Is this a butterfly larve?
I've 3 or 4 on my fennel.
I've quite a few yellow and black butterflies around the yard.
Paul
Butterfly Larve
I think it's a Black Swallowtail caterpillar and cool looking at that.
http://www.javajane.co.uk/Smooth/slides/black_swallowtail2.html
A lot more caterpillars/photos are here
http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/
They're lovely. Also called parsleyworm. Wish I had more...
fennel is a host plant! lucky you!
Fennel, parsley, carrot, and wild carrot (Queen Anne's Lace)... we try to grow extras of all these for the butterflies.
So, I'm in a quandry. The butterfly is beautiful, but the caterpillars are eating through EVERYTHING!
What to do, what to do?
You might be able to transfer them to Queen Anne's Lace growing wild (if you have some). I'm not sure. Let me check. I certainly can understand you not wanting all your plants eaten up...
Zeppy, unfortunately these guys are picky. They only like to eat what they started out eating. I had a bunch on my bronze fennel a couple of years ago, and was afraid they wouldn't have enough to eat (lots of caterpillars, rapidly diminishing plants). Right nearby I had perfectly good parsely, but not only weren't there any on the parsely, any caterpillars that I tried to move to the parsely went right back to the fennel.
Picky little bugs, they are.
Yeah, I seem to remember that happening with carrots last year. Oh, well.
Post a Reply to this Thread
More Garden Pests and Diseases Threads
-
Disease Identiciation on Red Twig Dogwood
started by roberca1
last post by roberca1Mar 09, 20242Mar 09, 2024 -
Something eating my bougainvillea
started by Duegen
last post by DuegenJan 04, 20240Jan 04, 2024 -
Something wrong with by Broccoli!
started by TGardener17
last post by TGardener17Apr 19, 20242Apr 19, 2024 -
Something eating my bougainvillea
started by Duegen
last post by DuegenMar 09, 20241Mar 09, 2024 -
Salvaging a fir tree from armillaria
started by kellogs
last post by kellogsMar 16, 20240Mar 16, 2024