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weed30

I watched a Giant Swallowtail laying eggs today!

weed30 St. Louis
5 years ago

I was in my back yard when I saw a Giant Swallowtail fly in over my fence. I froze in place, hoping it was a female and that she'd find my wafer ash. She did, and big time! I watched her for a full 10 minutes, flying about and laying eggs! I have a few videos, they are not very good because I had trouble keeping up with her, but they are linked below. In one you can clearly see her laying an egg at the top of the tree. I went out later and so far have found about 10 eggs... I know there are more :) I am going to leave them out there and use mesh wedding bags until they are in their 2nd or 3rd instar, then bring them in. Last year I had many eggs, but only a few survived. The rest died in their first instar. I'm not sure why, but they just didn't do well inside like my Black Swallowtails and Monarchs do.


Video links are below. Again, these are not really great, but it was exciting. In the last one I had moved very close to the tree :)


https://youtu.be/zDBzyoyp-8U


https://youtu.be/ZGlDYqaEQQo


https://youtu.be/uaA8pIg7zDw



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