Temporary Mommy

I have been raising black swallowtail caterpillars. A friend of mine had more than she could raise so she offered to let me take a few. I jumped at the chance. I've never raised butterflies!

Unfortunately I leaped so quickly that I forgot to take into account that I'm probably going to be in Michigan when these babies turn into butterflies!


Susan fed them fennel. I had a few plants, but they were rather tattered and skimpy. I tried to convince them parsley was just as tasty. They tried it out, but nope, they demanded fennel. I heard them!

Susan gave me a few chrysalises. Okay, the truth was I took so long picking them up a few impatient ones couldn't wait :) .


A couple days into this project I was still being a nervous new mommy. I just knew I was going to have to find some more food for them. I ran to the local organic store to find fennel. Nope. No fennel. But, they had organic curly parsley and dill. Aha. Surely these picky toddlers will love organic, EXPENSIVE, host food. I raced home to give them this treat.

At first they tricked me by seeming to gobble up the lovely dill weed. I was so thrilled. I was a good mommy. I turned my back and poof, they zipped their lips and said, "no way. I want FENNEL." No amount of reasoning with them would change their minds. So then I put on my best mommy face and said, "You have to eat everything on your plate, buddy. Don't you know there are caterpillars out there who have nothing to eat?" They shook their heads at me.


Yesterday one of my toddlers decided to take the next step. I moved him over to the chrysalis container. He teased me all night refusing to turn. I finally gave up and went to bed.




This morning there he was. If you look very closely, you can see his skin at the bottom of the container. It looks like a little ball. You will also see the caterpillar who refused to attach to anything. I left him down at the bottom. I hear he'll be okay. I hope so. So would this be the teen stage? :)

Now I'm waiting on the rest of the toddlers to take their next step. There's three I'm expecting to go into the "c" position at any time. I'll keep you posted when they turn into lovely, well-behaved adults.