I have a serious lack of butterflies this year even though my butterfly plants are thriving.
I saw a couple of monarchs, one queen, and a few gulf fritillary.
The monarch needs tropical milkweed plants to lay its eggs and feed the larvae. I have plenty of milkweed and I’ve seen two monarchs so far this year.
The gulf fritillary and zebra longwing both use the passion flower vine for a host plant. I had one and it was growing like crazy. Then about a month ago I noticed that all of the leaves were gone. Now it’s dead. I didn’t think anything could kill the passion flower vine.
Here’s one of the few gulf fritillaries that I have seen.
I usually have so many swallowtail butterflies I can’t count them. Not this year. I got a photo of one.
I even planted parsley in the butterfly garden and that’s their host plant.
We had some freezes last year which knocked down some of my plant so they had a late start.
Wondering if anyone else is experiencing the lack of butterflies, or is it just me?
Kathy
I thought SC would be loaded with different butterflies but I rarely see any. Not sure if this is normal or not but there are certainly enough flowers and butterfly bushes around. All I have seen are monarchs except when we visited a butterfly pavilion!
Terry
Too many bug spraying people!