Two summers ago I had 16 chrysalis, 14 of which hatched and flew away.I thought they would come back this summer, but not one butterfly appeared all summer.I realize that for various reasons the butterflies may not have survived, but I would like to try and establish a base here in Turangi.I have plenty of swan plants, and agarden with sunny corners and trees.I have also bought a small 'greenhouse' in which they could find winter shelter.
Which plants should I grow to encourage them!Is there anywhere that I can get some Chrysalis's.What could I feed the butterflies in winter if they use the shelter!
lizzie211,
May 31, 2:53am
I have tried to register with the Monarch Butterfly Trust, but the site won't accept the password it gave me, lol.
kateley,
May 31, 3:19am
the monarchs sort of hibernate in the winter, only flying on warm days to look for nectar. I didn't get any caterpillars on my swan plants this year, I heard that the wasps eat them as soon as they appear.So my swan plants are covered in swans and next year I will have a forest of plants.
koru67,
May 31, 4:10am
For the Monarch Butterfly trust website you can still access all the info without logging in, you just can't post. Try reading the tab monarchs, nectar plants for butterflies. They also do a butterfly gardening course (under the projects tab).
coop19,
May 31, 7:22am
Ants are also big predators of Monarch eggs and small caterpillars.We seem to have a super colony of ants here, been a constant battle with them for the last two years. They will attack and eat any insect/invertibrate they can get hold of.
lizzie211,
Jun 1, 9:05am
Wasps do kill the caterpillars, hence my getting a little greenhouse.I kept my chrysalis inside, and had a lot of fun watching them hatch and dry their wings to fly away.Will try the website again.
lyng1,
Jun 1, 9:19am
Cover the swan plants with an old net curtain to protect from wasps. I find the wasps leave the caterpillars alone from March onwards - still have a few hardy caterpillars!
braenz,
Jun 2, 4:48am
Hi Lizzie
I have a netted greenhouse where I keep caterpillars in the spring and early summer - but later in the summer the paper wasps have finished feeding their young on protein and all of those wasps will start feeding on nectar - so the caterpillars are pretty safe from wasps.
If you contact me at the Monarch website I will change your password for you, jacqui@monarch.org.nz.
thea4,
Jun 2, 6:03am
I have found the butterflies just love the nectar in Zinnea flowers and make sure I plant plenty, the older swan plants have no caterpillars on the but the 30cm high seedlings still have some.
merrilegs,
Jun 2, 8:31am
My neighbour has swan plants and monarch butterflys. Interestingly, the butterflies just love a hedge of bottlebrush trees that I have. Maybe its the nectar they are after.
redphoenix3,
Jun 2, 8:36am
I planted a buddleia (sp) bush, well it is really a tree now. we get hundreds of butterflies every year. the feed of this plant and it keeps them returning (even the admirals like it) i gave up on swan plants as we never had enough to feed all the caterpillars but i get great pleasure from watching them. maybe if you have swanplants you could get some butterflly feeding plants like this to encourage them to return to feed too!
hive,
Jun 26, 6:28am
I discovered i was loosing caterpillars at a great rate of knots but saw no wasps or ants etc. Only critter that was nearby was a pregnant preying mantis. Came home and found her having a good old munch on a large caterpillar. Apparently alternative food for monarch caterpillar's is moth weed (Kapok) vine. Since this stuff grows nearly everywhere i'll keep a (controlled) amount by the swan plants and see how that goes next spring. So if you have preying mantis's nearby, move 'em on to the cabbages to deal to the white butterfly instead. They might work against stink-bugs too but i dunno about that.
imagine4,
Jun 26, 8:09am
The Life Cycle(s) of a Monarch Butterfly Monarch butterflies go through four stages during one life cycle, and through four generations in one year. It??
sunflowaz62,
Oct 20, 3:17pm
I too am currently setting up a butterfly friendly garden. I have the Swan plant sorted for the catapillars okay. Now I just need to keep the Butterflies happy. Definitely the Buddleia is to recommended but I also found the following list of plants on another Trademe listing. Any or all of these will help to keep the butterflies happy. Asclepias curassavica 'Silky Scarlet' Calendula - English Marigold Cornflower mixed colours Cherianthus - Siberian Wallflower Cynoglossum - Forget Me Not Iberis - Candytuft Coreposis - Plains coreopsis/tickweed Dianthus - Sweet William Echinacea - Purple Cone flower Linaria - Toadflax Delphinium - Rocket larkspur Dimorphotheca - African Daisy Linum - Blue flax Lobularia - Sweet Alyssum Rudbeckia - Yellow Coneflower/Blackeyed Susan Trifolium - Crimson Clover Hope it helps
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