Praying Mantis nymphs

With all of the butterfly larvae we raise, it would never make sense for us to use pesticides or herbicides around the greenhouses. So how do we control pests that want to eat up our plants? Over the last few years we have experimented with various "biological" controls including parasitic wasps and praying mantis nymphs... we have decided we like the praying mantis the best! I honestly d0n't know if they do a better job, but they are way cool! The image to the right is a photo of the nymphs emerging from the egg sack.

So it begins!

The greenhouse season is wrapping up at Little's Greenhouse... the "2 for 1" sale is this weekend. One way or another everything will be gone by next weekend! Behind the scenes for many months we have been preparing for a new butterfly season. Lots and lots of tropical milkweed has been planted for the monarchs... dill and parsley for the black swallowtails... our entire effort for the rest of the season will be toward producing lots of happy butterflies!

This week I brought my "breeding stock" in from another butterfly grower in the south.... a dozen larvae ranging from a day to a few days old. Over the next month, they will grow, pupate and emerge as monarchs. At that point will be pair them off, allow them to breed and then contain the females with milkweed plants, where they will hopefully lay eggs. With any luck, we will have three generations of monarchs this year... with the last batch ready to migrate in late August and September. If all goes right, we will have a "tag and release" party in Mid-September at the greenhouse.

Black swallowtails are usually the first butterflies we raise each year. For whatever the reason, they have not been around this spring. We have planted dill and parsley in the gardens and are hoping for some caterpillars sometime soon! If you find any in your garden... on dill, parsely, carrots or on Queen Anne's lace, stick them in a cup and bring them to me. I can show you have you can raise them successfully...

Late Start!

Kind of a late start to our butterfly season... life keeps getting in the way of raising monarchs! Never the less, here are my thoughts for the season...

It has been slow. Reports from Monarchwatch indicate the overwintering area was devastated by storms this past winter, reducing the breeding area to the smallest size on record. Consequently, there are smaller than normal numbers of monarchs headed north this year. Hopefully they will have good breeding season and expand the overwintering area next year.

Locally, we finally have some larvae in the butterfly house... maybe 50 or so. We have a good supply of milkweed growing in pots, so we can support many more if we can get them. We watch constantly for any females visiting our gardens or the milkweed itself, capturing her to allow her to lay eggs on our milkweed.

The calls and emails are beginning to come in from the school teachers wanting larvae for the classroom. Last year, we had many hundreds of caterpillars to share. Unless we really start getting lucky with females for egg laying, we may be short this year for the teachers. We will do the best we can! If you manage to capture a female and want to help the effort, certainly send me an email and we can arrange for pickup.

That's all for now!

Butterfly Tag/Release is TODAY!

OK, we are finally going to tag and release some butterflies! Today, Sunday October 4, at 1:00 PM sharp. Spread the word, all are welcome!

No Butterfly Release today!

Although there are 100's of monarchs ready to emerge... they have not yet emerged! So our scheduled tag/release for today is cancelled. There is one scheduled for 2:00 tomorrow at CNC... but they are in the same boat with slow development due to night time temperatures. I would call them to determine if their event is on or not.

We will make every effort to reschedule our release for next Sunday, 10/4! Stay tuned!

Butterfly Release

The monarch larvae seem to be developing quite slowly due to the cool evenings... I am afraid that they are not going to be ready for a Saturday, September 26 tagging/release. Watch for a posting Saturday AM if this changes. It will be rescheduled if we aren't able to release this weekend, probably for Sunday, October 4th.

We WILL be conducting a tag/release at the Cayuga Nature Center butterfly house on SUNDAY September 27th at 2:00 PM. Check out their website for details... www.cayuganaturecenter.org.

Catching up!

I have not posted to the blog for a while... mostly been busy, but it also has not been a particularly good year for the butterflies. We got a very late start as we did not find any larvae in June like usual. We finally brought some in from outside the area in mid- July. They were reared successfully and we had a healthy crop of breeder butterflies in mid-August. They were actively breeding in the butterfly house and produced about 800 larvae, by Johanna's count!

We have spent most of today distributing larvae to the local elementary schools and child care programs for their classroom. If you are involved in education and would like to try your hand at raising some in your classroom, certainly shoot me an email at jel52@cornell.edu and we will get you set up.

There are some educational materials at www.littlesgreenhouse.com/butterflies for your use as well.

We are planning a tag and release party for Sunday, September 26th 2009 at the greenhouse. Stand by for a posting confirming the day and time...