In my carrot patch! I’ve wanted one of these guys for years, and I’ve planted several dill plants in the last few years hoping to catch one. (Dill is in the carrot family.) This year, Landon and Johnathan were digging up carrots and they found this beauty, which will turn into an impressive black swallowtail butterfly next spring. (He’ll overwinter in the fridge.)
He has a pair of orange-ish horns that he sticks out when he’s mad. They make a pretty disgusting smell as a defense mechanism.
“Oh, no, little teeny tiny caterpillar, I will not eat you. You are so scary with your eency-weency horns that smell bad. Even though I am a many, many times bigger than you are, you are very, very scary!”
Sarah,
I’m glad the scary caterpillar paid you a visit.
Love, Grandma Kathy