Treating finch eye disease takes patience and consistency in applying treatment. It becomes more pronounced and obvious during spring migration.
Migration spreads finch eye disease from one location to another rapidly.
The North American Wildlife Health Care Center's network of rehabilitators have used the following treatment successfully.
The eye lesions have ranged from slightly swollen eyelids with a clear ocular drainage to severe swelling with loss of sight.
When there is loss of sight, there has been nasal exudate simultaneously. In other words, the bird had a runny nose.
The disease outbreak has been investigated by SCWDS, the National Wildlife Health Center, wildlife agencies in various states, and veterinary diagnostic labs in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia.
The disease is a conjunctivitis that has been identified as a bacterium usually associated with chronic respiratory disease in domestic chickens and infectious sinusitis in turkeys.
One recommended treatment is 14 days of oral tetracycline (Panmycin Aquadrops, by Upjohn, at 250 mg/kg, PO, BID approximately .0.05 cc per finch, BID) and 21 days of Tylson.
(Tylan 10, powder for addition to drinking water, Elanco-a division of Eli Lily) at 1/4 teaspoon powder per quart of water. After 21 days of Tylson, continue to use every other day until the bird is released. Make the Tylson the only source of water. Do not offer bathing water during treatment time.
Initially gently clean and open the sore eyes with a sterile saline solution and a Q-tip. Put oxytetracycline eye ointment which is Terramycin by Pfizer in both eyes BID until all swelling and redness is gone. Do this twice daily at least an hour apart from using the drops.
Be patient. It may take close to a month to successfully treat finch eye disease using this treatment.
There are other treatments being tried. As soon as we learn of their success, we will let you know.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
Grow your own butterflies
Have children or a class, or maybe just your own curiosity dictates that you grow your own butterflies this winter. Whatever the reason, it is a fun project for all ages, and increases the appreciation of what it actually takes for a butterfly to go from an egg to a beautiful insect floating from one flower to another in our back yards.
You can raise butterflies indoors this winter with very little trouble or special preparation. Next spring your efforts will kiss the earth as they take their place in nature.
Regardless of how old or young you are, it is simple fun to watch the metamorphosis from egg to beautiful butterfly.
"If you have just one square foot of space, you can easily raise 50 to 100 butterflies," Rick Mikula, butterfly raising expert says. "It's relaxing and rewarding."
Step 1: Make a butterfly aviary. Identify the host plant for the species of butterfly you wish to raise. Pot one and bring it inside.
Step 2: Make a teepee-type framework over the host plant. Cover the entire framework with mosquito netting or an old sheer curtain or panty hose. Secure the bottom of the net to the pot with a rubber band.
Step 3: Check your backyard. Find a female butterfly of the species you wish to raise. A good insect field guide will show you how to tell a male from a female butterfly of a select species.
Mikula has his own sexing tip:
"Holding the butterfly upside down by its wings, look at the abdomen tip," he advises. "You'll see claspers on a male, but not on a female.
"Almost any female you catch in your garden will already be fertilized," Mikula says. "Put her in the teepee cage and add a small piece of melon to supply sugar, or a few nectar type flowers, such as cosmos or zinnias."
Also, you can use a never-used orange pot scrubber in a shallow dish filled with sugar-water.
Step 4: Cover the entire teepee with a brown paper sack to provide privacy and keep the butterfly calm. Strong light causes her to become active and she might hurt her wings on the enclosure.
After 24 hours, begin checking the host plant for eggs. A female will begin laying eggs anywhere from one to seven days after you place her in the teepee.
Step 5: After she lays a few eggs, release her back into nature.
Swallowtail eggs will hatch in about five days, but it takes some 14 days for a mourning cloak to reach the hatching stage.
Butterfly caterpillars have insatiable appetites. They need lots of food. A monarch caterpillar increases its size some 2,700 times in just two weeks!
If the host plant looks spent after a few day, add fresh leaves for the caterpillars. You will probably have to replenish the leaves at least once a day, and maybe more often. Also, it is important to remove the caterpillars every day. They make great fertilizer for your pot plants.
In two to three weeks, the caterpillar will begin changing to the pupal stage. It climbs onto the netting, attaches itself and pupates. Keep the chrysalises or pupae out of direct sunlight or they will become too dry.
Check a reputable insect field guide to determine how long you must wait for your particular species to mature. At room temperature, a monarch emerges in about 14 days, but some butterflies overwinter before the adult emerges.
