Well here is my first post to a blog...
I keep telling myself that I have to be better about keeping notes as we raise butterflies this year! What better way to do that than a blog? So here it is...
We operate a greenhouse on South Hill here in Ithaca. Over the years we have noticed that the greenhouse has attracted all kinds of butterflies, both inside the house and around the gardens. A few years back we found some monarch larvae and managed to raise and release them. As the years have gone on, we are a bit more proficient at it. We now grow certain host plants for specific butterflies and are able to raise them right in the greenhouse.
I wish I would have started this past March, when I seed the first plantings of milkweed, parsley and dill for the butterflies... and then made entries along the way so I had a better feel for timing of plants... but I guess I will catch up as I go. We grew tropical milkweed for the monarchs and dill and parsely for the black swallowtails. The black swallowtails winter over here in the north and in late April or early May, you see the first signs of them. We immediately brought one of these (females) into the greenhouse and she laid some eggs on the dill... but seemed to avoid the parsely. In 10-12 days, we had our first group of larvae!
As our greenhouse season concluded, we created and kept large plantings of calibrachoa, verbena and other flowering plants in hanging baskets, so the adult butterflies had something to feed off of. Also, we potted up large pots of milkweed, dill and parsley. As we had more larvae, we transfered some to these other pots. Although we had lots of larvae coming long, we noted that wasps we agressively killing them off! Ultimately, we moved the larvae to containers, to protect them from the wasps... and this proved pretty effective... but a lot more work.
By the last week in June, we had about 25 black swallowtails emerge into the greenhouse. We allowed them to feed for a few days... and mix freely between the males and females.... and later returned pairs of butterflies back into the breeding cages that contained both feed plants (pentas) and parsley plants as a host. Boy that was the ticket! The females freely laid eggs, that hatched within 10-12 days. Utimately we released the black swallowtails to be free.
As of today, July 29, we probably have 50 second generation black swallowtail larvae on parsley in the screened boxes. Within two weeks they will each form a crysalis. Whn they emerge 12-14 days later, we will repeat the pairing we accomplished earlier in the season. Since the last group of crysalis don't emerge until next spring, we will attempt to winter some over and continue our process next year.
In mid-June, we caught our first female monarch of the season. We decided to see if she would cooperate will us and lay eggs on a milkweed plant. Success again! She, and a few others who joined her after, created a whole host (pun intended) of eggs on the available milkweed. They were spreadout among the breeding boxes and as of this date, we have about 25 larvae who are in crysalis. They should emerge on or about August 10th... and we will attempt pairing them as we have done with the swallowtails.
Eggs and larvae from this breeding should be available for the kindergarden and first grade class rooms in the area in early September, as part of their lifecycle curriculm. Last year, I was able to supply a number of the classrooms with larvae we had found. This involved the teachers having to go out for fresh milkweed daily to feed the larvae. This year, I am hoping to have some extra tropical milkweed, so I can give each classroom a plant with the larvae right on it already... saving them some work and honestly creating happier, healthier monarchs.
OK, so I have caught everything up to date. Now, I can post daily and indicate what I have found, done or whatever. Next post I will post some reference sources so you can do some background reading if you want. I will post some pictures as well, but that might be towards the end of the week.
