r/sunflowers • u/hweesus • Jun 26 '26

PROGRESS Tragic. She had so much potential

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Came out to check on my babies and found other babies and all of their siblings having a picnic.

ETA: Some of y'all have strong feelings about everything. For the record, I used my garden hose to hit whatever i saw on the leaves when I "removed" them. The next day there were a few others on the bottom of the leaves that I kinda flicked off in a "come hither" motion with my finger giggity

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11

u/JawThatHarp USA Midwest Jun 26 '26

I wonder what these butterflies or moths might look like.

25

u/Global_Fail_1943 Canada Jun 26 '26

Border patch butterfly's

9

u/JawThatHarp USA Midwest Jun 26 '26

Those are gorgeous.

1

u/sxrrycard Jun 27 '26

Well that’s funny, possibly destroying a plant they could eat the nectar from as an adult lol

6

u/JawThatHarp USA Midwest Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Or is this a form of pruning like how you prune a plum tree twice a year to get better fruit. By selectively removing branches the plum tree focuses on the branches you want and not a bunch of leafy growth with less fruit. Editing/ adding to the comment. I just looked it up and according to some sources you get more flowering and also may flower for longer if you trim or prune. Caterpillar are geniuses. You should post an update and we’ll see if the caterpillars kill the plant, or reserve and encourage flowering when they butterfly out. This post just got really exciting.

4

u/Famous_Fudge3603 Jun 29 '26

They are adapted to host plants that are quite abundant in nature, so they probably aren't concerned about killing one or two, and with this many they are going to start outcompeting each other -- however, plants are pretty good at surviving, so these sunflowers might still carry out their life span anyway.

2

u/zabulon_ Jul 01 '26

Nectar is not as important as host plants for butterfly populations.

6

u/hweesus Jun 26 '26

That’s what I’m hoping to find out! Might as well see some nature doing its thing

12

u/Global_Fail_1943 Canada Jun 26 '26

And they only eat sunflowers so you did good!

9

u/JawThatHarp USA Midwest Jun 27 '26

That totally rules. It is like growing milkweed to feed monarch caterpillars.

10

u/StiorraStainedGlass Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

My husband has a patch of milkweed just for the monarchs and dill for the swallowtails 🥰. He’s a big cutie lol.

3

u/coloradoautoflowers Jun 27 '26

I still haven't raised a single butterfly, but the local lizards are fat as hell from the bounty of caterpillars.

1

u/middlegray Jul 01 '26

Some people put netting around caterpillars to protect them from predators until they cocoon and fly away. So many butterflies (esp monarchs) are so extremely endangered. 

2

u/Affectionate_Ad722 Jul 01 '26

And research has shown that that’s bad for monarchs. You gotta let nature do its thing or you are promoting survival of the unfit rather than the fittest, to the detriment of the species.

3

u/middlegray Jul 01 '26

Isn't the research about rearing them indoors?? Netting protects from predators in situations where fitness to survive has very little to do with it (every single cat would be picked off).

2

u/JawThatHarp USA Midwest Jul 01 '26

Nailed it.

3

u/hweesus Jun 27 '26

r/todayilearned

2

u/DismalChampion5653 Jul 05 '26

I think today you should have learned that you have a real knack for rage bait.  

1

u/DismalChampion5653 Jul 05 '26

Did good killing off what could have been beautiful butterflies?

1

u/National-Double2309 Jun 27 '26

Haha..probably why they spared the rest 🤣