Interesting butterfly behavior

I'd love to see a story about a butterfly enthusiast who gets into an altercation with a cat-killer at a nursery, then the black-belt butterfly person uses karate on the idiot and knocks him out. Not likely to happen...and you're right to avoid a confrontation, not worth being laid up in the hospital! But as far as HD itself, you're very fortunate it's selling cat-safe plants. I've heard of many butterfly people who bought milkweeds at a HD store, brought it home to feed to cats running out of food and those plants ended up killing all or most of the cats. Pesticides and Bt, you know. Not a problem at the local HD's here, as they never sell any milkweeds. One time I drove over 50 miles from here (one way, not round trip) to get cat-safe milkweed when I was running low! The only possible time that running out of foliage is a problem now with the number of plants I have is during peak fall migration. I very rarely get any Monarchs laying eggs here in spring and the Queens during the summer don't lay very many eggs. BTW, a scientist once captured a female Monarch butterfly in spring and kept in a butterfly-friendly lab equipped with lots of milkweed. It died after 18 days, having laid 256 eggs during that time.

sounds like a good story Linda......so, Becky, how do you look in a cape?

Wow...256 eggs, that's a lot!

What we do for the cats! In the summer, I posted dmail to Paige....begging and groveling for mw when was low, luckily she sent me some and didn't give me a hard time. I hope to have plenty this year, if that's possible, it might just be an impossible dream...more plants mean more eggs mean more cats.

Linda - You are right about the milkweed being pesticide free. That was a concern whenever I buy them. But there are a LOT of butterfly enthusiast in the county I live in. (Just not in my neighborhood.) I think HD customers request that they be pesticide free. So for HD to sell them, they better be! A good sign is always seeing plump healthy cats on them! :-D I try to grow my own from seed whenever I can. Then I know they are chemical free.

The scientist monitoring a female Monarch is neat! I am not surprised she laid so many eggs. Just from what I have found in my yard, I knew it was a high number. 18 days seems about right for the Monarchs I have locally. 2-3 weeks as a butterfly seems to be the norm for those that are mating. I have heard that migrators live a lot longer. Months! Amazing!

Sorry to hear that you have to drive so far to get pesticide free milkweed. That's a bummer! Do you grow them from seeds and cuttings, too?

Another good sign is aphids. If I see aphids, I know they are safe.

Maggie

New thread >>> http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/678306/

Becky set up a new thread... here's the link y'all, LOL!

This message was edited Dec 16, 2006 7:07 PM

Oh thanks Deb! Forgot to add the link to the new thread. lol