I planted couple of spicebushes about a month ago with the idea to serve as a host plant for Swallowtails next year. One bush didn't make it, ( I think my dog used it as a bathroom) the other is healthy but still tiny, barely foot and a half tall.
Well, 6 caterpillars already moved in and ate every single leaf on the plant.
I don't think they are big enough to move on and start chrysalis
Does anyone know if there is any other plant they would use as a host? I have a lot of plants native to central Virginia.
I feel bad just letting them die out like that.
Edit: I have Sweet Magnolia in the back of my yard. just moved couple to see if they like it.
Nursery where i bought Spicebush plants month ago does not have them anymore.
by Visual-Oil-1922
7 Comments
Are you able to get more Spicebushes?? They also will eat; sassafras trees (Sassafras albidum); perhaps prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana), camphor (Cinnamomum camphora), and redbay (Persea borbonia) as per https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Papilio-troilus
I don’t know of other plants that could support this caterpillar, but fwiw, I started out with one small milkweed with two monarch caterpillars in early spring, now have 7 milkweeds in the ground (three failed) and still not enough leaves for all the current caterpillars to survive.
I think this is kind of like a freeway dilemma, where we think expanding lanes will dilute traffic but actually it attracts more traffic. Your spicebush should come back bigger and stronger next year, which will help it support more for longer. At the end of the season, nature just gets gruesome.
It’ll grow back bigger next year. If you get rabbits over winter, it’s worth caging it. They love attacking mine.
A lot of places are selling shrubs like that for cheap as the season winds down. You could think about replacing the dead one, maybe. I’d keep it in the pot next to these guys, then transplant it after they’re done.
About the dog pee–I make cages with rolled wire fencing to keep my dogs from peeing on new plants. They can be secured in place with a stake or landscape staples. The coated wire is very inconspicuous.
Im jealous!!! That’s so awesome.
I’ve got 5 or 6 mature spicebush. 2 or 3 more very small ones and 2 in the 18″-2′ range. I can’t find 1 caterpillar, none. I keep trying though. Lol
I planted 5 bareroot spicebush last fall hopefully next year I will get some of this action.
Where are you? If you aren’t too far my spicebushes are huge. 20+ years and zero cats.