These guys are all over my dill and parsley......anyone know what they are?
I was thinking Swallowtail Butterfly but don't know for sure.
Will this be Butterfly?
This is a Swallowtail Butterfly catapillar. It does look alot like yours.
It surely does.......thank you.
We're going to have a ton of Swallowtails fluttering around because these guys are everywhere!!! I have never seen so many as this year here.
I have dill planted. I hope I get some!
I haven't seen any so far this year, but last year they ate my dill and then moved on to my fennel and some were on the rue.
Frosty - I've written off my dill already.....I'll be buying it to make Gravlax now. They have started in on the Parsley....why don't they like sage, or thyme, I have lots of that and can spare some! :-)
The birds must be having a field day with all the caterpillars around this year.
They are Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. Parsley, fennel, dill, rue, Queen Anne's lace, and carrot tops are all their host plants, though they never preferred the carrot tops in my garden. I grow my parsley, fennel, dill and rue JUST for them; if I need any of them (except the rue, which isn't used in cooking) to cook with, I go out and BUY them! I love this butterfly, and their beautiful caterpillars, so I watch over the babies, and raise quite a few of them in a protected environment. Butterfy mortality is VERY high, they really need our help!
Well, the ones here seem to be doing fine on their own with no help from us....other than we apparently planted their favorite food. :-)
For several years when I lived in Newport News, VA I planted parsley and had tons of black swallowtail larve. I couldn't keep enough parsley and the butterflies would be laying eggs as I moved the pots from one location to another. My DH built me a butterfly house to put the caterpillars in when they were about as big as my pinky. They would make their caccoons (sp) and hang for a couple of weeks. Then my granddaughter and I would see them when they hatched out and were drying their wings. Sometimes I would have six or seven a day. As soon as they were flying around, we would let them go. We also raised monarchs by planting milkweed. This was a wonderful experience for her and me both!!
Isn't it the most fun, watching them from being tiny caterpillars, to full fledged butterflies, flying away?
I wasn't going to raise any this year, just let them fend for themselves because I am so involved with the animal shelter, and gardening. But I went out to check on the caterpillars on my passion vine and a wasp was just killing one!! I know it's Mother Nature's way, blah blah blah, but I still hate to see something as ugly as a wasp killing something as potentially beautiful as a butterfly!!! So I brought the ONE fritillary caterpillar left in and prepared a crate for him to evolve in.
Wasps and other bugs are a big caterpillar menace. And cardinals just love munching on the black swallowtail caterpillars.
I've parsley, fennel and rue in the garden. Haven't seen any cats. yet. However, I'm delighted to learn Queen Ann's Lace is also a hostplant for these lovely. They (Queen Ann's Laces) are growing wild in the field around here. Thanks thea611 for the info. I just noticed my one and only parsley is sending out flowers. I'm glad to find this thread. Morganc, hope you will get lots and lots of those beautiful butterflies soon.
Trivia:
The Black Swallowtail butterfly isn't always black - sometimes it shows a lot of yellow.
The color of the chrysalis varies depending on what it is attached to. Smooth surfaces make green chrysalis, rough surfaces make tan ones. We had bright green chrysalis which would have looked just like green buds or seed pods, except they were on the white trim of the house.
The butterflies were supposed to emerge in 2-3? weeks - but one took six weeks.
I'm sure we will have ample Butterflies around here. They have been around before....we always see lots, but this year there are just a ton of the caterpillars....eating everything.
pollengarden, I had some chrysalis winter over in VA and emerge out when the weather turned warm. These were caterpillars who made their chrysalis in the early fall. I didn't know they would do that but they were in our little butterfly house so I saw it happen. Didn't know about the color of the chrysalis being different colors for the same species. Mine were always a tan or brownish color but they attached to the screen in the little house. The only green ones I had were from the monarchs and they were a beautiful green with little jewel like things on the top.
Flipflops, so they the chysalis don't burry themselves in the soils to pupate? Thanks. I've raised Monarch's cats before, and love their jewels-like cacoon( chrysalis). But have no experience with the BST's.
I've had BST's go into the chrysalis stage in the summer and stay in them until the following spring!!! You just have to keep your fingers crossed that they won't come out until there are some flowers out, so they can nectar!! AND don't put your butterfly crate somewhere where you can't keep an eye on it; you'll need to release the butterfly when it ecloses.