How long do swallowtail caterpillars live

For spicebush, when it is young, it is black with a white stripe in the center, resembling a bird dropping. It is a mimicry to keep the caterpillars safe from predators. Once the caterpillars emerge, they will begin to eat, eat, and eat surprisingly, their first meal is the eggshell until they are large enough to shed the skin also known as exoskeleton.

They do this four or five times, and each new skin is an instar. Thus five instars. In the first two weeks, we raised our caterpillars in a plastic container, where they were supplied with fresh spicebush leaves or milkweed if you raise black swallowtails daily. Super tiny spicebush caterpillars feasting on fresh spicebush leaves.

We put the plastic container at the base of the host plant, and soon the caterpillars crawled out of the box and started to explore their new home. Two of them were so active that they climbed to the very top and took in some street sights through the window and started feasting. After a few weeks, our tiny caterpillar grew this big already. At the end of the second week, the caterpillars shed the exoskeleton for the fourth time and turned green with two fake eyespots on the back of the head that mimic a snake.

The adult spicebush caterpillars busy feasting on the fresh leaves. Black swallowtail caterpillars do so as well to keep predators away. Giant swallowtail caterpillar with the tongue sticking out when threatened. The mortality rate of the caterpillar stage is very high, as these little ones are subject to weather conditions, disease, parasites, and predators.

Many adult butterfly species lay hundreds of eggs, and only a few survive to become adults. We had ten caterpillars to start, and only four grew up to butterflies.

In about two weeks, the caterpillars will stop eating and start to turn orange. This is when they are ready to pupate aka shed for the last time and become chrysalises, a hard outer case in which the butterflies will develop.

Just let them do their thing, and you can help relocate afterward. Our spicebush caterpillars turned orange and started to look for the perfect spot to pupate. During this stage, the caterpillar will make a silk mat and attach itself to the base. It never is necessary to re-attach chrysales. They can be lain on anything soft, nearly touching a tilted stick or a hanging strip of cloth.

Emerged butterflies immediately climb when they are not already hanging. I had one I kept laying on a piece of paper towel in an aquarium for the whole winter. From Oct-April. To be honest I was not expecting much.

But I thought I would give it a try. Sure enough I came home from work one April day and there he was , a black swallowtail had emerged. Took him to our local park and away he went, no worse for wear. This website is amazing. After 30 years of growing parsley in a plastic pot on my New York City highrise terrace without anything unusual happening, this week I saw eleven black swallowtail caterpillars happily chewing. I brought a black swallowtail caterpillar inside and he harnessed himself to a stick in the usual formation, but I just saw something really strange happen.

What looks like a tiny larvae-ish green caterpillar just broke out of one of the legs of the hanging caterpillar and is now crawling around the inside of my enclosure. Any idea what happened? Not sure what to tell you there. Thank you so much for all the information on this site!

It is so helpful!!!!! Be careful of the screen size too fine and you will block the sun and your herbs will not grow. Too large and small birds and rodents can get in. When I see caterpillars then open the topwhen a butterfly emerges. Your website has been very helpful for my school project.

Thank you for publishing it and good luck. Not that I have a choice as to when they emerge. But with the plight of butterflies today, I would like to aid however I can. It appears that at least one is in its final instar stage and will be pupating soon. Please let me know what you think I should do! So if it would be helpful to them, I would like to act quickly. Thanks in advance for your advice. I have three swallowtails in a container, all different instars. Is this normal? Hello and thank you for this wonderful website!

I live in NJ and brought in five eastern black swallowtail caterpillars. I am not sure what to do now…did I make a mistake by not putting their enclosure in a colder climate so they could overwinter?

I was actually waiting on the last one to pupate so held off. Any advice appreciated! Thank you! I do not assume that cut plants retain good nectar. When I want to make food avaiIable to captives, I net them in with a living plant or branch of it.

I have a swallowtail on my windowsill that has been in a chrysalis for a couple months. Generally, the live ones still are flexible and can move a bit. I purchased some un-stratified milkweed seeds and I would like to know if there is a way to speed them up so I can plant them this spring. Otherwise should I just go ahead and reorder stratified seeds? Would the freezer help? Can you help? I am not getting a confirmation email Thanks. I really need some advice and help with this.

I had 2 nice big caterpillars in it and just about 24 hours after they went into chrysalis they turned dark and died. Is it possible that there is a chemical in the mesh of the habitat that is causing this?

