6 WEEDS That 20+ BUTTERFLIES & MOTHS Use as HOST PLANTS - Ep. 268

[@Nikki.Robinson]

So many other channels just say "great for pollinators" and you offer a full college lecture series with such specificity!! This is endless hours or research boiled down to a beautiful video. Well done. 🐛🐝🦋

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad this can be really useful. We try to keep our videos educational where possible :)

[@deepost2604]

Your love of the environment is absolutely contagious. It makes me want to visit. As I expand natives in my garden, I find I want to share it with others. Really others need to know the joys of visiting pollinators. 🐝🐛🐞🦋 Recently I spotted three box turtles on this land. It’s so rewarding to find one among the rudbeckia. 🐢

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad to see it's rubbing off! Thanks for watching.

[@arthurhartsock1407]

Recently subscribed to your channel. Now starting at beginning and working forward. We need many more folks like you who are taking care of the land and producing food the right way. Modern agriculture with heavy use of petroleum based pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer are ruining the soil and producing crops with no nutrition. So thanks to people trying to do it right.

[@sandragoerlich7134]

Great video Summer, your garden looks amazing, thanks for sharing!!!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You're most welcome. Thanks for taking the time to watch.

[@naomimittell4961]

Awesome and sooo informative! Thank you.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@kathiesimpson571]

Thank you for sharing - beautiful video! It’s so important that we realize that so many weeds, native plants, etc are supporting life that’s essential to our existence. 💚

[@natureandrivers]

This morning I was fortunate enough to see an American Goldfinch eating away at a Bull Thistle which was in various stages of maturity. This is my first time catching a bird on the Bull Thistle. Most of the time, I encounter bees. A butterfly did not spend much time on the thistle. Thank you for highlighting your garden's host plants.

[@griffinontheslopes]

Lovely! Poetic.

[@adriannademadriguera4859]

A perfect, mini documentary! So lovely. Thank you.💚💚

[@tg_ny]

Outstanding video. Brings me back to my youth when I had a Golden field guide of butterflies and moths. I still have the book on my shelf. There was much more diversity in the butterflies and moths one would see in the neighborhood. There were many more grassy fields and even more diversity in the roadside plant life. On my street now we have large grassy areas with wildflowers along the roads, but every summer the town send a tractor with a big mower to cut all of that down. I am in the process of designing my yard; yes, it will include some of the human eye candy that you can acquire at local nurseries, but my property will also include a large area for wildflowers and a large grassy field. I have raised monarch butterflies in the past. We even had the opportunity to raise a luna moth; we found the catapillar underneath a black walnut tree. Don’t forget the moths; some are stunning and are more elusive than the butterflies, since the real good ones only come out at night.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

The luna moths are SO beautiful. I remember seeing my first one at night on the side of the house when I was a kid. I was enthralled by its size!

[@lisaawild]

I grew up in Upstate New York and I loved Woolly Bears! We moved to Texas later and I've not seen them again.

[@lelyluck]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. You have so much insight. I am just getting started with a butterfly garden 🦋

[@FlockFingerLakes]

fantastic! We have more coming in the butterfly and moth department. :)

[@novampires223]

We had wooly bears in Oregon Willamette Valley when I was a kid, not so much any more. Not many insects left there at all, the swallows don't nest there anymore, nothing to eat😢 In Southern Oregon there are soo many insects and butterfly's that I have never seen or only saw when I was a kid. Love this topic, thank you

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Hopefully they will rebound in time with the right plants and the right practices (e.g., not spraying herbicides/insecticides).

[@arthurhartsock1407]

I hit the Join feature to give you small amount of support. Good luck

[@summerrayneoakes]

Thank you Arthur!

[@MrDonsaftis]

The squirrel at aprox 2:20 🥰

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Yeah, our chipmunks are quite cordial!

[@Fabdanc]

@@FlockFingerLakes we need IDs and names, how are we to know if it is Chippy or a friend of Chippy?!

