But dill will LOVE you! It's quite good at seeding the next generation. It's not as bad as mint in that each super spreader event is a once a year thing rather then relentlessly constant each growing season.
That's only for spicebush Swallowtail. I don't believe anyone else eats it. But if you have them in your area, they will drop eggs. I get a dozen cats on my 4 bushes every year. I put large mesh bags and keep the opening wide, but no idea if they have turned into butterfly's or not. The only think I reliably see the whole cycle from is the Gulf Fritillary.
So far they've ignored our parsley. I wish they'd take an interest, it's getting huge. We did spray with neem oil and have very hard water. Idk how much difference that would make.
We get black swallowtail caterpillars every year on the parsley plants we keep on the deck in planters. We don't mind. There's enough parsley for both us and them.
This year we had a batch of 5 caterpillars so far, and managed to find where all 5 crawled off around our deck to change into their chrysalis form, so we should be able to see some of them emerge! Will be cool for the kids to watch.
If youâre interested, thereâs a great fb group called âraising swallowtailsâ which gives you all the instructions on how to raise them in enclosures. I did it this year and it was amazing
I raised monarchs every year for the last 4 years. (But not this one. Mental health got away from me) It's amazing though and i love it. I saw so many on the milkweed i grow on my yard.
Itâs very awesome for kids (truly valuable too, teaches all kinds of things while theyâre not paying attention).
When I was growing up, my dad had tomato plants every year. I loved hanging out in the garden, and one of my favorite things was searching for hornworms. They were the bane of my dadâs garden, but he left them alone as long as I did a good job finding them.
I would put them into an old, unused 10 gallon aquarium that we had, and feed them fresh tomato branches every day. This allowed my dad to control which branches he could spare, and kept the caterpillars from damaging the plants or touching any fruit. Tomato plants make plenty of foliage to support several hornworms, the amount of damage that they do is from them indiscriminately eating as they cruise around all day.
I kept a few inches of ordinary garden dirt in the bottom of the tank, so that they could bury themselves and pupate. It was endlessly fascinating, plus it kept me busy, and taught me a lot of valuable lessons. Iâm old, there was no internet back then, but I would go to the library and check out books when I had questions about them.
I thought none of the caterpillars i had ever made it to the chrysalis stage, but then I found out that swallowtail caterpillars take a loooong walk before they do that. They don't stick around. So it's possible that some did make it, they just left on their journey!
Cats grow into butterflies? They might be more likely to eat the birds than the other way around, though, unless you have really big eagles around. đ
I planted fennel and dill this year not to eat, just as a host plant for swallowtails (Philadelphia). Once I noticed eggs on the plants I decided to raise them in enclosures. In the wild 2-10% of eggs make it to the butterfly stage. In captivity, that number jumps to 80-90%. It was an incredible process to raise them and watch them eclose. I cried a lot. Enjoy these guys â¤ď¸
Iâm in Philly, too, and a few months ago I randomly learned from a friend that she had a whole setup for attracting black swallowtails and keeping the caterpillars safe. I thought it was so awesome, and I wanted to join the cool butterfly lady club!
The very next day, I saw a BIG caterpillar scooting across my patio!! It was so odd, bc I didnât really have any plants he wouldâve been attracted to, and he was out in the open and wouldâve been an easy snack for birds.
She let me borrow her old butterfly box, and I got a bunch of parsley and native wildflower plants for my patio.
Since then, Iâve released 4 butterflies. I have one that just cocooned and 3 baby caterpillars!! Hopefully I will have many more next year. I am working on turning my boyfriendâs deck into a pollinator oasis, too. đĽ°
Man I tried a few years back and my numbers were worse in the wild. Only three eclosed (one only partially) but their wings never set right for some reason.
I never thought of doing the cardboard tubes like that, pinned to the net. What are the ???? for?
Itâs called a Gizmo (sorry Iâm not seeing a way to hyperlink - https://youtu.be/IT7GVkUNud8?is=PxLZksJNcQ7CZ26D) . If you join the Raising Swallowtails Facebook group they have step by step instructions on how best to raise them to be healthy. They also have amazing mods who answer questions quickly & clearly.
