My two spicebushes are growing in containers in my garden, and they're only about 2' - 3' tall, but that didn't stop the spicebush swallowtails from laying eggs on them. I raised the first two caterpillars myself in a cage on my porch by giving them sassafras, because that's so plentiful here. Your problem is more likely to be more cats than spicebush leaves, so, hopefully, you've got sassafras growing wild somewhere near you to give them. I had hoped after I took the first two spicebush cats to raise myself that they'd leave the two bushes alone and let them grow, but they must REALLY love spicebush! I plan to plant the bushes out in shady spots close to the hose, so if we have a dry spell - like now - I can water them. Sherry

Okay, BG - here goes - Black swallowtail are small, for a swallowtail, that is. The key to identifying them is the round red area at the base of the hindwing with a black dot inside it - it looks something like a red eye. Here's a female black swallowtail. Females have lots of blue on the lower parts of their hindwing, with almost zero yellow. Males have a lot of yellow and very little blue on their hindwings - Pipevine swallowtails, my favorite butterfly, have been in short supply this year. I've only seen two of them, and I've gotten no eggs. Pipevine swallowtails have an iridescent blue patch on the underside of their hindwings, with a circle of iridescent orange spots within it - males and females both have this feature. Males have iridescent blue bodies - Males have a lot of iridescent blue on the top of their hindwings - Female pipevine swallowtails are mostly black on their topside, with with just a little blue there. They have conspicuous white spots on the outer edge of their forewings - Here's another picture of a male nectaring on a mimosa bloom - It's very hard to get good pictures of spicebush swallowtails, because they constantly flutter their wings. Spicebush swallowtails are big, but not real big, like tiger, giant and palamedes swallowtails. Their most distinguishing feature is the mint green lunules on the edges of their hindwings. These lunules always remind me of a character on the old Pacman games, maybe the things Pacman ate? Their undersides look very similar to black swallowtails, but they don't have the 'bloodshot eye' feature that's visible on the underside of black swalIowtails, and they DO have a long blue area there. Here's a picture of the underside of a spicebush swallowtail - Female spicebush swallowtails have what I call 'true blue' coloring on their hindwings, topside. This blue doesn't cover much area, doesn't go very high up - I could do a whole thread on male spicebush swallowtails! Most are sort of an ?ice blue when they first emerge, then fade to a sort of gray green in their old age. But some are practically green from the start, some are blue green, some are blue gray, and some are gray. Their coloring covers a much larger area of their hindwings than does the coloring on the females' hindwings. Here's a picture of a male I took one sunny day, and, for whatever reason, it looked iridescent, even though they don't really look that way. I just had to post it, though - Black female tiger swallowtails are HUGE - any time you see a black swallowtail that looks strikingly big, it's undoubtedly a black female tiger. They have extensive blue on their hindwings, like the yellow form. The features that positively identify them are their solid black bodies, and the tiger stripe on their underside - And here's a picture showing the extensive blue, topside - Sherry

Sasafrass suckers from the roots so, when I see it growing wild along the roadsides and fences here, sometimes there's several short plants growing close to each other rather than a big tree by itself. I think it gets mowed and then grows back. So if you're driving around country roads, watch for shorter "trees" too. Here is a link that might be useful: Google images - sasafrass leaves

The year I raised them, I placed a small potted spicebush shrub into a large cage and kept them there. If it were me, If possible, I'd try to prepare a small branch with leaves for them to live on, at least for the first few instars. At first, the only way I knew they were alive is when I could see chewed places on a few leaves. For the most part, they hid in their little nests during the day. They fed mostly at night and were very slow moving. At about the last two instars, they devoured more leaves, so I could more easily locate them on the little shrub. I think they seek the leaf nest so you might try to keep a branch for them to live on while they are quite small. It seems like they would wear themselves out if they had to create a new nest each day. I don't 'know' this for fact but it seems logical to me after observing their behavior. Good luck to you with your little spicebush cats. I found them quite interesting to observe as they go through the different stages of growth. This photo looks a bit knarly because it was taken through the clear plastic viewing side of the cage but I hope you can see the little spicebush cat preparing to form it's chrysalis.