Raising Butterflies!!

I have more butterflies, caterpillars and chrysalis than I know what to do with.

I have two cages in the house, one filled with caterpillars, 

the other filled with chrysalis.

I use to keep track better but right now all I know is that I have 17 caterpillars,

or "cats" as the hubs likes to call them...

and a bunch of chrysalis. 

About a week or so ago, I brought these 17 caterpillars inside,

and placed them in my large cage.

I believe there only purpose in life is to eat,

poop, grow...and fight over the corner spots in the cage.

These 17 are all still caterpillars.

My small cage is filled with chrysalis, I can't remember how many.

Three of those butterflies emerged today.

I was able to release two of them but one will have to wait until morning.

This happened and you are not suppose to release them in the rain.

And to say it rained is a huge understatement!

I will release the third butterfly early tomorrow morning.
I hope I can get some pictures,
usually if they are in the cage more than 2 hours after emerging, they fly right off.

And I also have some "early stage" caterpillars outside on my dill,

maybe around eight...this is all getting pretty overwhelming!

Saturday's Critters #450

Today we are going to talk about my love for butterflies and my hobby of raising them.

From egg to caterpillar to butterfly, I love being involved in every stage of their life.

This summer it was kinda' strange...

I had no eggs or caterpillars on either my dill or parsley.

I have been raising caterpillars for years and that has never happened, I always have so many.

Now all of a sudden they have arrived.

The Black Swallowtail Butterflies are visiting my gardens and laying a lot of eggs.

Once the egg opens up and the caterpillars reach a certain size,

I bring them indoors into the netted cages I have which keeps them safe from birds and spiders.

Now the fun really begins.

I enjoy having them indoors and keeping them safe.

I have a lot of eggs and small caterpillars outdoors that I monitor every day.

Once they reach that perfect size, I will bring those inside.

If you look closely, 

in the center of this picture, you can see 2 eggs.

Small, white round eggs...

one day, these will be butterflies.

- you don't just wake up and become a butterfly ~ growth is a process -

Sharing today's images with Eileen at 

Viewing Nature With Eileen 

for Saturday Critters

Saturday Critters #607

 It's been a super hot summer here at the Jersey Shore

 and I have not been out as much as I would like with the camera.

But that's o.k., 

I love being at home and I have plenty of work and hobbies to keep me busy.

I am taking good care of my caterpillars, I have about 12 right now, 

most in the Chrysalis form the others are eating me out of "house and dill", 

they will form into Chrysalis soon.

You can't believe how much dill these little guys eat.

The first new eggs from this season grew to be caterpillars, then formed a chrysalis, and emerged.

The second group will emerge into a butterfly in approximately 2 - 3 weeks.

All of the chrysalis from last fall emerged successfully this spring.

I found 3 itty-bitty ones on my dill today, this will be the third round of releases this summer.

If even more come, they will probably stay in the Chrysalis form all winter,

and emerge in the spring of 2026.

- this is a boy, they have more yellow -

- this is a girl, they have more blue -

This is such a fun hobby and has brought so much joy into my life...

and maybe I am saving these beautiful butterflies, one butterfly at a time.

I have been doing this for years...

I have shared many posts on my experiences, if you are interested they can be found

- here - here - here -
I also have a "Search This Blog" feature on my blog.

If you search "Raising Caterpillars or Raising Butterflies, a lot more posts will come up.

Raising Butterflies For Fun

Is a great source for raising butterflies ever if you are a beginner and would like to get started.

Before I started, I read a few butterfly specific books, searched the web

 and read the article highlighted above.

Sharing today's images with Eileen at 

Viewing Nature With Eileen 

for Saturdays Critters

The Caterpillars!!

"Just when the caterpillar thought life was over, it became a butterfly"

- Have you ever heard that saying -

Monday, I went outside to water and say hi to my vegetable garden.

Much to my surprise, 

8 baby caterpillars had made a home in my dill.
These are so tiny, I have never seen them looking so small.

I decided to bring them indoors and raise them myself...

I have read that only a small percentage of caterpillars survive in the wild,
to become the beautiful butterfly they were meant to be.

I have ordered a large netted home for them...since I have so many,

they will be too crowded in these small containers.

All they really need to survive, is plenty of food, dill, and some sticks to climb on.

They don't need water, 

but you should spritz the inside of the cage with water, once per day!

I have done this in the past, if you are interested you can read that story here and here.

Here they are today, they are all alive...and getting bigger.

I am pretty sure they are swallowtails, I am so excited!

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My Current Caterpillar Situation

We have a "situation"!! 

Remember the guy from the Jersey Shore tv show?

Anyway, we have one here, we have caterpillars everywhere.

When I clean the cage, I have to take them out.

I find them on the floor, on my shirt, sliding along the dishwasher,

when I say they are everywhere, they are everywhere.

I have 30 active, live ones right now.

Last night, both the hubs and I were counting 29, after I had cleaned the cage.

