(and are they going to move on to the rest of the herbs?
Who is this....and look what they've done to my parsley!!!
One of my neighbors has a caterpiller tent/house, can I take her these and how should I move them before they eat all my herbs, they are so pretty and ferocious?
Hey, those are black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. Let them eat your herbs!!! They will also eat rue, fennel and dill :o) You can always plant more next year :o)
They will turn into fabulously big butterflies :o)
~ Cat
This is what they grow up to be Mini...
Enjoy!
~Sunny
I have no problem w/ them eating most of my herbs I just don't want them to move on to something that would kill them....I have basil, mint, oregano that they can have,
but I don't want them to get on my rosemary or bay or broccoli... those are my limits, they can have everything else.
Generally, Caterpillars will only eat from the same species of plant that their eggs were laid on. Its some istinctive behavior to keep them from eating something that is not good for them and for some species its predatory protection (milkweed is bitter tasting so monarch caterpillars are bitter to eat). Some caterpillars will starve to death, rather than eat something else.
And generally butterflies prefer to lay eggs on the same species of plant that they were caterpillars on... so successional generations of butterflies pretty much keep to the same type of plants.
Of course this is purely a generalization - there are plenty of exceptions.
You should not have to worry about the rosemary, the bay or the broccoli.. the swallowtails won't eat them. (of course there are other moths and insects that like to lay larvae on those other plants...)
Plants from the parsley family are "host" plants for Black Swallowtails. I have fennel, dill, Queen Anne's Lace, rue, and parsley for them. Different broods are preferring different plants, but I think it's mainly what you have the most of and what they find. I had a ton of dill first thing this spring and that's what they used. Then they went to the rue because I have more of that now. I just brought in about 20 first and second instar cats yesterday.
I have had a good summer with these guys. First I noticed the swallowtail laying her eggs on my big planter of parsley. Six catapillars resulted and most got to a big size and crawled (rapidly I thought) away to hopefully pupate. Then on a hanging parsley basket two more appeared. They are of a good size now so they'll be off soon.
I am in southern NJ, and today was my first without seeing a hummer. That's about right I guess. Sigh!
Ok so I went to lowes to get them some more parsley today....but they didn't have any...how quickly do they pupiate? ...how big do they have to be first...can I still get them some tomorrow ...
all the questions that a new mom would ask since their my first I would hate it if they died of starvation!!
Are they totally out of parsley? They are in their last instars so they will pupate early if you run out of food. You have to be careful when buying host plants because most are sprayed with some sort of insecticides, which will kill the cats if they eat it. I would try an organic grocery store or nursery first. If you must buy from Lowe's then I would wash the plant off first.
Ditto KKB- go to an orgnic store. I did try washing a plant lst year that I bought at a box store but those that did eat it got sick.
Maggie
yeah i did know about the posions, I was going to wash it, but when I got off work the organic nursery wasnt open so lowes is all i had. Most of them had left this morning so I guess they crawled off somewhere and "pupated" but the rest I'm taking to a friend w/ a butterfly tent/house and she had warned me about the posion.
So they'll be ok now! Thanks so much everyone!
Yay on the new homes! I found 8 1st and 2nd instar EBS cats on my newly transplanted parsley (with only 3 stems) - and they had made short shrift of that. So I moved most of them to my neighbor's huge parsley patch and then took a few up front to my fennel plant. I never knew they had little orange horns that came out when you mess with them...LOL! I don't usually touch them, just watch them. But they were so isolated out in the back that I was afraid they'd starve without another host plant nearby. The relocated ones seem to be happily munching away on the fennel today.
I wonder sometimes if 'intervening' in the natural life process is wrong in some way (like feeding hummers sugar water)...but when I consider what we've done to the planet and natural habitats, it seems to justify helping out somewhat. Anway, I've never heard of butterfly or hummer "infestations"...(grin)
Thanks for letting us know how they did mini!
~Sunny
Hi! I planted fennel and parsley this last spring. They are doing well and the fennel are already over five feet. All six of the plants have flowers. I planted them to attract the black swallowtail caterpillars. However, no luck. Will these plants live another year? Konkreteblond, what kind of fennels and parsley plants do you grow? I remember you saying that you had a lot of BST cats.
Thanks!!
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
My fennel comes back every year - it is Bronze Fennel. This is my first time growing parsely, so I don't know if it comes back or not. Ask me in March :)
Our fennel has been host to about 40+ EBS cats so far this year, not including this recent crop. I still see the females flitting about laying eggs weekly too, so we may have one more brood before our coolest weather begins.
~Sunny
Hi! Sunny!! Thanks for responding quickly. I guess I will know in March also...LOL. You are so fortunate to have so many cats of EBS. The photo was very good. We just got back from vacation and I can't seem to remember where we put the Butterfly Book. As soon as I find it, I will post the type of Swallowtail Butterfly I am trying to attract. I believe it is called the Desert Black Swallowtail. I have bronze fennel also. They are leaning over now that they have so many flowers.
Thanks again,
Chuck
Chuck, I usually have curly parsley (none this year tho) and I like the green fennel. The fennel is always just an annual for me. I have grown the bronze fennel before but it gets more aphids on it than the green so I quit buying it. I'm surprised that it is a perennial!
I had a lot of dill this year that they used and now they are using rue. I brought in about 28 cats the other day and then put them all on a new 4" potted plant. They are pretty cramped so I'm going to go out and get cuttings from the outside plants. I'd just leave them outside but when I checked on them the other day the first thing I saw was a spider eating one, so they all came in!
Actually I was told by the nursery that the parsley and fennel plants were biennial. They also said the fennel doesn't usually bloom the first year. So we will see if the fennel comes up again, next spring. If they do come up again, I am going to buy those small cone-like wire supports for each fennel plant. They are leaning all over the place and I would like to have a neater garden. If the fennel plants are annuall, then I will get the same supports for the new plants this next spring. Also, did anyone have problems with Agastache 'Desert Sunrise,' toppling over the garden? I think I am going to try those supports for these plants also. Good luck with your cats, Konkreteblond!!
I am still checking out google for the rue and dill. I don't know if I have the room but maybe I will be able to find a small corner....LOL
Thanks,
Chuck
The green fennel flowers every year for me but I've not ever had any come up from seed tho. ? Last year I had a plant that got about 5 ft tall. It wasn't sprawling all over tho. My Indigo Spires does tho!
You are in luck! The dill and rue are small plants so they don't take much room at all. They are nothing like the fennel. Go ahead and go for it with them!