I guess I have to "import" the Gulf Fritillaries

Sheila and Deb - That's awesome that the 2 of you got to meet up for a visit. And Deb is so nice to share a bunch of her cats with Sheila! That's Deb!!!

Greenie - Most cats are piggies. They can devour an entire plant in a few short days! Which is why some folks grow the host plants in and among the nectar plants. That kind of hides the missing or chewed up plants. I have been in your shoes plenty of times buying more plants to feed them.

Here's a photo of several of the GF butterflies that emerged yesterday morning. I released more today. I just open the top of the cage and away they flew! It made me think of pretty winged fairies going out into the world to spread some magic and drop some fairy dust on everyone! :-)

This message was edited Jun 2, 2007 7:09 AM

Here's a close-up of one of them. I always release them on my fabric bathroom shower curtain to take photos and then let em go outside! They do like to show off their new pretty orange wings! :-)

Brilliant Becky!!

What a marvelous sight!

:-) awwww

Thanks, Deb! We do love our newly emerged butterflies, don't we?!!! :-)

Here's a photo of the side view of the wings. (This is a photo I took a month ago of another GF.)

I have a dozen GF chrysalids in the hanger box now.. They should be eclosing one by one any day now!!

Yes!! We sure do love the new wings! :-D

Oh Becky, those are so pretty....love the fairy metaphor!

How do you get them back in the cage to release?

I released 4 of my BSTs and I tried and tried to get a picture before they flew, but they were so excited....and within a few hours after they eclosed. I couldn't get a pic....they were up and away too fast, but so beautiful.

I hear that Roxanne! Sometimes they are too fast...

I magin it would be a challenge taking up the corners of the shower curtain to carry them outside....Do any get loose in the house Becky? Bet that's fun! LOL

Do any of Ya'll ever "freeze" them to get a picture? I learned about this when I had to repair some broken wings last year. You place them in the Freezer for 3-5 minutes.....NEVER LONGER! Then you've got 1-3 minutes to photograph them before they "wake up". I had a BST that came out the other day with a bad break in his wing and I used this technique so I could "operate". It works well!

Adrienne

Speaking of fun... My SIL is here with us and building me a deck for the new Gazebo in back!! Whoohoo!
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-4/qid=1180797406/ref=sr_1_4/601-4010893-3018501?ie=UTF8&asin=B000J1X8MC
It has sheer curtains all around not shown in pic...
:-D

Rox, Deb, and Adrienne - I close the bathroom door. There is not too much in that room for them to get hurt on. I just hand place them on the curtain and start snapping (quickly) because they either start walking up the curtain or fly off! LOL. Putting them in a dark closet works too. They go to sleep and are disoriented when I quickly take them out for photos! I have never tried the freezer trick. And I have never replaced a broken wing. You'll have to share some photos of that procedure with us Adrienne! I have heard about doing that, but never tried. Do share with us!

Deb - Your Gazebo is going to look lovely. Our neighbors here have one very similar. Really nice! We have looked at them, too. But with the possibility of hurricanes, we opted not to get one. Enjoy yours! It will be nice to sit out there at night. Some solar tiki lights would look great on the paths in your garden. My son got some for his backyard and it sets a great mood in the evening! Just a suggestion! :-) I hope the deck goes in easily! Can't wait to see some photos of it all! Love your backyard ideas!!!!

I have and evergreen pv growing on the rail to the bridge across my pond. It has had many gf cats this spring. They eat and eat and eat and then crawl up to the fence rail to pupate (?) Sometimes they disappear after a few days and I'm left wondering if they emerged and flew away or something got them. I've wondered if I should try to protect them with netting or bring them in or what. You guys are obviously very experienced at this and I'd love your advice. Right now I have at least eight hanging from the rail. How long does it take for them to emerge? Is it the same for all? I have some swallowtail cats on my bronze fennel.

Thanks,
Linda

One of my BSTs has pupated overnight and the other 3 are currently starting to hang. Woohoo...the countdown is ON!!

Linda,
When they vanish is the old,empty cocoon still there? If not then some kind of predator has gotten them. I cut the vine and bring them inside or put them in a cage. I'm not sure of the pupation time but don't worry someone else will chime in with more info!

Adrienne

Hi Linda!
The same thing was going on here, so I began collecting Gulf Fritillary chrysalids and runaway cats after that. I believe birds were grabbing them.. Wren, Robin, Grackle, Mockingbird, etc..So I built a box frame and put screen on all 6 sides. When detaching them take all the silk they are atached with. If necessary I cut some of the surface they are on in order to get the whole cremaster. Tie unflavored dental floss, or any fine durable string and tie them to the roof or a bar in the cage. Many kinds of container/cage will do, they just need protection, a good space, and a way to climb and hang to dry their wings. The slick sides of plastic or glass reptarium will not work. They can not climb and their wings will dry all bent or curled.

When I say 'runaway' I mean those large enough to pupate that wander off the vine. They are finished eating and will pupate dern near anywhere. The rail sounds great..:-) to a frit! When I collect wanderers, they usually pupate within one day. When they are hardened and safely hung in a cage, they take about 10 days to morph and eclose.
Hope this gives you some idea how to work it, let us know what you end up doing, how it goes..etc.

:-Deb

Yaay greenie!!

This message was edited Jun 2, 2007 5:01 PM

Sometimes it is hard to get all the cremaster and instead of trying to tie them up another way I can lay them in the bottom of this cage. When they eclose they climb up the screen sides very easily to dry their wings. I am expecting any of these to all begin eclosing any hour or day now..

:-)

Well, looks like a new project for DH. He built a marvelous bumblebee house this spring, so I'm sure I can talk him into an enclosure for the cats/pups. So all the pups are hanging from the wooden bridge rail. If I use a knife and take a sliver of the rail off, sounds like I should be safe. My neighbor and I, who spend a lot of time standing on the bridge watching the goings on of the pond, have seen two gf's laying eggs on the pv in the last few days. Looks like we will have a continuous supply of cats. May not have many blooms on the pv because they seem to like to eat through them first, but that's OK. I'd rather have the butterflies. I have another pv, this with blue blossoms, growing on the other side of the bridge which will soon add to the food supply.

Sounds great Linda,
Nice of DH to build you a cat cage! How accesable is the rail? I have found that when they are easy to get to the silk can be scraped gently and the whole silk detaches, kinda like peeling of a sticky label. If I can get to it with my fingernail this works really well.
I'm with you on blooms vs bf's.. Sometimes they leave some to bloom on the bare vines, but I don't mind them eating the flowers. They are the sweet part of the plant!

:-Deb