Butterfly raising is fun and a great way to entertain your children, friends, and yourself.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
You can raise butterflies indoors this winter with very little trouble or special preparation. Next spring your efforts will kiss the earth as they take their place in nature.
Regardless of how old or young you are, it is simple fun to watch the metamorphosis from egg to beautiful butterfly.
"If you have just one square foot of space, you can easily raise 50 to 100 butterflies," Rick Mikula, butterfly raising expert says. "It's relaxing and rewarding."
Step 1: Make a butterfly aviary. Identify the host plant for the species of butterfly you wish to raise. Pot one and bring it inside.
Step 2: Make a teepee-type framework over the host plant. Cover the entire framework with mosquito netting or an old sheer curtain or panty hose. Secure the bottom of the net to the pot with a rubber band.
Step 3: Check your backyard. Find a female butterfly of the species you wish to raise. A good insect field guide will show you how to tell a male from a female butterfly of a select species.
Mikula has his own sexing tip:
"Holding the butterfly upside down by its wings, look at the abdomen tip," he advises. "You'll see claspers on a male, but not on a female.
"Almost any female you catch in your garden will already be fertilized," Mikula says. "Put her in the teepee cage and add a small piece of melon to supply sugar, or a few nectar type flowers, such as cosmos or zinnias."
Also, you can use a never-used orange pot scrubber in a shallow dish filled with sugar-water.
Step 4: Cover the entire teepee with a brown paper sack to provide privacy and keep the butterfly calm. Strong light causes her to become active and she might hurt her wings on the enclosure.
After 24 hours, begin checking the host plant for eggs. A female will begin laying eggs anywhere from one to seven days after you place her in the teepee.
Step 5: After she lays a few eggs, release her back into nature.
Swallowtail eggs will hatch in about five days, but it takes some 14 days for a mourning cloak to reach the hatching stage.
Butterfly caterpillars have insatiable appetites. They need lots of food. A monarch caterpillar increases its size some 2,700 times in just two weeks!
If the host plant looks spent after a few day, add fresh leaves for the caterpillars. You will probably have to replenish the leaves at least once a day, and maybe more often. Also, it is important to remove the caterpillars every day. They make great fertilizer for your pot plants.
In two to three weeks, the caterpillar will begin changing to the pupal stage. It climbs onto the netting, attaches itself and pupates. Keep the chrysalises or pupae out of direct sunlight or they will become too dry.
Check a reputable insect field guide to determine how long you must wait for your particular species to mature. At room temperature, a monarch emerges in about 14 days, but some butterflies overwinter before the adult emerges.
Butterfly raising is fun and a great way to entertain your children, friends, and yourself.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
Common backyard butterflies may be becoming endangered insects
Have you missed something beautiful in your backyard a little more each year? Nature's flying jewels are becoming more scarce each summer. Numerous species are being eliminated to never more grace our flowers and mud puddles.
Several butterfly species are actually nearing extinction, and several have been listed on the endangered wildlife list. What will our summer yards - our lives - be like without nature's jewels?
If you want butterflies in your yard, or want to increase the numbers you already have, you can have your way by following a few suggestions.
"Good wildlife habitats provides the four basic life requirements of all terrestrial animals: food, fresh water, cover or shelter, and sufficient territory to carry out their life functions, particularly courtship and breeding," advises Billy McCord, "Gardening for Butterflies," South Carolina Wildlife, May-June,
1993.
***Inform all your neighbors about how you feel about pesticides. This includes what your neighbors choose to spray on their yard. Give them a choice...Tell them who to call in your area that can help them not kill birds, mammals and insects through a thorough spraying session.
***Encourage your state, your community to allow the sides of the highways to remain natural feeding local butterfly species all summer.
*** Allow the edges of your own lawn to grow literally wild, and remain uncut. Remember. Butterflies cannot dine on the perfectly manicured lawn.
***Encourage such plants as wild thistle and nettle to grow. These are among the most valuable food sources for butterflies.
*** Do not kill, poison, or eradicate Joe-Pye weed, ragweed, goldenrod, milkweed, knapweed, dandelions, mallow, majoram, bugle, wild thyme, clover, meadow sweet, vetch, currant, blueberry and tick trefoil. Many different species of butterflies enjoy feeding on these plants.
*** Provide numerous butterfly habitats on your property. Establish sunny areas. Also include shaded and partial shaded areas. In addition, provide a shallow pool for butterfly drinking.