I am going to wash it good and try again. Do you wash your hampers when they are new before using them? Please help. About the butterfly habitat: I seriously doubt there were parasites in the enclosed sun room that I put the hamper in. Takes one day if they are held down e. Hopefully I can bring them in next time in the egg phase. But I will definitely be washing this hamper! That leaves predators.

And pathogens. Pathogens can be on the eggs. My URL text is being removed here, so, you copy the partial : butterflyfunfacts. Very nice and helpful article.

I enjoyed it very much. Today I found dozen of caterpillars in my garden on dill and fennel plants. I assume they are Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. Will watch them every day. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Was it because I over watered him? Please reply asap I loved this pupa with every fiber of my being. He means the world to me. Not long ago, I wrote that some hatchlings died in a butterfly habitat that I bought. I asked if anybody else had had that happen and I washed the habitat thoroughly afterwards.

Since then I have had another hatchling die in it and last week I collected a bunch of eggs and very carefully put them inside the habitat with lots of bronze fennel.

Today I find that these healthy eggs in the habitat have all turned black and the ones outside the habitat are now hatchlings. What else could be the cause of this except for a problem with the habitat? This habitat was one of those laundry hampers and I am thinking about purchasing a real butterfly habitat from a reliable source.

I have to save the ones that are okay but eventually they will have to be contained before they start roaming around to go to the chrysalis stage. Please give me your thoughts and suggestions on this. Pauline, write to Edith Smith, a commercial breeder, dedicated educator, and a good person.

Oh, I have good news! I believe the eggs are okay! I see tiny babies on the fennel that must have hatched from those black eggs. The dark color is the actual caterpillar growing inside But I did order another habitat from Shady Oak Farm and if all these little guys make it I will need 2 habitats to keep them all safe from roaming.

Thank you so much for replying. Thank you, Monica! I was looking for just this information and you answered ALL my questions! We and our parsley! Is there anything else I can do?? The only other thing to do is to toss it high. Cup it in hand, underhand pitch it with full force nearly straight upwards.

It will flutter, either feebly or better than that. If the former, then you will know that it is completely incapable. If the latter, then it may fly to the nearest thing tree leaves, roof, low bush, whatever , or to something several meters farther.

It may stay there for longer than you care to continue watching, or make a few flights to nearby objects. Often they soon flutter to the ground; I do not know why they choose that hazardous place. A strong, long flight? I neither expect it nor rule it out. So how do I care for this poor little guy? Is there anything I can do for him? The humane options are — to euthenize — to feed, in isolation inhumane if it never drinks.

The broader concern is to prevent the spread of whatever is affecting it. Post it, dammit. This site certainly is quirky. I will continue to feed him. Thank you all! What spices do you like to use with the butterflies when they are finished? You mentioned dill and parsley, as options. And what way do you like to prepare them? Thanks, I enjoyed the informative website. We just had a swallowtail emerge from its chrysalis either over night or this morning.

How long can we go without feeding it before we let it go? So I currently have two butterdly habitats … one with 18 having made it to chrysalis stage and 2 more to go … probably 20 more in the other habitat that are in various instar stages a couple even went into chrysalis there as well.

All of these came from eggs that hatched on my large barrel of potted parsley. The other day, hubby and I found about 20 more newly laid eggs on the parsley again. This time, I gently plucked off all the leaves with eggs and put them in a open tupperware container covered with a layer of cheesecloth and brought them in. My question is, 1 do I need to mist those eggs or just leave them alone and 2 when hatching seems iminent, is that a good time to put fresh parsley in with them even if its a day or so early FYI, I keep the parsley in floral tubes to keep them fresher longer?

IF low humidity, then immerse-soak and squeeze-dry the cloth. Alternativel is moist napkin pieces inside, only at sides. How long can we expect this pre-transitional stage to last?

Winters can be nasty. Will eggs winter over? Should I leave my fennel and milkweed standing so the eggs can hatch in the Spring? I want a tidy garden, but I want butterflies more!

The eggs will hatch, grow and pupate well before winter. I took them in, fed them until they pupated and kept the Chrysalises in my unheated garage until spring. No care whatsoever except to keep them safe. Had beautiful swallowtails in mid-May. I think I made a big mistake. I had a caterpillar on parsley in the house for about a week now.

