In St. Louis, I don't see Buckeyes until mid-August.
By that time it's probably too late to get them to lay eggs.

I believe they migrate up from the south, so there's probably not much you can do.

I have seen them laying eggs in the country - outside St. Louis, but never in the city. Penstemon is also a host plant for them, but again, I've never seen that happen.

Cathy,

I had Buckeye cats on dwarf snapdragon last year. I don't know if it will happen again, as the buckeyes can be very unpredictable. Plantain is a good host plant. You will need to keep it in an area where you don't mow as the BEs feed during the day and quite often, can be found at the top of the plants. My experience is that BEs may find you one year and then skip several years before returning. I'm hoping for repeat business this year, and I'll let you know if that happens.

Sandy

I planted some plantain in a small plant bed, but I have not seen any cat in it (although I found one cat wandering on my property..) and I saw some buckeyes flying on top of the grass he other day but this is not consistent.

You might already know this .. I found this info just in case you have not...

Adult food:

The adult buckeye butterflies favorite nectar sources are composites including aster, chickory, gumweed, knapweed, and tickseed sunflower. Dogbane, peppermint, and other flowers are also visited by them for nectar.

Habitat:

Buckeyes prefer open, sunny areas with low vegetation and some bare ground.

hope it helps

Cathy, I never see buckeyes in my small suburban yard.

But when I worked a the nursery, we had an large open area in front of the store that was mowed frequently. It was sandy and dry and mostly scruffy weeds and crabgrass. I would often see buckeyes there.

I also see buckeyes behind a nearby church with the same conditions..a frequently mowed, crabgrass, weed-type area.

I've even seen one at a beach with nearby open fields and trees.

I seem to find them in these areas with sandy soil, dry and open, which is also where the plantain likes to grow.

Maryann in CT

PS, is it Spring there yet?

I have seen the Buckeyes on my lavendar, and on lantana that was planted in the very front of my yard in the grassy areas. They are kind of an "off and on" again butterfly that I see lots of one year, and none of the next, in my urban garden. I think they use several different host plants, including plantain (used mine last year that you sent me), and the snaps. I got some dwarf snaps this year, per Sandy's experience with them, so will have to take a "wait and see" position on those. In Judy and Wayne's book, she states that they prefer the dwarf snaps over the tall ones.

Good luck with attracting them!

Susan

hello

{{gwi:451846}}

this honey-comb butterfly bush was very popular with the buckeyes last year, and merigolds at the community garden had many BE, also my tall sedum in the fall almost always had a buckeye on or around them. I have not had any cats though I have had snapdragons every year.

michelle

So far this summer, I've found buckeye cats on butterfly bush, lantana, and Verbena bonariensis. On the Verbena, they were usually right up on top of the flower cluster, eating off the flowers. Once they finished those, they'd eat the stem down to just a nub. I haven't seen any yet on the sedum (which according to multiple sources, they use as a host plant). Last summer, I kept finding them on my 'Husker Red' penstemon.

Their tastes do seem to vary from year to year!

Cathy, contrary to them needing bare ground, their favorite (and only, actually) host plant around here is agalinis fasciculata, which is parasitic on the roots of grasses - this would explain why I only find it growing among grasses, I imagine. They reportedly use a great many other members of the snapdragon family as hosts, plus several other families, so if you can find out what their local favorite is, then you could plant that. If it's agalinis or several other snapdragon family members, then you'll need grasses, since being parasitic on them is a characteristic of the family. I found cats this year on the agalinis up by the main road - my last one just pupated in the cage with the gulf frits.
Here's a picture I made last year -
{{gwi:457794}}
Sherry

Anybody notice something weird about this thread?

The only thing I saw was that all postings were on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays... ;P Is that it?

It's that the last post before mine is dated July 5th, 2008. Now it's really strange that a post with a most recent date of 7-5-08 would pop up in 2010, but a lot of posts are missing from that date forward since we had been discussing Buckeye host plants as recently as last week. Velly strange........the Village gremlins are at work again.

Susan

Hmmmmm......
Sherry