Oh dear. Looks like they love parsley as much as you! They make a pretty butterfly. I forget which one. I think it's a monarch. They love dill and fennel also.

WOAH! Thats a ton of them! But so sweet!

At least yours are pretty. Yes, I believe those are monarchs.

Yea they are pretty to look at,but I think Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed though.I'm thinking these are from a black swallowtail butterfly.I saw the hornworn You have FLgardenmom & it is huge.Has anyone seen what I think are called "dogface caterpillars"?They seem to only live on some types of citrus & until they are disturbed look like a blob of bird poop.Once threatened though,the head puffs up & sends out what looks like a red forked tongue.To me it looks like it is trying to pass itself off as a snake,as a defence mechanism.I think they are the young of a type of swallowtail butterfly(black & yellow).I will try to snap a pic if I see any

Yes, I see those dogface caterpillars sometimes on my mandarin orange. That "forked tongue" freaked me out the first time one of them popped it out at me! I leave them alone since I rarely have more than a couple at a time and they don't do any real damage. Also, my sons get a huge kick out of a caterpillar that looks like bird poop.

Oh gosh, I'm jealous. I love giant swallowtails, but I hardly ever get cats around here.

I plant callaloo/amaranth for these caterpillars. It is a nice way to deflect them from other plants. Callaloo is typically big and showy and caterpillars zoom in:-)

Whoa! Will there be enough for all those caterpillars? They're hungry little devils. They usually like my fennel more than parsley & just a couple can eat a whole plant in no time.

I think the bird poop caterpillars you're referring to are a.k.a.'orange dogs'& that 'forked tongue' is an organ that sprays a strong, gross smelling chemical - watch out! Parsleyworms have it too.

Here's a pic of the parsleyworm butterfly - it's a beauty...

OMG I am going out to plant all that stuff in my garden. Those are beautiful!

Your cats look so happy! Hopefully in a couple of weeks your yard will be alive with new butterflies.

There hopefully should be enough parsley for them & for us.I have some more parsley a couple of feet away from these plants(seperated by some oregano)& this morning noticed a couple of the "cats" were clambering towards it.I'm sure a few will get eaten by predators also :(