It looked good and plump. I noticed it wanted to climb the open metal mesh basket that was over the parsley. I found it there w just two strong threads and it looked very dehydrated I assumed it was dead and took it off.

Now after reading through these I tried to tie it up again. I really appreciate the information you gave here. I took in five caterpillars, and all five hung and made their chrysalis.

I was getting worried because it was late August already when I found them, and winters get nasty in PA. Is there any care that they need inside to keep them hydrated inside or warm in the winter if they do overwinter??

There was a new black swallowtail outside this weekend on my butterfly bushes, so I worried whether my inside guys were okay and should have been out already. Your post and the comments and answers above did give me some relief, but I also still worry if they will make it. Great information, thank you!!! Do you think this will be an ok location for it if we can keep it undisturbed? Very vulnerable to omnipresent tiny insects that you never notice. Most do not fly, and I make chrysales less vulerable by suspending them where insects are less likely discover them, e.

I have some black swallowtails that just chrysalis-ed yesterday but the 2nd one is not attached on the bottom and facing upward and outward like the other guys. He is still attached at the top but not the bottom. He is almost black. Is he dead? I actually caught some of his metamorphosis which was so cool but I did see his bottom become detached when he started moving violently. Remember, they can take months to emerge. I brought in my parsley plane the day before the first frost, 3 days ago.

It has 2 black swallowtail caterpillars on it. Today one ran away, I found him and put him back but he is now on the wood floor. Should I keep putting him on the plant? Will he die if I just take him out to anouther plant? I have 4 black swallowtail chrysallis from late Sept They have been on my porch all winter. This morning 2 emerged I believe because it is unusually warm this Feb in the 60 — 70s daytime. I brought them in and made a butterfly hone with popup mesh laundry baskets. What do I do????

I put some gatorade in a dish. What else do I do to keep them alive?? Unfortunatley both of mine were going to be non-fliers either way ao I just gave them some nectar and made their short little lives as comfortable as possible. He overwintered, but still he did not emerge when Spring finally came. We kept him though; checking everyday to see if he had hatched and to our utter amazement he came out of his cocoon. We were elated! The lower one looks dried and shriveled and the top looks hyperextended.

We are devastated. What can we do for him? Should we put him outside so he can experience the world even for just a little bit? I did not expect to be this heartbroken. Thanks for your article. I just discovered this morning in my bed of dill I planted specifically for butterflies that I have a big batch of swallowtails have a banquet.

What fun that I can share this with my granddaughter. I live in Florida now but am from Minnesota so miss not seeing nature in the raw. Had no idea that this little miracle in my backyard would happen.

How exciting! Hi there, I am from Toronto, Canada and it is July 8th, I have photographed both the yellow and black SwallowTails extensively and I have raised and released Cecropia Moths in a Terrariums for many years. I have seen pairs of Yellow SwallowTails the past weeks in my large backyard, but No black ones this summer. Is this a normal time of year to find the caterpillars? Or are these late caterpillars that will take too long to transform for the summer?

How long does the Adult live for? Hope someone can offer some advice. Many Thanks! My host plant is running out and I have about 2 dozen Black tailed swallowtail caterpillars. Is there any kind of substitute for the fennel and dill that i am giving them? Please help! Thank you, Maria, I only have a small parsley plant in my garden but I gave them some.

Then today I went out and bought 4 more plants at Lowes garden center. On my way home I stopped at the supermarket and bought the only 2 bunches they had in the produce department, came home, washed them and now the caterpillars have lots of parsley! If they do I will just keep getting more from the grocery store. Get this: On the parsley plants that I bought today, there are at least 3 Black swallowtail caterpillars already on them already!!!

I just brought home 3 orphans! A few years ago, late in the fall, I had to buy parsley from a grocery store for my swallowtail cats. They did not eat it and stayed away from it. Many grocery stores spray their vegetables to stay fresh.

Our cats do not like store-bought host plants. I started raising black swallowtails July 20th, buying four pots of Home Depot parsley with many caterpillars.

The eggs were obviously laid on the parsley, evident by the appearance of the first four instars. After the pots of parsley were devoured, all of the caterpillars transitioned to cut bunches of organic parsley, which was not a problem at all. Even the dill babies were happy with it. One month later I have released 36 butterflies and have another 38 chrysalises. The last caterpillar pupated yesterday so I can stop buying parsley! I feel so proud to have added these beauties to the world.

