My daily count includes:

3 monarch cats
30 BST cats and 8 chrysalids
2 QM cats, and 6 chrysalids
2 TSW cats
10 spice bush cats
1 RA cat, and 2 chrysalids
3 PV cats
1 viceroy chrysalid
2 possibly silver spotted skipper cats
1 unidentified cat
20+ silvery checkerspot cats
1 yellow wooly bear that I found when I was weeding
and lots and lots of eggs, including VF, Monarch, BST, Viceroy, and QM.

And today I saw my first GF on the Lantana. I hope he tells his friends about my garden and the free eats!

Sandy

Wow you guys keep a variety! Are they inside or out?

I only have Monarchs, still looking for those mysterious BST eggs/cats!

This mornings count was:
9 Chrys. (10 if you count the one I just gave my mother, na, it's not here, so stick w/ 9)
1 J formation
3 5th instar
1 4th instar
18 1st-2nd instars
6 questionable eggs
2 fresh eggs

I did see my first female BST out and about in the yard yesterday, evidently I've been seeing all males. Haven't found any gifts yet though. Oh, and I think I saw my first Spicebush Swallowtail, I think, I don't have any spicebush or sassafrass around, but it was black and blue w/ white edging on the lower wings. NO yellow.

Karri

I set 10 Monarch butterflies free yesterday evening! So, so pretty! : ) Even my husband had fun watching them all fly away.

Karri, due to predator problems, I keep most of my cats inside. I do have most of the silvery checkerspots outside, and in fact, when I checked this morning, I brought 7 cats in as they seem to be disappearing. It could be the mockingbird that flew off when I approached the garden this morning. I keep the cats in a sun room (an enclosed porch), and in my kitchen. It takes me over an hour in the morning to clean up the containers and collect fresh food for them. And, some require cleaning twice a day, or new food throughout the day.

Sandy

Sandy, I raised these earlier in late June-early July. When they pupate they are the tiniest little chrysalis's. And, when they emerge, it's like they all eclose within a day or two of each other, so you have tons of fluttering little butterflies all in one cage! So funny!

I brought mine in, too, for that very reason. With all the rain we've had, so many predators out there I can hardly believe it! We never have this many predators in the garden - well, I don't.

Linda told me that these little cats are great bird food! They feed their young the little caterpillars. I also saw lots of wasps hanging out around the sunflowers, so I just brought them all in. I had probably 50 of them.

What are your Silver Spotted Skippers chowing on? I have a pair in the garden (male and female). These are like the "whirling dervishes" of the butterflies. Even the Sachems and other skippers get caught up in the dance with them. It's hard to even watch them because my eyes feel like they're rolling around in my head!

Susan

I've got more pipevine swallowtail cats and eggs in my garden and various woodland cats in my woods than I could count. Here's a list of what I'm raising in my cages on my front porch -
Gulf Frit Cats - 6
Red-Spotted Purple Cats - 2
Giant Swallowtail Cats - 2
Spicebush Swallowtail Cats - 2
Tiger Swallowtail Cats - 4
Promethea (moth) Cats - 3
Hickory Horned Devils (regal moth) - 2
Tobacco Hornworm (moth) - 1
GST Chrysalids - 14
RSP Chrysalids - 1
QM Chrysalids - 4
RA Chrysalids - 2
Palamedes Swallowtail Chrysalids - 1
Spicebush Swallowtail Chrysalids - 2
PVS Chrysalids - 5

These numbers change frequently. There are many early instar RSP cats outside, which I'll bring in soon.
MissSherry

20+ silvery checkerspot cats, eh? Where are you located, butterflymomok?

Jeff

Jeff,
I'm located just South of Tulsa, Ok, between Bixby and Broken Arrow, zone 6b. The cats were all over my coneflowers and rudbeckia. Since last evening, the count went down considerably. It was the mockingbird! He keeps close watch over all my flower beds. I may find more this evening, but I brought in 7 this a.m. I probably originally had 30+ when they first hatched out, but as they started traveling, they have disappeared a few at a time. I really didn't want all my coneflowers stripped, so I let nature takes it course, but I almost didn't intervene in time!

