overwintering eastern black swallowtail caterpillars

This week we have been preparing for the cold weather. We have been harvesting herbs like mad, digging up annual herbs to bring indoors, bringing in the houseplants and scented geraniums, and finding many......READ MORE.

Metamorphosis of an Eastern Black Swallowtail

Nature amazes me, no matter how many times I’ve seen this before, each witness feels as if it’s the first time!

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Polka Dot Scavenger Hunt!

The hunt for polka dots!

How to Raise Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

Every spring we plant a lot of parsley, dill and fennel in hopes of luring the Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) to lay her eggs in our garden. Last year we released over 25 EBS butterflies, which we raised from larva to adult. This year we haven’t found nearly as many, but we do have some. Just today I found this beauty on a a Queen Anne’s Lace (another host plant of the EBS and another reason to let a patch of QAL grow wild in your yard).

Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars look different at different stages; those stages are called instars, and the caterpillars shed their skin between each. I was so surprised when I first learned this and then saw it with my own eyes.

We like to give our caterpillars lots of room to move and lots of the fresh food to eat. Our EBS habitat is an aquarium with parsley planted directly in garden soil. Parsley grows really well this way, fennel and dill usually get too big so if an EBS prefers fennel, dill or Queen Anne’s Lace then I have to replace it daily. I just place the fennel and dill in the tank mingled in with the parsley in hopes that the caterpillar will go for the parsley (usually they do if they are young enough when placed in the tank). I am not a fan of the plant in a vase of water method because I have seen caterpillars fall into the water and drown. My sister Katrina (a butterfly expert at a local arboretum), recommends putting the stems of freshly picked larval host plants in green oasis that has been soaked with water, this keeps the plants fresh longer and doesn’t endanger the caterpillars. We put sticks in the habitat for the caterpillars to form their chrysalises on when they are ready. We have a screen top made to fit on this aquarium to keep the caterpillars in and the predators out. Sometimes the caterpillars like to make their chrysalises on the top, which is fine, but we have to be careful when we move the lid to put fresh food in, water or release butterflies.

The Eastern Black Swallowtail will overwinter in a chrysalis if it hatches from an egg in the fall. If it is kept in a safe place outdoors for the winter, a beautiful welcome of spring is in store come May. With good care and a little patience the beautiful caterpillars will become beautiful butterflies!



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The Milkweed Community

That wonderful intoxicating smell of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) blossoms lures all kinds of little critters to it. The majority of insects that feed on a milkweed are in some form of red/orange and black due to a chemical in the sap. Fascinating stuff! Here are some of the critters we found in our backyard milkweed community.

Yellow-Collared Scape Moth (Cisseps fulvicollis) on the left, skipper down below.

Ermine Moth (Atteva punctella)

Milkweed Beetle (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus): I am so in love with this adorable insect. The milkweed beetle has 4 eyes instead of 2, the antennae are between the eyes. These little creatures will fall from the milkweed when threatened as a form of defense. They will play dead for a bit then scurry back up the milkweed when danger has passed. They didn't seem to be too frightened of the camera though, this little fellow came up to the tip of the leaf for a closer look.

Fuzzy spider stalking my little milkweed beetles. Shoo you!

The Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) of course. Seeing the monarch butterfly on the milkweed causes Fauna to jump up and down yelling, "Do you see her abdomen touching the leaves??!!" She is determined to see a female laying eggs on the milkweed this year.

The monarch caterpillar resting after a morning of munching leaves. A full grown monarch caterpillar can eat an entire milkweed leaf in 4 minutes. Reminds me of some little growing girls I know!

Some fun milkweed facts from EEK!:

*Its Latin name, Asclepias syriaca, is named in honor of the Greek god of healing Aesculapius.

*Sap from milkweed was used by pioneers as a cure for warts.

*The airborne fluffy parachute of the seed was used by Native Americans to insulate moccasins.

*The dried empty seed pods were used as Christmas tree decorations by early pioneers.

*The boys and girls from Wisconsin schools collected 283,000 bags of milkweed fluff for use in military life jackets during World War II.