We were both exhausted, so 29 it was.

I zipped the cage up and we went about our business.

About 20 minutes later, I found one crawling on the floor....true story!

So let me show you the situation in pictures, 
they have taken over,

and this is the very best way for you to "get it"!

3 cages, the top cage has 30 or so live caterpillars.

A couple are in chrysalis.

In the other 2 cages they are all chrysalis.

30 total, some were up top and all over.

The first 8 that I brought in the house in September.

I love watching them eat!

3 are "hooked", getting ready to chrysalis.

1 is in chrysalis, 

these are in the newest cage.

I have never had this many all at once.

These caterpillars will all remain in chrysalis until next spring.

At that time, they will emerge as butterflies.

I will keep the cages in the garage, they must be kept cold,

come spring, I will check them every day.

It is so exciting...like a real miracle, but I did this last year, and they all survived

and became beautiful Black Swallowtail Butterflies!

Oh Miss. Debbie, Do You Need Any More Caterpillars?

 My neighbor next door Jennifer is growing parsley.

Her precious young children (I showed you their picture the other day)

 have found some caterpillars in her parsley...

and when they do, they bring them over here to me.

7 so far, and they seem to really enjoy bringing them over here to place in the cage.

They are the cutest kids, talkative, and they sure do ask a lot of questions.

Several days ago, they brought me a rotisserie chicken, 

(did I tell you that)

a huge caesar salad, and a large pasta dish that fed both of us for 2 nights.

How kind and thoughtful they are, the kind of neighbors people dream of having.

The younger one Celia and her cousin made me this adorable card...

The card on the right, was handmade by my friend Connie.

She is an artist with paper and makes the most amazing cards.

The yellow butterfly card and pretty shell came from a friend from high school, Louann.

These pretty flowers came from my sister Kathy, 

she knows how much I love the color purple.

Somehow, we went from caterpillars to kind people who have shown me so much love.

People I am so lucky to have in my life.

We Have More...Caterpillars That Is!

At some point, when I realized just how many caterpillars I had,

I was sure I would not have enough dill to feed them to the finish line.

It is not recommended to feed them store bought herbs because of pesticides.

The hubs planted some more and sure enough, 

we got an excellent crop of dill.

Much to my surprise, we made it to the chrysalis stage without needing it.

What I had not anticipated, was getting more caterpillars,

and that we did...11 more to be exact!

I did a lot of reading and research, 

and decided the best action was to raise them indoors.

I ordered another butterfly house so as not to mix them with the chrysalis

and here we go again.

I released this butterfly yesterday and it just won't leave,

I now suspect that it is not able to fly.

It was very clingy when I brought it outside yesterday,

and when I went outside this morning, it was still hanging on.

I clipped a piece of my butterfly bush and brought it back inside.

My research tells me they should not be kept indoors for more that 24 hours.

If anyone has any knowledge on the subject, I would love to hear it.

Saturday Critters ~ 308 ~

This is my family room, 

also know as 

The Butterfly Oasis - The Butterfly Room - The Butterfly Nursery

All of the caterpillars are chrysalis now, 
all are indoors, 

soon they will be moved to the garage for over wintering.

There are a total of 3 cages, 52 chrysalis,

all of the caterpillars formed into chrysalis at different times.

Occasionally, a chrysalis will fall, that's fine,
I have found they emerge anyway.

The caterpillars like sticks, 

and corners in which to form their chrysalis.

They turn brown to mimic the stick and to camouflage themselves from predators.
They will all emerge in spring.

Sharing today with Eileen at Viewing Nature With Eileen

Raising Swallowtails - 2nd Update

I have been taking pictures of the caterpillars almost every day,

but I have not shared an update since August 9th.

We found them on August 4th, I wrote about it and shared pictures here.

They were just tiny black specks with a white stripe through the center.
8 of the 9 are pictured here.

By August 9th, 5 days later, all but 2 were this size, 

I shared an update on that day that you can read here.

Here is a picture I took on Sunday August 12th.

On Monday the 13th they looked like this...
you can see 1 of the smaller ones climbing the back wall.

We picked and preserved a lot of dill, 
and decided to take them with us to Connecticut.

We are home now and that went very well.

On Thursday the 16th, 

they had stopped eating and were starting to pick spots for chrysalis. 
These 2 choose an awesome spot..."not"
they are are "almost" right on the zipper.

By yesterday, 

all but 2 had gone into chrysalis.
The entire process, in home, took a total of 13 - 15 days.

Good news, good news...
I went outside yesterday to get dill for the two caterpillars that have yet to chrysalis,


and I found 6 more babies and 1 tween.

I said, "plant some dill, perhaps you will get a caterpillar or 2"!
Mother Nature said, "nice effort, we will give you all of them"!
- hehehehehe -

round 2 begins!!

and a big p.s....I went out for dill this morning and found...

7 more, help, I need a bigger home!!