Monarch Poop, Free Swallowtail Larva, and Other Garden Insect Photos

As five large monarch larvae get close to pupating, they've produced copious amounts of feces.













And, how does one get free black swallowtail larvae (below)? Why, one meanders through a local nursery and finds one last bronze fennel, on sale, with a single caterpillar on it. He (or she, or it) then picks off other larvae from nearby parsley and puts them on the fennel until he (or she, or it) has four caterpillars. This, in conjunction with a $6 Queen of the Prairie and Boltonia--plus two shirts for under $10 at Kohls--makes it a good day, indeed, while the wife is away in Vegas dancing with strippers and taking out a fifth mortgage to play keno.



































The below garden shots I took while, for a whole hour last night, looking for a chrysallis or ten in my 2500 square feet of gardens and found none. One photo is the molted skin of a locust / grasshopper. Freaky cool, like the zit on my back I can't reach. (You may wonder if I share such facts as the above while teaching--I respond by asking if you know of any better way to keep students awake in the middle of a writing / lit lecture.)