Chrysalis Palace

Last year, I planned to make something for 4th and 5th instar monarch caterpillars that was more accessible for feeding and cleaning and more secure to keep them from escaping. (First through third instar caterpillars don’t stray far from milkweed leaves so I don’t worry much about them ending up in a different part of the house.) It would also have layers of netting, both for hanging chrysalises and catching fallen caterpillars/chrysalises/butterflies. Building from scratch was complicated for my skill level. Of course, I didn’t do it. I didn’t need it either.

Almost 130 eggs early this May prompted me to make something out of a cloth drying rack, a few yards of nylon netting and a plywood base with wheels. Shredded paper on the bottom will hopefully cushion the fall of those that miss the netting.

May 24

May 28

Vast majority of caterpillars choose the top. They get a workout winding up there. Very few escapees even when I don’t “shut the door.”

Comma and Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Eggs

Female butterfly acts a certain way when she’s looking for places to deposit eggs.

Comma Eggs

Don’t know how she stacked them.

Six to seven days later, just one caterpillar was around (upper left corner). (Empty egg casings on lower right corner.) I searched for the others, both by turning over leaves and by checking for chew marks. No luck.

Two days later, the caterpillar disappeared and no new chew marks.

Apparently more eggs were deposited later resulting a few more caterpillars. I don’t think any survived past first instar. The leaves would’ve been eaten more otherwise.

Tiger Swallowtail Egg

I know tiger swallowtail butterflies deposit eggs on certain trees. I’m bad at identifying trees. Besides, I’m not about to go tree-climbing for eggs. However, I’m pretty tolerant of weed/volunteer plants. There are many small trees around.

The first tiger swallowtail butterfly sighting of the year. It was acting funny around a tall “weed.” I found one egg. My neighbor told me it was an elm leaf.

Didn’t know how to keep woody plant cutting fresh

Between wilted leaves and mosquito spraying, last year’s attempt to raise comma butterfly caterpillars inside completely failed. So, I left the comma butterfly eggs outside hoping for luck. Nope!

I planned the same for the tiger swallowtail egg when my neighbor mentioned that smashing the stem might help with water uptake.

So far so good! Instead of smashing, it’s more like peeling the skin.

Lacewing Larvae aka Eggsuckers

Last year after I learned what I called butterfly eggsucker was actually lacewing larva, I decided to try relocating it instead of squashing it.

Now I have many more monarch butterfly eggs than I can handle, I’m letting the eggsuckers do what they do.

“The winter that wasn’t” seemed to have caused two large swaths of milkweeds to not sprout. The relatively dry spring so far is stunting the growth of the rest. Talk about not enough food! When I take the eggs, I must also take the leaves. A good numbers of eggs are bad anyway. (I have about 65 living caterpillars from 128 eggs taken early May.) I choose to believe that it’s better for my peace of mind that the caterpillars not hatch than for them to be eaten outright or slowly from the inside.

I’ve being searching and bringing in caterpillars so I’m not at all letting Nature take its course.

Lacewing larva bite packs quite a punch!

Some 2012 Spring Images From the Backyard

All but three were from the backyard.

Tulips back in early April

Little white flowers

Little yellow flower

Flower without petals

Flowers that I can name. Woo hoo!

I’m pretty sure.

Way ahead of other columbines. Columbines disappeared from my yard a few years ago. I’m glad they are back.

Right before I dug out the dandelion.

My neighbor told me these are Dianthus flowers.

Iris stopped blooming many years ago. The flowers are back this year!

Creepy crawlies

No wonder I feel like I’ve been eaten alive even though the mosquitoes aren’t biting yet. They were biting in March but cooler and drier April halted them.

Mating or Feasting

Fly? Bee? Some bug.

How does it taste cooked?

• Lambsquarters
• Garlic mustard
• Dandelion too bitter

Next to try: red clover.

Red Admirals

Population explosion early this spring, which may turn out great for warblers.

Mourning cloak

2010: some red admirals, 1 mourning cloak. 2011: few red admirals, 0 mourning cloak. 2012: many red admirals, 4 mourning cloaks. Mourning cloaks are supposed to have 7-month lifespan. I should be able to get an image with open wings once it can drink from milkweed flowers.

Some kind of copper butterfly?

Well-traveled female monarch butterfly

Her wings, particularly scratches on the left, show she’s being through a lot. Yet, still has energy to deposit eggs. Lucky for the butterfly, Tootsie, still carrying much of her winter fat, wasn’t too frisky on a warm day.

What to do?

An 6-inch tall milkweed with 11 eggs.

The female monarchs keep coming. I have 60 to 70 monarch caterpillars to feed.

And now, maybe 200 eggs outside. Too many too soon. Not enough milkweeds for food and flowers. First instar caterpillars are tiny and delicate. Safely collecting them is very tricky. Letting Nature take its course will mean a boon for ants, spiders, wasps and etc. Those that evade predation will face tachinid flies and their parasitic gut-busting larvae.

Kerosene heater

Bought a kerosene heater late last fall, when the forecast for winter was a long deep freeze and record-breaking snows. We mammals might have dealt with it but my mean turtle couldn’t if the power went out for extended period of time.

One “cool” April night while using up some kerosene inside the garage, I noticed the heater’s reflection on my car window and was curious how my point-and-shoot camera might deal with it.

