Swallowtail caterpillars on my deck! The next unexpected addiction perhaps? ;P

[Sarah K]

I was surprised to find some swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on my dill plant on my back deck this year. Especially so early in the season! There were 5 of them, and the plant was pretty young, so I knew if I left them there they would devour my entire plant! So instead, I decided to take them into my house and put them in a mesh cage. Then I bought some more dill plants and placed them in their cage. I think I made a wise choice, as they destroyed 4 complete dill plants that I bought from Home Depot before they finally pupated! However, the first one emerged from it's chrysalis yesterday, and I would say it was well worth it! Here it is after I just released it back on the deck.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Lucky you!

 

[Kara S]

I'm so jealous! For years, I planted so much dill, pipevine, and fennel to try and attract those beauties, but only had one group of little ones, one of which made it to full butterfly, but even that one had a broken wing. Those are my favorite kinds that are native, but for some reason, they just don't want to live in my garden. Thanks for the photo!

 

[Sarah K]

I'm so jealous! For years, I planted so much dill, pipevine, and fennel to try and attract those beauties, but only had one group of little ones, one of which made it to full butterfly, but even that one had a broken wing. Those are my favorite kinds that are native, but for some reason, they just don't want to live in my garden. Thanks for the photo!

Really? That sucks! ! I feel like the only reason I found them, was because i wasn't looking for them though.  LOL. That dill plant combined with a big cucumber plant I planted in the same pot last summer was what got  me into mantises in the first place! A Carolina mantis moved into my cucumber plant, and when the dill got really tall and started flowering, my resident Carolina really seemed to like it, as it was attracting a lot of food for her to eat! So I just let it get overgrown, and it seeded itself in the same pot this year! When it started growing this spring, it brought the caterpillars! Then last fall came so many assassin bugs! I found a ton of these awesome assassin bugs in my back yard last year, and tried to breed them, but I never could get them to lay any eggs, although they mated a ton! 

Anybody have advice for breeding/ hatching assassin bugs? Maybe I will find them again this year, and give it another go! I tried to do some research on these last year, but it was hard to find anything of substance about it on the net. 

 

[Kara S]

I know nothing about assassin bugs except they eat my baby cats (caterpillars), so I try to eliminate them from my garden. Next time they infest, I'll give you each and every one.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Most assassin bugs will lay eggs that overwinter to hatch the next year--the species you're most likely to encounter will usually lay them in a clump. All you need to do is keep the eggs from dessicating before they hatch.

Instead of using dill, I suggest transferring Anise Swallowtail caterpillars to parsley, cilantro, carrots, or even just fennel. The first three are more leafy and you'll go through fewer plants getting the caterpillars to adulthood and fennel is perennial, produces multiple growth points form the crown, and grows much larger in comparison to the bienniall dill. You'll still need dill or fennel planted to attract ovipositing females, but you can feed them the other plants.

 

 

[Brunneria]

Most assassin bugs will lay eggs that overwinter to hatch the next year--the species you're most likely to encounter will usually lay them in a clump. All you need to do is keep the eggs from dessicating before they hatch.

 

From what I've observed, a lot of our natives overwinter as either nymphs or adults. Here are the species I've confirmed overwintering as nymphs/adults in the wild:

Zelus longipes, Zelus luridus, Zelus renardii, Rhiginia cruciata, Melanolestes picipes, Rasahus hamatus, Apiomerus crassipes, Microtomus purcis, Pselliopus sp., Stenopoda spinulosa, and Repipta taurus

 

[Ranitomeya]

From what I've observed, a lot of our natives overwinter as either nymphs or adults. Here are the species I've confirmed overwintering as nymphs/adults in the wild:

Zelus longipes, Zelus luridus, Zelus renardii, Rhiginia cruciata, Melanolestes picipes, Rasahus hamatus, Apiomerus crassipes, Microtomus purcis, Pselliopus sp., Stenopoda spinulosa, and Repipta taurus

Interesting! Most of the species I encounter here in California diapause over the winter as eggs, maybe it's because we have wet winters and dry summers?

 

[Sarah K]

Most assassin bugs will lay eggs that overwinter to hatch the next year--the species you're most likely to encounter will usually lay them in a clump. All you need to do is keep the eggs from dessicating before they hatch.

Instead of using dill, I suggest transferring Anise Swallowtail caterpillars to parsley, cilantro, carrots, or even just fennel. The first three are more leafy and you'll go through fewer plants getting the caterpillars to adulthood and fennel is perennial, produces multiple growth points form the crown, and grows much larger in comparison to the bienniall dill. You'll still need dill or fennel planted to attract ovipositing females, but you can feed them the other plants.

 

assassin bugs: What material would the assassin bugs like to lay on/in? 

Swallowtails: Thanks for the tip! I will try something else, if this happens to me again next year. When you say carrot, do you mean literally the orange vegetable? Or do you mean the carrot plant?

 

[Hisserdude]

Nice, I remember when I lived in Florida we had a few of these cats on a parsley plant we had only had for a few months, they quickly devoured the plant so we had to buy more for them, it was very fun raising them to adulhood!

I hope yours do well!

 

[Ranitomeya]

assassin bugs: What material would the assassin bugs like to lay on/in? 

Swallowtails: Thanks for the tip! I will try something else, if this happens to me again next year. When you say carrot, do you mean literally the orange vegetable? Or do you mean the carrot plant?

The ones I've kept normally lay on both dead and living plant material, but will happily lay them onto cardboard, paper towels, or just on the sides of their containers.

By carrots I mean the carrot leaves, and not the root we use as vegetables.

 

[Sarah K]

Nice, I remember when I lived in Florida we had a few of these cats on a parsley plant we had only had for a few months, they quickly devoured the plant so we had to buy more for them, it was very fun raising them to adulhood!

I hope yours do well!

Hahaha...those cats sure know how to eat! Well, the second one hatched on Friday, but I did not get to get a photo of it, as it was not cooperating for the camera. 

 

[Sarah K]

The ones I've kept normally lay on both dead and living plant material, but will happily lay them onto cardboard, paper towels, or just on the sides of their containers.

By carrots I mean the carrot leaves, and not the root we use as vegetables.

Cardboard and paper towels! I will put some of those in there with them this fall, if I find them again. Would they like to lay on paper towel and toilet paper rolls? Last year they didn't have any real plants, cardboard, or paper towels in their enclosure, just fake plants. I guess they know the difference

 

[Ranitomeya]

They're normally not too picky and will lay on any sort of semi-rough to rough surface. If you were using cloth plants, I don't see why they might not have laid eggs on them. Smooth surfaces of plastic plants would not work, though. Just make sure it's not too dry in their enclosures or the eggs can dry out.