I wasn't looking for eggs/cats before last week, but I found probably about 40 or 50 when I looked. I didn't bring all of them in to raise because I just don't have enough milkweed. I replaced all of my swamp milkweed with tropical milkweed in the spring and with the horribly dry and hot weather we had for a month, the milkweed plants were just barely hanging on; as a matter of fact, I probably lost about 1/3 of them. I usually raise hundreds of Monarchs every year but won't this year because of the sparseness of milkweed and also because I really have to get some other things done. I have so much weeding to do that I honestly don't have the time to raise a lot of cats. It's a Catch 22...I planted a ton of host and nectar plants for many different kinds of butterflies over the past 5 years, but now I have so much weeding to do that the caterpillars get ignored. I wish there were some wonderful solution to my weeding problem, but I know there isn't. I spotted my first Monarch of the year on June 24 but I couldn't tell if it was a male or a female from where I was. I hope more people start seeing Monarchs soon. Cathy

You could also make your own 'breezy' containers. Make a frame out of something, wood, pvc pipe, whatever and wrap it in screen. If you don't feel like being that creative/crafty (like me) I found some picnic plate covers, they're a metel mesh. One I sewed screen around it and found a plastic bowl, drilled holes in it and sewed the bottom of the screen to the bowl. I use that (hung up, didn't add anything for support to stand it up) for my chrys. to eclose in. And the other I found another (happens to match) plastic bowl. I drilled a few small holes in the bowl, took some wierd yarn/string stuff, tied the plate cover to the bowl. There's 5 strings. And the neat thing is, all I have to do is untie the strings and toss the 2 halves in the dishwasher to disinfect. Below is a link to a simular mesh cover. I bought mine for a buck each at a Dollar General store. And the bowls I used were "Wavy" bowls at walmart for 75 cents. The wavy bowl gave me a little lip on the edge to drill holes in. Be creative! There's lots of stuff out there you can make cages out of. Wire Mesh trash cans, dollar stores usually carry small version. Or the mesh baskets.I find myself looking in the summer clearance stuff lateley go ooh! I could make a cat cage out of that! and that! But I don't really need anymore.... Oh, I did take 2 plastic bottoms from 2 plant pots (the things that are supposed to catch the water), It had 3 raised bumps where it originally attatched to the pot, stuck some small pvc pipe (really small) over 2 of the raised bumps, then attatched the other plastic thing face down on top of the pvc and wrapped it in some screen I had left over, w/ an opening in the front. Made a neat little 10" diamter, 12" tall cage. See, you can use anything! Here is a link that might be useful: mesh food covers

Asclepias--plants in the milkweed family BST--black swallowtail bidens--a group of flowers in the daisy family; attractive to butterflies BS--Black Swallowtail cat--caterpillar, the larva of a butterfly or moth comma--a type of butterfly cremaster--the 'stem' of a chrysalis eclose--the emerging of the adult butterfly from the chrysalis or pupa frass--caterpillar excrement, like bird droppings on a smaller scale frit--fritillary, a type of butterfly GF--gulf fritillary gregarious--Caterpillars having a tendency to group together or live in a colony GS, GST--giant swallowtail GSF--Great Spangled Fritillary hibernaculum--web enclosure made by hibernating caterpillars host--the specific plant a caterpillar eats HP--host plant id--identify, identification instar--a stage of caterpillar growth; the skin is then shed like a snake io--a type of moth ladies, lady--painted lady butterflies looper--a type of moth caterpillar LTS--long-tailed skipper meconium--fluid expelled by a butterfly or moth after eclosing NABA--North American Butterfly Association OE--Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, scientific name of parasitic spore harmful to Monarchs osmeterium--smelly protruding horns used by swallowtail caterpillars as a defense ovipositing--laying eggs peacock--a type of butterfly PL--painted lady butterfly pod--as in seed pod PVS--pipevine swallowtail queen--a type of butterfly question mark--a type of butterfly RSP--Red-spotted Purple butterfly skipper--a type of butterfly soldier--a type of butterfly sulfur--a type of butterfly TS--Tiger Swallowtail USDA--United States Department of Agriculture white--a type of butterfly zebra--a type of butterfly

theparsley, I hope your Liatris does well for you. Here, the pollinators love the blooms. They don't take up much ground space as they grow straight up! You might even have to use one of those wire stakes to support the flower stalk but the stake becomes well hidden by the leaves. I'd like to try some standing cypress plants interspersed with the Liatris. The two plants together would give me a longer bloom time for that growing space. Hi James, if your plants are beginning to bloom, hopefully your butterfly activity will pick up. Since the storms passed on and with the return of the sun, I'm seeing quite a bit of activity here in the past couple of days. I saw a tiny little blue butterfly yesterday on the A texana blooms. It was the size of a hairstreak but I didn't notice particular markings on it's wings. Very delicate looking and a lovely soft true blue color. Didn't have my camera with me and by the time I finished my watering, forgot to try and get a photo. This was the first I've ever seen this lovely little guy in my garden and wish I'd tried to get a photo so I could try and ID it. Yesterday I had a Yellow male tiger swallowtail, a female Monarch, a beautiful young male Pipevine and a hummingbird moth. Recently, I saw a black swallowtail that Sherry ID'ed as a female but I've not seen it again and I've found no eggs to date. :-( I have a lot of Rue and Fennel so really hope for some BST cats one day. Hang in there. Sometimes the butterflies visit and are gone quickly; sometimes they're in and out throughout the day and you might not be aware they've dropped by. If you don't already grow this vine, I'd suggest considering the woolly pipevine. Since planting my vines, I have Pipevine Swallowtails every year and as Sherry taught me, they tend to hang around their birth area. Of course, it probably helps that my vines are probably the only pipevine within miles! :-) The vines take a couple of years to reach a stage where they could support a few cats but as these sturdy vines mature, they will attract this lovely native butterfly to your garden. The little female isn't flashy but the male is stunning. ... Mary Male Pipevine Swallowtail - Battus philenor