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Hi Everyone, I was outside yesterday looking at my plants on the front deck. I looked at the parsley and it was only sticks! Come to find out a big ol caterpillar had a fine breakfast. Well I brought it in. It will become a Black Swallowtail Butterfly. I have it in a large plastic jar (Pork rind jar from Sam's, pretty big) with net over the top so it has plenty of air. I put some soil in the bottom, a bit of mulch on top of that, a stem from the oak tree with green leaves and a couple short sticks. I also put some food in, they love parsley and fresh dill. I happen to have both in my garden. Well I should say I had parsley. Hopefully it didn't kill the plant, there are still some leaves left. My thought is to keep it until it grows into the butterfly. I googled How to raise a Butterfly and it took me to a neat web site called Butterfly School, Raising Butterflies and Moths. Looking at the site I found out how to build a 'butterfly house' so when my caterpillar goes into Pupae stage I can place it in there. I have a nice window in the kitchen, a hook is already there and the pupae can grow and hopefully eventually emerge as a beautiful black swallowtail. I've enclosed a couple pictures at the beginning stages. I hope to have more in the future. Susie |