Option 1 is not an option
Found an injured bumble today. I suspect it was sprayed. It died shortly after i picked it up and tried to help it. I think the landscaper that the sellers uses, sprays. Every time he comes by, i see a dead friend and they obviously see the pollinator activity in my yard so it’s been pissing be off. Really hoping the new people next door understand and don’t try to kill my bumblebees. We already do not have enough of them as is.
I just wish bald face hornets weren’t so aggressive towards us.
Hoping the paper wasps will setup camp nearby soon.
I’ve really only just starting learning about how important predatory wasps are in the garden. Planted some boneset last fall and this spring planted a lot of dill. Excited to see what happens. I think I’ll start twice as many dill next year and tuck them into every little gap in the flower gardens. What else does everyone use to attract them?
On a different note, I saw my first lacewing a few days ago! Naturally, didn’t have my phone…and another lady bug showed up to the aphid party, so that’s exciting. Now, I just need to stop the ants from farming aphids on all my new container apple trees. Concerned about tanglefoot/that concept. Suggestions other than continues to wipe them all away with my finger??
Ive been noticing Azaleas in folks yards that dont seem to grow much other than ornamentals… The local ones seem abuzz with bumblebees.
Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the Ericaceae family, which includes blueberries and mountain laurel. They are also all rhododendrons and members of the genus Rhododendron.
I’m familiar with at least 3 on that list which are all native to my area. I don’t think the pinks, purples, whites that nearly every yard has are native. Haven’t looked into where they are from…not here.
Why? Each one of those tiny little flowers attracts some tiny bees and wasps that you almost have to take a magnifying glass to see… no clue what those little bees and wasps do for a living but it is super entertaining.
I am guessing that they pollinate those little flowers which turn to seed… and the process continues.
The good- seems that the leaves etc of this plant are pure medicine that i did not know that i had… especially bug bites, bee stings and even snake venom. Must be powerful stuff. I think it aids the body in many other ways too… not going to get too deep into plant medicine but its there.
The bad- They are calling this a noxious invasive weed…
The good and the bad- It has one of the longest latent dormancy of any seed… We dont know how long the seed dormancy is… could be many hundreds of years.
Even though its labeled as a noxious invasive weed… the ecology of the plant says that rabbits eat the leaves and songbirds eat the seeds. Not to mention butterflies and moths lay their eggs on it.
I have seen it a million times by the roadside and figured it was some kind of clover etc… and not really paid much attention to it really as it was just another ‘weed’.
I encourage this all over my yard. When you get a really nice big one they can be very impressive and good looking! They work very nicely for chop and drop situations too. I also will toss handfuls of leaves in my perpetual fermenting weed bucket of fertilizer.
What are people seeing in the way of butterflies? Like last year, we have seen far fewer than used to be around. Last year, we attributed it to the 6 week drought. This year, it rained near daily.
Saw a rare lightening bug last night, which was neat. They used to be everywhere and even just 8 years ago we would see a lot in the evenings.
We have lots of butterflies. The big ones right now are the Giant Swallowtail, the Polydamas and the Spicebush Swallowtail. We also have a resident brood of Queens and Gulf Flitteraries and our Monarch population seems to be improving (I saw a butterfly and a caterpillar last weekend). Plus we have our little skippers and sulfurs flying around as well.
The larger butterflies love the zinnia flowers, the smaller ones feed on the frogfruit and sunshine mimosa. They all enjoy our scarlet sage and other salvias we have planted everywhere. We have a very high population of butterflies because we provide host and nectar plants in abundance. They really make a garden feel alive.
Depends on the butterfly. Host plants are where they lay their eggs. In my area orange/citrus and other rues (like wild lime) host the Giant Swallowtails, so we have lots of them. Spicebush Swallowtail feed on our invasive Camphor trees as well as many other Lauraceaes like Magnolias. Milkweed is famously the host plant for Monarchs, but it also hosts Queens (and Soldiers but I’ve never seen a Soldier before). They also will all host on twine-vines and crownflowers (like Giant Milkweed). Parsley, dill, carrots and fennel host Black Swallowtails. Cassias, sennas and beans host a myriad of different sulfurs.
Nectar plants are the plants the butterfly drinks nectar from. Whether a butterfly likes a flower depends on their mouth length and some butterflies have color preference. Host plants are usually not good nectar plants for the same butterfly. So you usually have to supply flowering plants as well as host plants. Having a wide range of flower shapes and sizes is the best way to supply nectar to butterflies and pollinators in general.
The best thing to do is to look up your native butterflies and found out what their host plants and favored nectar plants are. All sorts of fruit trees, shrubs and herbs host caterpillars, you may already have some!
I guess depending on the kind of butterflies and pollinators accordingly with the region would feed of in plants natives to the area obviously.
I was just wondering if they use some of the same plants that we have up north and if so to plant more of them and others for more variety for them to choose from.
@sharq That’s wonderful that you’re seeing so many. I have densely planted my tiny lot with many native host plants and nectar sources. Unfortunately, my native gardening friends (most a few decades older) also note a steep decline in butterflies. Do you grow pseudognaphalium obtusifolium? I’ve been looking for a plant for a while. Going to finally just try to seed it next year now that I have more space to seed things.
We had many, many monarch caterpillars last year (and resulting cocoons and butterflies). I had only seen maybe 3 of the butterflies during the summer, but either more came of those three made good work of my swamp milkweed patches. I hope they’ve come unnoticed.
@Ruben sites like Direct Native Plants or Prairie moon nursery will list the host species for whatever native you are purchasing. Direct Natives has a relatively limited inventory so it’s easy to browse through, their plants are always really healthy and super fair prices. Nothing beats a good local native sale, but if you don’t have one, they’re great.
I’ve seen virtually no butterflies yet. Prior to your post I was realizing this and kinda questioning it.
I have a lot of Spicebush and Passiflora incarnata, so I usually see gulf fritillary and Spicebush swallowtail, plus some tiger swallowtail. But not really this year.
(I have many pawpaws but maybe manage to spot only one Zebra swallowtail a year)
Thanks for sharing what you’re seeing, or not seeing. I’m going to try to attend some more butterfly events at our nature centers to pick the naturalists’ brains about it all. It’s wild(ly depressing) that butterfly sightings have become an exciting rare event for my kids as opposed to everyday out and about beauty.
