My black swallowtail made its 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 ...
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