Butterflies have very short lifespans.They love to sit and absorb the sun.he could have been recovering from his entrance into the world or been wind whipped a bit. I raise them and they can be quite friendly often flitting about my head as I garden and they love to fly close to the hose when Im using it to get the mist(not the whole force)it is very entertaining!Thank you for not using chemicals.The poor butterflies have to deal with so many predators out there and poisons to boot!Please click on photo and check out the slideshow of Bflies in my garden
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this is the grandson releasing one.He had one that landed on his face and wouldnt leave. i have that photo somewhere
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Oh, Goldenpond! Your butterfly photos are wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing that link. I have GOT to get me some dill and fennel!!

I raised 75 monarchs for release 2 summers ago, but haven't had so many this past year. Milkweeds didn't thrive, so neither did the monarch cats! I have some new milkweed now, and I'm hoping to get it well established in my butterfly garden. I love that you raised so many different kinds! It's really fascinating, isn't it?

Thanks again! Your slide shows are always fun to watch!!

Marcia

Give your dill plenty of room to grow as mine got almost 6 ft tall.It was looking all yellow and scraggly so I thought of pulling it out.THEN I noticed it was COVERED with caterpillars.I figured those mama butterflies are so smart.They know those yellow,green and black stripes hide really well in the yellowing dill. I trimmed it back after they devoured the tops and the plant is greening up again bushing out and covered with moretiny cats. Bronze fennel is another must!
Glad you like the slideshows.I like to put them at full screen and de-stress!

Golden, what great photos! Just beautious! The look on your grandson's face is priceless. I have never seen any b'flies on my Gerbera. I gotta plant more!

Nice pics.....I just wanted to make sure that there was nothing I could have done for it...other than move it out of the wind :-)

I had a deformed butterfly one time that I brought in the house. Once it was born it fell to the grass, I freaked. It appeared that one of it's wings did not completely form. I nursed it ovenight. I actully let it loose in my screened lanai at the time and it tried to fly, but alas, by morning it died. Amber made me feel better by telling me, not everything in nature is perfect, and I probably gave it the only love it had in it's short life...sniff*

Sorry...I an ignorant on most but a few butterfly types. The pictures you posted are great. I have those in my yard. What the heck are they called?

goldenpond
absolutely gorgeous

I need to ask, where do you get the caterpillars of butterfly eggs to raise them?? I would love to raise some down here.

Plant it and they will come!I have not purchased any.
Saintp-The two in the post are black swallow tail. If you click the pics and check out the other shots in my album you will see many others. I think I have named them.
nytrinigemini I hope you don't think I was ignoring you I am just sooooooo pleased that you and others care about butterflies in the garden!
Yes some are born deformed or diseased and some just get tattered and all get old and die.I am sorry about yours.
The most important thing again is to not use pesticides . Unfortunately your neighbors may still.
You can plant for one type or for many the caterpillars all have different needs.
Dill,fennels,and parsleys are the faves of swallowtails.Remember this means the caterpillars will EAT your plant so plant enough for everyone. Milkweed for monarch cats. Passion vines for gulf frittilaries and zebra longwing.
The butterflies all seem to enjoy heavy nectar plants and flat flowers like zinnias. TALL red pentas and verbena bonariensis are a favorite. The red admiral in the slideshow was drinking sap from my dying Laurel tree.Check out the Butterfly forum and FAQ here for tons more info and the IFAS website.There is sooo much to learn about them but I find it the most fulfilling of all gardening because my garden is alive!
Good Luck!

goldenpond...no need to fret...i did not think you were ignoring me :-) I enjoyed your pics and since no one said moving the butterfly was bad I figured it was okay....she didnt make it though...I found her wings in my garden this morning....DH says I killed it by putting it in the garden so predators could find her? You think hes right?

