Mixing weed

[windrider]

I have a small garden pond that has some swamp milkweed growing in it and I happened to notice that the damn aphids have attacked it again (it is hard=hit each year)...but this time I found a little guy - about 1 instar - on a leaf crowded with the yellow nuisances. I wiped the aphids off with a q-tip and water and brought him in, but I"m wondering - will it be alright to swap him out to the common milkweed leaves I have in my milkweed patch or will I need to keep feeding him the swamp milkweed?

[Mona Miller]

The earlier you transition them to a new host plant the better--feed him common and swamp at the same time. I don't take the other host away right away. I put both in the container.

[windrider]

Thanks...that's what I sort of ended up doing...I put him on a new leaf from the swamp, right next to another guy who I put on a common and he kind of went right over to check out the new stuff

[Mona Miller]

I've been gone most of the day taking my son back to college.

You've done an excellent job taking care of your charges (caterpillars).

I went out to pick leaves and have to feed a few of those hunger caterpillars, soon.

[windrider]

I told the wife I had picked up 8 more out of the patch today and she asked me if I was nuts. That makes 28 I'm caring for. But I don't have to change diapers and despite a nursery of 28 little ones, I don't hear a sound...

[Seanaldo]

They are demanding,in their way, but SO QUIET! Especially compared to my 2 children and three dogs! My husband's been away with the military for a long time, and I can't wait to introduce him to the new 'kids'!

[Mona Miller]

I told the wife I had picked up 8 more out of the patch today and she asked me if I was nuts. That makes 28 I'm caring for. But I don't have to change diapers and despite a nursery of 28 little ones, I don't hear a sound...

They don't make a sound so I have to keep reminding myself to pay attention to the little ones in the nursery.

Legend of the Butterfly (Native American)

One day the Creator was resting and watching some children play in a village. As He watched them, His heart grew sad - “these children will grow old, their skin will become wrinkled, their hair will turn gray, their teeth will fall out, the young hunter’s arm will fail, the lovely young girls will grow ugly and fat, the playful puppies will become blind, mangy dogs, and those wonderful flowers - yellow and blue, red and purple - will fade. The leaves from the trees will fall and dry up. Thus, the Creator grew sadder and sadder.

The Creator took out his bag and started gatherings things: a spot of sunlight, a handful of blue from the sky, the shadow of paying children, the blackness of a beautiful girl’s hair, the yellow of the falling leaves, the green of the pine needles, the red, purple and orange of the flowers. All of these he put into his bag.

Then he walked over to the grassy spot where the children were playing. “Children, little children, this is for you.” And he gave them his bag. “Open it; there something nice inside.” The children opened the bag, and at once hundreds and hundreds of colored butterflies flew out, dancing around the children’s heads, settling on their hair, fluttering up again to sip from this or that flower. And the children, enchanted, said they had never seen anything so beautiful.

The butterflies began to sing and the children listened smiling. But then a songbird came flying, settling on the Creator’s shoulder, scolding him, saying, “It’s not right to give our songs to the new, pretty things. You told us when you made us that every bird would have his own song. And now, you’ve passed them all around. Isn’t it enough that you gave your new playthings the colors of the rainbow?” “You’re right,” said the Creator. “I made one song for each bird, and I shouldn’t have taken what belongs to you.”

So, the Creator took the songs away from the butterflies, and that’s why they are silent. “They’re beautiful even so!” he said.

[windrider]

Thank you for that, Mona.

We raised two daughters and now have 5 grand children, one of whom we're guardians of..many diapers, many crying nights..

Silence from the monarch nursery - although I have one that has decided he doesn't like his plastic shoebox and keeps venturing out...where the heck did I put the cover???

[Mona Miller]

Those sneaky, silent caterpillars are the ones to watch!

[NickiM]

They don't make any noise that we can hear, but my four-legged cats always know before I do when they eclose. They must make some kind of sound, because my tiger-stripe cat, Tawnee, is always there watching the butterflies emerge. I know she doesn't see them, because they're up high on my kitchen table and TV armoire.

[donnap27]

Maybe my ears are super sensitive ... but i can very clearly hear those big guys chomping away at their milkweed. i think they are quite noisy, ... and i love the sound !

[Mona Miller]

You must have a lot of them eating. You want to hear noise of caterpillars eating, then raise some Pipevine Swallowtails. They sound like they are crunching potatoe chips.

[donnap27]

crunching potato chips ... now that would make me hungry

[windrider]

I can remember when the Gypsy Moths reeked havoc here in the 70's..we'd go outside at night and could hear them eating....glad those days are gone...

[Mona Miller]

1988 -- Gypsy moth frass (poop) loudly dropped and covered the ground.

But, in 1988 there were also more Monarchs and less development.

[windrider]

I remember the Gypsy moth frass so deep we had to scoop it with shovels. Some of the trees around my house still have a slight stain from the ring of adhesive my dad put on them to keep the larva from traveling up the trunk. I remember walking into the woods in August and thinking that the trees looked as bare as they do in winter.

When people start asking me why I'm so concerned about invasive species, I ask "Do you remember Gypsy month?"