Growing Butterflies and other critters Photo Gallery by weed30 at pbase.com

Growing Butterflies and other critters

Tip: If you are raising Black Swallowtails and run out of food, you can feed them organic parsley. I get mine from Whole Foods, cut the stems, and store it in a glass of water in the fridge to use as needed. Curly leaf is better, since it has longer stems to cut, and you can put it in small vases for your caterpillars. Clear small necked vases are best - super cheap at Goodwill or garage sales, and you can monitor the water level. Change the water out every other day, since the caterpillar frass will muck up the water.

If you are buying organic parsley from other sources, test it first on just one caterpillar. Some organic parsley will still have been treated with Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis, which is a natural insecticide, and will kill the caterpillars by interfering with digestion. If the parsley you have has been treated with this, your caterpillar will stop eating and die in a day or two. Rinsing parsley well is supposed to wash the Bt off, so I keep the rubber band on and soak/rinse the entire bunch before using.

Found some Black Swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley, so I decided to "grow" them.	Exploring new home	This guy likes the stick!	Man they poop a lot!
Homemade butterfly house - cost: $2.50 .	I was very lucky to catch this one making his/her chrysalis!	He was undulating and straining to split his skin.	The whole process took about 5 minutes.
halfway there!	going for it!	just a bit more!	He really fought to get the tip out.
You can see the discarded skin under the stick. THIS IS SO COOL!	My first Chrysalis!!	Black Swallowtail emerging from chrysalis	Searching for a good place to hang and pump up its wings
It found the perfect spot	A short time later, wings much larger. They pump fluid out of their body to expand their wings.	See the probiscus in this shot?	Just beautiful!
Wings are really looking great	wing closeup	It's a boy! (Males have larger yellow spots, females have larger blue spots)	He left shortly after this shot. Hopefully to find a mate that will lay eggs on my parsley ~
Bright Green BST Chrysalis	Brown BST chrysalis on stick	They can't fly until their wings are dry. Makes for great photo ops!	Still drying her wings
Just about ready to take off. This is a female, notice the large blue spots. Beautiful!	This cat escaped and attached to my end table!	Foil cone to protect cat from dogs	Monarch caterpillar
Monarch traffic jam	Monarch lunch buffet	Yikes, they eat fast!	Small monarch cage
cage2.jpg	Monarch just before eclosing	Side view	Another view
Chrysalis Viewing: Orchestra Seats :)	Get outta my way, little dude!	Dark Black Swallowtail cat	Monarch Chrysalis with probable OE
Probable OE	Saw this big dude crawling down my oak tree. Found out it's a Polyphemus moth caterpillar.	He's about 3" long.	A face only a mother could love!
His butt ain't so pretty either.	They make their cocoons in fallen oak leaves.	Underside view. Cocoon is about the size of a peach pit. Late in season, so this one will also overwinter.	Spring: Emerged overnight inside the butterfly house, so I took it outdoors.
Starting to spread wings	It's a girl!!	BIG freakin' moth!	Closeup - notice the pink and the blue.
The centers of the dots are clear, like glass. And don'tcha just love the furry body? :)	Male polyphemus - photo from the web.	This poor cardinal ran into our window and was too stunned to move. I took him to my garden to recuperate.	He is so pretty! He didn't mind me carrying him and seemed thankful.
He kept cocking his head while I snapped pics. I went out later and he was gone, YAY!	Yikes!	BST egg2.jpg	BST egg3.jpg
BST egg4.jpg	Relatively Harmless "Cicada Killer" Wasp	IMG_0282.JPG	Lacewing Eggs on Milkweed
Lacewing Eggs 2	Lacewing Eggs 3	Lacewing Eggs 4	Monarch egg on leaf - about the size of a ball point tip. Eggs are typically laid on the leaf underside.
2 day old Monarch cat	2 cats and an egg about to hatch. Egg darkens just before hatching. The little black stuff below them is caterpillar poop :)	2 cats. Notice munchy holes.	Monarch cat, about 5 days old
Mini Black Swallowtail 1	Mini Black Swallowtail 2	Pink Spotted Hawk Moth

comment

Rebecca		09-Aug-2011 18:28
This is great what you have done here. Seeing these pictures helped answer some questions that I had about my Black Swallowtail cats that I found on my parsley the other day. Have 7 so far in different stages. I needed to figure out how to build a bigger habitat.

bluebirdstar		30-Aug-2009 23:05
You have done an amazing job with these - Big Vote!

Gwen		12-Sep-2007 19:24
Ha!.....I knew there was someone else who does stuff like this.I've had the best time watching these caterpillars. I've got eight of them in my butterfly house. Several are at different stages. So far two have formed a chrysalis. I've seen them change from the yellow and black striped to the brown. It seemed to happen from the bottom to the top. They have eaten all my parsley and I'm having to buy it at the grocery.They do get huge. It's been amazing.......they eat like little pigs.There is one who has slowed way down today and the yellow has turned kinda blue....guess he is going to change soon. How long before they will change to a butterfly? Great pictures you have. I'm going to start taking some today. I've not misted the enclosure yet. I live in N.C. at the coast and have left them on the porch, out of the sun. I'm bringing them inside so I can keep a closer watch on them. I also have an eastern box turtle that I have had since it was a hatchling. She crawled onto my boyfriends foot in a hurricane/flood three years ago. She sure would like to eat these caterpillars....they look so juicy......lol.... Take care......great to read your post and see the pics. Gwen in NC

Monica		14-Sep-2003 23:07
Well how cool is that!? You have vision Weed! Let us know when he's hatched. Monica

weed30		14-Sep-2003 22:39
Thanks, I have decided to leave them where they are - in my screened in porch which is fairly protected from wind. I read that tip about misting them and I will do that. It's been humid the past few days so they are ok for now. Thanks for responding, and I must say again that I love your butterfly and moth pictures!

455 rocket		14-Sep-2003 15:09
Since you found them locally they should be able to take the cold weather, I'd just keep them in a sheltered place, without much articial heat because they could hatch mid winter if they are kept too warm. I'd also (not when it is below freezing) give them a light misting with water now and then so they don't dessicate. I don't think the exhaust should cause too much of a problem unless you idle the cars for a long time in the garage, so the garage may be a good spot. Then again they(or at least some of them) may hatch this season, if so they should hatch 2 to 3 weeks after pupating. For some butterflies (don't know about these) it is the relative lenghts of the light dark cycles they see as caterpillars that make them decide to go into diapause or not.

weed30		11-Sep-2003 18:07
Oh I hope they don't diapause! I can't wait! If they do though, I was going to keep them in the unheated garage as I think the porch is too windy. But then I would worry about the exhaust from the cars. Any ideas?

455 rocket		11-Sep-2003 17:55
I just reared a swallowtail from egg to adult, it took 46 days to complete, but as it is getting closer to the end of the year some may enter diapause (depending on your location in the US) when they pupate and you may have to wait until next year to see them hatch. I had a look at a few other web pages on swallowtails and on second thoughts they may be black swallowtails.... well you'll find out when they hatch. Good luck. http://www.pbase.com/455rocket/life_cycle

weed30		10-Sep-2003 04:26
I found them in my herb garden! At first there was only one and I was mad that he was eating my parsley, and tossed him off. A few days later I looked again and he was back and brought some friends. They were so pretty that I did some research on the web and decided to try and raise them. Now I'm getting very excited -- they are fascinating and I know they will be beautiful butterflies!

455 rocket		09-Sep-2003 23:03
They are certainly swallowtails. Where did you find them? They look to me like Papilio machaon which is a largely pale yellow swallowtail but I could very easily be wrong.

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