The Garden Guests
This summer, we were fortunate to have some Black Swallowtail Butterflies in the garden. I had seen a few butterflies fluttering around but didn't give it much thought until I saw these little creatures on my dill: I was just puttering in the garden, pulling weeds and checking for tomatoes, when I noticed seven of them munching on my dill like it was a free buffet! Let's face it, it was ! Within a couple of days, the dill plant was almost completely devoid of leaves and some of the caterpillars had move on to greener pastures. I decided to 'rescue' a couple of them in a jar and proceeded to feed them Queen Ann's Lace. After about 6 days, the first one formed it's chrysalis. I was so excited that I had actually been able to keep them alive to do this! This next picture is a little blurry, but it shows the second one forming it's 'J', which means it's getting ready to shed it's skin and become a chrysalis. Two days ...