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!

This is an absolutely WONDERFUL website to find out which butterflies are in your area:

http://butterflywebsite.com/atlas/constructtable.cfm

We have been very busy with homeschooling and holidays and I have neglected my beautiful site. Our current Monarch butterfly release count is 34. This does not include the 3 butterflies that had problems opening their wings. The wings were all scrunched up and curled. I think they had a problem hanging on once they came out of the chrysalis. A few of them fell to the ground and were not able to hang on after that. I kept them in a plastic container and fed them hummingbird food through a cocktail straw. Two of them ended up dying within a few days. However I kept one alive for over a week by caring for it in this way. I have been able to put a fallen butterfly back on the roof of the cage and it did actually complete the wing drying process and was able to be released.

It is so exciting to know that I have played an important role in keeping the Monarchs alive in this area.

I have been wanting to add a live video camera to my butterfly garden and backyard. I have read numerous articles lately about live cameras being deployed in remote locations to view wildlife and nature. I have been learning about CCTV cameras and home surveillance systems because it seems like the best way to do it. These systems allow you to setup outdoor security cameras which feed video back to a DVR recorder. The DVR can be attached to a network and allow people to view your cameras over the Internet.  Here are some sample pictures using software that comes with a DVR from CCTV Camera Pros: DVR viewer.

I can not justify the cost just for my butterfly garden hobby but the real reason for these systems is for home surveillance and security. I think that I can justify the cost for that and I am considering to add the following equipment to my house:

• 4 camera home surveillance system
• PTZ security camera

The link to the PTZ camera has a video demonstration. I would really like to be able to move the camera around remotely and be able to zoom in to possible catch some action.

If anyone has any any experience with these systems, please post comments.

Our current count is:

6 Released

1 butterfly in nursery still, and unable to fly.  This butterfly’s wings didn’t open up and he is still in my care.  I have been feeding it a store bought solution of hummingbird nectar and boy, does he love it!    I called The Butterfly Place and they recommended that I place it on the milkweed plant in hopes that it will feed and mate.  However, it has a hard time holding onto the plant for more than 10-20 minutes, so I have not been able to let it free.  I rolled a paper towel into a tube and set it inside a pot so that it would be able to hang on better.  It seems to be working well.  I hope he can survive for a few weeks.  Maybe the butterfly inside the chrysalis will mate with it. 

1 in chrysalis

1 chunky caterpillar released onto outside milkweed plant (gone the next day)

We released Monarch Butterfly #6 into the wild this morning. I tried to release it near the Penta plant in hopes that it would land on it to feed, but it went up to the palm tree instead. Hopefully it stays in my yard instead of landing on a nearby pesticide dowsed yard. I am curious as to the health of a butterfly after feeding from plants that have been sprayed by pesticide. I will try to research that soon.

Our current count is:

• 6 released

• 1 inside chrysalis

• 2 chunky caterpillars

• one baby caterpillar

We released Monarch Butterfly #5 into the wild this morning. It is amazing to see the butterfly inside the chrysalis the day before it comes out. You really have a chance to study it since it can’t fly away.

My butterfly nursery has been very successful so far. Our current count is:

• 5 released

• 1 inside chrysalis

• no more caterpillars… I need to bring some from the milkweed plants.

• We also have 3 Gulf Fritillary chrysalises on our Passion Vine plant.

Unfortunately, I found one of the two large caterpillars laying in the dirt of the milkweed plant inside the nursery. He was in his J shape and moving his front feet, so I picked him up and put him on a safe surface (I didn’t want him to drown when I watered the plants). I figured he probably fell of the branch and would be fine, hopefully forming his chrysalis soon. This morning he was black and very lifeless. I guess even the best “safe house” doesn’t protect them all.

Jonny and I went to Butterfly World. It was Amazing! You will never see as many butterflies as you see in this place! They have so many different kinds of plants and butterflies. They also have a nursery area where you can see the butterflies coming out of their chrysalis.

They gave me a list of plants to use for butterfly gardening. The following are larval plants for South Florida yards:

Dutchman’s Pipe (Any Aristolochia spp.) for the Polydamas Swallowtail

Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara) and Citris (Ruta spp.) for the Giant Swallowtail

Passion Vine (Passiflora spp.—Suberosa, Incense, Incarnata) for the Zebra Longwing, Julia, and Gulf Fritillary

Wild Senna (Cassia spp.—Shrubs: Alata, Didymobotrya, Coluteoides; Trees: Surratensis, Fistula) for the Orange-barred Sulphur butterfly and the Cloudless Sulphur butterfly

Milkweed (Asclepias Curassavica) for the Monarch and the Queen butterflies

Their recommendations for nectar plants are as follows (plant in abundance): Buddleia (Butterfly Bush), Heliotrope, Lantana, Milkweed, Mint, Pentas, Porterweed, Verbena, and Zinnias.

