CLOSED: who is this?

who is this and why did he eat my entire parsley plant?

Dang thats blurry
here's another but I think its worse....LOL

here c.c.

http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/black4.htm

this is from an old thread. I like raising them.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=7790 the one in the picture just came out!

I also like to grow a patch of parsley just for the moms to lay their eggs on.

So you are saying I gotta buy more parsley to feed yet another pest....errr....pet....LOL
Never seen one before ....he is cute....a pig.....but cute
thanks Lisa

CC,

There are a couple threads going over in the Butterfly & Hummers forum that have a lot of detail on this catarpillar, the lifecyle and the subsequent butterfly.

My cats like the one you show, are devouring my green fennel, and some new ones just started in on my bronze fennel. Funny, they left my parsley alone, probly cause it's a little tired.

Molly
:^)))

My neighbor showed me his parsley plants today and said he had 5 black swallowtail cats like yours eating on them. Soooo, he dusted the plants with Sevin Dust and said he enjoyed watching them curl up, fall off and die. I could barely keep from crying ... but, I stayed cool and told him what they were. Then, I told him that I would "adopt" the next ones he sees on his plants. He said he would rather just kill them ... ouch, that hurt.

Here are the latest ones that had eaten my plant down (it is growing back very nicely).
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/78861/
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/78862/

They're so cute
I couldn't kill them!!!

I couldn't either. I loved watcing them mow down my plant. I ws going tro buy more parseley for them, byt they had moved on. I sure hope they weren't able to travel across the street!

htop you need to kick your friend in the butt a couple of times, then whop him up side his head to knock some sense into that thick brain

DonnaB, good to hear from you. Let me tell you, I know my face must have gotten bright red and it was all I could do to keep from doing the Texas 2-Step all over his body. :o) But, I just tried to remember that he is just uninformed and he loves his herbs which are about the only plants he has. I will keep working on him (without bopping him too hard) to convince him not to kill beneficial critters.

htop if you give gifts to this friend the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies of North America would be a ideal gift for him. It shows great pics of the more common cats and all the butterflies. He can look up parsley, dill etc. in the host plant index and it will lead him to info as to what is on it. Great book for beginners priced at 20 dollars but may find a used one through Amazon for much cheaper

Hey, that is a great idea. I really think he was embarassed when he realized he had murdered butterffly cats. So to be macho, he said he would kill the next ones too. Maybe as punishment I shouldn't give him some of my palm tree fertliizer that I had promised him. :o)

ROFL!!!!

Oh I just found 5 baby Swallowtail cats on my bronze fennel. They never laid on it last year in small pots out in the wildlife area. So this yeat I planted it with some dill and Liatris in a huge tub pot. The blooming liatris must have attracted them so I have babies and my idea paid off lol

This message was edited Jun 27, 2005 2:45 PM

Donna? You have bronze fennel too? The first batch of cats got my green fennel, now the second batch is after my bronze. They will go hungry because the bronze doesn't grow as vigorously as the green.

Molly
:^)))

P.S. The good news is, when they get done eating and are gone, new sprouts grow on the fennel, so it will grow again.

thanks for the info Molly. Mine is pretty good sized and have 3 plants of it in there. Hope it will feed them all. If not will hit the grocery and see if I can buy some more fresh or parsley