Patty,
Several of us were volunteering at a plant sale yesterday in Dallas and we were remarking on the same thing! I don't know what's up, but it's happening here, too. I miss 'em!
Newtotheyard

I was working a garden tour today and saw lots of bees in the garden I was at. The homeowner had anise hyssop, catmint, Mexican oregano, St. John's wort, dame's rocket, dianthus, and lots of other wonderful plants. Bees are attracted to purple and blue toned flowers, so there were plenty there. We did see a black swallowtail flitting through and in my garden I have swallowtail caterpillars. I think the butterflies are just getting started. Give them another month. I think someone complained last year about this time that they had not seen as many butterflies. I think we remember seeing lots of them later in the summer through September, but sometimes we have to wait a little while for them in the spring. I garden for butterflies and hummingbirds too and have had a few butterflies, but not like in the fall. You know how it works - plant it and they will come, but you have to be patient.

I have seen one bee and hardly no butterflies here yet either but plenty of hummingbirds. I wonder if the wierd weather is affecting them like it did a lot of the wildflowers?

I have a lot of honeybees and numerous butterflies, but as Denise pointed out, I think there will be more later. We had more cool nights in May than normal, so it has delayed a lot of things a bit.

You know, that's true - I haven't seen nearly as many this year. I planted pansies specifically for the fritillaries, and I didn't see a single caterpillar. I hope they're just delayed.

Lots and lots of both down here.
Jim

I have fennel and parsley planted for the black swallowtails and have not seen a single cat yet. It is a wierd year.

Pam

From the replies, it sounds like lack of butterflies may be a varied condition. I was mainly interested in our area thinking it had something to do with the spraying done over the forest / woodlands. Perhaps it's something else.

We watch the fennel closely for eggs and cats so we can keeps the birds from getting them.

Last year the fritillaries devoured our first passion vine to the point I feared they'd kill it. So far, we've seen only one.
We miss them terribly!

It's a great way to think: Plant it and they will come.

Thanks for your comments. I didn't know it was so widespread or varied.

Patty in the Pineywoods of East Texas where we were just blessed with much needed rain today.

I had a customer in today who talked about this very thing and her conclusion is, what with the deluge of webworms last year, everyone ran out and bought BT and other organic and non-organic caterpillar killers and inadvertently killed quite a few butterflies. I think she's probably right. She gardens for butterflies and is quite the expert. I've seen quite a few bees, but not so many butterflies.

That makes a good deal of sense (re: webworms). Most of my flowerbeds are full of butterfly plants -- both nectar and larval sources -- yet I've seen very few butterflies so far.

Carla in Rowlett

A friend and I were contemplating this very thought the other day. We've had few butterflies here in houston and fewer there in falls county. I think it's just an off year.

Give them a few more weeks and you will see plenty of butterflies. My passionvine was eaten to the stems the first year, but since then has been very prolific - everywhere! But we all know about passionvine, don't we?!

The increased spraying of pesticides and Bt last year might be part of it. And also I saw more butterfly diseases showing up last year....maybe that happens more when there's a lot of rain in the summer. I also haven't seen a single Black Swallowtail caterpillar on my host plants. But I have seen caterpillars of some other butterfly species. One thing I've noticed is that the butterflies aren't showing up in my yard as much as usual and they don't usually stay around long when they do come by. I saw a Giant Swallowtail today and it didn't even stay in the yard for a full minute. I don't know if that's because I have less blooming plants (because it's hotter than usual!) or what. As for the honeybees, that "colony collapse" disease is cutting down on them a lot.

Back in the 50's and 60's they use to spray for skeeters. We use to have tons of fireflies now there are none in town.
We are speading out so far and wide that spraying for insects we'll see less and less of our good insects.

The following is a recent article posted on the GW Bee Forum from the British paper The Guardian about the problems that some pesticides can cause for bees.

Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation

* Friday May 23 2008

Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.

The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-Wttemberg region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the application of a pesticide called clothianidin.

"It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "50-60% of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field.

The company says an application error by the seed company which failed to use the glue-like substance that sticks the pesticide to the seed, led to the chemical getting into the air.

Bayer spokesman Dr Julian Little told the BBC's Farming Today that misapplication is highly unusual. "It is an extremely rare event and has not been seen anywhere else in Europe," he said.

Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been temporarily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency it is "highly toxic" to honeybees.

This is not the first time that Bayer, one of the world's leading pesticide manufacturers with sales of Â5.8bn (£4.6bn) in 2007, has been blamed for killing honeybees.

In the United States, a group of beekeepers from North Dakota is taking the company to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995, during a period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A third of honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony collapse disorder.

Bayer's best selling pesticide, imidacloprid, sold under the name Gaucho in France, has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that country since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment in France. A few months ago, the company's application for clothianidin was rejected by French authorities.

Bayer has always maintained that imidacloprid is safe for bees if correctly applied. "Extensive internal and international scientific studies have confirmed that Gaucho does not present a hazard to bees," said Utz Klages, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

Last year, Germany's Green MEP, Hiltrud Breyer, tabled an emergency motion calling for this family of pesticides to be banned across Europe while their role in killing honeybees were thoroughly investigated. Her action follows calls for a ban from beekeeping associations and environmental organisations across Europe.

Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the German-based Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, said: "We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the market."

I take a stick and break up the bags, the wasps then come in & eat the bagworms. If the bags are really high in the tree I just throw rocks or sticks to break it open. Within seconds there are wasps there pulling out the webworms & flying off with them. I don't kill wasps or disturb their nests. Gotta duck & watch out when watering plants on the side porch as there is a new wasp nest there. Better I'm stung then my wasps are gone.

The butterfly weed is being eaten by at least the second set of monarch cats. And tons of other butterflies around. I have a "mud" water area for them. The bees don't seem as happy as the cupheas are suffering from the heat, so I started watering them more, they'll bloom more & the bees will be happy-seems to be their absolute favorite plants in my yard. They've been at the other flowers but buzz the cupheas first.

Tally HO!

An article in today's Dallas Morning News Home section says that butterfly populations fluctuate up and down on a regular basis. Last year was a good year for lots of butterflies, and this year appears to be a down year.
There's more info at www.dallasbutterlies.com.