Rhonda and Tom. I'm glad you mentioned your low success rate with the eastern swallowtails. Same for me and I wondered if I was doing something wrong. Although I always left their pupae in the b cage until the following spring since they can sometimes several months to erupt.

on the other hand frits are doing great here. I started with 33 cats from my passion vine, so far 21 have erupted and I just took two more in from the vine. No more for this year - because a few days ago the first zebra finally made it to north FL and prmptly laid a bunch of eggs that hatched yesterday. They got killed off last winter when we had close to a foyr weeks of freezing nights.

And I thought we were done with the giants for the year but hubs has been bringing home 2-3 a day from citrus trees at Lowes where he works. Most of the them were within a day or two of pupating and they have.

You sound like a busy Bea:) Glad to see that the Zebras have started to come back for you. They disappeared here in Central Florida after the freezes also, but they came back fairly quickly. Maybe April?

We got a really hard rain last night--about three inches. The hummers were busy at the feeders this morning.

When the weather cooperates I'm seeing lots and lots of butterflies.

My first Giant eclosed this morning! Yippee! Worried to see the left wing kinda crinkled (even as it took off), so hope it does okay out there.

A couple of Eastern blacks have been spending a lot of time in the yard these past few days, drinking nectar from pentas, milkweed, duranta and (finally!!!) zinnia. I noticed, however, that there are now 25-30 eggs just on one fennel bush in the bed -- in addition to 5-10 eggs on smaller dill and fennel (in pots) leftover from the first batch of BSTs released. I'm really concerned there won't be enough herbs to feed them, by far.

Out of the ~ 20 dill seeds I planted weeks ago, only three have come up. And each one isn't more than 1/2" tall. I took them outside to harden off (in the shade), but I think our consistent 95+ degree temps are just too warm for dill. I read dill likes a soil temp of 70. My instant read therm took a reading of 90. :/ I brought the seedlings indoors to get them out of the heat, but now they don't get much sun (maybe 1/2 hour in the morning).

At the grocery store just now, I picked up a bunch of organic carrots for only $0.99!

I've cut off about 1" below each stem grouping and have leaves and carrot nubs sitting in water. Sure beats buying a fennel bulb (without much green on it) for $5.

I've pulled one of the BST eggs in and set the branch on top of a carrot leaf. When the cat hatches, I'll see if it 'latches onto' the carrot tops. Fingers crossed this works, as I can at least rely on an ample supply of carrot greens.

I saw a black swallowtail on my periwinkles yesterday evening when i was mowing.

Pretty Giant Javi. Hope it is doing well.

This has to be the best year for Black Swallowtails ever for me. Constantly having eggs and cats on the fennel and parsley. I am not going to raise them inside anymore (famous last words) because of the low success rate. Hope the carrot experiment works for you :)

Pea, aren't the BSTs beautiful?

Thanks, Rhonda. Are you not at risk of running out of fennel and parsley (yet)? If not, is that because you planted an abundant supply in springtime? I feel like I'm playing major catch-up: have never grown herbs and have never raised BSTs.

I checked my fennel and dill this morning, and found only BST eggs. Looked just now and spotted two small, black flecks: new cats! I rushed them inside, and they happily crawled onto the carrot leaves. Hoping to monitor and find nibble marks. If these sacrificial cats die, though, I won't know if it's because of the food source or that so-far undetermined reason why raising BSTs indoors dooms them. Will monitor. :)

Giant #2 emerged and took off today: no wrinkles in its wings, I'm happy to report.

Overnight, one of the carrot leaves was definitely munched. I saw two more baby cats on the fennel, so brought them in, too. I didn't keep track of which cat was the one that nibbled overnight, but bite marks on the carrot tops definitely happening right now. Regardless of which cat this was (overnighter or just brought in today), I can't say he's eating with gusto (reminds me of a small child being forced to eat his broccoli!). Still, some progress.

Meanwhile, the 1/2" juvenile I brought in yesterday is still crawling about, refusing to eat its veggies.

