Hello!
The other day my husband called me to help pull some "worms" off his dill. I wandered over to find that his dill teaming with some really neat looking "worms". I begged him off killing them and sure enough they are Swallowtail caterpillars! Phew! My question now is how do I aid these Swallowtail caterpillars & save my husband's dill? Are they eating the dill or simply hanging out there? I'd gladly sacrifice all the dill for more Swallowtails, but he has dreams of culinary greatness... Any ideas?
Swallowtail Aid
ladys, you can put the cats in a cage and feed them grocery store Dill or Parsley. Be sure and wash it well. I have fed cats that started on the Dill in my garden and then switched with no problem. I'm trying to leave the Dill in the garden to attract more BST eggs, I've even started some frome seed, which was really easy.
I forgot to add....to make the stems last longer, get some Oasis florist foam and soak it good, set it on a little dish or lid, then stick the stems in there. They last longer than just laying them around.
flygirl and Lady. I had the same thing with about 5 cats on my dill. They ate all they wanted and went about their business. My dill is coming back a little now from all they ate and I am so hopeful to get more cats. I also planted some from seed as I could find no more dill in any garden center to buy. So far the seeds have not come up. Lady that is exactly how I got excited about this whole thing, finding beautiful worms on some dill I planted and doing research, finding out what they were and now I am obsessed. Congrats on your cats.
Ladies,
If you're going to put your stems in Oasis please cover it first with plastic wrap and then just pierce it so you can place the stems through. I've lost a bunch of cats because they've come into contact with that stuff.
Adrienne
Plant more dill...and go out for burgers...heh heh :o)
~ Cat
They will also eat fennel and parsley. I have lots of all three planted for them, and usually there is enough for us too ;-)
I won! My husband agreed to let me take 1/3 of all his dill and replant it specifically for cats. It turned out to be a good thing that he over-plants and refuses to thin! He also has parlsey growing right next to the dill. I wish I had a good digital camera to get some snaps of these guys! Thank you all for the advice!
Yay ladys!!! What a guy!
Adrienne, thanks for the info on covering the Oasis, I didn't know that.