I am being totally overrun with Black Swallowtails! I currently have 60 in one of my large cages. They have eaten all of my potted plants and now I've resorted to buying parsley from the organic grocery store.
Here's some of the babies waiting for their supper:
And a few (about 20) have pupated. They really like the corners. Here's one corner of the cage:
And did I mention I found 6 more tiny cats on what's left of the parsley in my butterfly garden? August has always been a busy month for me and the BSTs, but this is totally wild! (pun intended)
Terrie
You are right, they will eat it all. Next year i plant to have some potted parsley, fennel, rue, passion vine and milkweed in reserve, so I don't run out. Also carry some pots ever the winter, so I can have them available in early spring.
Josephine.
WTG Terrie......that's a lot of cats!
I found a GST cat on my Rue, that was a nice surprise, the Rue seems very popular.
Josephine, I don't know if it's possible to not run out...the more plants, the more cats. I think the ideal situation would be a greenhouse to keep some spare plants in, just for food.
Yes, you are right, but next year i will be better prepared.
Oh, fly you are so right!! LOL! Isn't that kind of like, the more money you make the more bills you aquire? I thought I was being prepared by having all the Queen Anne's Lace. Nooooo, they just want dill! But good news, I did actually have cats on it this summer!
Good luck Terrie! Looks like you're going to be busy cleaning up lots of frass! lol What have you got going there? A foam block wrapped in foil?
Haha Paige.....milkweed is like money...can you ever have too much?
Blond - yes, it's florist foam wrapped in foil. I keep a couple blocks sitting in water so I can switch them out.
I thought I was being prepared by starting some parsley in the spring. Plus buying all I could find at Lowe's. This is my second round, but biggest, of the BSTs and all my plants are gone. Some are starting to come back and I'm finding more babies on those plants. Brought in 10 more this evening.
I still have 8 BST pupas from the last round, plus 6 Monarch Pupas, 8 GF pupas and 2 cats, and two cages with Sulphur pupas and cats. This is definitely "nursery" time on my back porch.
Thanks,
terrie
What a great slogan!! And the answer is NO! You can never have too much milkweed, fennel, or parsley, as in Terrie's case.
I sure wish I had an organic grocery store to buy from! I buy from "organic" nurseries but I've still had cats die from plants at 2 places. I tried growing fennel this year but it bolted (I think that's the term) and didn't last long. I'm going to just throw out seeds in the fall and spring and let it grow on it's own.
I'm going to borrow your foil idea, or use plastic wrap. Those blocks are nasty when they get pooped on! I end up throwing them away so that will really help.
This message was edited Aug 22, 2007 8:24 PM
I've had some cats die from the Parsley from Home depot and Lowes, but I found out that if I leave it outside for a month or so all the "nasties" must wash off as these cats ate those plants and seemed to be fine. In Aug. and Sept. none of the stores seem to have any parsley or dill, so, luckily we have a Wild Oats organic market just a couple of miles away.
Boy was I surprised this morning. I still have some pupas hanging since mid-July in another cage, but these two in my busy cage were in a hurry to get into the world. They only pupated a little less than a week ago. These BSTs..... they sure do their own thing, don't they?
Terrie
You aren't kidding. I have yet to find rhyme or reason to the way they eclose. I have a couple that have not eclosed yet (been over a month) and then one that just eclosed after a week or so. I just wait because I've had them eclose months after pupating. I had several last year that were either parasitized or had a disease to begin with and they just never eclosed. I finally threw them out.
I tend to leave the GFs outside on their own because there's so many tons of them I couldnt' possibly raise them all. I think if I had too many BSTs I might do the same. I know that seed is pretty easy for the green fennel. When mine bolts, I often just let it be and it will start putting out new growth later on after the seeds are gone. For some reason the BSTs preferred the green over the bronze this year...at least, until the native wild parsley got big, then they used that for a while.
I had to start buying store bought parsley for my BST's too. I noticed that walmart also has fresh dill but I didn't buy any for them. Also, has anyone fed their BST cats the green tops on the carrots that Walmart sells? I haven't heard anyone mention the carrot tops.
I planted carrots, dill, parsley, & G&B fennel by scattering seeds in the fall. The carrots were to leave rotting in the ground for OM and to feed the BST's. They've only been interested in the bronze fennel. I had one small batch while hubby was out of town and did not bring them into the porch for fear they'd eat too fast while I was at work and starve. I've not had good luck with cuttings staying fresh all day. The cat's disappeared. I did see an adult yesterday so hope that there might be one more batch before winter- maybe to over-winter and get a jump on next year.
Maggie
Almost all of the cats have pupated. I only have about 6 left to feed. Sure cuts my grocery bill.
I've had 8 BSTs eclose in the last few days - 5 of them this morning. They were all girls, too.
Terrie
Cordele, I haven't trie dthe carrot tops but did try a big bunch of Fennel, it was still on the root. The cats wouldn't even move over to it or touch it. They have always preferred the Dill, but it's expensive at the grocery and it's a little bunch. So they get Parsley, it lasts longer than anything.
Oh Maggie, maybe they all left and pupated :)
WTG Terrie!!! You're doing great!
Thanks, Fly_girl,
I've raised BSTs the past three summers but never had as many at one time as I do right now.
I was out looking at my Cassia Alata today and found 41 sulphur cats and at least that many eggs. Oh, no.... here we go again.
8*D
41?! Wow......well, maybe you'll win the lottery! LOL
Naw..... I'd better just stick to butterflies.
8*D
OMG. 41 sulphur cats. That is pretty close to being a nightmare although I think they are the cutest cats in the world. There is no way I could raise that many. I am definitely not equipped and do not trust myself to make that a successful venture. I am sure you can do it though, you are a pro at this. That must have been quite a find. I was thinking of trying to grow a Cassia next year but you may make me change my mind. LOL.
Leslie
Well, I waited too long to bring the Sulphur cats in. When I went to get them I could only find 16 of them. The lizards must have found the others. But I brought the 16 in and put them in the cage. The main problem I'm having is that they are eating the "young" leaves faster than the plant can grow new leaves. I've noticed that the sulphurs do not like the older leaves on the tree.
I haven't seen many new eggs in the past few days, so maybe we are coming to the end of baby season. 8*D
Happy Birthday Terrie!!!! Hope it's grand!
Celebrate your day with cake and ice cream! Happy Birthday!
Dear Terrieurban,
I am really envious of your success with Black Swallowtail cats. Maybe next year I will have some of these cats. I planted four Rue plants from seed this year and I am hoping that next year they will attract some of these beauties.
Also, I planted some Winter Cassia seeds last December and transplanted them in Spring. They are now about three feet tall. Will they attract BST's like Cassia alata? The Latin name that was given to me was Cassia bicapsularis(sp?).
This year, I also planted more Fennel.
Have a great time with your butterflies,
Thanks for sharing,
Chuck
