I was sad to hear from a local nursery in December that the season for Gulf Fritillary butterflies was coming to an end.  I enjoy watching them on the passion vine.  Since then, I have seen absolutely no sign of their season ending.  My vine is just crawling with at least 30 caterpillars now, even though our temperatures have been down into the 40’s and 50’s at night.  It was once down into the high 30’s a few weeks ago.  Whatever the reason, hopefully they will stay around a while.

I noticed that one of them was smart by forming it’s chrysalis on the south side of the house…where most of the sun is.  Unfortunately, we received a notice from our homeowners association that we need to have our roof pressure cleaned.  When they clean the roof, the gook gets all over the house and then they need to clean the house as well.  I am VERY stressed out and sad about all of the caterpillars that will be killed by the pressure cleaner.  I guess I will be out there hunting for them so that I can protect them.  I read once that you can remove it by attaching a string to the top, but I don’t know if that works.  If anyone knows how to successfully remove a chrysalis from a house without disturbing the butterfly inside, please let me know!