Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Help me help my potential Black Swallowtail cats!!, 1 by thea611

thea611 wrote:
I've been lurking in this forum for a while, but since the last batch of beautiful black swallowtail cats in my garden seemed to disappear, I want to help the next batch to survive. I've been seeing this beautiful mama on my dill plant all afternoon, and I do believe she's laying eggs. PLEASE, anybody who has done this before, tell me: when will the eggs be large enough to actually see? can the eggs at that point be prey to the many bees and wasps always in that dill plant? at what point should I bring them inside and what should I use to house them in? I've got a big plant of dill, and SOME parsley, not a lot; what do I do if I run out of these plants? once the dill flowers turn to seed, they'll be no good to the cats, right? I know these are dumb, newbie questions, but, though I've always loved butterflies, I've always thought "nature would take care of her own"; reading thru the posts on these forums, I've changed my mind about that!! I think these poor creatures need all the help they can get!!! I'm going to continue searching for info on the 'net, but any help ya'll can give me will be greatly appreciated. You guys on DG are always a big help! Thanks........