Weekend Update
We had a busy weekend and got to take advantage of the lovely weather. We were able to take care of a number of garden chores, including mowing/edging, cutting back daylilies, getting the greenhouse ready for the first frost of the year (whenever that will be) and organizing plants for the NTDS plant exchange later this month.
We changed out clocks and really all I can say about that is Toddlers, Cats, and Dogs do not understand daylight savings time. I cant' wait till be all get used to the new normal.
Saturday our last chrysalis enclosed and we released our last monarch of the season. What started out as an impulsive idea to bring a few inside so we could watch them, turned out to be really fun. Plans are in the works for next year...or at least I'm planning, I think I'm the only one but whatever.
While surveying the Pollenator Garden I noticed this guy. In case you aren't recognizing what it is, it's a monarch caterpillar with NPV (Nuclear Polyhedrsis Virus, or at least that's what my googling says. They crawl up high, hang, die,turn black and become liquid and then spread the virus onto everything below them. I'm not pleased to find this in the milkweed patch. Fortunately, all my plants will die back to the ground this winter. Also UV light kills it, 6 hours of direct UV light. Hopefully everything will get enough light over the winter and spring to not be dangerous next summer.
We're still finding chrysalises around the garden, though it feels late to me. This one below is on the eves of our garage. The caterpillar that made it was very determined. The Plant Geek found one on an old daylily scape while he was cutting back the plants in Mable's Bed.
We changed out clocks and really all I can say about that is Toddlers, Cats, and Dogs do not understand daylight savings time. I cant' wait till be all get used to the new normal.
Saturday our last chrysalis enclosed and we released our last monarch of the season. What started out as an impulsive idea to bring a few inside so we could watch them, turned out to be really fun. Plans are in the works for next year...or at least I'm planning, I think I'm the only one but whatever.
While surveying the Pollenator Garden I noticed this guy. In case you aren't recognizing what it is, it's a monarch caterpillar with NPV (Nuclear Polyhedrsis Virus, or at least that's what my googling says. They crawl up high, hang, die,turn black and become liquid and then spread the virus onto everything below them. I'm not pleased to find this in the milkweed patch. Fortunately, all my plants will die back to the ground this winter. Also UV light kills it, 6 hours of direct UV light. Hopefully everything will get enough light over the winter and spring to not be dangerous next summer.
We're still finding chrysalises around the garden, though it feels late to me. This one below is on the eves of our garage. The caterpillar that made it was very determined. The Plant Geek found one on an old daylily scape while he was cutting back the plants in Mable's Bed.
He also found a lot of snakes while he was working in that bed. The are little and harmless, though they can bite, because anything with a mouth can bite.
We wrapped up the weekend with crockpot pot roast with herbs from the garden. It was delicious and we'll have leftovers for the week.
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did here (and that your toddlers, cats and dogs understand the time change).
Sorry about you finding the caterpillar with NPV but hopefully you're right and the virus will be killed and not return to your garden. Yikes, I'd be shocked to find snakes in my garden. (There are none here in town and the couple species that live in this area prefer less populated areas.)
ReplyDeleteYou get used to the snakes, I promise.
DeleteIt is late but there seems to be a new flux of monarchs moving in. I've seen a lot in the last few days. I still have three caterpillars that are taking their sweet time growing. Normally they would be released already but the cool weather last month really slowed them down. Bummer about your NPV cat. I've had a few do that. It sucks.
ReplyDeleteI just found a caterpillar this morning. He wasn't even a big one. Hope he does his thing before it gets too cold.
DeleteI'm sorry you weren't able to enjoy recovering that lost hour of sleep with the switch to standard time! I was sad to learn about NPV - as if things weren't hard enough for the monarchs!
ReplyDeleteEventually she will be a teenager and I will be able to sleep-in whenever I want because she will sleep even later.
DeleteI didn't know about MPV either. Yuck. I would be tempted to pluck that guy and the stem it was on and send them to the dump so it wouldn't be in the garden. I see some sort of stink bug or shield bug by him. I wonder if it is affected. I don't envy you having toddlers that don't understand the time change. Heck I don't either. It takes my body a long time to switch. I don't think our dog ever switches.
ReplyDeleteHe was taken to the trash can and assuming everything went as planned, was picked up by the trash collectors this morning with the rest of the garbage. Our dogs manage to make the time switch (evening is their problem time), but it takes about a week for them. The toddler is already doing better, but it just makes her grumpy.
DeleteHow awful about the infected caterpillar. Those snakes can bite, but can they draw blood?
ReplyDelete