Catterpillar Garden

[Molly Taco]

We have tried to plant host plants in our gardens to entice the butterflies. I just did a walk around and found several baby catters on the plants. We have Monarchs #1-2, Black Swallowtail #3, Cloudless Sulphur#4 and Gulf Fritillary#5. We also have Giant Swallowtails and Buckeyes but I couldn't find any of their Catters.
Thanks for looking, Cin

[Molly Taco]

[Paph]

Cin, are you breeding catterpillars? I'm joking They are beautiful. It's a pitty they cause damage in a garden. But Little Prince said that if we want to see the butterflies, we have to stand some caterpillars

[cakedaddy]

Oh what a fun project! Was that parsley that I saw in one of the pics???

[delphiguy]

The other week I saw a beautiful butterfly at my garden, i was soo excited as this is the
first time i saw something that beautiful ever visiting my garden. A few days later I saw
some caterpillars munching on my vanda leaves and nepenthes pitchers so even tho i like
them, I have to get rid of them as I love my plants more.

[Molly Taco]

Yes Jason Parsley,or any carrot family, is the host plant for the Black Swallowtail butterfly.
Jason I don't know any Butterfly that has a Vanda as a host plant so if it isn't a native to your area squish away.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Cool, CIn. That orange one with the black spikes all over its body looks mean. lol

Cheers,
BD

[nicki]

I'm glad I saw this thread Awesome idea Cin. I planted some milkweed this summer but got too late of a start. Think next year I will expand the plant variety to include more than monarchs.

[Molly Taco]

I have a huge catter crop, the black swallowtails have eaten all of the parsley and I have had to go buy fresh and move them to the hatching cage to eat and make their chrysalis. Which provides me better viewing and picture taking.

[nicki]

You will be posting pictures here of this? Last year I raised a couple monarchs. It was really cool to see the transformation. This year I'm having a harder time finding eggs. Finally found one yesterday. My grandpap was just telling me how when my mom was a kid they had all kinds of butterflies in yard. But now it's maybe one or two kinds. I'll have to put more thought into my flower choices next year.

I have a huge catter crop, the black swallowtails have eaten all of the parsley and I have had to go buy fresh and move them to the hatching cage to eat and make their chrysalis. Which provides me better viewing and picture taking.