I found some caterpillars on my parsley. After being irritated that they were eating my crop, I decided to find out what they were and discovered they would become beautiful butterflies! So I am now a butterfly farmer :) It's easy to do, and simply amazing. Once they emerge as butterflies, my rule is to say "Have a nice life!" when I take them out of their cage and set them free.

Tip: If you are raising Black Swallowtails and run out of food, you can feed them organic parsley. I get mine from Whole Foods,<-- EDIT ON WHOLE FOODS PARSLEY BELOW!! 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, (fancy word for poop), will muck up the water. Just pull the bunch of parsley out and lay it on the counter...the caterpillars won't go anywhere. 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, just in case. Organic herbs can still be treated with Bt, since it is "natural".

Black Swallowtail caterpillars will also eat fennel, dill, rue, and Queen Anne's lace, but when you run out of these in your garden, organic parsley is the go to.

Now, on to the photos! You can click them to enlarge and see additional comments.

*WARNING ABOUT WHOLE FOODS PARSLEY: I am no longer using Whole Foods Parsley, as it killed some of my caterpillars. I am assuming it is now sprayed with Bt. Bt is still considered natural because it is a bacteria. (I get so many butterfly eggs/caterpillars that I need to source backup food when they eat all of my Rue, my preferred host plant.) I now test any organic parsley I find by putting one caterpillar on it in a separate cage. I hate doing this, but better to sacrifice one than all. I have had luck with organic parsley from Lucky's Market and Fresh Thyme market. I will still test each year in case the supplier starts using Bt. If you're thinking "Well just grow your own!" That doesn't work because they'll lay eggs on that too :)