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kathy_bochonko

Where are the butterflies?

20 years ago

This April I was so excited by the number of butterflies in the garden, now I haven't seen one in a couple of weeks. Anyone else notice them disappear? My butterfly weed is even starting to bloom.

Comments (13)

  • 20 years ago

    Yes, and I have 6ft fennel flowering. Usually the swallowtail caterpillars would have eaten it down to the ground before now. There were some in April, but not a single one to be found now.

  • 20 years ago

    It seems like we had this same proplem last year too.
    It's been so dry, have you added a butterfly water station? I'm going to do that today. My buddlia are just about to burst into flower and if that doesn't attract anything then I'm really going to start to worry!

  • 20 years ago

    I just saw a black Eastern Swallowtail on my yellow buddelia that just bloomed. Maybe they are coming back.

  • 20 years ago

    See an occasional Viceroy, but none other. The Whites and Sulphurs, so prevalent earlier, have disappeared. Guess I should have left the clover growing in my "lawn".
    Rb

  • 20 years ago

    Honestly, I think they've been barBqued.
    I've been working in the yard for 30 minutes, I am dripping wet. In that 30 minutes I have taken 3 water and AC breaks. It says 90 degrees out.

  • 20 years ago

    It is my humble opinion that in the desire to have a perfect lawn, flower, garden or what have you, (not you personally) that people have gone to the extreme of killing off the good bugs along with the bad ones. We see just a fraction of insect life in our area now, compared with the numbers that were here 30 years ago. I was shocked last year when we visited a friend in NW Georgia who lived out in the country to find her yard full of butterflies, bugs, bees, and birds. It made me realize what is happening to our natural environment and it is not good.

  • 20 years ago

    I saw a Tiger Swallowtail hanging out today, it made me feel much better, unfortuantely I also saw my first 2 Japanese beatles, which means the neighbor is going to dust his entire yard with Sevin any day now so that isn't going to help the situation.

  • 20 years ago

    Yeah April was good for butterflies but we haven't seen many of them in the past few weeks either. Got verbena, butterfly weed and lantana blooming but only saw a few of the smaller butterflies on them. Just a few weeks ago we had so many monarch caterpillars they ate the butterfly weed down to the ground. I think they've coccooned and are about to emerge. I predict scads of butterflies will be flipflopping around shortly.

  • 20 years ago

    Did your Tiger Swallowtail look like this one?
    {{gwi:820755}}

  • 20 years ago

    Monarchs are migratory and the ones we saw earlier dropped their eggs and moved on. They usually reappear coming back down south in late summer. Or they may not be the same ones.

    I usually get more and more as summer goes on. Last year, I was gratified that the gulf fritteriaries completely denuded my passion vine that was threatening to take over my porch.

  • 20 years ago

    I saw a number of them today, different kinds, after I turned on my sprinkler. Maybe they were thirsty?

  • 20 years ago

    I was also out watering and had a few black swallowtails follow me. It's been very hot out, perhaps they need a shower.

    I also saw one buzzing about my parsley. Laying eggs, perhaps?

  • 20 years ago

    SO I'm still only seeing the very occasional butterfly. In previous years, the butterfly bushes and lantana and other things were just covered with butterflies but now I might see one a day. Seems like there are less bees this year too, but plenty of wasps and hummingbirds.

    Are you seeing lots of butterflies? Why are there less butterflies this year?

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