The butterfly house is active once again with very hungry monarch catepillars munching on a giant milkweed.
The monarchs have been busy as almost every milkweed in the gardens have caterpillars of every instar enjoying the leaves. What better why to wqtch the life cycle than to invite them into our butterfly house?
Although this male monarch butterfly is out of focus . . . I love the nectar that is stuck to its proboscis, which is slightly uncoiled.
This little skipper zoomed around the garden this afternoon, taking moments of stillness as it sat on my sweet potato leaves. There’s something fascinating about these little erratically fast flyers.
A constant battle, keeping aphids off milkweeds. A welcome guest, the ladybug, as they can eat up to 50 aphids a day. I am happy to say the ladybugs are appearing in every butterfly garden on my milkweed.
When my milkweeds become incredibly infested, I cut them back so new growth will begin, and throw the infested leaf into my horticulture bin for pick up. Although the aphids do not harm the caterpillar, they can deplete nutrients from the milkweed leaf. It seems that the summer time, when it is much warmer, they appear.
The tropical checkered skipper’s new favorite nectar plant is the scorpion tail. It’s incredibly fast flight helped in spotting it, as the plant has become tail and bushy.
They are a lot of fun to watch and have become a favorite visitor.
This one I watched do a complete 360 while sitting on the flower drinking plenty of fluids.
