Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Have birthday Miss Sheerrryyyy.
Happy birthday to you.

No wonder why you have so many butterflies. Just look at that peaceful beautiful stream.

Edna

Happy Birthday : ) I hope you had a wonderful day! I wish we would get some of that rain here in Georgia! We have had some sprinkles but not nearly enough. I have had to take plants back to the store and can't have a fall garden b/c there is a total watering ban : ( Your stream looks and sounds so peaceful. I also have chrysalids(7 BST's) it has been warm and humid here. They cocooned themselves at various times this past week,I have them in a plastic shoebox and I am wondering if I should put them in a small refrigerator or just keep them in my basement? Also, there is 1 chrysalid that is attached to the side of the larger container that I originally had the cats in, can I remove it from the side or should i just leave it and put it in the basement?( but not in the fridg b/c the container won't fit) How cold should the chrysalids be kept? I don't want them emerging too soon, this is my second batch ,the first ones didn't make it b/c I didn't have organic parsley( I used Bonnie brand from H.Depot but NEVER again!) Any advice is greatly appreciated, i want these babies to become beautiful butterflies in the spring : ) Thanks,Toni

Happy Bday, MissSherry!

The stream is wonderful. You have such an incredible place to live and raise all kinds of BFs and moths.

One question. It's been a while since I had GFs and I have GF chrys everywhere. Won't they overwinter? I vaguely remember having the chrys through the winter before, but I'm not positive as to whether they eclosed in the spring. I sure hope they do!

Sandy

Sandy, I've never been able to overwinter gulf frits as chrysalids - they always turn black and die regardless of whether I keep them in the house or on the porch. Of course, when I keep them in the house, it's always in an unheated room, because I don't see the point in having a butterfly emerge at a time of year when it can't survive. Interestingly, several years ago when we were having a warmer than normal winter - I think we had Zone10a temps - three gulf frit CATS overwintered! There were some leaves still on my p. caerulea, but the cats pretty much ignored them until they started making new growth, when they started eating again, pupated, and emerged in early spring!
Toni, we're just on the very fringes of the drought area, lower than normal rainfall this year, but nothing serious. I've been seeing and hearing about the water crisis in the Atlanta area - terrible! I wish I could send you some of this rain! You can move chrysalids by scratching around them until you detach the silk - then you can lift them off without damaging them. I've never known anybody with a basement, so I can't recommend or "un-recommend" keeping them there. I've read or heard that they tend to leak, with water seeping everywhere, so I assume the humidity is always high in a basement. You'd think chrysalids might dessicate under those conditions? I don't know. I think it's important to keep them somewhere dark and cool or maybe even cold - I think light is just as important, maybe more important, than temperature in determining when they emerge. Once winter has set in, I keep mine in my unheated guest room with the door closed and the blinds drawn - once my cats have all pupated, I'll move them there.
I love listening to the sound of water trickling, Edna, so I enjoy being in the bottom of the hollow when the stream flows. It's only 52 degrees now, and it's 10:35 a.m. - I don't think it'll even make it to 60 today!
MissSherry

While I was out picking up sticks in the woods, I saw this spotted apatelodes/apatelodes torrefacta caterpillar. Last fall I found a white one eating a wild azalea - this one is yellow and is eating sweetbay magnolia.
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I found pictures of the adult, and they look very much like sphinx moths - interesting!
MissSherry

Hope that you had a wonderful Birthday, Miss Sherry. And, many, many more to come. You are such an inspiration to all of us here on the Forum. I'm sure that the rain was much welcomed on all of the newly planted seedlings that you've been working so hard on.

I am impressed that you've gotten so adept with your new camera! Cool video of your stream.

And, such a very interesting pic of a wooly caterpillar. Very striking and unusual.

Sandy, Gulf frits are tropical. They can not overwinter in our area, unless we have a very unusually warm winter. They repopulate each spring. I have tons of cats and chrys., also. And a few Varieg. frits. Most of my Pipevine crys. have emerged. I've only got a couple left.

The fuzzy little caterpillar is so cute! Thanks for the advice on my BST's. We keep a de-humidifier on in our basement so I hope it won't be too damp. I will keep them in a dark part of the basement. Wish me luck : )
Toni

Thanks for info Linda.

I have one Pipevine chry that has settled in for the winter. I have had them overwinter in the past. I have 4 Spicebush chrys and numerous BSTs. So, I will have some BFs come spring. It looks like the season is slowing down and coming to an end. I didn't have any Monarchs yesterday.

How sad for the GFs, as I still have numerous cats and chrys hanging all over the back of my house! I remember this happening before, but couldn't remember if any made it until spring. The VFs seem a little smarter, as they quit laying quite a while back. I haven't seen my GSFs come back through this fall. Don't know if I just missed them, or if they went somewhere else to oviposit. I planted a lot of violets just for them!

Sandy

Don't GSFs overwinter as eggs, Sandy? I'd be careful with the violets in case you missed one, and there're eggs on those violets! :)
I've got lots of giant and pipevine swallowtail chrysalids, a few spicebush, several palamedes and tigers, and it looks like I'll be getting several more palamedes chrsyalids from the present cats.
I've also got 7 buckeye chrysalids. I've looked it up, but none of my sources say how buckeyes overwinter - anybody know?
If looks and feels like winter here - I haven't seen the sun in days, and the temps have been consistently in the mid to upper 40's at night and 50's in the day. We've broken low temperature records down here - maybe we'll have a cold winter?
MissSherry

Happy belated birthday! And many returns.

Fall is struggling to come here. We just got the first measurable rainfall in a while -- 3.5"+ !!! (Coulda used 1" each in Aug., Sept., and Oct., but we'll take it). Our temps have been in the 50s-70s, and my zinnias are still putting on blooms. It's the eve of November. Wow.

Have a happy fall!
Jeff

MissSherry,

I think that GSFs overwinter as caterpillars in the earth. I'm not sure. I know that in the spring they really chow down on the violets, but you can never find the cats, as they eat at night. I'll just have to wait and see if any show up in the spring.

Sandy

The weather is perfect here, so I've been out planting Virginia snakeroots in my woods. I went to the coast yesterday, and the gulf frits and cloudless sulphurs are everywhere!! They'd fly over the cars on Highway 49, nectar on the flowers at Lowe's, and just generally be ever present.
One of my buckeye chrysalids emerged this morning - it flew out of the cage before I could make a good picture of it, but it was the typical winter form buckeye with the dark undersides. There are 6 more buckeye chrysalids in the cage - I don't know whether they'll all emerge this fall or overwinter.
I'm down to 1 pipevine swallowtail cat and about 5 palamedes cats - there are more sulphur and gulf frit cats outside on the cassia and passionvines. When the porch group have all pupated, the cages will go in the house, and I'll do my yearly fall porch clean-up.
While I was doing some work in my garden, I got a picture of gulf frits nectaring on Mexican flame vine. This is just a small portion of them - I couldn't get all the Mexican flame vine group in the picture, and there are many more of them nectaring on the still blooming porterweed, pentas, salvia guaranitica, and buddleia. I also saw my first butterfly - a gulf frit, naturally - nectaring on my new sweet almond verbena plant that's still in its pot. I like the smell so well, I think I'm going to plant it by the front gate of my picket fence.
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MissSherry

What a great Fall picture! Those GFs are wearing the right colors today. Or maybe today is just their day to be in style.

I have to get some MFV and SAV for next year's garden. The SAV sounds wonderful.

Sandy