cool! i have some monarch chrysallises, 2 hatched this morning, one more should by tommorrow morning. i have 3 bst chrysalises and a cat.

Way cool. You may remember Sherry I mentioned Saturday that I'd purchased a celery plant that had three little BSTs on it (why else would I buy celery). Then yesterday I saw one checking out my parsley and rue pots and found about 20 eggs. This is my first year and my first BSTs so very excited!

Set loose a beautiful queen (my first Queen) this morning, and awaiting some GFs and ZLW to eclose. Glad to have this forum where people can understand the excitement!

Congrats on all those BSTs MissSherry and fighting8r. I love this forum too--the only place where eyes don't glaze over--well, at least I can't see it... :)

I only have one lonely Canadian Tiger Swallowtail who is taking his darned sweet time to grow! He will probably overwinter in his chrysalis, so he has lots of time.

Would love to see pics of your Zebra Longwings!

Oh, I'm jealous! None on my rue, fennel, parsley or dill :(

Congrats on your new babies ~

Thanks all!
I had an empty cage, so I cleaned it this afternoon, and now the BSTs are in it. I'm looking forward to raising them again!
Sherry

Congratulations Miss Sherry! Not to brag but we have 60 plus baby blacks at the house this year. Arrgh, they are going to eat us out of house and home. Don't congratulate us yet... this year has been horrible with the weather and every other species is waaaay down.

Did you know the bird poop look really is bird poop? It is uric acid. It is used as an antioxident against the furanocoumanins in rue. Awww, aren't they cute!

-Elisabeth

I'm glad I don't have 60+ black swallowtail cats, Elisabeth, because I'd never feed them all! Two of my rue plants died during the June heat wave, even though I watered them regularly - these two were in full sun, and the three that are still thriving are in part sun/shade. I think I'm going to either order some more rue or root my own and plant them in part shade. Most of my giant swallowtail cats are eating Ptelea trifoliata, but I've got two cats that are eating rue, also, so it's a good host plant.
I apparently miscounted my cats - I'm counting eight of them now, even though I haven't found any more outside.
Sherry

I am glad to hear that about the Ptelea. We have Rue, Ptelea, and Prickly ash in the house. We have not had giants for a year now but if we get a female then we need the host. I would like to get rid of the prickly ash. It is dangerous for both us gardeners and guests. I got a nasty scrape on my thumb from a root sucker. Leave it in the wild where it belongs. I was hoping that the giants would use the Ptelea with gusto. Now if we can just get a female to visit us...Oh look the sun is actually shining today! Time to go find butterflies.
-Elisabeth

I got rid of my hercules club/Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, which is closely related to prickly ash, for the same reason, plus in its entire life, I only found one giant swallowtail egg on it. They may use Zanthoxylum when desperate, but it's certainly not a favorite here. I think Z. fagara/wild lime is used more often in Florida than the other Zanthoxylums that grow further north.
Sherry

Congrats Sherry!
I just had one little lady leave me over 25 eggs on a fennel plant, and that's only what my lousy eyesight would allow me to see! They're starting to hatch and I fear I won't have nearly enough fennel to feed them. Luckily I have some parsley, but I still hope that they all don't hatch! I found it strange that she chose to lay her eggs on one fennel, instead of spreading them around on various parsleys that I have potted up...

Wow!! That's a lot of eggs, Tracey!
I used to plant both fennel and parsley, and the black swallowtails never laid any eggs on the parsley, just the fennel. I quit planting fennel a few years ago, because it always died back in the summer heat, but this year I tried again, and yes, it's almost totally died back again. It may revive itself this fall, though, and if black swallowtails want to use it then, they can.
Sherry

The black swallowtail cats aren't growing as fast on rue as they would on fennel or dill, but they're still growing steadily. I think they're such pretty caterpillars!
{{gwi:505853}}
Sherry

Must be a good year for them. I got 16 BST eggs off my dill this year, about 5x what I've gotten in the past. Hooray!

Jeff

very nice. cant't wait till they pupate.

They're still growing - can't remember if this is the 4th or 5th instar for these cats -
{{gwi:505855}}
Sherry

My first BST eclosed today! I think it is a good year for them, I've got about 18 maybe second/third instar and a bunch of teeny ones I havent attempted to count. Lets hope it's a good year for parsley, rue, etc...