Susan, I'm not for sure. A weed!! It looks a lot like False Baptista, but it's not the one growing in my garden. I found the plant on a walk and there were the 2 cats, green bodies, and dark heads in leaf nests. I brought them home and have been watching them. I haven't seen any cute little faces on them yet. I figure if I let them pupate, then I can identify the bfs.

Sandy

Susan,
I just found my cats--they are common sooty wings! Well, I'll just let them do their thing.

MissSherry,
Wow! You take the prize for the most different varieties. I wish I was your neighbor, I know I'd learn a lot!

Sandy

I'm very fortunate with the big variety of cats I get, Sandy. You can add one more spicebush swallowtail cat to the list. When I was coming in from my garden, I saw one scoot across some sassafras leaves into its shelter, so I went and got my snippers and a water pick and brought it to the porch.
MissSherry

10 monarch cats; 7 yesterday & 3 today; mostly very small except for 1. I can't bring myself to count eggs or even check some of the milkweeds for more cats! This is more than I had in two months last year (9)!

BSTs - 3 chrysalises, 2 that have made their slings, 13 caterpillars.

Monarchs - 1 chryalis, 1 J hooking, 13 caterpillars, 5 eggs.

GFs - 4 caterpillars.

Daily? Howsabout monthly? Cause i dont get BF's every day.

add 3 BST eggs to my list! Oh and change the J into another chrysalis. And the chrys I gave my mother eclosed today. I think it may have OE, or something happened, I wasn't there to see. She said it came out and fell to the ground of the container I put it in. I put a stick in there for it, but it didn't climb the stick. She got it out and put it on a plant on the porch, but unfortunantly I think it was too late. One wing didn't straighten :( She was the last cat I took from outside since I decided to take in only eggs. No problems from 2nd instar to pupation. I feel really bad because my mother was worried she'd kill it, and I assured her she wouldnt because all she had to do was wait for it to eclose and release it.

Wow-I don't even know if I know really-

Monarchs-17 Chrysalis
30+eggs
27 1st instar
and about 30-40 other various stages in five different cages

10 Spicebush Swallowtails
1 Spicebush Chrysalis
1 R Admiral Chrysalis
3 BST cats
and if you can believe, I am look for more if I can find them. The more the merrier!

Aggie

I'm down to zero monarch crystalis! The last three butterflies emerged this morning (seven emerged yesterday). But I've got some third instar cats and found six more eggs yesterday, so I won't be waiting very long for more butterflies to release.

My husband actually called me yesterday when I wasn't home and gave me the butterfly update when he saw some flying around our yard--what a guy!

hello
my tiger swallow tail egg hatched today

YIPPPEEE! YAHOOO!

but it looks just like a BST hatchling, is that normaly the way they look?

lets keep the updates comming, I love reading them all.

michelle

Yes Michelle!

Susanlynne sent me a link that showed the cats, and I'm sending it on to you

http://www.butterflygardeningandconservation.com/butterfly/st/tiger.php

Mine are getting quite big and have undergone several changes. They have been so much fun to watch.

Sandy

My Zebra Longwing cats are finally big enough to count, well atleast alot of them are.
As of this AM, I had 50+ ZLWs that are white, have another 15 or so that are still yellow so they are really small.

I have 2 Pipevine cats
3 GF cats

5 GF chrysalis
2 Eastern Black chrysalis*
1 Polydamas chrysalis*
These have been in chrysalis for weeks now, way past all the others that were brought in at the same time.

4 Monarch chrysalis

This week I have released:
3 male Monarchs
2 Female Eastern Blacks and 1 Male and now aam fnding lots of eggs again!
2GFs

I also saw a White Peacock in my yard yesterday. It must have been newly emerged as it got brighter and more color in its wings as I watched it. Don't know where it came from, I have Bacopa but it has been in pitful condition this summer. I have seen a WP flying through every once in a while. I do have Reuilla but have never raised any WP on it inside.

