Dave, Thank you for that link. I used to go on the BAMONA site a lot but haven't been on it in quite some time. I guess when they changed the maps on it and some other things, it made it more difficult (for me anyway) to navigate, so I quit going there. Using the info from looking at the old map pages on there, I used to make up Excel spreadsheets for people I knew to help them know what butterflies they probably had a good chance of attracting to their places. I've always wanted to try to increase butterfly numbers.

I am encouraged by the reportings on that page that you gave me the link to. It does make it sound a little bit closer than what I had previously thought the zebras were. They've either meandered further north or I'm not remembering correctly what I was told. I'd have to look it up if I saved the emails for the person who gave me the information. It's almost an hour's drive from our house to where we'd enter Dauphin County. Before clicking on your link, I wasn't aware that Zebra Swallowtails had come that far north towards our county (Snyder). It doesn't surprise me that they were reported in Lancaster County this year. I just don't know where at in that county they were sighted; Lancaster County is a big county. The southern part of it is along the state border. That's the location that I had in mind where I'd have to go to see these puddling zebras. It's definitely encouraging that they were reported in Dauphin County.

Reading what you wrote gives me to understand that all places mentioned are south of you, and that none is near. So, this is not a suitable time of year to do it (unless you will propagate them, raise them indoors, and the adults will have humanely spacious quarters such as a large greenhouse). In warm spring, sure, just bring them.

As for reporting, my opinion is that it would be ok to report sightings of adults that visit after the lifespan of those that you last release. Your hitchkikers' descendents.

There are problems with "borrowing" caterpillars. I must say, however, that I have done it before. Most state parks probably wouldn't allow it, but there is little enforcement. Your best bet might be in contacting local garden clubs near where you think they are and ask if there are Zebras around, and if so, where. If you were in Florida I could show you some for sure. Here they tend to lay their eggs in May or June and if you hunt enough you can usually find a caterpillar or two. I imagine that they would be hatching later in your area though.

four, Yes, those places are south of me, with the closest one (on that link that was posted here) being close to an hour away from me. Sorry if I forgot to mention that we would be traveling next spring or summer to see these zebra swallowtails. I would love to see all of them puddling if they're there along the river in numbers. It would probably be quite a sight. I appreciate your comment and giving me an opinion on reporting future zebras.

Tom, Heh, yeah, "borrowing". :) I didn't think of that, contacting a garden club in the area. I kind of wish I knew some Amish people down there. I think they're more connected with nature than most people, and maybe they would know of these Zebra Swallowtails. Of course, on the other hand, they might be too busy to learn about things that don't have to do with their farms. There are quite a few of them in this area and for the most part they keep to themselves. I was surprised one year, though, when an Amish family stopped here to see all of the Monarchs after reading an article in the newspaper that a reporter had written about my raising them. I wanted to try to get the word out about butterflies, and I had pretty many people comment to me about it, so I hope that I got some people interested enough to get into butterfly gardening. I had given that family some potted swamp milkweed plants to get them started and told them some things before they left here.

If only I'd get to Florida, I'd take you up on that, to show me some Zebras, but alas, I highly doubt if I'll ever get down that far. The furthest south DH and I have ever been was Virginia Beach. My son was there to go to the Disney Parks and Busch Gardens and after that he said to me that I'd never be able to stand it down there, that it's so humid. Well, it's not all that great up here either in the summer for about the past 20 years now. I'd almost have to experience it for myself to see how extreme it is from our humidity because it's one thing for a person to describe something to you, and then there's actually living it for yourself. Thanks for your reply about the butterflies.

caterwallin, I'm curious if there are wild pawpaws in or near your location (Snyder County)? If pawpaw is present in large enough numbers, I would think zebras would also be around.

Here, pawpaw is native in very scattered groves in an adjacent county but isn't native to my county (and rarely planted here in my observations). I've planted a couple in my yard (still pretty small), but I'm assuming it's unlikely I'll ever see zebras here (though I've heard they have been seen in my county as a rare stray).

Dave, what are the names of those SE MI counties to which you refer?

Pawpaw is native in Macomb, but it's not native here in St Clair AFAIK.

Dave,

I'm not aware of any paw paws in the area, wild or that people have on their properties, but then again, it's hard to know everything. Maybe there are some, but I bet very few. There used to be a lot (from what I've read) along the river about 10 or so miles from us (Susquehanna River), but as the area became more developed, there went the trees.

