🦋 Eastern GIANT Swallowtails + Long-term Strategies for Aphids❓🙃

Happy Sunday Good GROWer,

we’re in the midst of our first pre-fall cool front and highs this weekend are only in the 60’s…a little cool, but still warm enough to host plenty of pollinator activity. I hope you’re seeing more monarchs as the population is peaking for 2025!

Keep scrolling to see who’s been fluttering around the garden this week…

🌿 Garden PLANT Report 🌺

So what’s growing on in the garden this week?

• ‘Amistad’ Salvia: now that the bee balm is past its peak, this black and blue salvia has become the hummingbird favorite

• Mexican sunflowers: not only are they a preferred late-season nectar source, they also serve as beds for bees, and occasionally even monarchs:

• Liatris ligulistylis- is starting to bloom and attracting monarchs, and the patch of prairie in the park across from our house is also attracting butterflies with theirs!

• Goldenrod is just starting to bloom- not a preferred butterfly plant in our garden, but it supports a bounty of smallinators including bees and wasps 🐝

Even though the informational portion of raise the migration is over, we’re still raising our monarch brood to release for the great fall migration…

Raising Report 🙌 🦋

We currently have 6 monarch caterpillars in our outdoor cage. This set up is SO much better than what had last year, and has pretty much eliminated any concerns we had around predation and extreme weather. To see how our outdoor setup has evolved:

OLD Outdoor Raising Setup ⬅️ (scroll down to the lessons learned section)

New and IMPROVED Outdoor Raising Setup ⬅️ (so much better than last year 🤯)

🦋 Garden WILDLIFE Report 👀

We have about 8 monarchs hanging around the garden and they’re constantly stocking up on nectar, but also chasing each other around. I’ve also seen recent mating in the garden. We’re getting toward the cutoff for mating/eggs as we near the end of August.

Besides monarchs we’ve still been seeing a good number of yellow/black and dark form eastern tiger swallowtails.

We’ve also finally been seeing a couple of eastern giant swallowtails, which have large wingspans up to 7” across 🦋😯. For More Info and Photos:

The Life Cycle of the GIANT Swallowtail Butterfly + Raising Tips ⬅️

I also explained to this year’s (smaller) resident leopard frog not to continue his predecessor’s tradition of eating one giant swallowtail each season. It looks like he is at least considering my plea from under his rock 🤷🏽‍♂️

I also spotted the first question mark butterfly in our garden ominously close to a large spider web:

And finally, if you ever get so frustrated with aphids on milkweed, you opt to squish them on the leaves, this photo should give you a compelling reason not to do this…and keep in mind, this is a zoomed in photo, so this baby caterpillar is much easier to see than with the naked eye:

Now imagine, how much more difficult it would be to see a tiny monarch caterpillar on this aphid-infested leaf…if it were an egg 😱 

As frustrating as aphids can be, the long term strategies to stop them are much better solutions for your sanity, and for saving little monarch lives:

10 Ways to Stop Aphids from Taking Over Milkweed ⬅️

Coming Up Next?

More Blooms, Butterflies, Pollinators, and northern PEAK Migration starting soon!

Until next time,

Tony your Butterfly Guide