*It is used as an indicator of ground-level ozone air pollution.

Araina's Heavy Harvest

Araina wanted to do all the harvesting in the garden this morning. She harvested: Peppers and

Cucumbers, Araina was fascinated with the "Little White Pokies" on their skin.

Quite the Heavy Harvest for someone that is 6 and only 36 pounds!

Araina's Harvest:

2 Cucumbers

2 Squash
1 Artist's Pumpkin

8 Peppers

A couple snips of Stevia

A couple handfuls of Chamomile Flowers

1 Monarch Caterpillar and 5 fresh Milkweed Leaves for it to munch

Now the Little Ladies are in the kitchen enjoying the bounty with their daddy! More on the Monarch Caterpillar in a future post.

Hurt No Living Thing

I am always moved to tears (such a sap I am) to see wild creatures put trust into my girls.


This is a newly emerged Black Swallowtail that over-wintered in her chrysalis on our front porch. She let the girls gently hold her while she dried her wings. We were so entranced by her beauty!

This baby praying mantis had no worries with the girls holding her as well. She crawled all over their hands and arms with curiosity before making her leap into our herb garden.

This beautiful bumble let the girls pet her while she was harvesting nectar, she also didn't seem to mind me and my camera just inches away. Have you ever pet a bumblebee? It's better to try this when they are at rest however, not busy harvesting. Softly and gently use your pinky finger to pet this lovely creature and the bumble will reward you with a touch and no sting.

I will leave you with my favorite poem. It's a creed that my girls and I passionately live by.

Hurt No Living Thing

Hurt no living thing
Ladybird nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper, so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat,
Nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep

-Christina Rossetti

I have to admit though...when I see a tick climbing up one of my girl's legs, I am known to flush it. I feel incredibly guilty, but I still flush it! ;)

Monarch Watch and Planting Milkweed

We pulled out our seed box yesterday. It's full of envelopes stuffed with seeds from our gardens.

We had so much fun going through the box and seeing the gems we had saved in the fall.

Milkweed is the favorite, so we decided to plant these seeds first.

Separating the seeds from the fluff is fun, but you have to be quick or they could fly away.

We are planting a Monarch Waystation this year, our milkweed seeds are perfect for this. The waystation is a safe, organic place for the Monarch butterflies to lay their eggs. Milkweed is their host plant; the caterpillars will only eat milkweed.


Visit Monarch Watch to learn more about Monarchs, Monarch waystations and ways to protect this beautiful butterfly.

Moth Moon Garden

The Hummingbird Hawk moth is one of my very favorite insects. Last summer we had 2 hummers that visited our garden like clockwork, they came around the same time everyday. We always knew what time it was when we spotted a hummer.

The Hummingbird Hawk moth is little different than other moths because it is diurnal and it hovers in the air to feed. It is really fascinating to watch!

We already have a butterfly and bee garden so we decided this year we would call more moths to our garden by planting a moth garden (sometimes called a moon garden). For a moth garden you want light colored plants that have a strong smell and glow in the moonlight. We picked out lots of white and light colored flower seeds for our garden (zinnia, alyssum, chamomile, cosmos, four o' clocks, moonflowers, evening primrose, lantana, flowering tobacco, and daisies). These are just the flowers for the moths to feed on, we are also going to plant some of their larval host trees and plants. The Hummingbird Hawk moth's larval plant is Galium verum (Lady's Bedstraw), we would love to have Hummingbird Hawk caterpillars, so this plant is a must for us!

White Hydrangea photo by Fauna

I had the perfect book to introduce a moth garden to the little ladies, "The Moonflower" by Jean and Peter Loewer. The book teaches us about the moonflower vine and all of the nocturnal creatures that visit this fragrant flower that only opens in the evening.

It was only appropriate to start our moth garden by planting moonflower seeds.

We are big journal writers around here so we recorded moonflower information and the date into our seed journals after planting.

Then we created some of our own moths using pressed leaves and treasures found in the yard.

We still have so MANY more seeds to plant!