*** Never use insecticides. Encourage your neighbors to not use pesticides on their lawns.
*** Trim shrubs in season to promote more growth. Pruning is best done in the spring rather fall.
Butterflies enjoy specific shrubs. To increase the numbers in your own back yard, planting from the following will help feed the butterflies visiting your yard.
"The most successful butterfly garden incorporates a selection of various flowering plants that ensure
blooms from early spring through late fall when adult butterflies are on the wing," McCord, "Gardening for Butterflies," South Carolina Wildlife, May-June 1993.
*** Alyssum--blooms summer to mid-fall.
*** Cosmos--blooms late summer to fall.
*** Hellotrope--blooms late spring into summer.
*** Marigold---blooms summer into fall.
*** Salvia--blooms summer through fall.
*** Zinnia-- blooms midsummer into fall.
*** Sweet William--blooms spring through early summer.
*** Asters--blooms late summer into fall.
*** Bee balm--blooms summer through fall--comes in red, lavender, and white.
*** Butterfly bush--blooms mid-summer into fall--white, pink, red
*** Butterfly weed---blooms summer through fall. Collect the seed from a fall ` plant, and relocate by
planting them where you want in the fall.
*** Coreopsis--blooms all summer.
*** Purple coneflower--blooms late summer into fall.
*** Lavender--blooms in the summer.
*** Phlox--blooms all summer-red, pink, lavender, white, and tangerine.
*** Black-eyed Susan--blooms mid-summer into fall.
*** Yarrow--blooms mid-to-late summer.
All of these domestic garden plants are easy to care for year-after-year, add color to your yard, and provide valuable nourishment for visiting butterflies.
"Though all adult butterflies feed by sucking fluids through a tubular proboscis, many species rarely if ever actually feed at flowers. These species dine on a variety of organic fluids from such sources as decomposing animals, fermenting tree sap, rotting fruit and even excrement.
"For this reason, including fruit-producing plants such as grapes, pears, apples or peaches in a garden helps attract more types of adult butterflies than only planting flowers. Fruit must be allowed to overripe and begin to rot or ferment to be attractive...
"Liquids containing sugar or fermenting sugars also attract butterflies and may be poured onto the open ground with some success. I have even seen butterflies gather at puddles of spilled beer or soft drinks," notes McCord, "Gardening for Butterflies," South Carolina Wildlife, May-June 1993.
Do not forget to keep or create a small mud-puddle in your backyard for butterflies. All adult butterflies require water particularly during hot, dry summer periods.
Usually morning dew and normal rainfall supply all the moisture needed, but when the weather is dry, butterflies appreciate a mud-puddle. Minerals, and especially nitrogen is gotten from sipping mud.
Butterflies also appreciate protruding rocks in ground level bird-baths. This gives them a place to sun and rest.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
Several butterfly species are actually nearing extinction, and several have been listed on the endangered wildlife list. What will our summer yards - our lives - be like without nature's jewels?
If you want butterflies in your yard, or want to increase the numbers you already have, you can have your way by following a few suggestions.
"Good wildlife habitats provides the four basic life requirements of all terrestrial animals: food, fresh water, cover or shelter, and sufficient territory to carry out their life functions, particularly courtship and breeding," advises Billy McCord, "Gardening for Butterflies," South Carolina Wildlife, May-June,
1993.
***Inform all your neighbors about how you feel about pesticides. This includes what your neighbors choose to spray on their yard. Give them a choice...Tell them who to call in your area that can help them not kill birds, mammals and insects through a thorough spraying session.
***Encourage your state, your community to allow the sides of the highways to remain natural feeding local butterfly species all summer.
*** Allow the edges of your own lawn to grow literally wild, and remain uncut. Remember. Butterflies cannot dine on the perfectly manicured lawn.
***Encourage such plants as wild thistle and nettle to grow. These are among the most valuable food sources for butterflies.
*** Do not kill, poison, or eradicate Joe-Pye weed, ragweed, goldenrod, milkweed, knapweed, dandelions, mallow, majoram, bugle, wild thyme, clover, meadow sweet, vetch, currant, blueberry and tick trefoil. Many different species of butterflies enjoy feeding on these plants.
*** Provide numerous butterfly habitats on your property. Establish sunny areas. Also include shaded and partial shaded areas. In addition, provide a shallow pool for butterfly drinking.
