Two hungry monarch butterfly caterpillars devour a swan plant. Photo / David Haxton
Two hungry monarch butterfly caterpillars devour a swan plant. Photo / David Haxton
Waikanae couple Cathy Kern and Alistair Betts have been unexpectedly busy in their garden.
What started as a curiosity had bloomed into an amateur but full-scale monarch butterfly-raising nursery.
“We had no idea what we were getting into,” Cathy said.
It all started when some housesitters planted swan plants on their property last year.
The plants attracted the interest of monarch butterflies, which laid eggs on them and started one of nature’s most intriguing metamorphosis processes from egg, larvae (caterpillar), pre-pupa, pupa (chrysalis) to adult.
The couple planted some leftover swan plants but as the plant-munching caterpillars multiplied, they went to Harrison’s Gardenworld and Mitre 10 Mega to get more swan plants.
“I don’t know how often we’ve been to both garden centres,” she said.
A monarch butterfly and caterpillar enjoy a swan plant. Photo / David Haxton
They’ve been keeping the egg numbers in check, as well as relocating praying mantises, which have enjoyed picking off many younger caterpillars.
The swan plants are in various stages of destruction courtesy of the hungry caterpillars, and various chrysalises have been appearing in vegetation, the side of a box, under a window sill, and lots more places.
They also discovered some of the caterpillars, especially the larger ones, enjoy eating pumpkin and cucumber, but the Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust discourage the use of alternative foods as it risked pupa emerging into healthy butterflies and risked long-term damage to internal organs.
Cathy said their Siberian forest cat, Dame Pistachio, had taken an interest too, “but she’s never pestered them”.
She noted the garden was “going gangbusters this year” for some reason.
“We’ve had peaches for the first time in four years. And everything else is going crazy. It feels like it’s super-healthy.”
Alistair said they were enjoying helping maintain a healthy monarch butterfly population and were fascinated by the butterfly species’ lifecycle.