::sniff sniff::

monarchs
10 chrys
1 J
1 5th instar
8 1-3rd instars

3 bst eggs

hay KEK19 why so sad looks like you are doing good.

we lost a monarch cat today, it fell in the water, I know I should have it covered, this has not happened to us before.
and we had on monarch emerge today and his wings were not formed right and never straitened out, I put him on a flower but I don't see how he could live.

we have two more monarchs chrys. turning black and the wings are visable, so I'm hoping they will come out ok.
michelle

hi
sorry kek19 I just saw your other post, I guess things are not going so good. but I hope they get better from here.
michelle

Wow, what a day! Hubby and I were out in the backyard late this afternoon. He wanted to take a nap...ha! I was out looking at the garden, just checking on things. I spotted a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar-1st instar-and had to run in and get my camera. Then, I spotted a Gulf Fritillary 1st instar! Woo-hoo! I'd released a dozen healthy Monarchs earlier in the day. Gulf Frits were finally fluttering about along with the Cabbage Whites and of course, the Monarchs. All of a sudden, hubby said, "I see a GST!" I ended up switching lenses three times and took some awesome shots. Here's my fave. The butterfly was way up high in the Mexican Flamevine. I had to get my 300 lens in order to get a decent shot, and even then, didn't think I got one. (I got three!).
{{gwi:506084}}

No new cats, but I released a Red Admiral (my first one)and 3 Question Marks today. The Red Admiral took off, but the QMs hung around all day. It was cool. I also had one of my brown BST chrysalis hatch. So it was a 5 butterfly day, I think that's equivalent to at least a 5 star day!

Sandy

I now have 11 beautiful Monarch Chrys. Still have that 1 5th instar left, and one more of the lil guys survived the night and are mowing down, total of 9 2nd-3rds and 1 lil tiny Monarch hatchling joined the world today. And I think 2 of my 3 BST eggs are about to hatch. They've turned dark, and I see a little black spot on both. Unfortunantly, I went 1 day w/o watering my parsely I bought, and I think I killed it! Gave them a good drink, moved them to some shade, hopefully they'll recover by the time these guys hatch. So all in all, things are looking a little better for me today!

hello
had a monarch fluttering around looking for a place to lay her eggs yesterday. about a week ago I dug up some very small milkweeds ( about 7" tall and only 3 to 4 leafs on each )and planted them in the new planter I made to keep the milkweed from wandering. and today there are eggs all over these tiny plants. I don't want to cut the leafs off to bring in the eggs, then there wont be any leafs on them.
So I quess I'll wait till they hatch and try to VERY carefully scoot the cats off the leafs. Mommafly must be very hard up for egg sites for her to lay them on such tiny plants.

and my tiger swallow tail is doing great, but I did loose 3 of the BST cats I found at the nursery, 1 had a maggot like thing comming out of it, and the other 2 had little cacoon things on them. I removed them and the cats died soon after.

on a higher note we relesed 2 monarchs today, I just love watchng them fly away, but I worry about them so much. :)

michelle

hi
me again
today at the lake I found 3 ( well I found more than 3, but only took 3) viceroy cats on a tiny willow growing right in the shallow water at the edge of the water.

I now have 14 monarch cats and 2 chrys.

we have 2 BST cats and bunches of chrys.
Question: why do some black swallow tail chrys. hatch out in 3 weeks or so and others still have not? are the ones that have not hatched dead or just a little slow? or will they hatch next spring?
any help would be great.

have a great day
michelle

Today was a butterfly day. I found two more RA cats in shelters, four more leaves loaded with QM eggs, 13 PVS eggs, AND...................3 GIANT SWALLOWTAIL EGGS!

All the eggs are in containers with a damp paper towel, to be watched closely until they hatch, and then fresh food will go in them. The remaining BSTs are going to have to eat fennel, parsley, and zizia. The Rue goes to the GSTS!

Susan

One of my Monarchs eclosed today, not good, I think it has oe, been euthanized.

On a positive note, all 3 bst eggs are hatched, they are so cute!

I did see my very first Giant Swallowtail yesterday! I stepped out onto the deck, right into his flight path, just missed my head, but the stumble slowed him down enough so I could get a good look. Also saw several male BST fluttering about, and several Monarchs laying eggs in my yard, which worries me, we haven't had any rain or anything since the orchard sprayed.... Speaking of Monarchs, there's 2 fluttering about my window, feeding on my BF bushes right now.

