Raising Black Swallowtail Butterflies

11 years ago

For the past couple of years our daughter has been buying pots of parsley and bronze fennel to raise Black Swallowtail caterpillars. When the caterpillars appear, she sets the plants on her screened in porch and the caterpillars climb up the screen to make their chrysalis, When the caterpillars "hatch" the grand children get to release the new butterflies to the out doors. This year I grew about 30 parsley and fennel plants for her. The ones that I had left over went into my greenhouse once they had caterpillars. After several days the caterpillars disappeared and I could not find any of the chrysalis, but about 10 days later I started finding the butterflies in the greenhouse trying to get out. This is a fun project to do if you have young children or for your own enjoyment.

Featured Answer

Ralph Whisnant
Original Author

10 years ago

I believe that bronze fennel provides the most food and is hardier in our climate, will both reseed and will overwinter and return nest year. That said, ordinary parsley is also a good choice for growing Black Swallowtail caterpillars. Be aware that wrens and the large red wasps will often carry the caterpillars away, especially when they are small. I keep potted plants of both parsley and fennel which I can bring into an enclosed area once I have caterpillars. Also, one caterpillar can eat more that one plant unless the plants are fairly large, so you need several plants if you plan to raise very many caterpillars. Our daughter transfers her pots with caterpillars onto a screened porch and when a caterpillar makes a chrysalis, the kids get to watch it develop and then release the butterfly after it comes out.

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Comments (9)

Sabji garden (7b), Raleigh NC
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
That is sweet !

Hi Ralph, I messaged you on Gardenweb.. You are coming to the fall swap? .. I like to meet everyone again.

We have posted the Trade list for it on the Exchange forum.. See you posting soon.
loisthegardener_nc7b
11 years ago
What a wonderful project, kids optional, right? Lol. I had good intentions of planting parsley and carrots for the swallowtails but then the heat struck and I retreated inside to spend time with ice cream and the internet. Not sure if there is still time to plant this year.
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Ralph Whisnant
Original Author
11 years ago
About the best you can do is buy some parsley or fennel plants at the nursery. There are still plenty of butterflies around to lay the eggs to make the caterpillars and they only take 10 - 14 days to go from caterpillar to butterfly once they make the chrysalis.
four (9B near 9A)
10 years ago
I want to go for whatever cultivars of fennel that
make the most caterpillar food per plant.
Specify whether your "most" means
at a given time,
or it means total over a very long time.

Wanting the most, do I clearly fall into one of
the broadest categories, herb type vs bulb type?
nchomegarden
10 years ago
Ralph - I have a bronze fennel plant which is blooming right now. It is located behind some other plants, but close to some tropical milkweeds. I have not noticed any caterpillars on either the bronze fennel or the milkweed. Have you already seen black swallow tail caterpillars on your plants? My bronze fennel is in the ground. So even if I saw any caterpillars, I am not sure what I could do to protect them from birds.
Ralph Whisnant
Original Author
10 years ago
I have seen a couple of black (and yellow) swallowtail butterflies in the past week, but no caterpillars. My daughter just found a couple on her fennel, so I am sure you and I will have some any day now. Since your fennel is mixed in with other plants, hopefully some of the caterpillars will make it to full size and chrysalis.

As for the milkweed, I have not had any Monarch caterpillars either though I have seen a couple of the Monarch butterflies which are really rare here in the summer. Monarch caterpillars are more likely starting in September when the ones up north start migrating toward Mexico. By then I hope to have lots of potted Tropical Butterfly Weed in addition to native milkweed in the ground.
nchomegarden
10 years ago
Thanks for your reply, Ralph.
I have seen the common buckeye butterfly on my joe pye weed and hope the milkweed and fennel get used by the other butterflies...
loisthegardener_nc7b
10 years ago
Hey Ralph, is this one of yours? :-)