Butterflies And Wildlife » Pipevine

Butterflies Were Everywhere Today

texdr — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:30:57 +0000

Holy Cow! Today there were Butterflies everywhere in the backyard. We had a Monarch, Question Mark, Variegated Fritillary, Giant Swallowtail, Grey Hairstreak, Eastern Black Swallowtail, some type of Crescent Butterfly, and a Pipevine Swallowtail.

I got a few pictures, but I missed several and several others weren’t that good as I got over-excited.

The plants that seemed to be attracting the most Butterflies were the Lantana and Butterfly Bush.

The most prevalent Butterfly I saw today was the Eastern Black Swallowtail. Interestingly, none of them were laying any eggs, they were just going after the nectar and chasing each other.

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Butterfly Bush

On top of all that, we’re having a crisis. We are running out of Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia Fimbriata) and neither Joshua’s Native Plants nor Buchanan’s Native Plants has any in stock. We have at least 15 huge Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars and although I’ve been thinking they will soon stop eating and form Chrysalises, I’m apparently mistaken. I could have sworn they were going to stop eating yesterday, and yet today there they were, still munching away. They were even eating the Dutchman’s Pipevine stems since there were so few leaves.

I’m going to start calling first thing in the morning and see if any other nurseries have this plant in stock. For those of you in the Houston area reading this, if you know of a source, please share!

How To Build A Successful Butterfly Garden Videos

texdr — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:07:23 +0000

I thought I would put together some brief videos on how to create a successful Butterfly Garden for my last day of vacation.

There are a total of 5 videos, each one is less than 2 minutes long. Watching these should give you a decent idea of how to start (or continue) a successful Butterfly Garden.

In this first video, I talk about how to buy Milkweed, what prices you should expect to pay (at least in Houston), how to tell if you have healthy Milkweed, and how to plant your Milkweed plants.

In this second video clip, I talk about the importance of having Nectar plants for your Butterfly Garden. I also show a brief clip of my Butterfly Enclosures.

By the way, some good nectar plants I recommend are Penta, Salvia, Purple Coneflower, Lantana, Butterfly Bush, and the Cigar Bush.

In this third video clip, I talk about some other Host Plants for your Butterfly Garden including, Pipevine, Fennel, and Citrus Trees.

In the fourth video clip, I talk about some additional Host Plants for Butterflies including Spicebush and Passion Vine, as well as what kinds of Butterflies you can expect to attract with the different Host Plants.

In this fifth and final video clip I talk about some additional Butterfly Gardening tools such as portable Butterfly Enclosures and long tweezers.

If you have any questions about these videos, where to buy plants or the additional Butterfly Gardening tools, just send me an email or leave a comment.

Hope you enjoy and it makes sense!

Updated Butterfly Garden

texdr — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:00:42 +0000

I couldn’t stand it any longer. Although there is a chance of freezing weather this week, I just had to go buy some new plants. I’ve been tired of looking in the backyard and seeing nothing but brown.

I previously had about 10 milkweed plants (which have been in pots that I take indoors when it gets too cold), and bought 6 more. I also bought 2 new cigar plants (a favorite among Hummingbirds, Bees, and Butterflies), a new Blood Orange tree (gave my other small one to my neighbor), 1 Munsted Lavender, 1 French Lavender, 1 Godwin Creek Lavender, 4 Sweet Onions, 1 Cherry Tomato, 1 Dill, 1 Trailing 1 Purple Lantana, 1 Texas Lantana, 1 Giant Dutchman’s Pipevine, 2 Dutch Pipevine, 1 Russelia Desert Fire, 1 Fuchsia Gartenmeister, 2 Black Eyed Susan, and 1 Mexican Flame Vine.

Oh, and before I forget, I also bought 45 bags of hardwood mulch, 20 bags of potting soil, and 1 triple layer bird bath.

In case you’re wondering, my back, legs, and arm are killing me:-).

I’m including some pictures so y’all can see what my backyard looks like in the very beginning of the season as well as what some of these plants look like.

Below is a picture of my cigar plant as a result of the very cold winter. This is probably my favorite plant for Butterfly Gardening as Hummingbirds, Bees, and Butterflies all love this plant (at least when it doesn’t look like this).

Freeze Damaged Cigar Plant

Here is a picture of the new Cigar Plant I planted today.

Cigar Plant 2010

Below is some of my Milkweed that was outdoors all Winter, and obviously freeze damaged.

Freeze Damaged Milkweed

Here’s a picture of my Milkweed that we would take indoors when it got below freezing.

Bunch Of Mexican Milkweed

And here’s some Milkweed I bought from Joshua’s Native Plants (some of the lushest Milkweed I’ve ever seen). I couldn’t fit all of the Milkweed into the Butterfly cage. I’m hopefully protecting these new plants from Aphids which are all over the Milkweed in the picture above.

Lush Milkweed And Butterfly Cage

Leecy planted a bunch of Herbs in our garden. Many of these Herbs also serve as host plants for Butterflies. In a few months you probably won’t even be able to see the pool in the background as many of these plants become quite large.

