Elizabeth's Secret Garden

“Detective Joshua” decided to take on a new disguise. He is dressed in his monarch caterpillar apparel. On his head he is wearing one of my fuzzy hats. Today he is searching for monarch caterpillars. While outside a new butterfly flew to my garden, a queen butterfly! Like monarchs they also lay eggs on milkweeds. Queen butterflies are a darker color and have more white spots on their wings. Even though these to butterflies look very similar their caterpillars look completely different. After a lot of waiting I finally got a picture of a queen butterfly laying eggs on my milkweed. Look how it curls its abdomen to lay a tiny egg. Here is one egg the queen butterfly laid. It is so amazing how this tiny egg can grow to be a beautiful butterfly. I believe only an all powerful God could of created such a beautiful creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Technorati Tags: Queen butterfly , Queen butterfly laying egg

We decided to name our mystery caterpillar, “Mannly the Wooly Mammoth”. We named it, Mannly, because our last name is Mann. It is a silly name but it just seems to fit. I hope its not a girl caterpillar! Our neighbors have tons of dandelions growing in their backyard. They let me pick some to feed my caterpillar. As you can see, “Mannly the Mammoth” caterpillar has been enjoying eating them. Look how big he is now! My sister can actually hear it munching on the dandelions. Mannly the Wooly Mammoth surprised “Detective Joshua”! Given these clues, can you help “Detective Joshua” determine what kind of caterpillar it is?

My mom found this caterpillar crawling along the road. Look at how big it is compared to the size of my mom’s hand! I have been trying to figure out what kind of caterpillar it is and I think it might be a salt marsh caterpillar. This will be my very first moth to raise. I put some Maple tree leaves and a dandelion inside to see which one it would eat. It went straight for the dandelion and is feasting on it. The one I put inside had a purple flower. These caterpillars are great to have because they eat weeds and are a pleasure to watch. So many people pull out every weed they find hiding in their yard. Next time you are tempted to get out your weed killing spray consider who’s lunch you might be snatching. Some “weeds” serve as food for beautiful butterflies and some moths.

Did you guess what color chrysalis this black swallowtail would make? Caterpillar 3 made a brown chrysalis. In the picture beside it is a caterpillar that made a green chrysalis right on its host plant stem. What great camouflage! If you look closely the chrysalis looks like an animal. My best friend said it looks like a bat. My last caterpillar climbed to the top of my butterfly pavilion to make a chrysalis. It is brown just like caterpillar four’s chrysalis. 

  The Black Swallowtail is a beautiful butterfly that is a frequent visitor to gardens especially if you are growing the herbs parsley, dill, or fennel. They have gregarious caterpillars that can munch down a parsley plant before you get the chance harvest it, but the way I see it is that by sacrificing parsley, you are helping nature. The rule of thump is to plant a lot! I went to a plant stand and bought two pots of parsley, but I was able to multiply those plants into 8 because there were 4 plants in each pot. That is a tip for plant buying. Sometimes there are more than one plant in a pot and you can just divide it to make more. At 11 days old, my first Black Swallowtail caterpillar was ready to make its chrysalis. They can crawl several feet from the plant in search of a place to pupate. I had four caterpillars that I raised inside my pavilion. One caterpillar lived half of its life out in my garden box. They are more susceptible to predators and disease if left outside ...

Here are some updates of my black swallowtail caterpillar. It has changed a lot since my last post.     After shedding its skin it went from black, to white with black stripes. Joshua wanted to hold the caterpillar so I tried to take it of it's food plant. That was a bad idea. It got angry with me and quickly revealed its orange osmeterium from its head. I have never smelled a smell like it! It was like a skunk spray, but with a unique smell. Joshua was able to hold the caterpillar, but he learned not to make it mad! On the rear end of black swallowtail caterpillars you can see a strange pattern that looks like a face! They use this pattern to scare off predators. Out in my garden box a black swallowtail butterfly has been busy laying eggs on my parsley. I counted about 75 caterpillars! It was very hard to count them since there were so many. Here is a picture of one leaf covered in caterpillars. The small black creatures are the caterpillars....

While raising caterpillars I have learned a lot about the importance of predators. Without them we would have millions of diseased butterflies flying around. In nature only the fastest and healthiest caterpillars make it to adults. I think only 2 or 3% of butterfly eggs laid survive to adulthood. I have had Monarch butterflies lay hundreds of eggs in my garden, but have not found one caterpillar make it to a butterfly. With so many wasps attracted to my milkweeds they quickly spot the caterpillars for lunch. I’ve found small monarch hiding in my parsley and other bushy plants, but somehow the wasps manage to find them. This lizard stays around my garden in wait of a tasty caterpillar. The best solution for avoiding these predators is to keep the caterpillars protected in an enclosure. If you want to purchase a smaller size cage to raise caterpillars the best place is http://www.butterfliesetc.com/buy-butterfly-caterpillars/caterpillar-rearing-containers . Small netted ...

Here is one egg we found that had just been laid when I purchased my parsley. It hasn’t hatched yet, but I found another black swallowtail egg that has hatched. I have been taking pictures each day so I can track its growth. When young, black swallowtail caterpillars look like bird droppings. When searching the leaves it took me a little while to realize that this was a caterpillar! The first clue I had was the tiny hole in the leaf. Second, was it moved when I tickled its back legs. I have  observed that they only eat at night when young. The next day I found it in the exact same spot, but I found more chew marks on the leaf. I discovered that they will eat curled and flat leaved parsley. The curled leaved provides better hiding though. You can still see the tiny hole it made when it first hatched.   Today I noticed small orange spikes along the caterpillars back. Since I am raising this caterpillar inside my pavilion It will have a much greater chance...

My mom took me for a visit to South Seminole Farm & Nursery where I bought a host plant for the Eastern Black Swallowtail. I was able to watch it as it laid tiny eggs on the leaves of it’s host plant.   By looking at this picture you can see how fast Black Swallowtails move their wings. It took a bit of waiting before it finally stopped long enough for me to take a picture! This butterfly has landed on a Fennel plant to lay eggs. Some gardeners think of the Black Swallowtail caterpillar as a pest because they feast on certain herbs. But I grow my herbs for these butterflies to lay eggs on! If you would like Black Swallowtails in your garden plant either parsley, dill, fennel, or Queen’s Anne’s lace. Just make sure no Bt or any other pesticide has been sprayed on your herbs and you will soon have some munching caterpillars in your garden. Look how tiny the Black Swallowtail’s egg is compared to my finger! It is so amazing how this tiny egg will grow into a beauti...