Swallowtail Butterfly

Last year Logan and I discovered these caterpillars on our fennel plants. Nick googled them for us and we discovered that they turned into the swallowtail butterfly. Fennel grows wild all over San Diego County so it is pretty hard for us to get anywhere because we stop at every fennel plant to check for these guys. The swallowtail butterfly is endangered so we collect them and let them hatch in the safety of our living room. After they have come out of the cocoon they take a few hours to gain enough strength to try out their new bodies then we release them!

I try to keep up with a natural light cycle for them so in the evenings we carry their box outside so it can get dark naturally. We also have a collection of tomato worms that we feed to the lizard and the turkeys. One day the male turkey broke onto the deck (where he is not allowed) and completely raided the tomato worm habitat, I was grateful he left the swallowtail cocoons alone!