I am glad it's a good year for you guys. Many of our folks in Ohio are reporting not seeing black swallowtails this year. I am not sure why. One thing I noticed is that there is a lot of highway construction going on. It seems that some of the only "weed patches" left in the state are the highways. With all the construction going on, the weedy areas are all dug up. I really want to call the governor and complain but with Ohio's unemployment at 11%, I don't think he will care. I think I will go play with the butterflies now...
-Elisabeth

It is looking like I'm going to go BST-less this year for the first time in recent memory. I keep looking at my dill and Golden Alexander but I don't have much hope. Looked at a zillion Queen Anne's lace plants on Saturday but nothing. :( Did find a bunch of monarchs so the trip was not a total loss.

KC

Ohio is really having a bad butterfly year! I'm glad you found the monarchs, though, KC.
You should see my property, Elisabeth - trees and weeds everywhere! Out here in the country, roadside "weeds" don't get mowed like they do on the highways. When I go visit my mother in Hattiesburg, I'm shocked at the absence of butterflies, but then she lives in a large, well-manicured neighborhood. Same with my daughter in Florida. She lives in what other people would think is a fabulous neighborhood, gated, full of nice homes and flawless landscaping. There are no butterflies where she lives, either, other than a stray sulphur or two. When we ride a few miles out on country roads in Florida to areas that still haven't been developed, it looks like we've traveled to another country!
That's one really good thing about living in Mississippi - people may make fun of it, but at least its low ranking in everything keeps people thinking it's a terrible place to live and not many move here and "improve" things! I'll take the wilderness any day!
Sherry

Love your BST 'babies,' MissSherry! Okay, I just had to post this picture of one of my Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) larvae.
(click to enlarge)
{{gwi:505858}}
It gives everyone an opportunity to compare the differences between the 'western' and 'eastern' versions (if you want to call them that) of the 'black swallowtail.' :)

Sherry,
I know what you mean: I was born and raised in Houston. We moved here to southern Mississippi 13 years ago. It took some getting used to; that first year here we kept threatening to move back, but now we wouldn't trade living here for all the nicest manicured yards in the world. We don't live out in the country, it's just a semi-rural area north of I-10 and we keep threatening to move further inland to real country life.
Linda

CalSherry, I've always thought anise swallowtail cats were a little prettier than black swallowtail cats, at least in the last instar where the anise cats have so much green.
Linda, the area north of I-10 has gotten SO crowded since the hurricane! When we went to the Coast a few weeks ago to see my doctor in Biloxi, we took the new highway, can't remember the name/number, but it runs from Hwy.49 southeast to Biloxi, with a Gulfport exit. We took the Gulfport exit, because my doctor is in west Biloxi. I was shocked at all the new building going on there, including a lot of businesses/churches/schools that used to be on or close to the beach. I guess nobody can afford the price of insurance to rebuild on the beach, if you can even get insurance there, that is. I hope they don't destroy all the good butterfly habitat north of I-10! I'm located just north of Wiggins, thank goodness, because south Stone County is getting crowded with ex-Coast people. I lived in Bayou View for 20 years, and I mowed and mowed that huge yard, but the first gulf frit that I saw in my yard while mowing made the biggest impression on me. I was wowed by the intense orange color and started to read about butterflies and host plants, but I couldn't find any passionvines for sale locally. I guess you could say that gulf frit started all this for me! :)
Sherry

Thanks so much for this thread. I've just discovered 8 little BST cats on my dill, and one feeding on the parsley next to the dill! At least they look like the little cats in the first photo of this thread. I can't believe it. I do hope these two plants will be enough to feed them. The dill is blooming so I would think that means it is about done for the year.

The parsley is actually four plants planted together and has quite a few large lush leaves. Since one baby is on it, the other's will go there from the dill, won't they, if the dill gets all eaten? The parsley actually has a leaf or two leaning onto the dill and I left it that way so they could crawl over.

