hi mad, you could go buy more parsley, just try to wash it off, cuz of the pesticides it probably has on it before it gets to i.e. lowes, h.depot, walmart.

I have black swallowtails on my parsley and if I dont bring in the 'cats/parsley' into the screened patio, then wasps and lizards eat them. it's very sad to watch cuz the wasps eat them 1 bite at a time.

michelle

They will also eat Queen Anne's lace if you have a source for that. Also fennel. Basically the carrot family. I'd be careful with purchased parsley. I've heard of caterpillars dying even when it's been washed. Makes you really want to eat it yourself doesn't it?
Dana

I think that was me talking 'bout growing parsley for the worms, but also I mainly sow dill - like everywhere, like enough for a thousand jars of pickles.

I love those 'pillar critters. I don't seem to have a problem this year with lizards eating them because, as the food chain goes, my kittens catch the lizards first.

Buy a packet of parsley seeds, soak a small amount of them overnight, then drop them around in some open sunny area every month and you'll have a year long show. They even look great in the landscaped beds and you know, they are biennials, so, this year leaves, next year flowers and then they'll reseed themselves forever.

Dill seed I bought in bulk at an online spice shop and spread it willy-nilly. It's not as viable as a little seed packet, and probably not the most handsome if you want dill leaves, but the flower/seed heads are enormous. Reseeding with abandon.

After 5 years of loose and free seeding parsley, my daughter said to try her parsley pesto - I am hooked. I don't have weeds I have parsley fields! As for the dill - I even snatch some as I go out the door to tuck in my ashtray for the long ride on an errand. Heavenly.

Nancy the nancedar

I grow bronze fennel for my Swallowtail caterpillars. The only problem is that it attracts a lot of different kinds of wasps and some of them eat caterpillars. In fact, I have seen wasps sitting on a broccoli leaf eating cabbage worms several times this season. One good aspect of the bronze fennel plant is that it is so thick that it easier for a caterpillar to get lost inside the foliage and thus be somewhat protected versus being out on a stem of parsley or dill.

So then I plant it anywhere? Won't the sun hurt/cook the caterpillers? Can I plant the pots of denuded parsley in the ground and they'll come back or just start planting seed any where now? Thanks !!

Parsley makes a very deep root and I think it might leaf back out for you if is is uneaten long enough. Mine did last year. I don't have any place to bring the parsley in to protect the caterpillars and am not sure if any survived the normal predators. We see a lot more of the yellow swallowtails than the black for some reason.

I have my parsley bought from walmart in peat pots. they are in large pots 3 plants to a pot out under a light shade tree because in the past, the hot sun killed my parsley. if you want, you can buy organic parsley on line but it sounds like you need some leaves pretty quick. if you just want to feed the 'cats', you could also buy a large bunch from a farmers market. when I cut parsley for myself, I cut a huge bunch and put it in a glass of water and it stays alive for a long time if I keep the water fresh.

michelle

the parsley will resprout if it's uneaten long enough, and so will fennel. i have had the experience of buying parsley or carrots with tops from the store to use in a pinch and then the cats dying. i think they spray with bt- which would be perfectly ok for humans, but not for pillars (and would be considered organic- so i don't know that buying organic would do the trick). even washing doesn't seem to help. i think i'd look for a wild stand of queen anne's lace, which shouldn't be too hard to find and get some leaves from those til you can get more plants. like nan and some of the others, i always grow lots, leting my stuff reseed so that they have plenty to eat. oh, and oddly, though it's not in the same family, black swallowtails larvae will eat rue as well. i think the little pillars have an easier time switching up the plants- seems like the older ones get resistant to that, esp if you switch from a blander plant (ie. parsley) to say, fennel or rue. so if you start them on parsley try to be consistent. i think john said something about their stomachs adjusting for what they are hatched on one time... john?

I've always read that caterpillars are very specialized in what they eat. They seek out plants with certain chemical signals. The mama butterfly is able to detect these chemicals with her feet when she lands on a plant, if it has the right chemical signature she will lay eggs. In most cases the caterpillars that hatch will only recognize that plant as food. They will often fail if moved to a plant of the same species ten feet away - all because the chemicals in the leaves didn't quite match up. Some caterpillars aren't that picky, sometimes it's because of the species and sometimes its because of the host plant the mother chose. There are plenty of success stories out there about caterpillars being moved from one plant to another with success - I even did it years ago with an entire clutch of luna moth larvae, not knowing what they needed I just grabbed some mulberry leaves which I knew most silk moths preferred. But there are more stories of failure. Caterpillars that fail to reach full size before the food source runs out will either fail to mature or they will metamorphise into a smaller sized butterfly or moth.

I really doubt that the parsley or dill available in the grocery store could have anything that toxic on it - they don't just pick it from the roadside and sell it to the store. All of that stuff is highly regulated and specifically grown for safe consumption. I really think that caterpillars are far more delicate than we think - and that they can't handle being disturbed or handled. And that they don't always easily shift to new food sources. And that the parsley from the store is different from the parsley growing in the garden, as in different chemical signals not necessarily chemical pollutants.

Some plants that are unrelated have the same chemical signals. Rue has some of the same compounds found in Citrus leaves, which is why Giant Swallowtails will use it as a host plant this far north but the use mostly citrus in the deep south.