05 June 2014

Swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley

So, about a week ago I learned that I did not have funky-colored hornworms on my dill when I read (and saw) a post by Eli a couple counties south of me called "Where did my swallowtail caterpillars go?"  Oops ... I had fed them to the chickens!  The chickens didn't really care for their taste anyway.  So, now I knew that the funky neon yellow, black, and white design on a green hornworm-ish body is a "no-kill" pest.

This morning I found at least four (I swear I counted six the first time) of these swallowtail caterpillars on the one flat-leaf parsley bolt from last year's salad box.  After a quick Google image search, I have decided to let them eat however much of the parsley flower buds they like!  Very pretty, especially if these will have some blue on them.

After several tries, I finally cussed the digicam into focusing on one:
swallowtail caterpillar on my flat leaf parsley

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm still upset all mine disappeared! :-) You'll have to keep us posted on yours.

dfr2010 said...

I cannot guarantee any pictures of the butterflies if/when I see them. My long-running range war with my digicams is the stuff of legend.