Grow dill, fennel & rue to attract Swallowtail caterpillars

Jacey Bowers:

All righty. Hey guys, this is Jacey. We’re at Wabash, and I am going to be discussing giant Swallowtail butterflies and what herbs and plants attract them. The first one we have is dill. I go nuts for dill. It’s a fantastic herb in the garden. It brings a lot of beneficial insects because of all the seeds, but also, look at these swallowtails. These are going to be beautiful Swallowtail butterflies pretty soon. This is one of the few host plants that are able to actually take this caterpillar on and let it eat its foliage down to about the nub. Another wonderful herb that the caterpillars are able to use as food is rue. Rue is fantastic in the garden and it omits an aroma. There really aren’t a whole lot of plants, y’all, that can bring pollinators, attract wonderful, beneficial butterflies, and act as aromatic herbs in the garden, so we really want to use as much of them as we can. Come on by, get your dill, get your fennel, get your rue and plant on.