Custom Built Butterfly Enclosure
Butterfly And Wildlife Gardening And Photography
Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Butterfly Gardening In HoustonThe monarch caterpillars destroyed my current crop of milkweed. Fortunately Joshua’s had 18 one gallon milkweed plants in stock. We cleaned him out. Hopefully this will last until at least the weekend. The image below is just one plant, and just at the top of the plant. We’ve been able to count over 50 caterpillars… Lots of things can kill your butterflies, diseases, birds, and insects. However, there is one insect that kills more of my butterfly caterpillars than any other creature. The dreaded red wasp. These things are evil. I literally have watched them slowly fly around the milkweed looking for just the right size tasty morsel, then WHAM,…  Okay, so I probably have about 60 or so milkweed plants for Monarchs which you might think would suffice quite well while most of the Monarchs are migrating north. As usual, that thinking has got me into trouble. I mentioned in an earlier post about how we quarantined “some” of the eggs from Timothia, and… To me, one of the challenges of butterfly gardening is where to get your plants. Fortunately there are several good places in Houston. The following are my favorites and why I like them. Also, a little caveat. Just because Houston Garden Centers, Lowes, or Home Depot sells Milkweed does not mean that plants from these… Despite Timothia no longer being around, her babies are alive and kicking! I have built a protective enclosure around the milkweed where Timothia laid her eggs. It’s amazing that after just 4 short days of a Monarch egg being laid, that they soon turn into caterpillars. This will be an interesting experiment and learning experience. … On Thursday, May 7, 2009 I made the decision to humanely put Timothia to rest. The were several reasons for the decision. One, her wings were starting to tear and her legs would get caught in her wings. Two, she was getting noticeably weaker. Because her legs kept getting caught in her wings, we kept…  Timothia’s first day laying eggs. She most likely has the OE disease and that’s why her wings did not unfurl. In hindsight, although this was a very rewarding experience for me, I probably should have euthanized Timothia in order to prevent further spreading of the disease |
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