That yellow, translucent goo on your windshield used to be a
painted lady butterfly.
Hollister – That yellow, translucent goo on your windshield used to be a painted lady butterfly.
Clouds of the orange, brown, black and white insects have been flying around the area in recent weeks as they make their annual northern migration.
San Benito County is on the colorful lepidopteras’ route as they flutter to Oregon, Washington and even as far north as Canada. Along the way they lay eggs and feed on flowers.
“As far as we know they originate in Southern California and Northern Mexico, but we don’t ask them for their green cards as they come in,” said William E. Chaney, an entomology specialist and farm advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Monterey County.
This year’s painted lady migration has been an extraordinary one, which likely won’t be seen again for at least half a decade, Chaney said, attributing the massive migration to this season’s wet weather and south to north winds that make traveling easier for the butterflies.
“Their colors are pretty, and I like the way they fly from flower to flower,” said Hollister resident Cecilia Correa.
Painted ladies lay their eggs in fall. The eggs hatch into caterpillars and then produce a pupa. In spring they emerge as adults and begin their migration north.
“Migratory adults can live for several months,” Chaney said. “a lot never make it because of hitting windshields, or some other natural disaster for them.”
Besides the goo they leave on cars, painted ladies are largely neutral – neither blight nor benefit, he said.
