I love them! I had a thread on them last year as I bought dill plant that came with a few eggs all of which made it to become adult butterfly eventually in my apartment! I loved watching them grow and develop into different stages.
They like plants in the umbelliferae, such as carrots, dill, parsley, celery, and they also LOVE rue plant.
So if you plant rue or dill in your garden, they will come!
If you like to see them grow up close and want to make sure you want to help it grow into an adult butterfly, it is best to take them indoor.
It is not birds that eat them at this stage but other small insects. Right before the larva in the final stage turn into pupa, they are often attacked by small flies that lay thousands of little eggs inside their body.
They will hatch inside and then start eating the entire interior of the pupa. Then one day, thousands of little bugs come out of pupa instead of a beautiful butterfly. Then they all go looking for the next victims.
I read how only about one or two eggs out of one hundreds make it into a butterfly.
Tough life, isn't it?
Swallowtail Caterpillar
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