There was a book published in 1915 called Snyder County Annals, which I found online one year when I was looking up information on paw paw trees. That publication tells of some small island out in the Susquehanna River close to the previous area I just described (a few miles away from it) called Paw Paw Island. It's uninhabited and I don't have a boat to get there; I wouldn't know where to look for it anyway. I asked about half a dozen people over in that area if they knew where it is/was and nobody had ever heard of it. In that online book I had read that a long time ago people used to take rowboats and go there to have picnics. I'm guessing that if the island is still there, I suppose that it would probably still have paw paw trees since they are so prolific once there'a few trees, the way they keep growing off of one another.

I just gave most of our paw paws to our son-in-law to take to work to give to anyone who wanted them. Only one guy there out of about a dozen knew what they were, and he was glad for all of them. If anyone in this area has any paw paw trees, I'd bet that it's very few people. You'd think that somebody somewhere in the area has some and that there would be some wild ones somewhere...maybe...your guess is as good as mine. I'd say that the amount of those trees around here though are few and far between, like you mentioned with your county. Our trees here in our backyard are 8-10 feet tall. If zebras hang out in the county next to yours, perhaps you could "kidnap" some and take them to your place and raise them?! The more I think about doing that, I'm leaning towards doing it. Otherwise, I might not ever see them here. Since I've never seen any here in any of the years since I planted the trees, I'm kind of thinking that it's most likely that I'm not going to have them find our place on their own.

Cathy

I think you are too far north to have a sizable ZST population. I'm in the same boat. I've seen one ZST on my property and that was in 2005. I have raised a number of ZSTs that I got from a member in the southern half of my state but once released, they were never seen again.

My theory is your area needs a lot of early spring flowers to support a decent ZST population. The places I've been that had lots of ZSTs also had lots of April wildflowers and dandelions don't count. The farther north you go, the fewer April wildflowers there are.

I used to see them a lot when I was a kid. About 100-150 yards away there was scrubby woods and weedy field edges. Now they are all built up with apartment complexes, and I cant remember when I last saw one. I found out my neighbor 2 houses down has a paw paw, but I havent seen any ZSW's. Perhaps they need the scrubby woodland and field edges as well.

KC Clark - I'm curious where in OH you are? The abundance of April wildflowers could be part of the equation. I also wonder if ZST's have trouble overwintering toward the northern limit of the range of pawpaw? Or perhaps the season just isn't quite long enough here in most years?

ZST sightings from BAMONA:

Range of pawpaw for comparison (from BONAP):

My curiosity led to some more searching online. An older "Butterflies of Canada" webpage says, "Earlier in (the 20th) century, the Zebra Swallowtail was likely a regular breeder in Canada, as it was sometimes seen in large numbers. In more recent years, it has been seen only sporadically ... A breeding colony near Harrow, Ontario, persisted for several years, but disappeared in the early 1990s."

However, a more recent(?) "Butterflies of Ontario" webpage says "This species is probably not resident in Canada, but occasionally strays into extreme Southern Ontario from the US, where it is fairly common. I have not yet seen this species in Canada."

I'm just north of Columbus. I have three smallish pawpaws on my property. Neighbor across the street has three big ones. Woods adjoining my property have maybe a dozen trees and they are at least 20 years old.

KC Clark: what conditions are they planted in? I'm going to plant two in my yard - zone 6b. I'm concerned that most of my yard is all day sun, especially the brutal afternoon sun.

Daisy: Pawpaws cannot handle the sun during the first year. After that, sun is supposedly not a problem. Biggest one I've ever seen is in a park where the surrounding trees came down in a storm which gave the pawpaw lots of sun and it just took off.

My area is pretty heavy clay. My pawpaws are amongst taller trees so are not getting a lot of sun. The tree doing the best is in a wetter part of my yard. My neighbor's trees get full afternoon sun.

KC Clark: thank you for your answer. Since the trees I'm getting are only about 3' tall, I might just construct something to provide shade for them the first year.

I cannot initiate a thread in any gardening forum. As of now, Nov 9, Butterfly Gardens forum has had no new thread since Oct 25. Perhaps nobody can initiate a thread? Please comment.

I have not tried here, but it worked fine in the Insect forum a few days ago. I guess things are slowing down with the cold temperatures for most of us. Not that there seems to be much activity here lately. Miss how it was a few years ago.

Thanks, Iris.

Sometimes I receive email messages from Houzz, stating that somebody Liked a comment of mine, also sometimes messages stating that somebody Thanked me for a comment. I see a "Like" link, but not a "Thank" link, which is what I wanted to use here instead of writing this comment to thank.