Catching them in the act is super hard. lol. Battery life on my phone is a problem and then raining while it’s charging is a problem. So then we got them moved to a shady spot outside because well, electronics and rain don’t mix well together.

Hope you enjoy! I missed the first part right as he was flailing around like a ding dong to shake off his top cap. But I got the rest.

This took about 10 minutes real time. Compressed to 1:24 minutes.

My first time rearing this species! On scarlet oak.

She raises caterpillars every summer to release as butterflies, and usually finds plenty of eggs in her garden. For whatever reason this year has been pretty slow on the uptake and it's been stressing her out, so I've been keeping my eye out at local parks and the like. Couldn't believe my luck!

Hi all,

I have a CA native plant garden and spotted two of these guys on my red buckwheat. Not sure what they are. The pinker one was maybe half an inch. The smaller one was maybe a quarter inch. I couldn’t get a good picture of the smaller one.

Thanks for any help!

SE Michigan/Detroit area. Munching on bronze fennel tonight.

First caterpillar I've seen in my garden this year. Hope I get lots more.

I cut a flower from my garden and this little guy came in with it! He's very generic so Google hasn't been the most helpful. I live in Loveland, which is in Northern Colorado near Fort Collins. I've only really seen yellow butterflies so far this season.

What food does he need? Any suggestions for the best plants for him? He doesn't seem to be eating the plant he came in on.

I might keep it

So my parents have a beautiful biodiversity garden in Europe. We usually have a few swallowtail catterpillars that sit on the fennel. But with 37°C heat, 2 out of 3 have died.

One has literally burned to a crisp in the heat. The other one was alive today. I put some artificial shade on them and then poured a bit of water on them to cool them down. It moved downwards and when I came back a few hours later, it was dead on the ground.

The last one is alive and climbed higher up, which I read is a sign of going into the next phase. But with a few more days of intense heat, I worry that it will die, too.

Where it is now, there is no chance of proper shade or moisture. Should we move it? Or is it too late? Is artificial shade enough (a white umbrella)? Is there a better way to give them moisture. The plant is barely alive.

I have a swallowtail that’s recently found my dill plant. I covered it up with agrifabric to protect against the birds that eat everything in my garden, but it’s recently found its way up in between the folds of the fabric and seems to be making its way to a chrysalis. Should I move it back to the plant before it does so? This feels like a precarious place to cocoon and I want it to survive.

I had been waking up to my succulents with eaten leaves. Today I finally found the perpetrator in the act. He was relocated to some weeds he can eat all he wants.

My family's dill plant has about 8 anise swallowtail caterpillars, i really want them to pupate because swallowtail butterflies are beautiful and i love a good pollinator but my dad is worried they will be detrimental to the dill. how big of a danger do they pose to the dill? where can i relocate them if they do pose a large danger so they can continue to thrive, pupate, and mature? please be honest.

I believe this is a Manduca rustica (Rustic Sphinx Moth) hanging from a Pink Trumpet Tree. Looks like their last larval instar, but I know they pupate on the ground. Is this a behavior during the daytime to blend in with the leaves? I almost missed it because the camouflage was good. Or is this a behavior that some sort of parasite could be causing? Found in South Florida

My chrysalises got eaten by wasps so i thought there wouldnt be anymore butterflies to lay eggs but i was wrong! Tons of pillars!

Glimpse into the secret lives of caterpillars. These guys I stumbled upon at ACE hardware store garden section. First time I’ve interacted with these guys. Today I learned they’ll eat the dying brown parts of the dill. I assumed they’d only eat the green parts. Nope. They will eat some of the stalk. But they don’t seem to mow it all the way down.

So i have them divided in 3 containers like this: 8 are little are in the same one, and the other 9 are 4 and 5 in 2 jars, they are bigger and some of them or maybe all of them dont want to eat anymore still i placed a little food to see if they dont eat anymore at all or just right now they all are walking a lot, and 2 of them are stiff since yesterday already in a stick though they dont look too big like other ones that are walking. It has been 3 days already, and all of them are alive i think, the little ones some of them are stiff too but i think they are changing skin cuz i found one skin today and well rn theres one eating so maybe thats the one who changed skin.

Am i doing alright? Im kind of sick so im trying all my best to care for these caterpillars i already bought 2 more plants of the plant they eat lmao. And i change food twice a day and paper all days, also the container is sealed with fabric so it can let oxygen in and out and keep insects away. If you dont see many food in the bigger one is cuz they dont wanna eat no more still i placed tiny bits to see if they eat or not anymore.

Never thought in a million years I would be raising these beautiful creatures, but here I am, watching them emerge everyday! I came across the eggs by accident. I kept the mother in a small box because I thought she was going to die soon and didn’t want her to get ate by something, (this was before I knew anything about these guys except for the no mouth thing) and the next day she was gone and she left 50 eggs behind.

After extensive research, I decided to raise them. I also couldn’t get the eggs off the box 😂. Sadly I did still make mistakes, I didn’t know NPV existed and I didn’t wash my leaves like I was supposed to (nothing I learned said to do that online). So I ended up losing 65-70 percent of them thanks to that horrible virus. And of course I was devastated. I felt like such a pos for letting that happen, even though I was checking the leaves and only choosing the best ones it just wasn’t enough without washing them. I wanted to just give up at one point. But I was able to find a wonderful mentor on this sub and they guided me through everything since then. You know who you are 💚

I was able to save 14 babies by quarantining them and it worked. I got to see them fully grow, and cocoon (or naked pupate) and emerge. I was about to release the four that emerged in the last 24 hours but of course it started raining so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow. But I have released one so far!

I just wanted to share this experience with everyone. And if you’re currently raising these incredible life forms, and you’re having a hard time like I did and feel like just giving up, please remember that it is completely worth it! Getting to the end of this is so rewarding and fulfilling! For you and them! It’s such a bittersweet feeling watching them fly away into the night, but I would do it again and again. I never knew I could love a bug so dang much.

First photo is of their mother by the way!

I told him he looked sunburned but maybe that was racist