How to Get Rid of Caterpillars on Dill Without Killing Them.
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- Опубліковано 11 сер 2016
- If you have caterpillars from the Black Swallowtail Butterfly on your Dill like we do, there is something that you can do to keep them from eating it all without killing them.
They like Dill, but they also like parsley, fennel, and carrots. If you have one of their other host plants, that you have plenty of, you can move them.
I garden in zone 6b. We have some pretty challenging weather sometimes. I don't claim to be an expert, so you will see my successes and my failures.
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Thank you.
You're welcome!
Great job Jim, so kind of you.
😆 Happy growing,
Terry.
Plant extra for the butterflies to lunch on. 😂😂😂😂
Yep :)
Nice video and good info.
Thanks.
nice looking caterpillars and a new home for them- thumbs up!
They're still eating too much, but I think that carrot can take it.
Great video! Thank you.
So happy to have found your channel. Subscribed :-)
Thank you very much. I'm glad you found it too!
They can eat all my dill and parsley, because the black swallowtail is one beautiful sight in my garden. I plant dill and parsley especially for those beauties! Love that you relocate!
Thanks Linda! I'm glad that you appreciate them too.
Good idea.
Thanks.
Such a WONDERFUL video Jim :-) they are so cute and well done on saving them and re homing them :-) thanks so much for sharing this and sending you loads of love and heaps of happy growing from right across the Emerald Isle for a FANTASTIC weekend ahead XXXX
They are much bigger since I moved them.
That first one you put on the carrot didn't miss a beat, it just went right on chomping on the carrot leaves!
Lol, yes, they kept right on eating. And they've grown a lot since I made the video. They will be doing their think and turning into Black Swallowtail butterflies soon.
Very interesting! This is good fishing.
True :)
Smooth move.
Thanks, Bob.
Thumbs up on letting them live and rehoming them. :-)
Thanks.
They are such pretty caterpillars. So happy that you just relocated them!
Thanks.
Yes! We need butterflies, many of them are declining in number!
Thanks Nicole!
:) that's so nice of you :)
Thanks. I'm nice to a point, lol, but if there were too many of them, they would have been goners.
Forgot to mention that we brought one inside and kept it in an aquarium, and it hatched out into a butterfly, just a day ago.
+Midwest Gardener yea, I have no mercy considering how hard is for me to keep my plants alive :)
+Midwest Gardener that must've been cool to watch. You should do a time-laps video next time.
That's a good idea. I planted my carrots too late and they will be wrecked by the heat anyway, I've been told. I saw this caterpillar today and I didn't want to kill it. I actually planted parsley hoping to get the caterpillars, but they never went near the parsley, yet. Just my one dill plant.
Thanks Brendan. They still might find your parsley. I've had them lay quite a few eggs on mine before.
Very pleased to say that over here the main pest of carrots and dill is the slug.
I've heard lots of people who talk about how hard slugs are to deal with, so that is one advantage to being in a warmer climate......I guess. We rarely see them here.
Slugs and snails like humidity: there's plenty of that in a UK summer.
I forgot to mention "carrot fly". Larvae of this invisible nuisance burrow through the carrots, leaving purple streaks behind. Do you have any trouble with them?
Cain's Ghost
I've never had to deal with carrot flies, so I guess maybe we don't have them here. Seems like I get about every pest available.
Let's face it: if every season went by without a hitch all gardeners would complain about it! Never satisfied haha
Cain's Ghost
lol, true
They're pollinators so I appreciate not harming them...
I'm glad that you appreciate them too, Tessa. We enjoy watching them go through the process of turning into butterflies.
All I have is dill What else can they eat?
They eat carrot tops, parsley and fennel. We grew fennel especially for the butterflies this year, and we've had more than we've ever had.
Haha awww. They're like "thank you!" Lol I hate killing mine too. I just move them.
Yeah, it just took a couple of minutes and it didn't hurt a thing.
I don't have any carrots planted and I use my parsley and dill quite often. Is there a way I could release them into the forest/is there any other safe place to rehome them?
I'm not sure about other host plants. Most butterflies have only certain plants they lay eggs on. I guess there might be some wild plants they could use, but I haven't researched it.
@@MidwestGardener thank you! I'll try to find a place.
@@prathnanegandhi6878 You're welcome. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
@@MidwestGardener that's okay 😊
Do they like cilantro? I don't have any fennel or carrots. I would like to eat my dill, but they are doing that for me. Is fennel pretty easy to grow? I may have to plant some fennel so that the caterpillars have something else to eat. I have so many questions... I should probably go to your Facebook page....
Yes, I like cilantro. Last year and this year, I overwintered a carrot just to have a place to move the caterpillars to. This year I also planted some parsley and they laid eggs on it too. That would be great if you would follow the facebook page. I post a lot of photos there. Feel free to ask any questions here or there.
Sorry, lol. I misunderstood your question. They don't bother our cilantro, so they don't seem to like it.
LOL, that's okay. I wish those caterpillars like cilantro. That stuff grows like a weed on the back corner of my house. I have to keep it confined to one area, or God only knows how far it would spread... kind of like mint. I'll see what I can do about those caterpillars! I "Like"d your Facebook page. I'll probably "see" you on there.
Thanks Sherri!! I guess you could move some caterpillars to the cilantro and just see what happens. They might eat it rather than starve. Not sure on that though. This year I had them lay eggs on my carrots, my parsley and my dill. I'm planting fennel next year, so they will have plenty to eat then. I think the black swallowtails are so beautiful that I don't really want to kill them, but I don't want them eating the stuff I want to eat either. Take care.
I have 3 on my dill plants. Thanks for this I did nt want to kill them. I ll just move them to my parsley.
That's good to hear :) Of course, when there are larger numbers of them, they can be harder to manage,. They love parsley too. I would be surprised if they don't find your parsley eventually. I planted some fennel especially for them last year. I've never had so many.
That's one of the main reason I don't plant dill, parsley and carrots:-)
Yes, they do seem to like them all.
They are not welcome to eat my dill OR carrots! I stomped them in the driveway! Lol
Yes, I can completely understand that. I feel the same way about cabbage worms.
How is that funny? Kill all the pollinators and the world is dead. Incredibly ingnorant to kill them.
bellona6356 Awwww shut up! I’ll stomp them if I want to! 😂