it was so heart warming letting him walk on my hand and seeing him today.

Chris

I hope that he servives. And I'm glad that you were there to "pick him up". :-)

Last one "hatched" When I got home I found this.

He/She is perfect

Released to the butterfly bush, I will be away all day tomarrow. This is the spot where the butterfly will get the most sun tomarrow. And hopefully enough energy to fly.

Chris, I certainly hope you have sun for him/her. At the moment we have rain. It is supposed to clear up by this afternoon, tho. Today is Fall Festival day around here ~ 3 of them. Have a Great week-end!

Joey

Joey, I went out to look for my butterfly today, it was flying around visiting the few flowergroups left on the buttterfly bush. We had sunshine yesterday & today so that is good. These days have been beautyful!

I will be looking forward to next year so I can help more of these beauties take flight.

Chris

And I'm not going to cut down any more milk weed, so I can have some of those beauties! :-))