Students were out in the garden for the first time in the new school year, and we came across a strange sight: big black and white caterpillars on our carrot plants!
The caterpillars had stripped all the leaves off a number of plants.
So we removed the caterpillars and tried to feed them to the chickens, but they weren't interested. Despite how fascinating (and even cute) the caterpillars looked, we had to protect our carrots, so Mr. Dwyer killed them.
A little research by Mr. Dwyer revealed that the caterpillars were the larvae of the black swallowtail butterfly. This is a picture from Wikipedia.
It turns out the caterpillars are common garden pests. They are not poisonous, but they have bright coloring to warn predators, and they can spray a foul smelling chemical. That's why the chickens stayed away. As adults, swallowtail butterflies are helpful to gardens, but we'd prefer they spend their childhood elsewhere.
You never know what you're going to find in the garden!
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