Every day since late last week I have had polydamas swallowtail butterflies emerge from their chrysalsis in our butterfly house.
Yesterday I had 9 emerge and today I had 7 for a total of 187 all time raised and released, with 19 in six days. The wonderful part, there are more yet to show their beauty!
My influx of polydamas swallowtail caterpillars have almost all went into their chrysalis.
There are a few left still munching away on some Dutchman pipe, their host plant.
Today, on this glorious 4th of July, the first of probably dozens, has emerged.
This one marks 169 that we have successfully raised and released. Since it did not want to leave my finger, I left it on my purpletop vervain, which is doing incredibe with our daily down pours, so it can fly away when ready
Thank goodness for good friends and their abundance of Dutchman Pipe . . . my explosion of polydamas swallowtail caterpillars have more food!
It’s the little things that make me smile, such as going to my friends house to cut some of her Dutchman pipe to feed my caterpillars and finding some on hers as well. Another perk of butterfly gardening, sharing – both plant cuttings and caterpillars – so more can enjoy watching the lifecycle.
Best part, my little buddy, who was super excited to find a polydamas swallowtail walking down my sidewalk while he was over, is raising a couple dozen for me, so they continue to have plenty of food.
Never in all the years I have had a butterfly garden has the polydamas swallowtail population exploded to this amount. There’s probably close to 100 caterpillars!
These butterflies are having a record year, and now it’s host plant needs new growth, so they lifecycle can start all over again.
I’m really excited about the two pathways that are going through the butterfly garden.
The brick pathway is through the first portion of the garden, which is complete. My daughter painted them years ago, but the paint has since come off, or fading a ton. I may have to scrub them clean, so she can create new designs on them again.
The stone pathway I began today to go through the second portion of the garden.
This pathway, although is very time consuming, I’m loving how it is turning out. My husband brought bricks home years ago and I never knew quite what to do with them. I started getting rid of them, a little every week, until an idea sprung.
I am now using a sledge hammer and breaking them to create another artsy pathway. It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle putting all the broken pieces together.
The best part of today, of course was watching the variety of butterflies that visited the garden while I was out there. We had monarchs, gulf fritillaries, orange barred sulphurs, great southern whites, dainty sulphurs, Cassius blue, polydamas swallowtail and one I got extremely excited about, the giant swallowtail. I sure have created an oasis!
The last of my polydamas swallowtail butterflies emerged today after being in its chrysalsis since before Thanksgiving 2024 in the butterfly house. It’s truly amazing how long they can overwinter. Our Southwest Florida temps did get a bit cold this winter, but it’s been pretty warm for some time now.
It flew directly to my daughter’s favorite bench in the garden where it hung out for quite some time, allowing me to admire its beauty a little bit longer.
