I've got nothing so far.

People close to me have seen a few RAs but I've yet to see one.

The height of my nettles decreased a lot last year and this year's crop is not coming up in places it has been in the past. I'm thinking something nettles like has been depleted from the soil and I need to replenish the supply..

Have you ever tried false nettles, KC? They're extremely prolific here, have no stingers, spread everywhere from dropping seeds, and they grow well with no care, just need water.

I could never grow stinging nettles successfully, they all died out. I'm sure glad false nettles thrive here!

Sherry

Thats odd KC i have seen 10 or 12 by now. I dont know if they have laid any eggs yet, but they might have. Is ornamental hops ok for the RAs because I have only found the Ornament variety Bianca.

I've never found a red admiral egg or caterpillar on hops vines, and mine were mostly the species, just one named variety. My hops vines always die out after a few years. Question marks use hops here, though, also false nettles and sugarberry/Celtis laevigata. Red admirals only use false nettles here. If stinging nettles grow in your area, maybe you could find some in the woods and transplant them to an out of the way spot in your yard for the red admirals, Jacob - they also use stinging nettles.

Sherry

I've seen quite a few lately. They are too quick for me to take any pictures.

I saw a Red Admiral yesterday! My first butterfly of the year. I also found a new patch of nettles in my back woods. My woods isn't very big, and I think I might have been given some nettle seeds when I was trading with other butterfiers, so I probably planted them. But, I don't remember doing it. It is a good place, except there is Garlic Mustard growing around it. I'll try not to pull the nettles when I pull the mustard. I'm already watching closely for poison ivy, since I'm highly allergic. Happy gardening, All.

Martha

Congrats, Martha! I released my second red admiral of the year today.

Sherry

Saw a red admiral laying eggs on my nettles today. While gathering the eggs, I also found some very tiny caterpillars so at least one mama RA escaped my detection.

Did one of my recent releases make it to Ohio already? :)

Seriously, I released three more two days ago.

Sherry

Do Red Admirals migrate? I assumed they must hibernate as pupae or adults and come out ready to go when the weather is right. Or, maybe Sherry was just joking. They and Mourning Cloaks are always they first butterflies I see here in Michigan. I'm not sure when Cabbage Whites show up.

I am getting more and more excited about my yard as years pass and my plants mature and I add new species. I need to keep after the invasive species, but I still have space to keep adding more, and my husband hasn't complained once. Day before yesterday I had a Baltimore Oriole on my bird feeder, and I don't even put anything special out for them. It's so fun to see diverse species of critters finding what they need in my yard. Also, my new neighbors have done significant tree removal in their yard, so now I suddenly have more sun in a completely new part of my yard. I can make new plans for new additions! Yeah!

Martha

Red admirals definitely migrate. One amazing day, I had the migration path go right thru my yard. RAs were going north on I-71, turning right into my neighbor's backyard, crossing our common fence, and headed north east down my driveway. Went on all day. Was just wonderful. I grabbed a few and kept them for a few days. Was hoping to convince them to stay and use my nettles. My memory is they had other plans when I released them.

A few years ago, the migrations were so massive, they made the news.

Iowa State has been trying to get people to pay attention to RAs the way they do monarchs but it has not gone well.
http://vanessa.ent.iastate.edu/

Mourning cloaks and cabbages overwinter as adults. On a warm day in early January, you can spot mourning cloaks flying around.

I was half joking, Martha. I knew that red admirals migrate, but I don't really think one that I just released would show up in KC's yard a couple of days later! :) I know that painted ladies migrate, too, so maybe it's common to Vanessas. Speaking of Vanessas, I brought in some American ladies to finish raising myself, will look for more today.

Congrats, Martha on your improving habitat! I've never seen a Baltimore oriole - we only have orchard orioles here, at least that's all I've seen. They're regulars and very pretty, too. You'd think I'd have seen some Baltimore orioles during spring migrations - I see other species then that don't stay, just keep going north.

If you get all the eggs that are laid on your nettles, KC, you won't know, but if you find any nests, let me know if you find any of those little cocoons.

Sherry

There were a few hours between the eggs being laid and me gathering them so the tiny wasps had their window of opportunity.

A year with zero little cocoons would be wonderful.