*** Never use insecticides. Encourage your neighbors to not use pesticides on their lawns.
*** Trim shrubs in season to promote more growth. Pruning is best done in the spring rather fall.
Butterflies enjoy specific shrubs. To increase the numbers in your own back yard, planting from the following will help feed the butterflies visiting your yard.
"The most successful butterfly garden incorporates a selection of various flowering plants that ensure
blooms from early spring through late fall when adult butterflies are on the wing," McCord, "Gardening for Butterflies," South Carolina Wildlife, May-June 1993.
*** Alyssum--blooms summer to mid-fall.
*** Cosmos--blooms late summer to fall.
*** Hellotrope--blooms late spring into summer.
*** Marigold---blooms summer into fall.
*** Salvia--blooms summer through fall.
*** Zinnia-- blooms midsummer into fall.
*** Sweet William--blooms spring through early summer.
*** Asters--blooms late summer into fall.
*** Bee balm--blooms summer through fall--comes in red, lavender, and white.
*** Butterfly bush--blooms mid-summer into fall--white, pink, red
*** Butterfly weed---blooms summer through fall. Collect the seed from a fall ` plant, and relocate by
planting them where you want in the fall.
*** Coreopsis--blooms all summer.
*** Purple coneflower--blooms late summer into fall.
*** Lavender--blooms in the summer.
*** Phlox--blooms all summer-red, pink, lavender, white, and tangerine.
*** Black-eyed Susan--blooms mid-summer into fall.
*** Yarrow--blooms mid-to-late summer.
All of these domestic garden plants are easy to care for year-after-year, add color to your yard, and provide valuable nourishment for visiting butterflies.
"Though all adult butterflies feed by sucking fluids through a tubular proboscis, many species rarely if ever actually feed at flowers. These species dine on a variety of organic fluids from such sources as decomposing animals, fermenting tree sap, rotting fruit and even excrement.
"For this reason, including fruit-producing plants such as grapes, pears, apples or peaches in a garden helps attract more types of adult butterflies than only planting flowers. Fruit must be allowed to overripe and begin to rot or ferment to be attractive...
"Liquids containing sugar or fermenting sugars also attract butterflies and may be poured onto the open ground with some success. I have even seen butterflies gather at puddles of spilled beer or soft drinks," notes McCord, "Gardening for Butterflies," South Carolina Wildlife, May-June 1993.
Do not forget to keep or create a small mud-puddle in your backyard for butterflies. All adult butterflies require water particularly during hot, dry summer periods.
Usually morning dew and normal rainfall supply all the moisture needed, but when the weather is dry, butterflies appreciate a mud-puddle. Minerals, and especially nitrogen is gotten from sipping mud.
Butterflies also appreciate protruding rocks in ground level bird-baths. This gives them a place to sun and rest.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
Purple Martins and man have enjoyed each other's company for centuries
Purple Martins are a type of swallow. They spend about four months during cold weather in the United States in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the Amazon Valley. They feed almost exclusively on insects benefiting the Brazilian coffee, sugar cane, corn and soybean plantations.
In late January, Purple Martins return to the southern portion of the United States to begin another nesting season. They continue to consume large numbers of mosquitoes. Researchers have found that one Martin can consume up to 2,000 mosquitoes a day. The birds natural United States range extends from Florida and Texas into the midwestern states and up into the eastern seaboard into southern
Canada. All of these areas are largely agricultural.
Purple Martin populations are declining steadily due to pesticide poisoning. Farmers use pesticides to kill crop damaging insects. The Martins eat the poisoned insects and die.
Eight of the world's 75 swallow species migrate into the state of Texas. Towards the end of July, they begin to congregate in large groups preparing to head back to Brazil. This makes them one of the earliest migrating birds.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
In late January, Purple Martins return to the southern portion of the United States to begin another nesting season. They continue to consume large numbers of mosquitoes. Researchers have found that one Martin can consume up to 2,000 mosquitoes a day. The birds natural United States range extends from Florida and Texas into the midwestern states and up into the eastern seaboard into southern
Canada. All of these areas are largely agricultural.
Purple Martin populations are declining steadily due to pesticide poisoning. Farmers use pesticides to kill crop damaging insects. The Martins eat the poisoned insects and die.
Eight of the world's 75 swallow species migrate into the state of Texas. Towards the end of July, they begin to congregate in large groups preparing to head back to Brazil. This makes them one of the earliest migrating birds.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
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