[Terry]

Hi all thanks for comments on last posting of photos, I will answer all your questions soon.

Here are a few more to look through!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/trsmithers/MoreVanessamansPhotos#

Cheers, Terry

[Terry]

Hi Jacqui

In the UK the stories in the local newspapers only seem to show up the peoples total selfishness and ignorance. When councils try to leave certain areas wild they get complaints about it looking untidy, and if they cut or spray the very same people complain they don’t see so many Butterflies, Moths, and bees as they used to. The majority complain about the damage farming does to our countyside but when asked to do something themselves, like let part of their gardens go wild, they object to this. We call them NIMBY’s (Not in my back Yard). A few people ( And I am not joking ) who live in council accomodation and have tried to help have been threatened with eviction when they have allowed parts of their gardens to grow wild to attract Butterflies, on the grouds that their gardens have to be kept clean and tidy! What does that mean?????
To the NIMBY’S, Conservation is always someone else’s responsibility, they never look inwards at their own actions only look to lay the blame somewhere else. I know you and Swansong will understand where I am coming from on this statement, as if my memory is correct, I believe you are both Christians. The fact is none of us do enough, myself included but at least we do recognise that fact and our own failures and don’t try to deny it.
I don’t want to cover old ground by going in to great detail about Butterfly conservation, but if they concentrated more on real conservation and not persecuting Butterfly breeders by trying to prevent rare species from being bred in captivity and concentrated ther efforts on the real enemy, like greed, development and the destruction of the environment they would have much more success and many more members. As for the nettle organisation! WHO????? I don’t hear anything about them.
Farmers in the UK now get payments from the European union for leaving strips of land around their fields to attract insects but there are so many loopholes that it has almost no effect. Only this year the farmer right next to my parents house left a strip around his rape seed crop and there were some nice beds of nettles along the side close to my parents house. On 1st of June just after the Small tortoiseshell and Peacock larvae appeared he cut it and killed them all. This is because a loophole says they can cut but not spray a couple of times a summer to stop thistles and nettles from seeding thus making the result of no effect for conservation. this scheme is promoted by the EU as a great conservation measure but then they have Billions of pounds to pump out the propaganda and brainwashing, the conservationists have little money or clout. I am sure this all sounds familiar to what happens over in NZ.

[Jacqui]

Good on you, Terry. It does make a difference, your efforts.

Are there stories appearing in the village newspapers (and others) warning about the perils of removing weeds and use of pesticides? Has the Nettle organisation made a difference? Is Butterfly Conservation having an effect on the farmers and no doubt gardeners?

Jacqui

[Terry]

Hi Flutterbys

The farmers always spray the nettles repeatedly many times a year but they still come back. the trouble is that the small tortoiseshells, Red Admirals (vanessa atalanta) and Peacocks always choose nettle patches away from the edge of the field in full sun, the very nettle patches at most risk, thus they are becoming rarer each year. In the spring and early summer I often walk in to farmers fields “uninvited” and remove the larval nests of Peacocks and small torts and transfer them to nettles in safer areas such as against hedges or embankments where the farmers can’t get with their equipment. It’s a losing battle but someone has to try.
Also maybe you should plant some urtica australis in your section, I have a few tubs of this plant ( don’t ask me how i got it ) and it is superb.
Hi Butterfly
The Yellow Admiral larvae will pupate just about anywhere in the Butterfly house even on the roof, but most of my stock is reared indoors in plastic breeding boxes of various size in order to protect them from parasitic wasps and spiders etc. The Butterfly house is mainly for flying adults and letting them pair, the resulting eggs collected from the nettles in the butterfly house.
And finally
Last week I released 140 adult Small tortoisehells from eggs collected after being laid on some nettles in my parents garden a month earlier. just a bit of help for the native species that are suffering so badly in the UK.

[Charlotte]

I would be in heaven if I had a field like that of nettles. hee hee
Working on it LOL we have a big enough section.

Cheers
Char

[Jane]

Wonderful photos Terry. A few questions:-

Whereabouts in your Yellow Admiral breeding house do most of your yellow caterpillars choose to make thier chysalis? That is do they favour a particular location eg high, low, under objects of whatever?

Like Charlotte I am impressed with the fields of nettle. Are there any butterflies that use this field as a local base? If so what? If not, do you get cuttings there or ?

Great to put a face to your posts too : )

Cheers

[YvonneWallis]

So many lovely butterflies. The splendours of nature are hard to take in sometimes!

[Charlotte]

Wow such incredible photos Terry.
Its nice to put a face to the name now Terry.
A huge patch of nettle growing there Terry.
Did you make it before the farmer sprayed?

Cheers
Char

[Author]

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