I wish my false nettles would be doing better so I can get Red Admirals on them this year. I raised them two years so far but not last year. I didn't even see any RAs flying around last year or this year yet either. I'm hoping that since the weather has been so weird and colder than usual that the nettles are just slow to grow. Last year they didn't look the greatest, even though for a few years before that they did fine. I wouldn't even know what to add to the soil if lack of some nutrient(s) is the problem.

I'm glad to hear that the wasps don't seem to be bothering them this year. I hope it's that way everywhere. I haven't seen much in the way of butterflies so far but it's been so cool. I'm even reluctant to put any garden plants out yet in case we still get a frost.

This has been a cool spring for sure, Caterwallin - hopefully, it'll get warm and stay that way, and your nettles and other plants will grow. The red admirals may be lingering south of you to avoid the cold weather.

I released three RAs a few days ago, and I noticed this evening a red admiral showing through a chrysalis - 'should have another butterfly to release tomorrow.

Sherry

I sure hope that's the case, Sherry. We're getting a little tired of the cool weather, but then when it gets humid here, we'll complain about that too. Ha.

Congrats on your RA releases. I'm so glad that you haven't found those nasty little wasp cocoons this year! I had problems with them too when I was raising RAs. Those darn things must spend ever waking minute scoping out RA nests! I sure hope that they're food for somebody in the food chain because as far as I can see they're not good for much and very detrimental to the RAs.

Cathy

Did some reading and it looks like phosphorous is what I need. Will mix some bone meal into the soil in the fall. Miracle Gro can add phosphorous but I believe all the added nitrogen that goes with it can be detrimental to pillars.

Thanks for that info, KC. I think I'll do the same.

Can we switch RAs from stinging nettle to false nettle?

Jacob, I've never tried switching, only have false nettles.

The good news about the lack of parasitic wasps on red admiral caterpillars is over. I found two little caterpillars the other day, and when I checked them today, found that they were both parasitized -

I released an adult red admiral today. He/she wouldn't be still long enough for a picture, but it's about the ?6th I've released so far this season, and I have more chrysalides. At least I was able to get in a decent RA crop before the wasps showed up!

By the way, I watched a Mama question mark lay eggs on some false nettles in my garden where I found most of the red admiral cats. So, I guess I'll be raising QMs soon. False nettles are very versatile host plants! I'll check them today, also the sugarberries, which they used last year.

And here's a picture of one of my many American lady caterpillars - they look similar to the RA cats -

Sherry

I love your stories, beautiful pictures. I am in zone 5 in Ohio and am waiting patiently for the swallowtail first then we will get our monarchs. Love them both..........isn't it wonderful that we can contribute to the survival of these beautiful creatures? Planted more milkweed for the monarchs and all the parsley and fennel in the yard should hopefully bring on the little swallowtails. Happy butterflying!!!!

Facebook is "it" these days. Does not help when we have people here recruiting people to switch to Facebook groups. My biggest gripe about Facebook is it is about "today." History is basically lost. They added a way to search groups but I have shown that it is based on words that some Facebook algorithm decides are keywords. And then if it is not a group, you cannot even search it.

I have 20+ RA cats plus a bunch more I did not bring in. My leaf supply is dwindling quickly since the majority of my plants are less than 8" tall with small leaves. I really need to do a good job of amending my soil this fall. Suddenly missing the days when I had to put in stakes and run string to keep all my nettles from falling over during a storm.

I don't like Facebook and don't use it much, KC. The only reason I even signed up for it, is because my children wanted me to. If this site doesn't go, or the other one you probably know about, I won't be posting about butterflies much. My daughters like me to post some of my butterfly and hummingbird pictures on Facebook, so I do that about once every couple of years, that's it. It's unbelievable the people who LIVE on Facebook! They even post pictures of what they've cooked for supper! :/

I looked at the USDA range map for false nettles/Boehmeria cylindrica, and it's native to Ohio. My stinging nettles always died out, and I risked getting stung every time I handled them. As long as false nettles aren't planted on a real dry site, they thrive very easily, like weeds, for sure - mine grow to about 6' or 7' tall on the wettest sites, about 3' - 5' on the better drained sites. The very tall ones will get blown over during a big storm, but somehow they straighten themselves up, at least well enough, and the butterflies will lay eggs on bent false nettles. And you get both RAs and QMs on them!

