Lisa, congrats on your explosion! I am seeing lots of Monarchs, Gulf Frits, a Black Swallowtail, American Ladies, and little ones, too. No ETSTs, tho. I have had 3 GFs laying eggs, but so many predators, I cannot find any cats or eggs. Have you noticed the increased numbers of predators?

Susan

Lisa, It sounds like such a beautiful combination of flowers. I bet your yard is going to be a butterfly magnet for the next couple of months.

Susan, You must have my predators because they aren't here....and I am not complaining. Have you been doing anything to try to kill the predators so they won't get your cats?

At our house, the same old stuff that has been blooming all summer still is in bloom, but a lot of the plants have perked up and are blooming more. The 'Graham Thomas' rose is blooming heavily after blooming a lot more sparsely during the hotter, drier weather. It is nice to have the roses looking so good. Down in the veggie garden, we have tons of tiny zinnia sprouts about an inch tall. I hope they have a chance to get big and bloom before frost arrives.

We're continuing to see a ton of Gulf Frits, increasing numbers of monarchs and quite an increase in swallowtails--mostly the Tiger Swallowtails but an occasional Eastern Black as well.

We have tons and tons of hummingbirds---more this week than in previous weeks and probably the most I've seen on a daily basis since the spring migration. There are a whole lot of feeder wars going on. I sat on the front porch last night and watched four ruby-throated hummingbirds battling over one feeder, though an identical feeder was hanging in another tree about 20' away. To me, it looked like they were too busy fighting over the feeder to spend much time actually feeding.

Dawn

Dawn, I dare not do anything that would otherwise harm the butterflies, eggs, and cats more than the predators do. All I really can do is destroy the ones I find. I have a new one this year, too, but have not been able to get a photo of it yet before I squash it. It reminds me of a very washed out milkweed bug, but it is a carnivore, unlike the MB. I am not sure if there is an effective trap out there for the red, black, and yellowjacket wasps that carry off the larvae. I tried one a few years back and it was worthless. The birds - nothing I can do about them, and it is a part of the natural cycle.

I could bring in eggs I find b4 the predators, like ants, get them, but I haven't been set up to raise many yet this year. I just now bought some paint strainers, pizza pans, and small tomato cages to house a few. Preemptive measures are all I know to cope with them.

There is so little for the wildlife and insects to eat thru this drought and heat, that I am sure my little yard is a smorgasbord for them. I have a lot of bumblebees this year, not just the Carpenter bees. The Ladybugs finally showed up to consume the invasion of the Oleander aphids. I find them everywhere - big, fat ones!

Maybe your hummers were "play" fighting, like my cats do to maintain their skill levels??? I have only seen 1 hummer on the feeders this week, so 2 are gone already.

I did have a Black Swallowtail visit, but no eggs from her.

Susan

Susan,

I was wondering if the wasps traps had worked for you. They didn't work for me when I tried them, and all I was trying to use them for was to keep the wasps out of the potting shed and away from the patio.

Once you have eggs to protect, could you cover that plant with floating row cover to keep the pests out? I haven't tried it in terms of cat eggs, but it works pretty well to exclude specific pests from specific veggies at times. I realize that if you cover up the plants to protect some eggs, that might prevent other butterflies from laying more eggs on the same plants, so it might not be a workable solution.

This drought has been very hard on all the little wild critters, and they have needed all the help they can get to survive. Sometimes Tim gets frustrated with me because I don't want him to mow the pastures down short like he wants to as a fire prevention type method because I'd rather keep the native plants tall and in bloom, if it rains enough, so the wild things can find food.

This year I told him I'd do the pasture mowing, and I kinda sorta did. I cut some wide swaths down really short along the property line and a couple closer to the buildings, but probably only cut about 20% of the space that he would have cut. My reward? The areas I didn't cut now are full of blooming liatris, greenthread daisies and snow-on-the-prairie with scattered rain lilies in bloom as well as a multitude of smaller numbers of different wildflowers that somehow survived July and August.

The numbers of butterflies seem larger daily and I do think the hummer migration is occurring because we seem to have constantly increasing numbers. I did wonder if the hummingbirds were play-fighting, but wasn't sure if they do that. It was just fun to sit and watch it. None of them ever fed at the feeder either. They'd leave to go visit the trumpet creeper vine, and then come back to "fight".

I've seen insects and pests this year that I've never seen before and never got around to identifying either. I hope next year is a better year in so many ways....how do we count them.....1) more rain more evenly dispersed, 2) less heat, especially early in the year, 3) less pests......and we could go on and on.

Dawn

.....in a perfect world, Dawn! That rarely happens here. I could use "sleeves" or floating row cover, but the blooms wouldn't be available for nectaring to other butterflies either. I've thought about that, but the best I can do is check in early a.m. and evening for cats and eggs, and bring in what I find and put in my cages. The predators, unfortunately, work longer hours than I do.

Then, there are the diseases - OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha) occurring in Monarchs and Black Death that occurs in Swallowtails and Monarchs. The mamas contract the OE spores and pass it on to their offspring, and they also deposit spores on milkweed foliage and flowers that larvae can consume, thereby becoming infected. So, this is yet another reason why Monarchs have a difficult time.

So, the Monarch not only has to deal with parasites, but parasitoids, predators, illness, human threats, habitat destruction, environmental issues, insecticides, herbicides, accidents, and a huge 2,000 mile migration. It's amazing any of them survive!

So, that's why many of us do what we can to help them along the way, just like you're doing your part, too.

I bet your pasture is absolutely stunning! Thank goodness because it will be a big help in the migration.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Monarch Guide - OE (by my friend, CalSherry)