View Of Garden 2010

Here’s a picture of the Rose Garden, Bird Feeders, and my new triple layer Bird Bath. The birds seemed a little nervous about the new Bird Bath, but hopefully they’ll adjust. By the way, most of the Roses are antique Roses, and none of them had any damage this Winter.

Triple Layer Bird Bath And Rose Garden

I was going to post pictures of some of the individual plants, but instead will just post a picture of how the “nectar” section of the Butterfly Garden looks right now. I can list the individual plants in this section if folks are interested.

Nectar Section Of Butterfly Garden

Update On Polydamas Hatchings

texdr — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:22:01 +0000

During the first day we had 10 hatch, yesterday about 5, and just 1 today. They all are apparently staying local as they have gone straight to the Pipevine and began laying eggs. When they need some energy, they go over to the Butterfly Bush or Milkweed, then it’s back to laying eggs.

Poydamas On Butterfly Bush

Old Faithful

texdr — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:07:14 +0000

These Polydamas Swallowtails are becoming semi-regular around here lately. I saw at least two at the same time flying around. One of them (in the pictures below (was trying all day to unload some eggs). I even saw her after dusk and she was just hanging on the Pipevine with tons of eggs still trying to be released. Actually I think that’s not good news. I’m wondering if those eggs have somehow become stuck on here. If she’s around tomorrow and I can catch her, I’ll probably do so in that I can hopefully help her release some of those eggs. Right now she look awful constipated or whatever they call it when you have a ton of eggs in your belly and they won’t come out.

Old Faithful

Polydamas Stuck With Eggs

Polydamas Swallowtail Laying Eggs

texdr — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:14:01 +0000

I can’t tell you how many shots I have attempted to take of this Polydamas Swallowtail (probably over 100). I have tried and tried to capture this Butterfly in flight and I just can’t seem to do it yet. However, today this Swallowtail actually stayed fairly motionless for a bit while laying some eggs on the Pipevine.

Polydamas Laying Eggs

Talk About An Eating Disorder!

texdr — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:36:04 +0000

Take a look at these Polydamas (I’m pretty sure that’s what they are) caterpillars. These guys are huge and they still haven’t gone to pupate. They look to me like they are literally about to bust.

Speaking of Polydamas, I’ve been struggling on how to differentiate between the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars and the Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillars. I think I found a website that provides the distinction. Check out the Butterfly Fun Facts website. If what this website says is true, here are the ways to differentiate the Polydamas from the Pipevine butterflies (http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/goldrim.php).

Pipevine eggs are burgundy, Polydamas are yellow
Polydamas caterpillars have a gold rim about their head, Pipevine caterpillars do not

So, it appears that the majority of the caterpillars that we have collected from our Pipevine are from the Polydamas Swallowtail. These particular pictures don’t really show the head that well (to see the gold rim) but they definitely show how fat these guys can get.

Plump Polydamas Caterpillar 1

Picture number 2

Plump Polydamas Caterpillar 2

Picture Number 3

Plump Polydamas Caterpillar 3

Pipevine Or Polydamas?

texdr — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:24:49 +0000

We’re up to around 90 of these Pipevine or Polydamas caterpillars. I always thought they were Pipevine but I’ve been seeing so many of the Polydamas Swallowtail’s laying eggs on the Pipevine that now I’m not so sure. One thing is for sure, they not only are born side by side, but they apparently continue to eat and grow side by side. It will be interesting to see what happens once they start to form Chrysalises.

Pipevine Or Polydamas

Another shot of the “family”

We Are Family

Multiple Polydamas Swallowtail

texdr — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:12:21 +0000

Before I share the pictures, I have a confession. I really need to improve in taking pictures of moving subjects. I took (or tried to) over 30 pictures of a couple of Polydamas Swallowtail (the only Swallowtail without the “tails”) laying eggs and out of the 30 or so, only 2 were keepers and even they weren’t that sharp. Besides the movement of the Butterfly, the other challenge is trying to meter the light for the shot, particularly with a Black Butterfly. I think the camera gets confused as the shots below seem a bit bright to me.

Anyway, here are the unedited shots (other than cropping) for your review. For those that do take action shots, feel free to send me your tips as I feel I could certainly use them.

Polydamas Swallowtail Laying Eggs

Notice in the shot below, you can see she’s already laid a few eggs.

Another Polydamas Laying Eggs

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars Up Close

texdr — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:49:16 +0000

Our “collection” (not really a collection as we always release them) of Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars is really growing. Right now we have somewhere close to 50-60 Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars in several enclosures. I knew the eggs were all laid together (not one at a time like the Monarch) but I didn’t realize that these guys stick together after they hatch. Compared to the Monarchs, these guys don’t seem to eat as much, nor as fast.

Just for fun, I grabbed the macro lens and took some shots. Another thing I have never realized is just how shiny they are. Is it just me or do these guys look like brown gummy bears (click on the picture to see them up close)?

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars Up Close

Here’s another shot

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars Up Close 2

And the final shot. I think this guy started to feel a little warm in the sun as he started to crawl to the underside of the leaf.

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars Up Close 3