Gardening Good for Your Health AND for the Butterflies

Lots of action in the butterfly garden this week with Swallowtails and Monarchs depositing eggs, hatching into caterpillars and going chrysalis at their own pace, keeping butterfly gardeners and others active and entertained.

Eastern Swallowtail Caterpillar on Fennel

The Eastern Swallowtail caterpillar above was discovered as an egg on our dillweed last week, brought inside and has since made himself comfortable on the kitchen table with a vase full of fennel.  We found the Monarch eggs and tiny caterpillars below on the underside of our milkweed plants in a front yard that was converted from turf to beds last fall.

Monarch eggs and caterpillars on milkweed leaves[

Meanwhile, butterfly reports from the University of Houston listserv, an email list used by butterfly fans to exchange information and ask questions, suggest another pulse of Monarch butterflies is en route from Mexico.  Keen observer Brush Freeman reported 110 Monarchs observed in a field near Utley on Saturday, a report from Dewitt County had 180 – 200 monarchs spotted in one afternoon,  and one Mustang Island naturalist wrote that “the last couple of days have seen lots of Monarchs cruising over the park.  Until now we have seen one – two a week, but starting Thursday, I counted over 50 at different times and places so there were probably a lot more.”