What about Bob?

Remember Bob? My baby Anise swallowtail caterpillar that came with one of my two fennel plants that I purchased at this spring's Texas Discovery Garden butterfly plant sale? The caterpillar that either became a chrysalis or met an early end in the belly of bird? Click HERE if your memory needs a little jogging.

Well, I am here to report that my fennel is no longer thriving. It is, in fact, no more. My new theory is that Bob grew up into a beautiful butterfly and decided to lay eggs on my fennel plants in an effort to give the next generation the kind of nurturing start in life that my backyard had provided. Except he underestimated the combined gluttony of five ravenous caterpillars on two somewhat puny, young fennel plants.

Hence:






Please note that one of the fennel plants is nothing but a limp, brown stem lying in the dirt.

Despite the fact that they caterpillars had effectively eaten my plants bare, they insisted on hanging out and munching away until the branches and trunk of the plant were also consumed. As a result, my pretty blue pot is now home to nothing but dirt and the occasional pop-up weed.

Very sad.

Something has also killed my passion vine.

I am starting to think that butterflies aren’t so sweet and innocent after all. I’ve heard of a plague of locusts, but never a plague of caterpillars. And yet all my host plants seem to have returned to dust. Hmmmm…