# The Butterfly House



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

This is our little butterfly and moth house.

Butterfly House

































Swallowtails

















Purple Emperor









Bullseye Moth caterpillars (US Native)









Comma Caterpillar and Pupa

















Moth House









Privet Hawkmoth, caterpillar and pupa


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Got some photo's the wrong way round but can't be bothered to change it!


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Lime Hawkmoth cat.









Mullian Moth cat









Emperor Moth cat


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Cool, Nice pics Matt thanks for sharing them. Is this a hobby for your Mom ? I don't see any caterpillars down here in the valley, we have some at the cabin though. At a certain time of year they are all over.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

It's a hobby of all of our, we order native species from breeders and grow them on to then hatch, take eggs from and release and start the cycle going again. Because my parents are retired they have the time and a big garden.

We have got 2 non native species just for fun, both come from the US. Roberta has some Robin moths coming, so not to be out done I've got some Bullseye Moths.

We try to stick to native species that are having a hard time of things at the moment. I have to hold my hand up and say I've always got a specimen pot with me and hunt for caterpillars while out and about!


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Are the non-native species restricted in any way. What if they get out ?


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Not that I know of. Most can't feed as moths as they have no mouth parts and they may find it difficult to find the food plants that the caterpillars feed on. But on saying that the 2 we have both are easy to feed on native trees!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

That is a really neat hobby you guys have going there. I have wildflowers that grow on my farm that gets alot of attention from various butterflies and such. They're very cool to watch and try to identify.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Thanks Tom, you should get out with the camera after them I'd love to see some photos!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

I believe I will. Sounds like fun.


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Very nice Matt. You have a good set up and it looks like you take the time to care for them buggers. I bet they love ya...watch out for the bats.


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## Eyemakecalls2 (Apr 13, 2011)

Very cool. WoW! How sensitive to temp are they. I have some orchids that stop growing at 60 degrees (nite temps) but won't bloom until they have been held at 59 dgrees for two weeks. With this global warming thing one degree makes a difference.


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## SWAMPBUCK10PT (Apr 5, 2010)

*Real neat Thanks for Sharing-----------------sb*


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Very awesome pictures, try not to wear the camera out !!HA!!


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Eyemakecalls2 said:


> How sensitive to temp are they.


Some are some aren't. We have to watch the temp for the butterfly's as they can get to hot so they need places to hang in the cool. This is our first summer with butterfly house so it's a learning curve still. I think mother is looking at getting another one!

Thanks you guys!


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

A swallowtail fresh out today!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

That is so cool. We have those here and they are gorgeous !


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Its no good telling me that Tom! Photo's dear boy!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

I will do that. I use to have several pics of various butterflies and other wildlife on my other computer that died. Never could retrieve those files. Needless to say I was not happy and make copies of all my pics nowadays !!


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Tom I've got around 2000 photo's or more, I really should get a back up hard drive. I could not put it into words if I lost them!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Might be a good idea. I had hundreds of memories lost. Very sad....


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

I think I'd have a meltdown and go mad, not that you'd notice the difference!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Took the words right out of my mouth !! LOL Just kidding. I was sick about it and still am.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

bones44 said:


> Took the words right out of my mouth !! LOL Just kidding.


I bet!.........


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I put all my important pics on disc.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Its a good way to do things but for the sake of $50's Don I think I'll get a backup.


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## 220swift (Mar 2, 2011)

Guy's,

Try Carbonite.com. Online backup you can access from any where you have an Internet connection. My wife and I have over 350GBs of pics and scans, aprox. 85,000 files. We have an external hard drive for backups and also use Carbonite for live backups. It works great.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Thanks 220swift I'll have a look.


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Thanks, I'll check it out too.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Hatching at the moment Comma Butterflies.

















Next batch of Swallow Tail Butterflies coming on well.









And thats only a third of them!


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Wow that's a lot of coccoons. I assume that you are raising them because the native population has dwindled for some reason. Thanks for sharing the cool pics.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Well they are caterpillars actually. The swallow tail is only found in Norfolk and Suffolk as thats where the larvae food plant is found milk parsley but they will as these are feed on fennel. After the first batch laid their eggs we let them go free and they came back to lay eggs on the fennel growing in the garden.


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Those are some great pics Matt. You guys have some pretty neat types of butterflies over there.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Thanks Tom, I think so but then I'd say the same about yours.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Mattuk said:


> Well they are caterpillars actually. The swallow tail is only found in Norfolk and Suffolk as thats where the larvae food plant is found milk parsley but they will as these are feed on fennel. After the first batch laid their eggs we let them go free and they came back to lay eggs on the fennel growing in the garden.


So they are.... Sorry I didn't enlarge it.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

It was a crap photo taken on my phone.


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## ebbs (Feb 7, 2010)

Matt, if you need any extra moths I could ship you a couple thousand. Never seen as many as we had in the first half of the summer here. They seem to have died off for the most part (in our window sills) but I'm still astonished at how many there were.


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

We've had the same problem here too Ebbs. Between the moths and the flies. We've been overrun with the darn things !!


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

ebbs you keep them thats where they need to be! I'd love some photo's though!

Do any of you think that you notice these things more now because of some of my threads? Just a thought.


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## ebbs (Feb 7, 2010)

Mattuk said:


> ebbs you keep them thats where they need to be! I'd love some photo's though!
> 
> Do any of you think that you notice these things more now because of some of my threads? Just a thought.


Maybe, but I think I just notice them more because they're slapping me in the face when I'm trying to sleep. Nothing like an American ******* drawing his 9mm on moths in the middle of the night.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

ebbs said:


> Maybe, but I think I just notice them more because they're slapping me in the face when I'm trying to sleep. Nothing like an American ******* drawing his 9mm on moths in the middle of the night.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Swallowtail's hatching and paired, soon the mad house will start again!


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## knapper (Feb 5, 2010)

There will soon be the piter patter of little moth wings all around the place.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

There sure will be!


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