About Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

 

 

This morning, I went outdoors to harvest some dill for my recipes and found that the black swallowtail caterpillars had another idea.  Overnight this caterpillar had devoured my entire herb plant.

Swallowtail  Caterpillar on Sage Leaf

This caterpillar is known to eat the entire dill plant as soon as the butterflies lay their eggs on the plant and caterpillars emerge there is a feeding frenzy.   They will also lay their eggs on parsley and carrot tops.

Here are some photographs of my dill plant before and after the caterpillars foraged off the herbs.

caterpillars devoured my dill plant

You can identify the Black swallowtail caterpillars due to their brightly striped black, white, and yellow, markings. This caterpillar can grow quite large in a short period of time.

The lifespan for the caterpillars is as follows, they emerge from their eggs, then eat the egg shells, they then will forage off plants in your garden and in the fall the caterpillars will hibernate as pupae. Then the following spring they will turn into beautiful butterflies.

Many gardeners view this particular caterpillar as a garden pest because they eat the entire plant.  The only way that I will prevent the caterpillars from devouring my plants is to physically remove them and gently place them on a fennel plant which is another host plant.

I love butterflies so I allowed the caterpillars to eat my dill and parsley.  Next year I will probably grow more dill and parsley indoors and outdoors.