Our dill is getting eaten, cut off about 6" above the ground. The beans, tomatoes, beets, and lettuce are (so far) untouched. I think there's a woodchuck around, though I haven't seen one lately, and I haven't found a hole under the fence. Could it be deer?
TIA, George
My guess would be baby swallowtail butterflies. :-) They do a number on dill and parsley which is why when I do plant it, I plant extra, and I plant Anise for them as well so I can relocate the little buggers to it when I find them. I have no use for Anise....
but I do love swallowtail butterflies so I don't kill them.
Plant more.
And plant parsley.
Check for caterpillars at dawn and dusk.
OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote: "My guess would be baby swallowtail butterflies. :-)"
No!
Plant a little extra fennel and give a butterfly a break! Black swallowtail caterpillars don't do as much damage as a tomato hornworm, and they're such lovely butterflies. We just had about 20 black swallowtail caterpillars over at my mother's house, and even with that high a number on one fennel plant, they only stripped one large stalk.
And we know where 3 of the chrysalides are, and are watching for their emergence. It's so exciting! My mother and I actually saw the butterfly lay the eggs on the fennel.
Penelope
Those larvae are so beautiful, I would never pick them off! If you tap them gently on the head, their orange sense organ will shoot out like a tongue--it's fun to tell children you've trained them to do this. :)
I did pick them off of my dill as I did not have that much...
but I did it gently and moved them to the parsley (since I had plenty and did not have much use for it) and the fennel on the end of the herb garden as I have _no_ use for fennel. The fennel was planted entirely for the baby swallowtails. It seems to last them longer.
"tuckermo" expounded:
I love them, too, and never remove them.
I didn't know this! Thanx!
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