Finding Utah Butterflies-->Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Overview:

Painted Ladies migrate into Utah every spring in varying degrees depending upon winter rains in Mexico and other factors. During the spring months of April and May, numbers of migrating Painted Ladies can be minimal or reach millions of butterflies where not only are they extremely noticeable, but also can even become a nuisance for those wanting to keep their cars windshields and grills clean. Migrating Painted Ladies are not partial to any particular habitat as they move northward looking for nectar sources as well as thistles to lay eggs. The way to attract these Painted Ladies to your yard is to grow butterfly bush or other flowering nectar plants.

The next generation of Painted Ladies can be found somewhat spotty in June and July in the mountains or near agricultrual areas where nectar sources are more consistent. It is not difficult to find painted lady caterpillars on thistles both in the mountains as well as in disturbed areas of our valley floors about one to two months following a reasonably strong spring migration.

Flight Periods:

April through September.

Raising Caterpillars Resources:

Painted Lady caterpillars make conspicuous nests on thistles and are not difficult to locate when feeding on this host plant. Although Painted Lady caterpillar kits can also be purchased online, I always recommend finding and raising your own from natural populations as it can be fun and not too difficult during years of sufficiently strong migrations.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Ha0DE7OdY
pdf: http://utahbugclub.org/layout/pdf/Raising_cardui.pdf
Raising Butterflies: http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/painted-lady/
Raising Butterflies: http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/vanessa-cardui/

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