Javi,

The only reason that I still have fennel and parsley is because I brought so many of the cats in to raise them earlier so the outdoor plants rejuvenated a little, a few are going to seed now :) I also planted seeds and had to buy organic parsley and dill when I was raising them since no one had the plants down here.

Looks like your carrots are working. Great news since they are cheaper than the alternatives.

Congrats on your new Giant!

Thanks for the tips, Rhonda. I can see I'll need to start seeds earlier next year (i.e., in the early spring). I didn't even get the notion to start raising black BSTs until late May (when I hit the nursery's 1/2 off sale and saw a BST laying eggs on the dill!) -- by then, the heat had already set in. I need to uncover my carrot leaves/rue/parsley experiment and see what the cats were up to overnight.

Will report back! :)

I got a little nervous yesterday that the cats weren't taking to the carrot, so I purchased some organic, non-GMO parsley. And I brought in ~ 10 very young (one-day old, at the most) cats off the too-crowded fennel in the yard; then plopped the new ones directly onto the parsley. So far, they appear to at least NOT be crawling away from the parsley, looking for their original fennel. Phew...fingers crossed.

I have these branches in small water bottles (spice jars, originally), all set inside a repurposed 5-gallon acrylic fish tank. I walked away for about 1/2 hour (to tend to the monarch cats) and this resistant guy is just bound and determined to find its dill!

Going on 48 hours with this one ignoring carrot and rue, despite my continually putting him back onto the plants when he crawls away.

I placed him onto the new parsley and, to my relief and surprise, it started to eat -- not a lot, but I could tell he was nibbling at the leaf margins.

So far, it's looking like I might have more success with parsley, as well as moving the cats onto the parsley sooner rather than later.

One week later -- doing great! Need to run out for another batch of parsley and carrots.

~30 cats outgrew this enclosure (5-gallon acrylic fish tank) quickly, so I've split 15 off into my two monarch containers, now available since all my monarchs chrysalised. Heaven forbid I need to go out and actually purchase more plastic containers! :p

Wow Javi!!! You seem to be doing well with the EBS. I'm curious to see how many form chrysalis.

I love your containers! I never thought of using spice containers to hold the fresh stems. That's a cool idea :)

If I don't watch myself, I could turn into a first class hoarder. :)

I shared this pic with my far-flung family today -- the color variety of these cats never ceases to amaze.

I went outside to check and see if the fritillary caterpillars I'm caring for had enough leaves for the night. They didn't so I started to cross the yard to where my passion vine is to get some leaves. On the way I passed by the container in which I grow my parsley. But there was no parsley. None. At all. Only stems. I looked closer. Caterpillars! Lots of them. In fact when I counted them later it was 23 of them! All sizes!

They're all on this tray! Unfortunately I had no other dill or parsley plants for them because the heat killed them. So hub had to run to the grocery store to get some from the produce section. Organic so no pesticides.

The four largest ones will probably pupate in the next day or so. The tiny black ones with a yelow band in the middle are hatchlings (first instar).

Wow, bea. Good Luck!

My cats would be soooo jealous of your pretty tray, bea. :)

I was wondering who grows bronze fennel, and how many cats they got on them? I just read somewhere that BST cats prefer the bronze fennel.

Lol Javi! It's the top from a cat litter container. It was getting dark by the time I found them and I grabbed the handiest thing that I could sit the sticks the cats were on, on to transport them inside and settle them on their fresh parsley in their containers.

.

update this am: I was worried that someif not all mght have been without food too long and would be dead this am. I'm happy to report they're all well!!!

Jay, I have both bronze and green fennel. The black swallowtails love them both, but perhaps I'd give the bronze the edge. My problem is that I just can't keep them from being entirely eaten down to stubs. The cats killed off a very large green fennel that I had this year. I've been able to get parsley, but one has to order fennel from an online store.

