Author Topic: I hope they don't get eaten (Read 12905 times)

Bakersdozen · « **on:** August 21, 2018, 08:28:24 pm »

I keep a several pots of herbs just off the kitchen. I found these hungry guys eating my parsley. I hope the birds don't find them.

tedh · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2018, 09:44:03 pm »

Huh. Are those monarchs?

Les · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2018, 09:49:05 pm »

Put one of those screened collapsable laundry hampers over it so the birds can’t get at them. They might even crawl up the side and hang from the top when they go into chrysalis. I’m assuming they are swallowtails?

Jen · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2018, 09:50:05 pm »

MONARCH CATAPILLARS!!! Oh My Heart Be Still!! Put a net over that pot that reaches to the ground. They WILL get eaten by the birds!

Les · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2018, 09:56:24 pm »

An experienced bird, won’t touch a Monarch caterpillar but Swallowtails they will.

tedh · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2018, 10:09:38 pm »

Hi les! Are they swallowtails? I thought monarch caterpillers fed ONLY on milkweed but the coloring looked right. Ted

riverbee · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2018, 12:43:08 am »

monarch caterpillars do not feed on parsley, black swallowtail caterpillars do, i think these are black swallowtail caterpillars or also known as 'parsley caterpillars'.........we grow parsley, and have seen these on our plants in the past..... pretty cool!
quck google thing......
PARSLEY CATERPILLAR
No, that is not a Monarch caterpillar on your parsley plant.

also google 'black swallowtail caterpillar' images:

black swallowtail caterpillar images

great pix les, thank you!

black swallowtails are beautiful butterflies!

Jen · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2018, 03:11:56 am »

Oooh How Cool Is That?

Thanks Riv!

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2018, 05:38:06 am »

I hope a sheet thrown over the pot will work for today. I leave for work about dawn and then I am going straight from work to do mite treatments on hives in the country.
Earlier this summer, I had caterpillars on my fennel. They disappeared mysteriously during the day.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #9 on:** August 22, 2018, 09:23:03 am »

Quote from: tedh on August 21, 2018, 10:09:38 pm

Hi les! Are they swallowtails? I thought monarch caterpillers fed ONLY on milkweed but the coloring looked right. Ted

What Ted said. I saw two Monarch caterpillars on milkweed this year. That is two more than I have seen in the past ten years.

Les · « **Reply #10 on:** August 22, 2018, 01:18:24 pm »

Monarchs and Swallowtails have similar colors but there is a difference in the stripes. We have had a banner year for Monarchs. We are participating in the Monarch Watch tagging program. As of today we have tagged
24 wild Monarchs in just our backyard. I also currently have over 60 that I am raising in captivity (I harvest the eggs off my milkweed). My first one emerged from chrysalis this morning and he was tagged too.

Jen · « **Reply #11 on:** August 22, 2018, 02:38:18 pm »

Les, this is fascinating! How do you tag them?

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #12 on:** August 22, 2018, 07:15:04 pm »

I checked my crop of caterpillars when I got home this evening. All looked good. One was on the sheet. Maybe he is going to turn into a chrysalis on there? Before I left for work, I cut some parsley from another plant and put it in there in a jar of water. Several working munching down on the cut celery.
Les, that's wonderful that you are doing that work with the Monarch's. I would hate to see the day when they are extinct.

Les · « **Reply #13 on:** August 22, 2018, 08:21:50 pm »

Jen, very carefully. My nephew and I tag team them. He swoops them up with a net and then reaches down into the net, grabs them behind the thorax and slowly pulls them out. You have to be so careful because their feet are like velcro on the netting. He passes them off to me and I have the tag all ready, apply it to the lower wing and hold it in place for a few seconds and let them go. The sticker is smaller than a thimble. It has a number and a website where to report if you find it deceased. We tagged three more today, they are starting to move back to Mexico. They are sighting them roosting in trees. You would think that the Hudson Valley would have them arrive here earlier but for some reason we never see them till August. They show up in Ottawa before they come here.

Jen · « **Reply #14 on:** August 22, 2018, 08:28:19 pm »

Omgosh! That would be soo much fun and fascinating! but sadly, I rarely see monarch here in upper northern California

neillsayers · « **Reply #15 on:** August 22, 2018, 11:23:46 pm »

Used to see thousands of Monarchs on migration watering along the Buffalo river 30 years ago. Now when we see 1 or two it is an event.

tedh · « **Reply #16 on:** August 23, 2018, 10:40:43 am »

Several years back we had monarchs perch(?), cluster(?), gather(?) in a tree in our backyard. It was really kind of amazing, thousands of them hanging in a cluster like that.

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #17 on:** August 23, 2018, 07:42:31 pm »

Quote from: tedh on August 23, 2018, 10:40:43 am

Several years back we had monarchs perch(?), cluster(?), gather(?) in a tree in our backyard. It was really kind of amazing, thousands of them hanging in a cluster like that.

Wow! What kind of tree was it? Probably is not significant, I am just curious?

tedh · « **Reply #18 on:** August 23, 2018, 08:43:20 pm »

A big old silver maple. They were only 10 or 12 feet off the ground so we got pictures, but that was back when pictures were something you could hold in your hand not something you viewed on a "device". I'll ask my wife to look around, if she can locate them I'll post them. Ted

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2018, 08:01:23 am »

I draped my pot of herbs in tulle and removed the sheet. The sheet kept blowing off and I think I lost several of the caterpillars because of the sheet and weather combination. I am glad that I have another vigorous clump of parsley to cut and feed them in glass jars. Not too sure what to do if they consume all of that. Store bought parsley might contain pesticides. Organic parsley?