I highly recommend getting a copy of the CD-ROM of "The Butterflies of North America..." by Dr. James Scott

This is what Scott had to say about host plants for Giant Swallowtails.

"Habitat tropical to Transition Zone woodland and Citrus groves. Ranges south to Colombia, Bimini, and Cuba. Hostplants tree and herb Rutaceae: Citrus sinensis, limon, aurantium, grandis (?), Zanthoxylum fagara, americanum, clava-herculis, hirsutum, Ptelea trifoliata, Ruta graveolens, Casimiroa edulis, Dictamnus albus, Amyris elemifera, Choisya; Piperaceae: four spp. of Piper in Cuba. R. Sim observed eggs laid on (and larvae eating) Staphyleaceae: Staphylea trifolia. Records of Nyssa sylvatica (Nyssaceae), Persea borbonia (Lauraceae), and Populus (Salicaceae) seem erroneous. Both P. cresphontes and P. zelicaon(6) fed on Citrus in the San Joaquin Valley, Calif., though cresphontes was a stray there and is now eradicated."

"The larva is the well-known "orangedog" and is considered a minor pest of sweet orange, (Citrus � sinensis (L.) Osbeck (pro sp.). Host plants of the larvae besides sweet orange include native members of the citrus family (Rutaceae) including northern pricklyash (Zanthoxylum americanum Mill.), Hercules-club (Zanthoxylum clava-herculis L.), lime pricklyash (Zanthoxylum fagara [L.] Sarg.), hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata L.), sea torchwood (Amyris elemifera L.), Mexican orange (Choisya dumosa [Torr.] A. Gray), and a variety of exotic Rutaceae including gasplant (Dictamnus albus L.) and white sapote (Casimiroa edulis Llave & Lex.). Plant names are from the USDA Plant Database (2009), Wunderlin and Hansen (2003), or Wunderlin and Hansen (2008)."

Here is a link that might be useful: Giant Swallowtail Host Plants

They LOVE the limes, but I've not tried kumquat. Have wondered about it, though.

I got the lime!! It's a thornless key lime tree. A few are already eating the leaves I put in!! Thank God!! I read a few things I found via google that said they won't eat kumquat but females will lay eggs on them so decided to go with the lime! Thanks! Any ideas on getting rid of fire ants on the lime tree? It seems to be infested with them, maybe even a nest in the dirt In the container so for now I'm cutting and feeding leaves to them although I had hoped to put them on the tree, oh well at least I have food for them now!!

It's probably good that you didn't get the kumquat, since I've read that GST cats won't survive on the leaves, even if a female lays eggs on them, which they usually don't. Kumquat is in a different category of citrus.
Limes are wonderful, but the bushes are very cold tender. If you plant it out, it may get killed back this winter.
I'd recommend you plant rue, Ptelea trifoliata, Louisiana Sweet orange or any type of satsuma. I think Louisiana Sweet orange is also known as Parson Brown? or something like that - it does go under several names. You can't get much hardier and vigorous than this one!
Sherry

ams2009, When I get a fire ant mound in my garden or pots where I don't want to use toxic baits, I sprinkle coffee grounds all around the mound. It doesn't kill the ants, but it does make them leave the mound.

My neighbors have what we believe to be a key lime tree, and it has lots of suckers. The cats love it and the neighbors like having the suckers trimmed off their tree. And this way I don't have to take leaves off the fruit-bearing branches or other citrus trees. One of them actually took root, as I stuck it in a pot of dirt while the cats were eating it.

And I didn't know that ants dislike coffee! I'll have to try it. I thought they would come after just about ANYTHING.

Oh thank you all so much!! Miss sherry, I only have one citrus tree actually planted in yard so far, it was here already and it's a Washington navel dwarf, and thought it was dead after all the freezes last winter and all the cats eating leaves,but recently a few shoots of new leaves started growing out from root, original tree (it's tiny) is all dead wood so idk what's going on with the new stems popping up, they are kind of on side right next to the "dead" stems. I need to plant something and get it established before I get bombarded with eggs next summer!

Thanks for the coffee suggestions!! I always have coffee around so will try tomorrow!! Thanks again everyone!! So far looks like all of the cats are okay with the lime, had a few that wandered around for a few hours, I guess looking for lemon leaves. Lol, I had one 5th instar a while back, moved him indoors to feed him older satsuma leaves and leave new growth on lemon for the little cats, he had just molted into last instar, and anyway, moved him in, he didn't eat satsuma leaves or the orange leaves I tried and then he made his sling and pupated, never even purged, never ate one bite after molting last time, but he eclosed just fine and flew right off after a couple hours!! Guess he just didn't like change! �;-)

I swear there must kit be a ctrr

Glad to hear it's going well with your cats. They eat a lot don't they.

Is your lemon tree potted? I've read they can be kept as a houseplant. I think I'll keep seeds from the lemon I have in the frig and see if they'll sprout. I could set it out on my patio in the summer and see if it will attract more GST's. I only found two cats on my prickly ash this summer and two on my rue.

"I swear there must kit be a ctrr" I've been trying to figure out what that means. I feel stupid. lol

Oh lol, that was my mistake, I left the window open on my phone and forgot to hit submit and must have hit some more keys before I finally did submit! Sorry!ÃÂ

I caught a female GST flying around my new lime tree twice yesterday! I kind of ran her off, lol, and was guarding the tree to try to prevent any more eggs from being laid, I have all I can feed as it is, lime tree is quickly being defoliated. My lemon is in a pot, in fact it is still in the Nursery pot, i know that's bad, ÃÂ but I ÃÂ have bad luck when it comes to transplanting, so i've been putting it off. My Lemon tree has been wonderful as far as growing new leaves!! It seems like it gets a new flush of growth every month, which has been a life saver!! However, now it is showing no signs of new growth. ÃÂ I'm hoping it will soon. I use a general fertilizer on it (not sure of name) just sprinkle a half cup in container and turn soil a bit and within a few days new leaves are sprouting! It had small fruits on it when i bought it but havent seen any fruit since, which is fine, all my citrus trees are basically just caterpillar food! ÃÂ I'm going to try fertilizing the lemon tree today so I will have something to feed cats with once this lime tree has no leaves left!ÃÂ