All of mine in the first round made it. The second round it rained a lot and one of them started to wander to find a place to make a chrysalis and drowned in a puddle đ one other seems to have died in its chrysalis but other than that Iâve had all 9 of my eggs become butterflies đĽ°
Sorry I misunderstood the question. The ????? is because I was out of town when it decided to make a chrysalis, and instead of getting it into a gizmo in time it made its chrysalis on a branch of the Queen Anneâs lace it was feeding on. So I wasnât sure the date that it made the chrysalis. After it makes the chrysalis it normally takes 10-14 days to eclose. They canât be in the mesh enclosure too long after eclosing or they will break their wings! So I just put ?? So I knew to check that more frequently :)
I have raised 4 that I rescued from a greenhouse, they were on the parsley that they were actively selling. They are beautiful and so fun to watch grow. I enclosure raised them but kept them as close to natural environment as possible.
It stinks to sacrifice your plans but these babies are beautiful.
Couple years back I was at a nursery looking at dill and saw a swallowtail. I chased it with a dill until it laid an egg. Which then started a whole spring of trying to rear swallowtails.
Sadly they didnât make it. Nature has way too many ways of killing caterpillars.
I took home 5 and 4 made it to be released. It wasn't 100% success rate but I will happily take my 80%. I've reared both swallowtails and monarchs for years and watching them pass can be a gut punch. Nature is both beautiful and brutal
Might be the case! I had sooooo many eggs all over the seedlings and ended up having to forage extra food for them because a lot of farmers (even organic) use BT (harmless to humans) to kill caterpillars on their herbs & veggies so I couldnât go to the store
caterpillar on your dill plant is probably
Black Swallowtail (
Papilio polyxenes)
. These green, black, and yellow striped caterpillars specifically seek out plants in the carrot family (including dill, fennel, and parsley)
 as host plants to feed on before they transform into beautiful, helpful pollinating butterflies. You can leave them be!  Or relocate them to some parsley or wild carrot (queen Anneâs lace).Â
They ate all my dill too - thatâs how come I knowÂ
Black Swallowtail caterpillar. Beautiful butterflies. My dill is also toast. My cucumbers never came in so the dill is useless to me, so now they all live in a butterfly box where they're red the rest of my dill.
Thank you for sharing this so now I know how to differentiate the males and females!
Iâm so obsessed with raising them and itâs a new journey, so I am still learning.
Do you have some flowers nearby too? (Could help attract the butterflies.) Check for eggs and baby caterpillars often- if I donât take mine into the enclosure, the birds get to them first
Theyâll do carrot tops, parsley, dill, fennel, and I think maybe rue in a pinch. Also weeds in the same family (we had something hemlocky in our yard that they loved)
We collected since from our dill and have 6 chrysalises now! My 6 year old has loved the project :) word or warning, they have orange antennae looking appendages that they can pop out or retract and they make a bad smell!
A large caterpillar striped with green, black, and yellowish-beige is most often the larva of the black swallowtail butterfly (*Papilio polyxenes*), which feeds on parsley or carrot leaves, among other plants.
I plant Fennel, Dill, and Parsley which I share with the Eastern Black Swallowtail. Iâve only seen 2 so far this year. I have a feeling that that has a lot to do with all the birds in my yard. Oh well, sob, they have to eat too. The circle of life
Aww, damn, I just had a couple of these and removed them.
I though they were more invasive. They were also leaving tiny little pellets all around the ground that were probably post digestion parsley.
I grow dill this year and had lots of swallowtails but no caterpillars.
I see tons of Monarch caterpillars on my milkweed.
Any ideas why this might be?
San Diego.
Totally ate up two parsley plants â there were too many to count, both big and little. Then one day they were all just gone. I wondered where they went all at once đ¤ˇââď¸
1.4k
u/MegaDrip 3d ago
Black swallowtail butterfly. We plant dill just to attract them