Congrats, Mary! Considering how easy giant swallowtails are to raise, I'm sure you'll have time to raise a few. A giant swallowtail passed through here, but left me no eggs - maybe it was a male. You sure need something like a few caterpillars to keep your spirits up these days! And I hope things are looking up for your hubby! I'm not surprised your pipevines didn't make any seed pods, since that's apparently a once-in-a-life-time thing. But A. tomentosa really colonizes, not the first few years, but after it gets a little age on it, it really spreads. Mine have colonized all down the length of long fences around my garden, and some is growing into a gardenia bush in the corner. The pipevine swallowtails have found it all and laid eggs everywhere, including on the A. fimbriata plants I got from seeds you sent me, Mary - thanks! Two of the monarchs in the cage are chrysalides, and all the rest but one are in the "J" - the ones outside must have pupated or are now doing so, because they were farther along than the caged ones. The two chrysalides look healthy, no sign of having been parasitized or having any disease - knock on wood! I'm raising two spicebush swallowtails and will soon bring two more in to raise. I'm also raising two palamedes and one tiger swallowtail, plus two red-spotted purples - there are LOTS more of these on the host plants outside. I seem to have gotten over compulsively bringing in as many as I find to raise myself - I just can't handle a lot of cats at one time any more. The red admirals and American ladies in my cages are emerging daily, about ?three of each so far, with plenty more to go. I also raised four little sleepy oranges, which are now chrysalides, soon to emerge. The 25 or 26 pipevine swallowtail chrysalides in the cage should emerge in a couple of weeks, and there are undoubtedly a lot more outside on about the same time schedule. With the almost daily addition of new eggs to the vines outside, there will now be overlapping generations of pipevine swallowtails, good news. We've had 2.20" of rain over the past two days, with more expected this weekend. I love not having to water!! Sherry

For all those ordering Monarch caterpillars, I ordered them last year from Live Monarch - livemonarch.com - they only charge like $6 or so for shipping. I've never had any problems with them arriving just fine with lots of leaves. I think you can choose an overnight option, but that probably doesn't cost more than $15. The guy that runs it is Christopher and he has always been more than helpful in anything I've done with them...I'd highly recommend it. I think they're now doing Queen butterflies as well. As far as my garden...I just want to be clear that I am not bringing foreign butterflies into my area with nothing to eat. Good grief! I see Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies in my area all the time...just not in my garden. I know what the eggs look like and I have none on my plants. I have about 70-80 milkweed growing in my yard...20 parsley plants in my garden...6 parsley in pots...3 fennel...1 rue plant. And I have a good mix of nectar plants I think...coneflower, asters, tall Verbena, Bee balm, liatris (Button, Tall Blazingstar, gayfeather), salvia, yarrow, tall phlox, obidient plant, etc. Thank you to everyone on your input on Shady Oaks...if I can't find any other places, I think I may order a few from there. Thanks again!

Congrats on the babies! The first thing all cats eat is their own egg casing. For what it's worth, my mom started new citrus plants from citrus seeds she dried out in her windowsill. Since I have at least one lemon per day in my water, I followed suit. The tree it grows may not produce fruit or bloom, but it has leaves and that's really all we need for this wonderful operation. She brought me 2 cats from her house this past week plus one I had found in my tree and all three have been fed from the same small citrus plant she started from seed. It may take a little bit to grow, but it's worth a shot if you're short on leaves for this go-around. I'll take a photo of the little pop-up I'm using since it's only three of them and submit it here tomorrow. One of them was already hanging this afternoon so it should be a chrysalis by tomorrow. Since it hung itself on the plant, it all has to stay in the hamper until it emerges and you'll see why I like to have an orchid ladder in there with them. Now the plant is held hostage until the butterfly comes out! So happy this system works for you, I wish I had been back on here sooner to share it with anyone else who was looking for an easier way to raise them. But it's here now and it's working for you so far, so it's great!! :)

I don't think you'll have much luck there. I trimmed my white sapote last week and the leaves wilt really fast. I doubt caterpillars will eat wilted salad that's been limp for days. I find it odd that a species from Ohio would thrive on a non native tropical tree from central America? I found this on a casual search of the web on my first hit: Black Swallowtail Caterpillars eat Golden Alexanders (above), Wild Carrots, Celery, Parsley and Dill.