GoldenPond, those are stunning pics. I'd love a screen saver of those, too.

boy, Golden...I agree about the garden being alive...am in the process, right now, of extending my butterfly garden..it's one of the happiest areas of the yard.. amazing what an additional few feet can do! Your pictures are amazing....inspirational!!!

nytrinigemini -Do you own a rolling pin? Find it and use it on your hubby's head!OK don't really hit him but at least chase him around the garden with it so he knows not to lay another guilt trip on you again!LOL!
Predators can take a perfectly healthy butterfly midflight. And they really enjoy a fat and sassy caterpillar for lunch!Like I said their lifespan is so short.That is why I try to help them out and get larger numbers of them. Nature can be cruel out there!Some people will look at my serene ponds and say wow this must be so relaxing.
Sometimes,,,,and then there are times when the hawk is divebombing the ducks and the crows are attacking the hawk and the blue jays are after baby mockingbirds and the frogs are screaming because the black snake is eating him!
You get my point.We should try to protect these creatures but alas no matter how hard we try sometimes they just won't make it. Some of the Monarch rescuers are to the point that they wash those itty bitty monarch eggs in bleach,collect them and feed the cats until they are butterflies and THEN release them. I guess I am not THAT dedicated but I will bring in caterpillars and feed them if I see numbers declining.But I won't bring in EVERY caterpillar. It is alot of work!Realize that some will be deformed or sick just like we humans and some will be eaten.
But when the numbers are up and nature is taking its course you can just watch them reproduce and flourish in the habitat YOU provided!

Can you tell me what type of catapillar this may be? I have several on my purple Passionvine that are orange colored with what looks like black spikes coming out of them? Are those Gulf Frittilaries?

Also, on another plant (forget what it is called - a shrub with yellow flowers), I have a long catapillar that is green with other green stripes. (I realize that's probably too generic of a description, but thought I may get lucky...). These green catapillars are definitely munching the heck out of my plants.

I can't tell what will be a butterfly or what is a destructive moth. Any ideas?

Thanks!

SaintPfl, your orange & black spikey cats ARE gulf frits. If you see similar ones on the passionvine that are white & black, those are zebra longwings. The other one might be one of the sulphurs on a cassia, but I've never raised those, so don't know for sure without a picture.

Goldenpond is right. You can't save EVERY caterpillar, nor SHOULD you. Other things are supposed to eat them. A certain percentage of them must go to keep the birds, lizards and wasps healthy, too. Those animals have jobs to do in nature, and butterflies normally produce enough larva to feed them and still have cats left to reach adulthood. Because their populations are stressed, though, raising and releasing some is a really good thing to do, I believe. But you can't save every single one, and as I said, you shouldn't even try to. Nature intends for some of them to get eaten.

If you live anywhere near Lukas Nursery, they have a great butterfly area and sell nifty little containers for raising the larva. They have loads of host plants and lots of info available.

If you check your milkweed, passionvines and other host plants over, you can often find the larva there already, and you can bring some of them inside to raise, ensuring that at least those will reach adulthood. It's a wonderful process to watch.

Good luck!
Marcia

saintp

Here's Gulf Fritillary cats and butterflies at my place.
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Awesome! Thanks for the info and pics! See...I knew you guys would know this! :)

That is exactly what the cats look like so they must be the Gulf Frit! Wow - they have spikes! How interesting! What's scary is that people who do not know the difference, could mistakenly kill those, thinking that they are the insect that eats oleander to the ground. They look similar.

Marcia - I bet you are correct (and thanks for jogging my memory on my plant name...cassia). I do have a lot of sulphurs in my yard too - and the occasional zebra wing.

Differnt topic: is there anyway to post pics straight from your hard drive or do we have to load them on photobucket or shutterfly everytime.

I always find it hard to post photos out here which is why I hardly ever do it. :(

You need to upload your photos to Photobucket and then copy and paste their code into the body of your post. It really isn't too hard to do. And there is something so cool about opening a post and seeing colorful photos right there, in "person!"

I'm glad I jogged your memory on the cassia. That's what it sounded like to me. Hope you continue to see lots of cool butterflies in your garden. There was a red admiral tonight under the eaves by my front door. Don't know what it was doing there?

Marcia