In my part of Southern New Jersey, the temperature is in the 90s. AccuWeather says the real-feel temperature is around 104°. The hot weather is helping the caterpillars thrive. I have an abundance of them in the Butterfly House and each is born with a ravenous appetite.
Inside the houses, I have Rue, a host plant, and a few sprigs of parsley. The dill in the garden is still only in the small sprout stage since I planted it late. The fennel is suffering a bit in the heat, and since that is where most of the eggs for the Black Swallowtail Butterflies are laid, I don’t want to use it all. My goal is to concoct the perfect caterpillar feast for strong butterflies.
Queen Anne’s Lace, a host plant, is in bloom now, and the tall umbrella spires grow in hedgerows near my home. I took a walk with my cutting sheers in the hottest part of the day in hopes of collecting the wildflowers.
Unfortunately, the Queen Anne’s lace was not where I expected it to be. The sprigs I had seen a week or two earlier had bloomed and gone, and my walk became longer than I had planned. I did find more growing along the edge of the woods and cut several stems. By the time I got home, they were significantly wilted, and I wondered if I could use them as I had planned for the IAVOM challenge and afterward as food for the caterpillars. The Queen Anne’s Lace stems drew up water and eventually recovered. I used a Coca-Cola bottle as a vase.
Butterfly tip: The Queen Anne’s Lace, though the blossoms become frail, has stems that stay firm even after drying out. They are perfect for a caterpillar to use to form its chrysalis.
Good luck with your butterfly magnets!! Your Coca Cola vase today is a brilliant example of how the simplest and most common of wild flowers can bring pleasure when popped in a vase (and in its natural habitat too of course! 😁)
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Thanks! I like Coke, my husband likes Pepsi…I think the bottles are pretty…I also have a Cheerwine from NC. I’ve had it for almost two decades. A remembrance of a visit to see my sister and her boys.
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Good for you for taking care of your caterpillars! Daucus carota ‘Dara’, a burgundy form of wild carrot, has self-seeded all over my garden, which is a good-bad thing. I’m seeing more butterflies, although I’ve yet to see many caterpillars, but I’m afraid that next year the Daucus will be even more weedy than they already are. However, drought conditions may well reassert themselves in Southern California in the coming year so perhaps the weeds will be fewer…
https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/
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Oooohhhh, I’d have a magnifying glass out there. The cats are almost invisible when they first emerge. The eggs are yellow…very small.
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Damn good post
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Thank you, thank you…love the comment.
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I love that you keep a butterfly nursery. I plant parsley, fennel and dill for swallowtails and there is wild QAL in the fields. I’m currently watching a cat on my curly parsley. I wonder where they go to pupate because I never find them!
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That’s the fun of the butterfly house…I can watch the whole process. One of the cats I brought in must have been infected by a parasitical wasp before I found it. The chrysalis opened and a wasp was in the butterfly house. I was sad about it, but then happy, the wasp never made it outdoors to infect/lay eggs on other cats.
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I learned something knew! I plant milkweed for the monarchs. I have planted Queen Anne’s Lace for the first time this year, and I’m excited to know it is beneficial for the butterflies!
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It’s fun to see them underneath what appears to be a big lacy parasol.
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