Home >> raising black swallowtails
June 26, 2008
Last week while I was poking around in the back yard garden, I found two caterpillars on my parsley plants. Miika spotted them too and begged me to keep them. At first I thought, no…let them be free…then I thought better of it. I picked the part of the parsley that they were eating and put them in a big jar. Early Sunday morning, I looked them up on line and discovered that they were Black Swallowtails…well worth keeping! I found a good site that gave instructions on how raise them: Kids and Caterpillars. On Monday, I got an old aquarium out of our garage, cleaned it up and transplanted some parsley into a tiny pot. They like to hook up to twigs when they create their chrysalis, so I stacked some up like a tee-pee. While were were out on Tuesday morning, the first one built his little house.
The second caterpillar slowed down yesterday, found his spot on another twig and made a little sling, two strands of what looks like spider web. We’re keeping our eyes on him, hoping to see the chrysalis forming since we missed the first one.
Nathan totally gets it! You see, I’ve read, “The Hungry Caterpillar” at least 1000 times! I told him about the one who has built a little house and how he’d be a BEAUTIFUL butterfly soon. While the other one was eating, I told him how hungry he was. Nathan nodded with excitement and pointed to the caterpillar. Oh, and by the way, caterpillars poop alot, so we discussed that too! To which Nathan replied, “BLAAHHH.”