Monarch babies

[nico1908]

I have five Monarch butterfly babies munching away at my swamp milkweed, but I am afraid they won’t get enough food for further metamorphing because the plants have attracted a nasty kind of yellow bug or aphid that form a thick layer on the stems and the plants look sickly. Of course I can’t spray them because that would kill the caterpillars. Plus milkweed seems to be allergic to dish soap: the last time I doused them with Dial, the aphids died nicely – and so did the leaves. :-(

 

Plan for next year: lots and lots of zinnias because they can stand the heat and lack of water, don’t seem to need fertilizer, and are overall bright and happy little flowers (they've actually grown miraculously big in the sandbox that I call flowerbed). Also, need caterpillar food other than milkweed. Something that is as robust as zinnias and can stand the same kind of neglect. I’d like to attract these guys… Need to do more research...

Comments

gardening

[kestrelsparhawk.livejournal.com]

I can never resist garden posts...

I acquired a ginormous crop of swallowtail cocoons on my parsley one year. I've been told monarchs only go for asclepias, but haven't bothered to check. OTOH, out of curiosity I googled "butterfly garden" and got: http://alltheweb.com/search?advanced=1&cat=web&jsact=&_stype=norm&type=phrase&q=butterfly+garden&itag=crv&l=en&ics=utf-8&cs=utf8&wf%5Bn%5D=3&wf%5B0%5D%5Br%5D=%2B&wf%5B0%5D%5Bq%5D=plants&wf%5B0%5D%5Bw%5D=&wf%5B1%5D%5Br%5D=%2B&wf%5B1%5D%5Bq%5D=recommend&wf%5B1%5D%5Bw%5D=&wf%5B2%5D%5Br%5D=-&wf%5B2%5D%5Bq%5D=&wf%5B2%5D%5Bw%5D=&dincl=&dexcl=&geo=&doctype=&dfr%5Bd%5D=1&dfr%5Bm%5D=1&dfr%5By%5D=1980&dto%5Bd%5D=1&dto%5Bm%5D=10&dto%5By%5D=2008&hits=10&nooc=off
which is one HECK of a long address but shows quite a list of promising places.

Re: gardening

[nico1908.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, I'm so jealous of your swallowtails!! I had one of the big guys drinking from my zinnias the other day. They are absolutely stunning!

Thank you for the link. As it so happens, our local Butterfly House is going to have a Butterfly Festival October 10-12. That should be interesting! www.panhandlebutterflyhouse.org