Hilarious, Bea. I see that it's a plastic container now. :) (When I viewed on my phone last night, it looked like some vintage ceramic.) Glad to hear your little guys survived. I woke up to check on my brood (housed in plastic containers outdoors, but right in front of my window), and they were crawling around very hungry, almost begging for breakfast. They got their carrot tops and parsley before I had my first sip of coffee.

Tom: I try (!) to monitor my fennel and, if I feel there are too many eggs, I place tulle netting over the bush(es) -- which, granted, aren't huge, with most in pots -- so butterflies don't lay any more eggs on them.

Tom, thanks for sharing. I've only gotten one cat so far. I have 4 fennel plants and 2 rue waiting for them here. A few dill plants, parsley, queen anne's lace, and golden alexanders at the old garden. I grew Lovage once, and got some cats on that. I have some native BST hostplant seeds for next year. Prairie Parsley, Meadow Parsnip, Cow Parsnip,and Sweet Cicely. I have Anise seeds too. It seems the females prefer Apiaceae plants with stronger aromatic oils, so I'm trying Anise just to see what happens. Every year I tell myself that next year I'm going to grow more dill and fennel in pots, and then I don't, but because of my recent high demand for fresh milkweed, I'm pretty sure I will actually do it next year.

SO happy to report that my very first Eastern BST chrysalis, which formed June 13 and didn't eclose along with the rest, surprised me with a butterfly this morning!

I had pretty much given up all hope. Early last month, I decided to move the chrysalis out of the enclosure and onto a butterfly bush in the yard. It's been a very hot summer, so this little guy could not possibly have thought it was wintertime all these weeks! So, almost 2-1/2 months later, butterfly! :)

Wow. This is pretty weird. But a great surprise!

Right?! That's what I thought...weird!

You aren't going to believe this Javi, but one of my older, forgotten Eastern Black swallowtail chrysalis eclosed this morning!!! Like you, I had given up on any chance of it and another 2 still hanging in the enclosure ever becoming butterflies. I put the chrysalis back in the enclosure after I cleaned it and started raising the Polydamas.

We were eating breakfast on the lanai this morning and Joe says "you've got a butterfly". I was thinking that it would be a Polydamas (3 chrysalis and 3 cats) or an orange-barred sulphur (5 chrysalis). Boy, was I surprised!!

dirtygardener: Speaking for myself, nothing amazing about me. :) Just being an attentive facilitator. Keeping fingers crossed for you with the sulfur -- I wonder if it's actually a male. Have you identified it as a she?

Rhonda: Absolutely love it! Any idea at all how old that chrysalis was? I wonder if it's some sort of evolutionary-built-in seasonal thing: come mid-August, eclose now or forever hold your peace! :)

Deb,

It must be a male because the Cassia bicapsularis is very popular with the sulphurs here and if it was a female I think she'd be using it. If there's a female around, they'll find each other :)

Javi,

I was looking through my pics and the chrysalis that this little male came from was formed on 6/24, so almost 2 months ago!

I still am amazed every time one of my new babies walks up onto my finger and into my hand and lets me gently cup my hand over them to take them outside :)

He's small, a little ragged and his tails were folded under, but he's cute all the same. Here's some pics of him after I took him out to the garden. I always set them on the pentas since they have a nice, flat, wide flower head.

Javi, look what I got today....another Eastern Black Swallowtail eclosed from a chrysalis formed on 6/25!!! The remaining EBS chrysalis are in an enclosure with Polydamas chrysalis that should be eclosing soon. I went out this morning fully expecting to see a Polydamas butterfly, definitely not this pretty young lady.

The pics suck since it was backlit in the enclosure and after being advised not to use flash, there's not much detail. When I took her to the garden, she didn't stick around for pics.

Good thing that my parsley, fennel and dill have recovered nicely :)

That’s wonderful news!

Amazing, Rhonda! I've got some straggler EBSTs, too, but they ONLY JUST eclosed in early August. I've reset my expectation timeline. :)

Still beautiful pics -- thanks for sharing!

