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More about caterpillars

9/1/2018

3 Comments

 
I received several personal responses to my previous post (below, 1/1/2018) Thank you for them all.
    It seems there are quite a few butterfly fanciers out there. Perhaps slaves is a more apt term. One friend, Susan, seems as enslaved as I am. And more obsessed. She says –
Monarchs! I have a large swan plant by my door and tend them loyally.
1/  I count the caterpillars at least 3 times a day. 122 last week.
2/  I rescue them off the path when they drop.
3/  I insist visitors come and admire them.
4/  I photograph them. Did you know they actually 'fight'?
5/  When the tree is stripped, I am always shocked!
6/  I google alternative foods. Last year, they ate pumpkin. This year it is cucumber and melon.
7/  I joined a Facebook group for them last year. Then I withdrew when I realised I wasn't up to their level of obsession. I do not bring them inside (well, I currently have one chrysalis in the kitchen because...) I do not travel miles to spread them among other swan plants etc.
  
            [Note: a later message upped the inside count to 3]
8/  When a butterfly comes near me, I coo 'My baby!'
9/  I am obsessed. If the tree dies this year I won't mind. They take up sooo much time.
10/ Currently, there are 10 chrysalis (plural) on my walls and downpipe.
11/ I battle wasps and go ape when they attack a caterpillar. Crush them in my bare hands.
12/ I am obsessed and exhausted and hope the tree dies.


To which my response is –
A: Caterpillars can eat a little pumpkin if they are just about ready to go into cocoon – otherwise the butterflies are likely to emerge deformed. I have had very minor success with frangipani leaves – same family of plant, strangely. Even stranger, I think, they’re not interested in milkweed, also the same family and looks much more like swan plant.
B:  Caterpillars are stupid.  I am constantly saving them from their mindless actions. I have now have another dozen safely into chrysalis stage, at much effort on my part as they insist on doing things like attaching themselves to a leaf rather than to the experienced hanging sticks I provide. Another caterpillar eats the leaf and the chrysalis drops. Whereupon I sigh heavily and attach them to a stick with cotton or a clip.
C:  The trees last only a couple of years. Then hundreds of tiny seedlings spring up and butterflies lay eggs on them. 
D:  Butterflies are stupid.
E:  The caterpillars strip the seedlings in moments. So then I am rescuing starving caterpillars and searching for, and buying more plants.
F:  I am stupid.
G:  I don’t, though, crush wasps with my bare hands. Last summer I was stung twice just by being in the garden minding my own business.
H:  It’s a slight relief to find there are others out there who are at least, and even more, obsessed than I am. So, Susan, Val, Anne and others – cheers!
Picture
3 Comments
June
10/1/2018 10:10:18 am

So, I just had to join in. Yes, sadly the butterflies are beautiful but stupid. I had been told that the butterfly will sip from buddleia flowers. But these plants are a pest plant and golly, they do take a lot of knocking back. I may have something very important to offer in the way of deterring wasps. Now, this is has a long way to go before being proved scientifically, HOWEVER I will relate - because I can look from my lounge window right over a swan plant, I believe I made an important discovery two days ago. My lounge is on a second level. I was gazing out and noticed a wasp hovering over the plant. I know I have one remaining large caterpillar there. In an effort to save it, I swished a fly swat around in an attempt to frighten the wasp. That worked. The fly swat (the $2 variety) happens to be a light sky blue in colour. I swished with so much ferocity that the swat fell and hung in the stems of the swan plant bush. The wasp didn't come near again. I think it was deterred by the blue. The wasp flew around a fern close by. So I arranged two blue hydrangea flowers into the swan plant mid stems. Whenever I'm watching out a wasp may fly near but doesn't settle on the plant. I wonder if this discovery will go down in history. I certainly think it's a try if you have anything sky blue that you can drape on your swan plant. On the other hand, the owner of this blog did tell me some time ago that the wasps change their diet about now from protein to sugar. Was that why the wasp was sitting on a swan plant flower?

Reply
Susan Tarr
10/1/2018 10:54:29 am

Fascinating about the blue fly swatter! While I was outside, counting my last 2 caterpillars, I did find my black lacy bra hanging on a flax flower, so thank you, June! And there were no wasps on that plant. Currently I have 17 chrysalis on drainpipes, mint leaves and dahlias A few on the house. And what I see is that the original, well-nourished ones are double the size of the latter starving ones. I do not have a twig nursery. I am leaving nature to sort its own this year. I am having counselling...

Reply
Cath Mayo
17/1/2018 02:33:23 pm

I didn't realise I've been in such excellent company! My two swan plant groves were festooned with caterpillars this spring and eaten down to bare sticks twice, luckily enough out of sync for me to be able to ferry handfuls of caterpillars from one end of the section to the other. Supplement feeding with pumpkin worked to an extent - some caterpillars ate it; others retreated immediately from the little plastic trays I managed to perch here and there in the branches. The previous time this happened, I had agonised over every single caterpillar; this time my behaviour patterns were just as obsessive but my mind reached a calmer plane - not every caterpillar can be saved from its own stupidity.

Reply



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