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A while ago Norm gave me some advice re attracting admirals to my garden (in Masterton). He assured me that if I planted nettles the admirals would find them. As I had only ever seen 1 Red Admiral and a sprinkling of Yellows in the previous 4 years here I had misgivings. However it has proved to be true!. This summer we have been rewarded by visits from both Red and Yellow Admirals every day.
To introduce nettles I dug up Urtica urens from sheep paddocks which went into an old bath down the back of the section. I (carefully!) transplanted some small Urtica ferox (ongaonga) into a semi-shaded corner too.
I spied a few varieties of buddleia (pink, dark purple and white cultivars) around the neighbourhood and stuck cuttings of those into the ground. They grew very easily and flowered in their first year.
Monarch numbers seem ok too. We are not seeing big numbers of them, but I would say it’s about average.
I have noticed fewer wasps this summer (SO FAR) despite it being very hot for the last 2 weeks. Maybe this accounts for the butterfly numbers?
We found (and had destroyed) a paper-wasp nest recently and last summer realised we had a large European wasp nest in the roof cavity, which was quickly destroyed. Our local pest-control people do this for $50 which is fantastic.
I know this is not the situation which Jacqui is finding, where wasp numbers are high in Auckland. We did have a cool, wet spring and early summer so maybe wasp numbers are taking a while to build up here.
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