Mouse hindquarters

I almost stepped on it!

Poor Gray Catbird

An elegant bird. Its neck was broken but rigor mortis didn’t yet set in. I didn’t know what kind of bird it was. So I googled “dark gray bird with a black crown.” It turned out to be a gray catbird. I had no idea they were here.

I found it a few hours after my next-door neighbor cut down a large swath of tall, overgrown privy bushes. Maybe the bird became disoriented and flew into something.

The neighbor intended for the bushes to grow back. But, that’ll take a couple of years, assuming the roots still have enough energy to sprout. Meanwhile, nectar-drinkers such as bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and etc will lose a significant food source in my nearest vicinity. I would’ve waited until autumn.

Last Year

A new type of bird showed up in the neighbor. Sometimes strange loud cries. Sometimes interestingly complex songs. Having forgotten where I stored my binoculars, I could not get any good look at it, in the utility lines or darting into the thickets.

This was an unfortunate way to see one up close.

First Monarch Caterpillars of 2012

Temperature in the mid to upper 60′s is kind of cool for them so they are slow.

Several eggs that are now clearly duds. Yellow and shriveled.

I’m certain more, especially many of the yellowish ones, are bad.

I inadvertently brought in an eggsucker. I caught it in the act but only after a few eggs were sucked.

As of 3pm, May 10, brought in 126+2=128 eggs, >20 duds and sucked dry ones, still waiting on changes to be observed on approx 50 eggs and possibly another 100 eggs outside. Right now, there aren’t enough milkweeds to feed the current and future caterpillars.

Tachinid flies are lingering on milkweeds, waiting for caterpillars.

126 Monarch Butterfly Eggs

Earlier today I went crazy and brought them in. The few obvious duds were left out, along with 2 that were deposited on milkweed stalks. I already cut off 5 stalks each with multiple eggs. Hopefully I didn’t do too much damage to many milkweeds to affect their growth and flower production.

It remains to be seen how many eggs hatch and, assuming I can feed them all, survive to become butterflies. I raised 115 monarch butterflies in 2011 and 148 in 2010.

She missed.

Yesterday I had a good look an a female monarch butterfly. There could have been 2 to 4 in the past 3 days. She was smaller than the average monarch butterfly that I’ve seen and seemed to be in a hurry to get rid of her eggs. Not her fault. She was probably very hungry. My yard currently doesn’t have any good nectar-producing flowers.

After she flew off for good, I took an informal egg count. She deposited an egg on some kind of berry, elm or whatever not milkweed leaf. The wrong leaf abuts a milkweed so if a caterpillar does emerge, it can relocate to the milkweed. Unless the 2 plants grows apart.

I brought the egg in. If the egg turns out to be a dud, I know whence it came.

First Monarch Butterflies of 2012

were hard to get on camera- two or three females looking for suitable milkweeds to deposit eggs in the warm gusty wind.

They are early. So does pretty much every other bug. I have never had so many bug bites (about 20) in spring. In the past, the first batch of eggs-caterpillars enjoyed relative security outside because their predators’ activities were low.

It’ll be tough for caterpillars outside. I’ll bring in as many eggs as I can.

(Mostly Dead) Suburban Wildlife Encounters

Not Dead

Slug eats cat food. I thought slugs only eat plants and drink beer.

Right there on the driveway. They could’ve been seriously injured or killed.

Macabre stuff

See how the bee’s tarsi (I prefer to think “feet.”) were gummed up by pollen and milkweed flower nectar. This happened to wasps too. I found a wasp that could barely walk because of this.

No idea what happened. The cats acted like they didn’t know either.

Remains are buried after images are taken.

The kitties almost always ignore the rodent’s stomach.

Mouse head

This was a first. It used to be either a whole or a headless mouse.

Gross stuff

I have to clean up vomit outside too. Sigh.

Initially, I thought I saw a worm. Nah. That is a mouse tail in the picture.

(Live) Suburban Wildlife Encounter: wittle bunny wunny

Advice from wildlife rescue:

A small rabbit, nose to tail about 4 inches, fully furred, eyes open and able to hold its ears up is about 3 weeks old. It can survive on its own. Don’t handle it too much because of the stress.

The unharmed bunny was released at dusk.

Where did it come from?

Ask Snickers.

I was carrying a bucket of water into the backyard when Snickers strolled over with the bunny hanging off her mouth. I tried to coax her to drop the bunny. Snickers, not well-socialized, ran into the thicket. So I chased after her.

Trying to reach them without stomping on milkweed shots was tough. My leg muscles weren’t made for sprinting.

Tootsie came out of nowhere and blocked Snickers. Snickers doubled back then dropped the bunny.

The bunny darted into a neighbor’s wired fence. Tootsie cornered it. But Tootsie always focuses on scent. She didn’t “see” me picking up the muddy little bunny.

Always have an empty shoe box ready

“Good for temporarily keeping injured/traumatized small animals,” I’ve been told repeatedly.

Tootsie and Snickers had snacks and a meal inside the garage. They had no clue the little bunny in the shoe box was there too.

Early bunny

The winter that wasn’t. The May-like March. Will there be more litters of rabbits? Last year it was well into summer when I started saving little bunnies from the kitties.