[@charlesbale8376]

Lovely...I really enjoyed the video and appreciated the information.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@pattibealer]

What a beautiful setting for your talk! I'm slowly adding some natives to my garden; I may have to do some seeding because doing a few at a time is expensive. You must have some great backers to have so many huge gardens. Thank you for sharing!

[@maryrogers5269]

luv ur show...wild thing u make my heart sing u make everything groovy, wild thing

[@RichardPallardy]

Ha, yes, love the woolly bears. Don't carry them around in your front shirt pocket like I did as a kid. The hairs can be irritating. Had a huge rash all over my chest. LOL

[@Fellowtellurian]

Hs you guys done an episode of water plants by the retention pond? I selfishly ask because I built a 5000 gallon pond in my yard and trying to cover it with native plants (that ducks don't eat, lol)

[@Dirt-Fermer]

I would focus on duck safe plants personally

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We haven't really done any plant tours around the water bodies here because we haven't really focused on them as much with planting strategies. Don't get me wrong-I've definitely been planting around them here-and-there, but not in a well-defined way. We keep pushing them off because of renovations. But the species around Half Lake is really diverse. Maybe we'll try to get them in a later tour. September is a good time for the blooms around the lake. Asters will be out then.

[@Fabdanc]

Do fireflies next 🙂

[@MrPaoTrieu]

Thank you🙏♥️💯

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You're most welcome. :)

[@Tminus89]

Hi Summer! My mate has a nursery and he noticed that in some spots his stinging nettles are popular with caterpillars, while there are none to be found on others. He can't see what the defining factor is. Do you experience this as well, that some plants stay empty while others are full in different spots?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I have not experienced that perhaps only because I've only located one nettle patch on this land. Only thing I can think of is if the one patch is not as visible or hasn't been there as long as the other...

[@Shawn-id7gc]

Question here. What I believe is your B roll of European honey bees(?). I believe you stated you do not keep bees. So are these wild honey or possibly someone's bees. Once more I understand you promote wild/native bees over honey. Which I agree.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We think they must be the honeybees from our neighbor's land, which is quite a ways down the road. But other neighbors could very well be keeping honey bees. There seem to be two kinds-ones with well-defined stripes and others that appear blonder.

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

Painted Lady larvae feed on stinging nettles here.

[@75shadystorm]

I have a bunch of nettles in the mulch pile but I only see Japanese beetles, not butterflies like you showed. 😥

[@FlockFingerLakes]

If it becomes a consistent place where you have nettles year-over-year, you may start to see some more butterflies.

[@75shadystorm]

@FlockFingerLakes oh that mulch pile has been there for 30 years or more. The nettles are 4ft or taller. Consistently renewed by leaves and grass every year. Even have giant catalpa trees growing. Unfortunately, invasive honeysuckle, too. I see more moths than butterflies around here. Trying to restore the land to benefit more species of birds, animals and insects.

[@cefcat5733]

check out Kirsten dirksen, family wraps homestead....

[@d0m368]

Do you bring in your caterpillars to rear them or just allow them to live on the plant?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Just allow them to live on the plant.

[@MaxIsRetired]

What is the name of the twitching black insect at the end on the queen Ann's lace?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

It looks like a male steel blue cricket hunter to me.

[@MaxIsRetired]

@@FlockFingerLakes Thank you. I have them all over my tall pollinator plants. They are so jittery I could never observe them up close.

[@arthurhartsock1407]

Looks like you picked very good place. Entire area has folks who think and act like you. Only drawback might be high NY State taxes? Oh well, can't have everything?

[@bruce_daddy]

I just found a snowberry clearwing egg and caterpillar on my coral honeysuckle. I know it's not a weed, but I just had to tell somebody lol

[@FlockFingerLakes]

As I respond to this I have a snowberry clearwing visiting the Verbena bonariensis and RIGHT next to a hummingbird. Fun to see them side-by-side. Very nice observations on your end. :)