Sticks

When I left town a week ago, the flower beds were full of tropical milkweed. I didn't see any eggs or caterpillars. There must have been quite a hatching while I was gone because only sticks are left now. Yesterday I found one large monarch caterpillar on a tomato leaf and one small one on a milkweed stalk. I had an appointment and errands to run near the nursery, so I picked up four more milkweed plants.

I had already decided it was time to remove the tomatoes from the flower bed. They were splitting because of the abundant rain and it's the hot time of summer when they struggled anyway. This morning I found more caterpillars on the tomato plants. I moved five caterpillars onto the milkweed and they began snacking immediately. I wondered to discover that tomato was their choice of food in a pinch, because tomatoes are part of the nightshade family and milkweed is poisonous to animals also. Pretty smart caterpillars.

Now that the monarchs are coming back to my garden, I have been more aggressive with the swamp milkweed beetles. They moved in a few years ago when the monarch population dropped precipitously. I have seen only a couple at a time this year. The beetles were eating the leaves that I wanted to save for the monarchs.

At the same time, the fritillary and longwing zebras and munching away on the passionflower vines. I can see where the swallowtails have been on the parsley, and saw one on the fennel three weeks ago, and now it is getting to be the late summer when they will be more plentiful.

Ten years ago when I was recovering from surgery, the garden was like a perpetual motion machine of butterflies. I spent a lot of time looking out the window. It was better than a movie. Now, with hummingbirds also zipping around the justicias, shrimp plant, salvia, pentas, abelia, and cleome, the garden is busy again.