Hello we had 4 swallowtails appear on the dill in our garden. My family loves the swallowtails more than the dill so we just let them have at it, and bought them a parsley plant in case they needed it. Do you think they would be pupating? Would they emerge or overwinter at this point?

How far away do you think they would go? I am going to do a bunch of yard work this fall and I would like to find their chrysalises if possible. Any advice is appreciated. The same thing happened to me! I had seven beautiful caterpillars on my parsley. They devoured it down to nubs, which was fine, as I was hoping to see the chrysalis.

But they must leave the host plant as I saw them this morning and they were all gone by this afternoon. Can anyone confirm that they leave the host plant to pupate? Yes, they typically leave the host plant to either pupate or look for more food. Sometimes they are killed by predators. My second batch of chrysalis started to hatch today! I have 15 newly hatched caterpillars too. The other 15 raised on store-bought dill did fine. No more store-bought parsley. I buy dill, rinse it, shake and dry with paper towel then put in ziplock with a paper towel inside then in the frig.

I have 1 green chrysalis and am watching to see if the butterfly looks different from the others. I also had 2 of the darker or black caterpillars.

The pop-up mesh laundry baskets work great. Once the caterpillars are close to pupating I put them in the critter cage with lots of branches. Once they pupate I then put the branch with the chrysalis in another popup mesh laundry container with a mesh lid, undisturbed, until they hatch. No drownings! From reading other source I had the impression the purge was vomiting.

I was glad to to verify this on another site. I was afraid my caterpillars were sick, but all was well and perfectly normal. It made like a silk pad to lie on in addition to the silk harness. I found the black swallowtail cat.

I have a couple of them that have formed chrysalises. When I noticed them on my plant I put them in a fish tank with a screen top and had them outside in the shade on a table. I have noticed another small black one eating but not much. I just moved them into the house as I thought it might be to warm outside for them, not sure what temp.

This is the first time I have done anything like this very excited. Let me know about the air and temp. Some store bought herbs can be hazardous and contain pesticides or BT. Just make sure the container is clean and the food is fresh. I have two chrysalis at the moment, one is much larger than the other and slightly a different color although the caterpillars looked identical. Keep them outside and as long as it is still warm let them emerge.

Usually weeks after they make the chrysalis they will emerge. If it suddenly gets really cold they will automatically wait to emerge until next spring, just leave them outside.

Have you had this happen before? Do you have any tips on how best to overwinter them? Hi I am asking the same question you you find out let me know. Thanks first time to raise them. Same question, but in Minnesota. The chrysalis is in my orchid box which has a light on for about 12 hours a day.

Have a pet butterfly for the winter? Gatorade, put in a tinniest little bowl with a clean sponge soak piece of sponge in Gatorade so they can suck up the fluid. This puts lectrolites back into there bodies. I put a small piece of cut up nectarine in one corner of its enclosure with it… this is my first indoor butterfly also…. Its sad To see that It wants to fly away, the fact that its just not going to live very long outside. Struggling with the desigtion to keep It indoors or to set it free outside….

I have 4 swallowtails that I have indoors due to freezing temps outside. Two are hanging upside down and two are still eating dill. I need to move them outside as I have before. My question is how long after they hang on the sick tread — they still have their stripes. Will they change and what will they look like so I can safely put them out to overwinter. I have done this before but not when the temps were freezing.

I do not want to move then out to soon. Thanks Folks. What should I do? My chrysalis hatched yesterday. It is January and though not freezing the temps are in the fifties dropping to forties at night. I live in coastal Georgia Have moved her to a larger space and given her food but would love to release her.

So sad that she hatched too early. My fault for bringing her inside to a home temp of 68f. What is the lowest temp that she will tolerate? Would love her to be free outside. I just had a similar problem—I had a butterfly emerge days after a blizzard! I ended up taking care of her indoors for around 6 weeks. Gatorade and Powerade worked great for her!

Her proboscis was split, so she had to rely on those fluids instead of flowers. I found my butterfly automatically unrolled hers every time she was exposed to light from a laptop screen, and then she would willingly drink from the Gatorade if I dropped some where her proboscis was.

I wish you best of luck with her and many sunny days!! I hope someone is monitoring this blog! We had a horrific rain, wind and small hail storm this morning.