Sherry

I love your stories Sherry!! Its sad, when I first joined there were so many people, and now there are very few and many people dont post either.

Keep posting............I love your pictures, Sherry. I wish I could get those but I had released about 21 butterflies last year between the black swallowtails and monarchs. My first year of raising. My husband said he saw a swallowtail in the front yard today. It was in June last year when I brought in my first swallowtail cats. I hope we have a good turnout this year. Will keep you ladies posted.

Sandy

Sherry, I was on the USDA page for Boehmeria cylindrica a couple days ago. A high school friend of mine gets RAs in her yard every year but she has no idea what the pillars eat in her area. I looked up to see if false nettles were in here area and I found seeds for her. I also saw that false nettles are not native to my county for some reason. I'm in a false nettle dead zone. ;)

Hi Sherry!

I'm still a lurker after all these years. Not doing much raising of my own these days living in the city of Boston, but I love checking in on the forum and seeing your latest projects :)

I do have planter boxes on our deck as well as a bunch of parsley, always hoping a BST may pay a visit one day, but that's about all I can do until I move back to the burbs or the country one day.

Please keep posting and I do hope all is well, I read about your husband and hope he continues to be on the mend.

-Jimmy

Sorry you have to live in a big city, Jimmy - you're not likely to get much butterfly action there!

My husband has a lot of serious heart and lung problems, also brittle diabetes and chronic pancreatitis, so he's not really on the mend, just hanging in there. But then I guess we're all doing that?

I released an American lady today, a red admiral yesterday. The tiger swallowtail caterpillar in the above picture was one of two male tigers that emerged a few weeks ago, earlier than I expected them to. I released the last of the five red-spotted purples today, and I'm finally down to just one American lady cat. All my other cats are now chrysalides and/or cocoons.

Speaking of cocoons, six luna moths emerged today, three males and three females, I think they were. I opened the door of the cage for them at dark, and all but one female left - she's still in the cage. I made a couple of pictures before they left. Here's two yellowy males -

And look how 'fat' this female is -

She must have a lot of eggs in there!

Here's hoping you get to move to the country, Jimmy!

From Sherry - the 50% Irish/Celtic Gal, according to her DNA :)

I love this site, and don't know where I would go for a garden-friends fix if it were gone. I'm still working full time as a Hospice and Palliative Doc, and my current job requires an hour commute each way. So, I don't get to be in my garden, much, let alone on line. But, it is so wonderful to know there are like-minded folks across the country paying attention to the peril facing all of our insect friends. I was enthusiastic over the winter when Washington had a big campaign to support pollinators, but that news has faded behind the much more crowd-pleasing election campaign news. I fear the world is going to get the message far too late to make a difference.

Miss Sherry, I'm so sorry to hear of your husband's illness. Unfortunately, I can imagine all too well what you are facing. Please consider getting in touch with a Hospice or Palliative group sooner rather than later. Every day I hear people say they wish they had done it sooner. No one will hasten the end, but only assist you both in maximizing his enjoyment of what time he has left. In fact, studies show that many patients live longer on hospice, because they avoid infections in hospitals and also complications from treatments that can't really help, any way. If you would like to speak to me, I would be honored to answer any questions you might have. I haven't had time to check my Houzz messages in months, but if you check in here and warn me, I'll go there.

Martha

Thanks, Martha!

I may very well e-mail you with a few questions - the situation here is unsure.

My husband wouldn't stay in the hospital as long as they wanted him to, because he hated it there so much. He says he likes his own bed and he loves our home, which is surrounded by Nature - he likes to drag the oxygen machine with its long tubing to the front porch and watch birds, especially hummingbirds, and butterflies. As long as I'm physically able, I'll continue to take care of him here. I know what you mean about hospitals and those nosocomial infections - I always thought they called them that to keep anybody from knowing what they were. :)

Sherry

My first RA eclosure of the year happened yesterday. Noticed the butterfly when I was harvesting RA chrysalises.

Congrats, congrats, KC!

I just now noticed in your picture that red admirals have a white spot in an orange field like American ladies. I don't know if it's in exactly the same position or not -

but, to me, it's further proof of how closely related they are.

I only have one red admiral chrysalis left, but many American ladies yet to be released.

Sherry