Butterflies on Fuerteventura

[OMR + MIN]

Thanks Gone Fishing.

Yes heard about them in the UK this year too.

Today we have many of them here flying about again. Good to see.

[Tardis]

Great pics Tardis! Thanks. Wish I had your patience.

Thank you all for your kind comments.  

The Monarch on the Bottlebrush plant was very happy to pose for me.  The others never settle for long, so it does take a lot of patience.  They say in close up/macro insect photography that out of 100 photos, only one will be worth keeping! 

I’m glad to hear that Bill and Ben have settled in.

We plan to sow Milkweed seeds soon.

Getting the balance right between Milkweed and caterpillars seems quite tricky.  Our caterpillars are busily munching away at what is left of the milkweed.  Just hope there are enough leaves for them.

[Can the Man]

I know it’s not Fuerteventura but here in Kildare Ireland I had a visit today by a peacock butterfly who landed on my turf heap and started showing off its beautiful colours. 
I will try attach a photo
[img]blob:https://fuerteventura.click/e18cd3b2-2c0a-481d-887c-7e6cf8a2bc82[/img]

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I’m glad to hear that Bill and Ben have settled in.

We plan to sow Milkweed seeds soon.

Getting the balance right between Milkweed and caterpillars seems quite tricky.  Our caterpillars are busily munching away at what is left of the milkweed.  Just hope there are enough leaves for them.

Bill & Ben got very fat, very quickly and today have disappeared! I hope they have hidden to pupate and not been dinner for something else   
There was only a couple of leaves left on the milkweed plants so perhaps I didn't have enough for them (1 plant each!)

[OMR + MIN]

Hi Tamara & Tardis

Yes the milkweed leaves do disappear very quickly.

Last year we had 5 fully grown plants & managed to get 7 Monarchs away. Totally strpped all the leaves & the plants have to be cut right down to re grow. 

What we do for nature on our lovely Island 

[Tardis]

Bill & Ben got very fat, very quickly and today have disappeared! I hope they have hidden to pupate and not been dinner for something else   
There was only a couple of leaves left on the milkweed plants so perhaps I didn't have enough for them (1 plant each!)

Hi Tamara and OMR + MIN

Hope all goes well with Bill & Ben
 
The last week has been very eventful.  We’ve had over 200 Monarch caterpillars and the two female butterflies are still laying eggs!
 
Although we had 12 milkweed plants, they were just not sufficient to sustain so many caterpillars.  It was not a nice thing to do, but in the end we had to cull most of the caterpillars, so that some of the larger ones could survive.  
 
Last Saturday we bought 4 more milkweeds and relocated a few caterpillars on them.  Three have changed to chrysalises - two of them on the leaves of the milkweed plants themselves.
 
From Tamara’s experience, it seems that  one small to medium plant is adequate for one caterpillar.  I read somewhere that you might be able to get away with 3 or 4 caterpillars on a one metre high plant.
 
The other thing we have learnt is that caterpillars produce a large amount of poo on the leaves.  This can cause diseases, especially if you have too many caterpillars.
 
Hopefully we will have some new butterflies in about two weeks.  I have a couple of questions.  Does anyone have experience of how long it takes flowers to appear again?  At the moment our existing plants are bare twigs after being ravaged by the caterpillars.  We tend to water the milkweed when the soil starts to feel dry.  But the plants do seem prone to leaf fall.  Any advice is very welcome.

[OMR + MIN]

Hi Tardis

Did you see my earlier post about plants leaves & re-growing?

It's news to me about the poo! Water regularly. Flowers come on the more mature plants but I think only once a year?

The 5 original plants, last years, were strppied bare by this years catapillars. I cut them down then with a little regrowth the next lot of caterpillars stripped them again!!!

They are now totally bare again with no sign of any leaves. Will probably dig them up, cut back down & give them some TLC in pots to hopefully rejuvenate them?

Also have sown seeds from the plants in a pot & are now coming through. Fingers crossed. 

You have done really well. Congrats. 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

By sharing our experiences hopefully we can provide optimum conditions for next years broods!
Tardis, where did you manage to get more plants from recently? I looked this week but didn't see any. I've sown seeds but nothing showing yet.

[Tardis]

Tardis, where did you manage to get more plants from recently? I looked this week but didn't see any. I've sown seeds but nothing showing yet.

We bought them from Happy Plants.  Hope they still have some left for you.

[Tardis]

Thank you OMR + MIN for the recent info.  The stripped milkweeds are starting to produce new shoots.

Our Monarch butterflies definitely prefer milkweed flowers to graze on.  But they will also feed on our bottlebrush plant, as a second choice.  They ignore our statice/sea lavenders and only occasionally browse on the marigolds. . 

Are there any other flowers that grow on the island that they might like?