I also took a couple cuttings of Swamp milkweed at my sisters, gonna try and root it. I was very careful not to take any w/ cats on it, but ended up with 2 eggs.

hello
I have one more to add to my cats
yesterday I went out to water and noticed my new trumpet had NO LEAFS, and I mean no leafs. the vines are only about 7 ft tall and now they compleatly naked.
so I looked and looked expecting to see dozens of little offenders but nothing, I kept looking and finaly found a HUGH fat green horned cat.
I looked him up and I had no idea there was a trumpet vine sphinx.
now I'm going to have to find more trumpet vine, I don't know how much bigger he will get he is about 3" now.
have a great day everyone
michelle

Michelle, I raised a plebeian sphinx (trumpet vine sphinx) last year. They are kind of cool looking with the blue horn. Bill Oehlke posted my photo on his website. You probably had more than one if your entire vine is defoliated, and the others have already pupated underground. You will need to put about 3-4" of soil in the bottom of your container so he can bury himself when he is ready to make his cocoon.

Susan

2 Monarch successfully eclosed this morning! I even got one on video!! (can we post video on gardenweb?) It was the one that I couldn't hang back up. I was feeding the others and noticed her move, grabbed the laptop! So fortunantly, since I was standing there, I was able to get her off the ground and hanging right away. She's beautiful and appears perfectly healthy. The other is a male. I have 2 more chyrs. that have darkened and will probally eclose this evening!

On another note, I've lost 2 2nd-early 3rd instars in the past 2 days. It appears to be canabalism, each time I found only 1/2 a cat. It's odd cause I don't usually have that problem, it happend w/ my very 1st 2 cats (2nd instar caged w/ a 4th, didn't know better then) So my count on the lil guys is back down to 8.

LOL right as I hit the final submit button on the last post, I looked up and #3 swung out! 3 successfully emergered Monarchs in one day! I'm feeling much better about all this now! #4 is now completely translusent, any moment now!!

Today I'm too lazy to list all my species. All the basic common butterflies for my area are finally in town, though none of them are abundant. Since this spring, my most abundant butterfly has been the Variegated Fritillary. Over the years, as my Passionvine patch expanded, my Variegated Fritillary population rose. I have had at least a few of their chrysalises on hand to show people every single day since about March! The most recent arrivals include a few Monarchs who left me eggs that hatched two days ago, Gulf Fritillaries who are still so few that I've only found one cat, and a single Red Admiral adult that I saw yesterday.

OMG what a busy week, butterflies eclosing all week, 17 Monarchs, 3 GF and 2 GST, and 2 sulphurs this Morning, I have so many that I lost count, I'm so happy and enjoying the them all, I really don't mind all the work.

Released 7 monarchs 4 female, 3 male over the past 2 days successfully. One more eclosed this morning. My one 5th instar that survived the poisoning pupated successfully yesterday. So I have only 4 more to eclose. Well that's until my lil guys, that aren't so lil anymore start pupating, they're mostly 4th instar now. Oh and that milkweed I brought home from my sisters, I ended up finding 4 eggs on it, and yesterday I decided to trim most of the leaves, so it can concentrate on rooting, well I missed one, found a lil guy munching away. It's never ending once you start is it? LOL

Ten baby Monarch cats hatched yesterday. TEN! That's in addition to the Monarch cats I already had, and all the eggs that have yet to hatch. I can't wait to total all my cats at the end of the week after the rest of the eggs have hatched.

hi
I'm up to my ears in monarchs now, I keep finding them on the honeyvine in the lawn and everytime I bring home milkweed home for the little ones to eat I find more eggs on them. my larger monarch cats(6) are pupating.

my 3 viceroys all pupated, but one fell from the leaf, he still wiggled when I picked him up, so I carfully put him in a cup in the cage.

in the last 2 days we have releced 5 BST, and today there was a handicaped (missing part of one wing)BST laying eggs on the fennel that finaly recovered from being munched by the BSTs that eclosed this week. funny :)

I'm still babying my 1 tiger swallow tail cat, he seems to eat kinda slow. but is growing.

thats all for now
michelle

Two monarch eggs found on Friday, and 20 mystery orange eggs on unknown weed. That's it for the season so far ... but I'm psyched to have 'em.

