A long time ago when I was a teenager, my mom decided (why, oh why oh why!) to plant dill. So she planted dill. Right next to our bedrooms. My sister's, mine, & the master bedrooms all smelled like pickles for 3 years (the dill went wild & we couldn't ever get it under control). However, it also attracted tons & tons & TONS of swallowtail butterflies! I captured (if that's the right word) like 4 caterpillars & put them in (imagine that) a 1gal pickle jar with tons of dill for them to eat. Covered the top w/a nylon stocking & kept it in the garage away from the heat so that they were well protected. Had to replace the dill every day 'cuz they were devouring it faster than anything! Finally, I put in 6 sturdy sticks in the jar & they crystallized into their cocoons. About a week later, I had 4 gorgeous swallowtail butterflies emerging! I opened up the jar & GENTLY pulled out the sticks so they had lots of wing room to dry off. Those silly butterflies followed me everywhere that day, trying to get into the house whenever I went in! I guess I smelled like their pheromones or something. I ended up leading them like a mother goose w/goslings over to the area where all the dill had grown & they fluttered off that area. There had to have been 50 butterflies in that small patch (about 20x20)! It was awesome. Every year thereafter there was tons of them because of the dill. Small smelly price to pay for such beauty.
I get these types of swallowtails here:
