Nevermore44 so happy you are helping them survive!

Happy cats

Oh my goodness! I hope we see how they do!

Sherry

It's all fun and games but that photo was taken at 3 PM yesterday... then my son goes and turn on the light over them this morning at 7 AM ... and they are just munching on stems... so I had to get some MW from my own small patch out back to hold them over until after work when I can get a bunch more. Too many mouths to feed!

What a great problem to have……too many Munchers! :-)-

Oh my goodness! Prpably about two weeks to butterflies, cool!

Sherry

katob & Nevermore how terrific of you! You are certainly doing a great job helping them out. So impressive!!!

If it hadn't been for this thread I probably would have missed the caterpillar I found on the parsley I picked yesterday. Carefully returned critter to the parsley plants. If I can find it again I may "raise" it in a jar and watch it change. Thanks for making life exciting!

marie

Those are the swallowtail caterpillars. They are easy to raise since you usually have more parsley then can be consumed by the average village. Just as a warning though ... if you make them mad.. they will stick their little orange horns out, wiggle around in anger, and emit a pungent stink that can get on your hands.

Nevermore, you are doing an awesome job! The opening of this group should be a sight to see! Can’t wait!!! And butterfly stink......who knew……lol

Even more challenges and fun!

Well at least there is a use for the dreaded Aegopodium podagraria - Goutweed. Here is the Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar feeding on it.

With such a beautiful butterfly coming from the goutweed, maybe it’s a little less dreaded........ :-)

Lol not really! It is a horrid invasive import from Eurasia that is trying to take over my DD's section of garden. It is actually banned/restricted in many states. It has been on the property for decades and certainly longer before we owned it but... I am happy that the caterpillars are happy with it although there are many other plants in Apiaceae they feed on. If I ever manage to rid myself of it they will not go hungry.

Just found an EBS in my daylilies. Brought it inside and within 12 hours it formed a chrysalis. It is day 2 of being in the chrysalis so just waiting to see it hatch.

Did not know it ate goutweed. I too have a section of garden that this garbage plant came in with a plant trade. Now I fight it every year . I will be digging that darn stuff up but will deposit it somewhere way far away from my gardens so that I still have some for these caterpillars. Thanks for enlightening me about this plant .

oh forgot to say that if I touch the chrysalis it shows it's dissatisfaction with being touched by rocking back and forth on the stem of the QAL to which it has attached itself

Sorry.....Apparently I don’t have goutweed in my neck of the woods.....only plant I wish would die, is what people in WI call “snow on the mountain“ which is green and white and quite invasive and difficult to get out of your yard when your neighbors think it looks “pretty.” Blaaaaah!!

Oooo. Goutweed. I can't believe you've had it on your property that long. Do you fight it every year? A near neighbor has allowed his goutweed to go rampant. Makes me shudder!

djacobs you do have goutweed, snow on the mountain, bishop's weed, ground elder are all the same. Common names can cause confusion so I normally give the Latin binomial. Yours is Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegatum' which is slightly easier to conquer than the plain green.

deanna it was brought over from Eurasia as an ornamental if you can believe that! It has now taken over areas of native plants, a real problem. I do fight it every year. I have two areas of it. The one area is around some old Lilacs where it can be cut with the lawnmower but my DD's section of garden is inundated at one end. The only solution for us is to dig out the desirable plants then smother the entire area. Approx. 12-15 ft. is in her garden but there is about 50ft. of it adjacent to it. It is a nightmare! It is almost enough to make me want to use RoundUp which I am loathe to do.

"Yours is Aegopodium podagraria"

WTH is that? NEVER EVER in my long life have I heard anyone call it that.

What gardener doesn't know what snow on the mountain is?

I wonder why NO ONE calls it Aegopodium podagraria? NOT. Because communication is all about communicating.

gardencool , don't forget about the "varigatum " in the name describing this plant above . There are 2 varieties of goutweed/ snow on the mountain . One is solid green ( the kind I have ) and one has green and white varigated leaves like the one the person above mentioned .

@gardencool- Be like your name and chill a bit. When it comes to precise communication in the horticultural world, nothing beats the Latin binomial. If you hadn't ever heard the term Aegopodium podagraria before, you would be wise to thank peren for enlightening you.

tj

Thanks tj you are a gentleman and a scholar!

gardencool it actually is about communication with everyone worldwide. This thread is on 3 forums where there are people from other continents. Common names change with location but Latin plant names are global.

You call it whatever you like. I have no issue with you calling your Hosta 'Frances Williams' by Frank. I would certainly never call you out for it, each to their own.

I appreciate accurate Latin names..

The plant everyone I know calls “snow on the mountain” is pictured here. It’s not euphorbia as I have had that and I know it’s not that plant. This plant is very difficult to control because it spreads through underground runner roots. I don’t know how anybody can think this plant is pretty or looks nice. It invades all of the nice plants around it. Bleh!

djacobz..I've heard people call the plant in your pic snow on the mountain..and I thought gardencool could be referring to your plant..I support peren using the botanical name..I don't understand why gardencool was complaining about it..

" gardencool it actually is about communication "

When 99% of people have no idea what you are talking about you are not communicating.

Kapish!

>> kapish is formally spelled as capisce (pronounced as cah-peesh) which is derived from the italian word capire "to understand" and from latin capere "to grasp or to seize".
it is now used in american slang to say "got it" or "understand." <<

An opportunity to learn wasted...<sigh>

This is an internet forum so quite easy to search a term and learn. Not just communication but education...should one be open to such.

tj

Same at you, tsugajunkie z5 SE WI . I educated you but you refuse to learn.

Gardencool, I do appreciate learning Latin plant names.......Italian, not so much. I have come across your “uncool” comments before in others posts. I have tried to respond nicely to your posts, but you always seem to have a chip on your shoulder when you comment on others posts. Not sure what that’s about, but this forum is not the place to act this way.

Hmmm, it does seem that calling something snow on the mountain and then seeing that a Euphorbia is also called that might lead one to appreciate the specificity of the Latin terms. It certainly cuts down on having to explain over and over what plant one is talking about in a post. Not that you can't continue to use your common names, but they can cause confusion.

Gardencool, an illustration of how there are communication issues is when you didn’t know that snow on the mountain is the same plant as goutweed. Just because everyone you know calls it by a particular name in Chicago doesn’t mean that someone in New England or Texas or Ireland will use that same common name, and that causes confusion. As Nicholswoth pointed out common names often get used for more than one plant, and that adds another layer of confusion. Peren.all was kind enough to give several common names plus the scientific name, so that all of us would understand what plant was being referred to. To my mind that is far clearer than insisting that everyone use your terminology and only your terminology. Are you perhaps a troll or just inexperienced in internet courtesy?

Can we get back to caterpillars and chrysalises maybe folks. No point in beating a dead horse. The topic has strayed and I for one was enjoying the initial posts ......the posts , now, .not so much .

Here’s what they look like the day they open.

When the come out they have small wrinkly wings and big butts. They then pump the fluid out to the wings and their butts shrink down.

So September 15 they formed and so we can be expecting Monarchs any day now!

Sherry and all - I am so excited to have found a monarch chrysalis!!! I was ready to dig out a bunch of Garlic chives and spotted this attached to one of the stalks.

It’s been fun to follow their progress on this thread! We were afraid we’d missed the migration through here but waiting to see pictures of the ones on this thread emerge gave us hope that there were a bunch around here yet to emerge too. This morning there was a bit of an uptick in the activity on the Heptacodium tree. When we took the dog for a walk near noon, DH was counting monarch butterflies that were passing by overhead. He counted 276! And now there’s pictures here of these ones just emerged...! So this seems to be a coordinated emergence of the batch of the monarch butterflies that migrate! :-)

Laurie, gotta keep vigilant, the hole process here took less than an hour, I almost missed it! Looks like your find could be done within 24 hours! So excited For you!

Sherry

peren.all, did that one open? If not, looks like any moment....... :D

Wow, whee! Fly free little monarch!!

Laurie, so glad you didn’t miss it! I was out to check mine every hour, wish I had tried every half hour. If I ever find another chrysalis I will Set up a chair, a cool drink and a port a potty, LOL!

Sherry

LMAO Sherry!!! I will do the same!

Nevermore 44———- I am holding my breath waiting for your pictures any day now!!

sorry to bring this thread down with a sad note, but none of the 13 chrysalis in my cage appear healthy. I was hoping they were just late but last weekend I officially gave up. There are small wasps? And a small hole visible in some of them, and I think they’ve all been parasitized. I thought having them under a screen house would keep them safe but no Since the wasps are small enough to just pass through the screen mesh.

now all I’ve succeeded in doing is make it harder for other butterflies to reach maturity Since there must be a bunch more parasites around now. Plus I’ve been finding monarch wings under the flowers since my garden also has bunches of praying mantis this year and they don’t seem to mind munching on monarch.

I guess I should be happy my garden has so many bug predators, but I’d rather have more butterflies....

So sorry to hear Katob....you did your best to do right. Maybe nowhere outside is safe in a screen house. I suppose it's better to try a glass container inside the house with a mesh top so they can still hang themselves. But it's mother nature....many of these cocoons would perhaps have been eaten outside as well. We all still had a great deal of fun and learned a lot!!

So Nevermore44, how's your group doing?

We’re sorry to hear that too, katob:-(. Last year I think it was you who posted a video of monarch butterflies visiting your Heptacodium tree...? Did you get them again this year? Our tree bloomed a few days late this year and missed the first big wave of migrating monarchs, so it was a disappointing show on the tree here. How did yours do?

So we are down to one chrysalis left. No pics... sorry. We were releasing 4-6 a day for a bit. By then end it’s a relief to not have to feed so many mouths.

katob... that’s just part of the game. Their chance outside are super slim too. Next year you can try to raise them indoors or in a garage.

My brother, who did over a hundred this year, was raising some outside in a mesh bin and he too got a lot of parasitic wasp issues. Heres one that he cracked open. The ones raised in his garage were for the most part clean since they were Almost all gathered as eggs

Ugh, how disgusting. Amazing photo though, and a good reminder that I need to face facts and get rid of the cocoons which are left! Sadly I did collect them all as eggs, but unfortunately the wasps either found gaps in the cage or were just small enough to pass through the mesh. Next year it’s back to the garage!

woody- we have had some dry weather and I think it’s caused the migration to either stick close to the river or just pass over our area. There was one day when about twenty or so were on the heptacodium, but the next day they were all gone, and I haven’t seen more than three or four at a time since. Friends on the coast said there were large numbers along the shore last weekend, but that’s not the case here. Good to know they’re doing well though!

I was going to just toss the “unsuccessful“ batch of chrysalis, but out of curiosity cut one open. I’ll spare you the gory details but it looked just like the above photo and to get rid of them now I’ll be bagging the rest and disposing of them, rather than just throwing them into a garden bed or something. Nature is not always rainbows and butterflies...