What Black and White Caterpillar Eats Carrots

Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

I received a very interesting question from a reader today through the Ask Carole feature here at Ecosystem Gardening. I love answering your questions about what’s happening in your wildlife garden, and I’ll do my best to answer each one that comes in as time is available. Thanks to all of you who have taken [...]

Do Monarch Caterpillars Eat Anything Besides Milkweed

Monarch Butterfly on Seaside Goldenrod 2

I’ve been telling you that we can help Monarch butterflies in our Ecosystem Gardens by planting more milkweed because that is the only plant that Monarch will lay their eggs on. We’ve also talked about making your wildlife garden a certified Monarch Waystation, which will provide habitat for them, since habitat loss is one of [...]

Viewing a Monarchs Heartbeat

Have you ever seen a Monarchs heartbeat? Neither had I! But check out this amazing video of a Monarchs heartbeat in my latest post from Birds and Blooms Blog: Ever Seen A Monarchs Heartbeat? Also find great tips for attracting more Monarchs to your Wildlife Garden

The Monarch Monitoring Project

Hundreds of thousands of Monarch butterflies migrate through Cape May, NJ every year, and thousands of people come from around the world to see them. This spectacle is an amazing phenomenon, but also one which raises a lot of questions. How many Monarchs that pass through Cape May actually make it to their wintering grounds [...]

Why Are There So Many Tiger Swallowtails this Year?

Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp dueling swallowtails2

Why ARE they so many Eastern Tiger Swallowtails this Year? This year there are more Eastern Tiger Swallowtails in my garden than I have ever seen before. In years past I’ve seen one, maybe two, Tiger Swallowtails per day in my garden. This year I’m seeing 10, 15, and even 20 at a time in [...]

Tiger Swallowtails in the Wildlife Garden

Tiger Swallowtails in the butterfly garden

The Tiger Swallowtail is a large and stunningly beautiful butterfly, and a welcome visitor to your butterfly garden. Because of its size, it gets noticed even by gardeners and others who may not be looking for it, making it, along with the Monarch Butterfly, one of the most widely recognized butterflies. After spending the winter [...]

Mourning Cloak First Butterfly of the Season

Mourning Cloak, originally uploaded by milesizz. This morning I saw my first butterfly of the season floating above my garden. It was a Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), a stunningly beautiful butterfly. It’s not surprising that this species was the first of the season, as one of it’s other common names is “Harbinger of Spring.” Mourning [...]

Life Cycles of Butterflies in Your Habitat Garden

Life Cycles of Butterflies

I was honored to write a guest post last week for the Little Humbugs Gardening with Chloe series about attracting more butterflies to your garden. In that article I discuss the importance of knowing which host plants are necessary to support the caterpillars of the butterflies you wish to attract. Butterflies go through four distinctive [...]

Attracting Butterflies to Your Wildlife Garden

Attracting Butterflies to your habitat garden

I had the honor of writing a guest post for the always delightful Marghanita Hughes of Little Humbugs. Here you’ll find my thoughts on attracting more butterflies to your wildlife garden, which is a great way to get children involved in the magic of nature and wildlife gardening. While you’re there, spend some time looking [...]

Monarch Butterfly Wintering Population at All Time Low

The Monarch Butterfly winter population in Mexico is the lowest it’s been for 15 years. According to Mike Quinn at Journey North: This week, 36 hours of continuous rain fell primarily across the eastern portion of Michoacan, and to a lesser extent throughout much of central Mexico. Heavy rain followed by a freeze killed as [...]

Related Posts with Thumbnails