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Butterfly Garden

BST eggs on garden center parsley

13 years ago

After raising only monarchs for the past several years, I am thrilled to find that a female BST has found my little parsley plants that I bought at a local garden center. I collected 3 eggs yesterday and am excited about raising BSTs as well as monarchs this year. My question is, though, will the cats be ok on parsley that may have been treated with pesticides? I went back to the garden center today and asked if there were pesticides used, but they said that they didn't know, but that since it's not labeled organic, most likely pesticides were used.

Also, since this is my first time raising BSTs, any tips or tricks, or are they pretty similar to raising monarchs?

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Comments (4)

Lisa_H OK
13 years ago
Do you have a local organic store? I bought parsley there, kept it in the fridge and used a little at a time.

Lisa
mechelle_m
13 years ago
sitali301,

Pesticides will kill the cats! Generally, though, parsley is for human consumption, so I would think the nurseries wouldn't use so much of the pesticides.

The BST's don't eat as much as the monarchs and they will eat parsley, fennel, rue, dill and carrot tops. All of my books list Queen Anne's Lace as a major host plant, but they will only eat that as a last resort.

They need a stick to make their "J" on, and their "J" is upside down compared to the monarch. They will make a silk girdle to hold them in place on their chosen pupation spot. I have had them make their chrysalis on the wall of the enclosure or on a stem of food. Once the chrysalis has hardened on the fennel (or whatever food stem they used), I trim the stem and tape it to the side of the cage. I have released about 10 BST's in the last week or so.

Good luck!

Mechelle
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Yeah those little white round balls blend in well with the buds, they are eggs though! I usually just pick off little bits of the plant that the eggs are attached to and put them in a small container until they hatch. Then help them onto a potted plant if one is available or cuttings of whatever food plants you have. If using cuttings make sure the water container opening is blocked (use tissue or paper or something) so the little cats can't get into the water and drown. The eggs do darken just before hatching but that white color is what they look like at first. Usually I use a tiny piece of the plant to help the tiny caterpillar out of the container onto his food (you could squash them trying to pick them up). There is lots of info on this site, but I picked one post below where gcertain did a nice photo documentary of the BST cycle. Great egg pics. Good luck with them. Kelly Here is a link that might be useful: Black Swallowtail
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Congrats! :) You will have more and more of them coming back, now that they know where to find you. :) Soon you'll be complaining that there's not enough food for them. :) Side note: BSTs are like the nija butterflies, at my house. Until this last weekend, I ONLY EVER saw them when I was releasing them--they'd fly away. And then I'd find more eggs and/or cats later, so I knew they'd been back... but NEVER caught them flying around. Just because you don't see the butterflies, doesn't mean you don't have them. :)
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Mine adore and really prefer fennel. I have never had a problem with buying parsley or fennel for the cats. Nuseries shouldnt be spraying them, beacause, presumably they are for human consumption. They only thing I have a problem with is fresh bought milkweed. If I dont spary it down with a bleach solution at first, I often seem to go a sudden onset of melt. I dispise melt. I think the big growers intentionally lace the plants with whatever causes melt. I have a favorite nursery here in Jax that I always go to, because they have the same views I do--caterpillars never truly harm a plant, and butterflies must be preserved. Talk to the people that work there, and if you happen to find host plants loaded with cats, and you dont get strange looks for buying the plants just because " they're infested", then you've found you place to shop from.=D
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Bummer about the Monarchs:( Maybe they'll return in the coming years when we restore their migration route. They all seemed to cluster in Missouri and OK this year c very little in the Midwest or up the coast. Florida has its own nonmigratory population, as does Hawaii. We'll see what happens next year... In the mean time, congrats on the BST cats and good luck. Hope you see Monarchs next year.
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sitali301
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks! I have a total of five eggs from the same plant and a few other plants in the ground from a different nursery. The eggs look like they will hatch tonight or tomorrow, so I guess I'll just have to cross my fingers and wait and see.

As an aside, my very first experience with raising butterflies was when a neighbor gave my son a jar with a BST on some parsley about 5 years ago. It pupated a couple days later, but imagine our shock when what emerged a couple weeks later was a nasty wasp! At the time, we had no idea that could happen! I'm hoping for better luck now that we are raising our own cats!
tracey_nj6
13 years ago
Last year I had a bunch of BST's and was running low on plants, so I went to a local nursery. I asked, but they didn't know. I purchased a flat of parsley and a rue plant. Days later, I had over a dozen dead caterpillars. Call every nursery in your area. If they can't answer with a confident "no pesticide" answer, go elsewhere. Another nursery I frequent assured me that their stock contained no pesticides, so I now purchase alot from them, early on in the season. My logic is now that if I have plenty of plants early on, if and any pesticides that may have been used might be gone by the time the BST lays her eggs. Any truth to this? Personally, anyone that sprays pesticides on herbs should be shot...

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