Thanks Iris and Javi! There are still 3 chrysalis that formed in late June that haven't eclosed yet. But, since I have had 2 in the last 2 weeks from chrysalis formed around the same time, I'm hoping for more butterflies. This was a nice surprise :)

This little guy's one month old, and earlier this morning I was happily surprised to see his wing pattern through the chrysalis shell.

He's emerged and hanging now.

Thanks for the info everyone!

Bea, nice cage. Each of the ones I have is 16x16 wide and 24 tall but I needed them quickly so had to buy them. I will try to make some bigger ones next year.

I keep wondering if and when my Black Swallowtail will emerge.

How long has it been, Jay? Recall, I had one that went ~ 2-1/2 months before it popped out.

It' been about a month and a half. It pupated around August 1st.

They wouldn’t wait until Spring, right?

I hope I don't have to wait until spring. There's been enough time for a couple more broods already. The Monarch cats have taken to the tuberosa. When they curl up, I place them on the dirt in the potted tuberosa, then they crawl up the tuberosa, and start eating it. I still feel bad about the 5th cat that wandered off. I think the hairy white cat I saw a couple weeks ago was a metalmark. It was on the dill, but they feed on ragworts, Packeras. I don't have any ragworts in that spot, but I have Rudbeckia, cowpen daisies and Coriopsis in there, so the little cat could have crawled down and fed on one of them, because they are all in the sunflower family, Asteraceae. Those Dark Blue Tiger butterflies have cats that look almost like Queen and Monarch cats, which is awesome, because they live in India and Austrailia.

Great pic Javi!! I love it when you can see their wings through the chrysalis.

Welcome Sabina! I'm looking forward to your posts and pics.

Jay, I had two EBSs that took over 2 months to eclose as well, I thought they were going to over-winter they took so long. But, I guess they remembered that we don't have winter here in SW Florida LOL Is that caterpillar your's? It sure does look like a Queen cat.

There is the possibility that it could overwinter now. It's getting cooler and the leaves are falling off the trees. It has to be alive right? It looks fine the color is fine. Would be nice if there were some scientific explainations for these puzzling swallowtail behaviors.

Rhonda like you my easterns sometimes take a couple months to erupt. I even had a couple wait til spring.

For me this is the year of the frits. 33 released so far and about a rozen more still in pupal stage. And only 4 monarchs so far.

Jay, I'd say that since you are in 5/6 there's a good chance that it will overwinter. Yep, I've given up on raising the EBS in enclosures. Compared to the others that I have raised, they have a much lower egg to butterfly success rate.

Bea, congrats on the frits! They are by far my most numerous butterflies, guess that's why I haven't raised them in enclosures yet. BUT, since I'm pulling out one enclosure to start raising more orange-barred sulphurs I think that I'll bring out the other and try the frits :)

I didn't raise my EBS cat in a cage. I had a hamper over the fennel plant it was eating, and it pupated on the inside of the hamper. Makes me wonder if that's why it's waiting till spring. I worry about these cats more because I've had several preyed upon in the past.

Oh, now I understand. You may be right, it might think the days are shorter and winter is coming because it's darker in the hamper.

I know that I said no more EBSs being raised inside but I was just in the garden and found many eggs and 7 teeny cats. I can't help myself, they must come inside to be saved :)

Haha...my famous last words, as well, Rhonda -- many times over. :)

Haha is right! Rhonda, keep the pictures coming!

I know, I know....I'm hooked :) I brought a few itty bitty (less than 1/32"...just specks really) caterpillars and a few eggs in right before sunset. I'll find the rest tomorrow. But, I will not be bringing in as many at a time as I did earlier this summer. I will try to take some pics tomorrow.

This year is the first year I had cats in a long time, and I think the last EBS I raised did the same thing and pupated through the winter. I have a bunch of host plants for them, but they haven't been around. I see them in the wild and they're always around thistles. I'm planting a couple native Apiaceae plants for them next year. These are the plants the caterpillars used before they brought non natives like dill, parsley, fennel, and rue to this continent. I do worry about my swallowtail cats staying safe. I've had a lot of predation with them in the past.

Everyone this is a Dead thread!