Oh, and my daughter and I ordered 5 Painted Lady cats in the mail and raised them in early June. But that's not the same :).

Jeff

Who am I?

{{gwi:506085}}

Jeff, please show a picture of the weed and tell us if it's annual or perennial, if you know, or any other clues. That will really, really help. Thanks:-)

I saw two monarchs yesterday following each other (is that the mating ritual) a EST and several skippers.

Since my Thursday update, I've found 11 more baby monarch cats and freed 3 monarch butterflies. My neighbor saw a swallowtail a few days ago, so I'm crossing my fingers for more swallowtail cats soon.

from Kenora, Ontario, Canada. We've released 155 Monarchs into our garden, all raised indoors from eggs and 1st instars collected from our garden. Monarch season seems to be over so now I'm trying to learn about OTHER butterflies in our area. The area/zone is a problem however, because so many of your posts are from farther south where you have very different butterflies. I'm still very interested in all the posts and will work my way through them.

hello
our 1st ever viceroys eclosed and were relesed today, they are so adorable, regular little mini-monarchs! :*)
michelle

Over the last two days I have released 30 Zebra Longwings. Still have a bunch all now in chrysalis. So far all have been healthy. Most have taken off, I see a couple pairs chasing each other but haven't found any new eggs.

Now have two Pipevine in chrysalis and 3 Gulf Frits in chrysalis, 2 Monarchs, and the same Eastern Blacks and Polydamus as before.

Welcome freddieh from Kenora, Ontario. Your release of 155 Monarchs is very impressive. One thing I have learned in my short time on the forum is that there are different species for every area. It's great to hear about the different BFs raised and released. Thanks for joining us and sharing.

OKSandy

Hey, I really had to search for this thread!!

Well I'm down to 3 monarch cats, 1 5th instar, 2 3rd. WHOOHOO!! 7-8 chrys. Haven't collected any new eggs, orchard just sprayed again yesterday, so I'm assuming it's safe to mow the lawn so I can get some safe milkweed again. Well I'll probally check for survivors first, I know a week or so ago there were all kinds of eggs again, but I just didn't have the food to bring them in. I have one cat I've just been keeping an eye on, living on my butterfly weed, he should be off to pupate any time now.

5 of the 6 BST's I brought home have pupated, one working on it. And still have the 3 lil BST's who are starting to eat like crazy!

I'm glad for the semi break though. I don't see how some of you raise so many monarchs by feeding individual leaves!! I much rather use plants in vases! Being left w/ only my butterfly weed to feed was insane! 3-4 feedings a day! And yes, I even did the middle of the night feedings on occasion! I didn't even have that many cats!

6 swallowtails today on the butterfly bush at one time. And a bunch of skippers. I guess I should check my parsley!

This week I have released another 2 dozen Zebra Longwings. I have a few more left and now am gathering the eggs laid by those that have hung around.

I released a female Pipevine today and have another chrysalis.

There are Polydamus Swallowtail cats of all sizes on my Pipevine. nearly every leaf or stem has some on it. I counted 23 tiny babies on one leaf the other evening.

I have been seeing a male and a female Spicebush hanging around. Have the 3 tiny cats and 1 egg. I think one of the cats ate the leaf that the other egg was on.

I brought in about a half dozen Eastern Black eggs and they have hatched. Gotta find mor dill or parlsey!

Lots of Gulf Frit cats, I leave them outside as they do fine on their own.

hello
we have relesed 10 monarchs in the last few days, and there is one more ready to eclose today, and 7 chrys, and 8 big fat cats.
there are 6 or 7 BST cats just hatched on the porch, and I still have several BST chrys still to open, they are very old about 2 months, are they dead or will they still open some day?
I just found QM cats on my new hackberry trees YAY!!!
and have seen lots of TST in the yard.
I have lots of violet but have yet to see any cats on them, my book says there are lots of frits that like violets. is there a trick to finding them?
later guys
michelle