I'm so sorry for your disappointment and heartache. You did your best, and they would have starved if you hadn't tried to help them. Hopefully, next year will be better.

Martha

dr liz, I am so sorry to hear about your BST's, I know we get really attached to these little guys. I am new to this butterfly raising hobby myself ( 2 months), but I learned so much about butterflies in a short time..I have to google Black swallow tail, and learn about them too. but I guess it is a good idea to plant host plants from seeds. I have a big rue plant, ( dunno anything about it ) but didn't even realize we didn't have BST in my area.I hope the next batch should be ok.

Gosh, that is really sad. I am sorry that happened to you. I have just had the same BST egg dumping scenario happen here, and I have lots of cats hatching now. I will monitor their progress closely and see how it goes. I wonder if Bt was used on the organic parsley you bought. I guess we can never be sure unless we grow it ourselves. In the past, I have raised BST cats on parsley from Lowes Garden Center and also fennel from a locally owned garden center and had them do just fine. We just never know. Don't give up hope though. We win some, and we lose some, but we don't give up trying. :o)

Ditto to what Angie said about Bt - last I read about it, it's considered 'organic' because it's safe for humans. I don't know where you live or what your situation, but if I were you, I'd plant all the rue I could find a place for, or is it 'for which I could find a place'? In my day, you weren't supposed to end a sentence with a preposition! :-0

Sherry

Thank you all for the words of support. It has been very sad to witness this with one cat after another. I agree, I am also thinking it might be Bt. I used use the stuff in my vegetable garden, and it is supposed to cause caterpillars to stop feeding almost immediately and then die a day or so later. My guys got much further along, all the way to the point of purging and getting in position. They then failed to make a proper chrysalis.I suspect, though, there may have just been a tiny bit residual Bt on the parsley leaves, so it took a long time to kill the cats.

For next year I am going to plant plenty of rue. Black swallowtails are very common here and it was easy to attract them. I think the rue are bigger, beefier plants so they provide plenty of food. Next year will be better!
Liz

One of the cats pupated yesterday, apparently fine. I really have no idea why several of them died. I only have two cats remaining. Yesterday I cut a couple of leaves from my recovering plants and stuck them in the container, and they are still sitting there. The cats have not eaten one bite.It got very cold last night, down to the 50s, so maybe they are just waiting until they warm up. But really, this whole brood has been a mystery to me. I have five chrysalides now. Should I expect them all to overwinter at this time of year?
Liz

Well, it's hard to say with Swallowtail chrysalides Liz. You just never know with those guys. My guess would be that they would likely overwinter, but I'd keep a close eye on them. If they do overwinter, make sure and keep them out in the garage so that they don't eclose during winter inside the warm house. I have had them pupate in July and eclose the next April. I have heard of a year passing before one eclosed. They are really unpredictable. :o)
Angie

Chances are they'll overwinter. I keep mine in a butterfly cage on my deck. When the bitter wind chills hit the area, I cover the cage with old sheets, although I don't really think they need it, I just do it for my own peace of mind. I've been getting quite a few parasites in my cage, so that thing will have to get redesigned/rescreened, but I do have cats & chrysalids inside a few mesh hampers that I bought on Amazon within the last few weeks. The hampers will go into the cage for the winter, just for easy storage, when the time comes. That is, if they cooperate and pupate on the mesh, not on the planter, like one has already done.

As for purchasing parsley, I try to get lots of it early in the season, then constantly water the foliage as to get rid of any pesticides that might be used.

One year, I had 18 hungry bst's and was in desperate need of parsley. I went to one nursery, and even asked if it was treated. She assured me it wasn't, and actually said she didn't think anyone would put pesticides on parsley. That should've been my first warning that I should've went elsewhere. Needless to say, I purchased the flat, brought it home, then within a few days I had 18 dead caterpillars. I will NEVER go back to that nursery again.

Definitely plant rue! It is a very pretty plant/bush, and provides ample food. Make sure you cut it back in spring (google to find exact recommendations) so it continues to get nice and bushy. This is more fore esthetics than a need for the cats... I didn't cut mine back so they are pretty gangly looking. Still lots of food but not as pretty as they should be in my garden.... about a foot of old wood at the base.

The other great thing about rue is that it is poor soil and drought tolerant.

I'm very sorry to hear about your cat problems. I think all of us go through something at some point in our cat raising. I seem to have the most trouble with Monarchs, but I've probably had some issues with most kinds that I've raised. I've had some only pupate for the half, and I've had some pupate okay but then only eclose for the half and get stuck in the chrysalis. I've had some just up and die, I've had some ooze black and die. I've had some that were parasitized before I got to them. Like I said, though, those problems were mostly with Monarchs. They seem to have more than their share of problems. I can't recall specifically any diseases with the BST but I remember two BST pupas that overwintered and came out as wasps in the spring. Of course, I didn't release them. Just to let you know that we know what you're going through. You just have to remember all of the successes that you have had and will have over the coming years if you raise the cats. There will be more successes than failures. Left outside, their chances of survival are greatly diminished, and you can feel proud that you're helping them.
Cathy

Thanks for all the words of support!

I think my problem, in a nutshell, was that I ran out of food. The organic parsley I got was okay, I think, but the leaves were very soft and tender and I couldn't put the stems into water. I tried to raise the cats In plastic containers, which worked okay with my young monarch cats, but I don't think the BST cats liked it as much. The ones I was able to transfer to an open cage, to finish up on parsley sprigs in water, mostly made it.

And then, by the time the last one was getting big, my own plants had grown back a bit. I put him on my fennel, and he munched away there for another two or three days, and then disappeared. I'm thinking he probably went off somewhere to pupate-at least, that is what I am hoping! He certainly got to be a nice big cat.

Liz