We also have red wasps. Are these the ones that hurt the baby cats? We feed and water the birds so I'm hoping they don't bother the babies as they almost always just feed at the feeders. I do see an occasional robin digging under the mulch, looking for worms. Oh my, I have no idea how to bring these babies into a safe place. They are very tiny so I believe they must have just hatched today as I didn't see them last evening on the dill.

Thanks for all the help and information.

Mary

Raising black swallowtail caterpillars on dill, fennel or parsley in a cage is difficult, because those host plants don't hold up well in a water pick, as I recall, but my memory may be wrong here. I raised monarch cats on tropical milkweed, which also didn't hold up well in water, by just putting the leaves on Tupperware in the cage, and the cats would eat it so fast, it didn't have time to dry up. I don't know how that would work with dill and parsley, maybe somebody else can tell you.
Red wasps will kill and eat caterpillars. I haven't had any problem with birds eating caterpillars, except wrens may have eaten some of the gulf frits that were outside, unprotected on the passionvines. The only way to keep cats safe that I know of is in a cage. That's why I love rue - it hosts both giant and black swallowtails, and it holds up beautifully in water picks.
Good luck!
Sherry

Sherry,

Do you think I could place some soft coated wire over the plants, leaving a good deal of room under it, then place something like a sheer curtain over the wire, to keep the wasps out or off of the cats? Might this offer some protection? I could still get to the plants to water them and it would allow air to circulate around them. This spot is shaded until mid afternoon.

I now count ten babies! The one on the parsley is actually a darker black than the babies on the dill. Maybe the parsley is richer. Ha. They are so tiny and all have the little white middle band.

Mary

That might work, Mary. I'd think you'd need to put the wire far enough in the ground to be sure it stands up to wind and rain - it sounds like a good idea!
Let us know how it works for you - we're always looking for new ways to protect cats.
Sherry

We had a terrible storm this early A.M. Lot's of wind and rain. I can only spot 7 babies and can only hope the others are just under leaves. They had eaten the top out of one stalk and they were all bunched up at the top. The other stalks had gotten blown over so we propped them up with some poles agaist the one still standing. After a while, they began to move onto the other stalks. If they run out of dill, will they crawl over to the parsley plants? They're right next to each other but the babies would have to crawl onto the ground to get to the parsley.

Also, I came across this picnic item while looking for the old curtain sheers. It springs open like an umbrella and is used to sit over food on a picnic table to protect from flying insects. If I use some tent pegs or made some wire hooks out of wire hangers to hold the base to the ground, this might make a good outside protection over the host plants.

Of course, once you used it for this purpose, it would no longer be useful for human food protection. :-)

I got this one from Camping World and I believe they're about $5 and less when on sale.

Does this look like something that might work to help protect them while on the outside host plants?
Mary

unopened: {{gwi:505861}}From __Garden Flowers - plants

opened:
{{gwi:505864}}From __Garden Flowers - plants

My BST chrysallieses havent hatched for the 3 weeks theyve been pupa. It is not humidity(i think) or temperature, as i have hatched monarchs in the same exact room, same spot.

I think that would protect the cats, Mary, assuming you can keep it in place, but tent pegs have always worked for me to keep things down.
It rained twice yesterday here, and then once so far today, so the rains are coming frequently here, too. Two of the black swallowtail cats have purged, so they're about to pupate - YAY!!
Sherry

One of the cats this morning looks like the one MissSherry showed where it is about 4th stage. They move through these stages quite quickly!

I seem to have some babies of varying stages of development. They are so interesting to watch. The ones on the parsley seem to be growing much slower than the ones on the dill.

Thanks to all who post about their experiences so we newbies can learn.

Mary

Three black swallowtails emerged yesterday and two today - four males and one female. Whenever I've raised black swallowtails, I get a disproportionate number of males to females - maybe that's why they're not common here. But since I said that, maybe the ones left will be females! :)
They've all flown out of the cage and out of eyesight before I could get their picture, except for this one today - black swallowtails are small for swallowtails, but don't they have beautiful, vivid colors?
{{gwi:505867}}
Sherry

Interesting, I've released seven BSTs this week and five were males, so so far we are seeing the same thing. Kind of a small number to draw conclusions over but anyway...
Beautiful pic!
kelly

Released my BSTs I few weeks ago. Still waiting for eggs to appear on my dill.