Now our caterpillar was laying on the ground and looks to be dead. We brought it inside with some Rue he lives on in hopes he will recover. That was 5 hours ago and no change. What to do if anything? Flash flood so he took a big hit even though the hail was pea size.

The wind though…. NOt much you can do. Possibly got hard hit with a rain drop or hail,or could be disease for all we know. Wait and watch. Yes, Nature is cruel. Hi, I am so new to caring for caterpillars!

I believe that I have found giant swallowtail caterpillar eggs in my backyard. Where I live, it is very hot and extremely dry, so I brought them in. I did my homework, made a proper habitat for them, and always get fresh leaves. They have hatched there were 19, 3 eggs still left. They just shriveled up.

Is this common, and what do I do? Jimin, I had a similar problem with my Monarchs caterpillars were one day they were healthy and the next day they would be limp, empty and dead.

Then one day I caught an assassin bug sucking the juice out of a monarch caterpillar. After that I started putting the caterpillars inside those netted butterfly cubes but sometimes they have small rips in the zippers.

One time I find my smallest BST caterpillars dead in similar fashion after an earwig got inside the cube. I found and adult caterpillar in my rue plant two days ago. I checked on it every day, in the morning, afternoon, and night. One day I checked on it in the morning it was still on the plant, I went out for hrs. We thought it would get to hot for it to keep attached to it and the next day it was supposed to rain…we moved it inside.

We left some rue and sticks in a container. Is it wrong that we moved it? Should we find a better area to let it do its thing outside?

Can we get some help? First time. My whole household is excited to witness this miracle as this is the very first time for us to have a caterpillar! Well, once it tasted the lovage it would not touch anything else after that! When they started to form into there chrysalis only one looked healthy. When the second one finished it looked as it was cut or something, but there was nothing in its way. Did I do something wrong? Did the caterpillar have a parasite or something?

We were beside ourselves when we found three black swallowtail caterpillars on our dill weed. Ironically we just moved from Texas to North Carolina and are just getting to see these guys!

We caught three, bought a habitat and brought them inside to munch on more fresh dill. After a little over a week the two that have survived went into chrysalis phase. True to your blog post one was green and the other brown!

If we keep our house cool due to summer heat have you ever seen that cause these guys to overwinter? Dear Swallowtail Experts: I was surprised to find a swallowtail caterpillar in our yard, and brought it in with chokecherry branches. It very soon was a chrysalis. But that was over a month ago,and fall is coming. When would that be good to do? They can take months to emerge. Replicating Nature is always the best course. Natural light and temperature cues.

Thank you Monika for your reply! I guess the best thing would be to put the cage outside, out of direct sunlight after the Monarchs hatch. What happens when the frost comes? We had one in a ball and that came from a potted flat parsley plant and just made a brownish chrysalis this morning. Before the caterpillar searches for that perfect spot to form its chrysalis, it will purge any remaining food all over the cage floor. Thankfully, we had our poo poo platter inserted on the cage floor so they purged inside that.

Otherwise, it can stain the cage floor, as our eastern tiger swallowtails did multiple times in this cage:. Swallowtails will attach themselves to the cage wall, cage ceiling, stick, or host plant in two places: at the base with a silk pad and with a silk girdle around the mid section of the caterpillar:. This poor swallowtail was compromised by disease or parasites. This photo was taken several seasons ago, and the caterpillar never did form its chrysalis.

If you know what happened to the caterpillar pictured above, please post a comment a the bottom of the page…. This caterpillar formed a chrysalis directly on its golden Alexander host plant. Green chrysalides are more common during the spring and early summer. Many believe this is a defense mechanism against predators that helps them blend in with their surroundings…. In the late summer and fall, the chrysalis colors are more likely to blend in with the tree branches that will hide them from predators over winter.

A monarch chrysalis will hatch reliably in days, but the swallowtail family is on a European vacation schedule. They can take weeks, or longer if they see fit. Before your butterfly emerges, the chrysalis will turn dark with yellow accent spots revealing the butterfly inside. When the adult butterfly emerges, it will come out of the top of the chrysalis, and find a place to hang down to expand and dry its wings properly:.

This insures they will have plenty of energy to elude potential predators upon release. Females typically have more blue hue in their hindwings, and less prominent yellow wing markings:.

Would you like to start raising eastern black swallowtails through all 4 stages of the butterfly life cycle? Click here for butterfly cages and helpful raising supplies.