Tag Archives: caterpillar

We Got Babies – fawns – wee caterpillars

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Twin fawns and their Mom blessed us with a visit.
I apologize for the sad quality of the photos.
I took them through the double pane windows and screen.
Fortunately, they’re clear enough you can see the spots on the fawns.

The black swallowtail butterfly eggs started hatching. I was fortunate to see one right after it hatched and got a photo of it.
I haven’t seen it in the past couple days. I’m hoping it’s hiding under the leaves sheltering from the rain.

Wishing you a week of beautiful smiles.

 

Black Swallowtail Butterfly eggs 2024

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7-18-2024 My curly parsley and marigold pot was visited by a female black swallowtail butterfly.

She laid over a half dozen eggs over the plant.  I took a few photos of some of the eggs. So, pretty soon, there might be some baby caterpillars feeding and growing in the curly leaves.

If the eggs survive and hatch and we figure we’ll be shopping for more parsley soon to feed the brood of caterpillars.

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the weekend.

 

 

Special Garden Visitors – Black Swallowtail Butterfly – caterpillar

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We decided to do away with a couple of our flowerbeds and let the areas go back to yard. My husband took the soil from the flowerbeds and put it on our garden. The result from adding the soil to our garden is volunteer zinnias growing sporadically throughout the rows among the vegetables.
The other day, I was taking pictures, with my phone, of a lovely patch of zinnias growing in our carrots and cucumbers. A beautiful female Black Swallowtail Butterfly was feeding on the blooms. I managed a few photos, hoping one of them would be fine. I wasn’t sure about the zoom feature, but it turned out okay.
Yesterday, as I was looking to see if the carrot tops had actual carrots making under any of them. I was surprised to see an adorable black swallowtail caterpillar feeding quietly on a carrot top. I was so excited.
Unfortunately, it was fixing to rain, and I didn’t have my camera, so I rushed (not ran lol) to the house and grabbed my phone and rushed back to the garden. I snapped a few photos and rushed back to the house just in the nick-of-time as the rain began to pour. Considering my rushing, this photo turned out pretty good.

I’m so happy I got to see the caterpillar. Unfortunately, because of birds, I fear the caterpillar won’t make it to be a butterfly. Then again, it might, I wouldn’t have thought a caterpillar could’ve made it to the size it has.
I considered taking the caterpillar home with me and finish it’s raising in an aquarium like I did with some back a half dozen years ago, but I just don’t have the heart to take it away from the fresh air, rain, sunshine and fresh carrot tops. Here’s a link to one of my blog posts during my butterfly raising adventures: Black Swallowtail Butterfly Lifecycle

*Just a note here:
I know the caterpillars will happily eat the carrot tops to the ground. We’ve plenty of carrots growing and it’s not an issue if we lose a few of them.

Here’s wishing you all beautiful butterflies and smiles.
Have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

Wildlife Wednesday – Black Swallowtail Caterpillars and Parasitic wasps

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The Black Swallowtail Caterpillars have been feasting heavily on my parsley. The fennel has almost ran it’s course and I suppose that’s why the Mother Butterflies chose the parsley at last. I’m glad I planted it for just that purpose.

I’m more than a bit miffed about a new discovery with the chrysalises. Apparently there’s parasitic wasps that injects their eggs into the chrysalis. Their young feeds off the butterfly pupae and hatch out. I’ve found several chrysalises with the circular hole in them.

It’s a wonder that butterflies survive at all. 

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Wildlife Wednesday- tomato horn worm

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IMG_3378Last week I was in the garden and spotted signs of a tomato horn-worm on one of our tomato vines. It took me about a minute or so to find the little critter, they blend with the plant so well. I carefully plucked it off the vine and carried it an acre away to where my husband was doing some yard work. He asked me what I was going to do with it? I told him that since I couldn’t kill it, that I was going to leave it for him to do-away-with (since he’s my official bug/creepy crawler exterminator).
I was surprised when my husband replies, “Oh No, you have to take care of this one yourself.”
I looked down at the huge soft pretty caterpillar that was now trying to figure a way off my purple garden glove. It looked like a pet and I knew I couldn’t kill it.
“Well, what are you going to do with it?” my husband ask with a chuckle.
I announced to my husband, “I’m going to put it back in the garden on the tomato vine.”
He just laughed and said, “I’m not a bit surprised.”
I said, “One little caterpillar couldn’t do any more damage to the garden than the rabbits and deer have.” My husband agreed.

IMG_3380I took it back to the garden and left it hanging on the vine where I plucked it from originally. It was still in its sullen-state but hung there without falling. I took a photo of it and went on with my gardening.

IMG_3576Sunday, my gardening didn’t take long. So, I searched around to see if the tomato horn-worm was still on the tomato vine. Sure enough, I found sign that it had feasted on many many leaves and was still happily munching. It is a beauty. I figure it’ll either eat until it’s ready to cocoon or until a bird or creature eats it. Meanwhile, it’s free to be the best big green caterpillar that it can be. 🙂

Happy Wildlife Wednesday!
Wishing you all a pest free day.
🙂

related post: Wordless Wednesday – Horn Worm – 07/23/2014

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