For our butterfly garden, we planted a bunch of Milkweed plants. We were fortunate enough to have tons of fat Monarch caterpillars on each plant. They came like that straight from this amazing nursery that we go to (Abell’s Nursery). They don’t spray pesticides. There are always butterflies fluttering around their plants.

After planting the milkweed, we counted 25 monarch caterpillars. There were most likely more since they hang under the leaves to eat. I was thrilled to watch these caterpillars much on the leaves. Their size indicated that they were within hours or days of forming their chrysalis.

Later that day, we went to check out the caterpillars. We noticed a large wasp hovering around the plants. Then, to our horrifying surprise, the wasp stung one of the caterpillars. White liquid squirted from the caterpillar and within a minute, the wasp had devoured the entire caterpillar. I was very upset and feared that the wasp would eat more of them. I thought about creating a cage around the plants to keep the wasps out, but we were busy that day and we went about our errands.

A few hours later, we returned home to find absolutely NO caterpillars on the milkweed plants. NOT ONE! I was heartbroken. These huge caterpillars only had a few days until they formed their chrysalis. At that point, I decided that I would start a little caterpillar nursery so that I could raise a few without wasp interference. Online, they sell pop-up mesh butterfly cases for $15.00 and up (plus shipping). I decided I couldn’t wait, so I went to Target and bought a pop-up mesh hamper and 3 milkweed plants.

The monarch butterflies definitely are laying eggs on our milkweed plants. I have already put 5 small caterpillars into the nursery. We released our second butterfly from the nursery this morning, and we have two that formed their chrysalis and the rest are still munching. Two have managed to disappear from spiders. I guess you can’t stop nature.

Here is a picture of my creation:

Over the last few months, we have been working on our butterfly garden. I worried that even though we planted the garden, that the butterflies would not come. Friends have told me that they have not had success with butterfly gardens. I am confident that the reason MUST be their pesticide use.

It is imperative that weed killers and other pesticides are NOT used anywhere near your butterfly garden. Actually, they should not be used at all.

The very weekend that we planted our backyard islands, we could see butterflies flying around them. The plants that we used were:

Milkweed: This is one of the BEST plants you could possibly have in your butterfly garden. The monarch butterflies LOVE it. We seem to see various butterflies around this plant throughout the day. This is the larval host plant for the Monarch Butterfly. Unfortunately, the monarch caterpillars in our yard don’t last very long due to the hungry wasps. I created a little “butterfly nursery” out of a spiral pop-up hamper that I bring the baby caterpillars to so that they will not be eaten. Inside the hamper, I have 3 small milkweed plants. These are more beautiful than I thought they would be.

Passion Vine: This is another absolute MUST in your butterfly garden. The passion vine is a host plant to 3 kinds of butterflies. Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Julia butterfly, and the Zebra Longwing butterfly. So far, we have only seen the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and butterflies. They don’t have any predators in my yard, so there are tons of caterpillars on it. You can see the holes on the leaves made by the caterpillars. You may be able to see some of the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars in the photo (they are orange with black spikes).

Lantana: We are using two kinds of Lantana in our yard (pink/yellow flowers and orange/red flowers). They all have beautiful color. They seem to be a popular nectar source for various butterflies.

Pentas: We have pink and red pentas. Our pink ones are established and very popular to the butterflies. I haven’t seen butterflies on the red ones, but they are very small right now.

Pink Porterweed, Cat Whiskers, Swamp Lilly: All good nectar sources for various butterflies.

If you wanted to start a butterfly garden, I would recommend the following plants to start with:

1.) Milkweed (put this throughout your yard, and get LOTS of it)

2.) Passion Vine

3.) Various nectar plants like Pentas, Lantana, and Porterweed. You can have a butterfly garden for very little money by having these plants. Just be sure NOT TO SPRAY anything on or around the plants. This goes for bug spray as well as weed spray.

My family has experienced a lot of joy in watching the butterflies in our yard. I never tire of watching them flutter from flower to flower, knowing that they can live their entire life, happily, here in my yard.