MY PEACOCK BUTTERFLY JOURNEY

One day in early June I set off on a walk, the sun was shining and it was a great day for a walk - I didn’t go very far in all honesty. Not too far from my house I found a verge covered in Nettle, and those Nettles were covered in Peacock Butterfly caterpillars. Tiny black spiky caterpillars. Hundreds of them. This is where the journey begins.

Being on a verge I knew they were at risk of the council removing the nettles without a second thought, so I scooped them up and took them home with me.

Wow! Am I glad I did. Only a few days later the verge was bare, cut to the ground - the nettles were causing no issue, other than being “unwanted” I would assume. With butterflies, moths, bees and all variety of other insects already in decline, its no wonder when our councils so readily remove these vital host plants.
We so often see memos of how “we” should do better - No Mow May, Let It Bloom June etc etc - but the councils are out there destroying vital parts of the ecosystem. Many of our native butterflies only have one brood a year. If we wipe those out, this can have a huge impact on the local population the following year and even see species disappear entirely from certain areas .

You can have all the beautiful flowers you want in your garden, but you wont see any butterflies if they are unable able to find suitable plants to lay their eggs on - butterflies have certain host plants, they will not just lay their eggs on any plants, and their caterpillars will not just eat any plant either. They require specific plants.

For many of our native species that is the common Nettle. A plant that many readily remove from their gardens. Peacocks, Red Admirals, Tortoiseshells and Commas all rely on Nettle, without it they can not lay eggs and their caterpillars can not survive.

Over the next couple of weeks they continued to grow - eventually forming their chrysalis’ at the top of their net cage.

Around 10-14 days later they started to emerge. Peacock Butterflies. Beautiful. Hundreds of them.

Today I released the final ones. Over 300 Peacock Butterflies were released. Over 300 Peacock Butterflies that would have been destroyed as tiny caterpillars had I not scooped them up and taken them home.

Our native butterflies are in crisis. We need to do better.

OUR NEW WEBSITE!

Hello and Welcome to the Evil Eye Curiosities Website.

I have been selling my art on Etsy since 2018 and selling live specimens and vintage/antique pieces on Ebay since 2022 - with recent changes to Ebay policies it seemed like a good opportunity to finally build our own website where we could list everything in one place - making everything much easier!

Here you will be able to find entomology art and natural history displays, vintage/antique taxidermy and curiosities, DIY pinning kits and supplies as well as live specimens for raising your own insects.

I am aiming to provide a blog which will have lots of information including care guides and helpful hints and tips as well as behind the scenes/work in progress art blogs and frequent updates on current species I am raising.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nikki