Check it out: Late season caterpillar made an appearance in my garden

Sometimes our gardens deal with unwanted critters that eat everything in their path. Squirrel's, rabbits, and moles are often at the top of the list. And sometimes, it's hard to stop it.

However, there are also those that are welcome in the garden any time. Especially those rare visitors that you may not see that often. And for our garden, we recently had one such visitor.

Caterpillar eating parsley in a New Jersey garden

See that little guy above? Of all my years having a garden, this was the first caterpillar I think I've ever seen in it. And in the parsley of all places, a perfect spot for it.

We watched this little guy for days, just eating away at the leaves. We didn't mind it, especially since we have an ample supply of parsley growing in this area.

It didn't move too terribly fast from branch to branch, but it did eat a lot. And it was getting bigger, too. I believe this was the caterpillar of a black swallowtail butterfly, which are absolutely beautiful.

Mike Brant TSM (Caterpillar) / Canva (Black Swallowtail Butterfly)

Unfortunately, I have no idea if this little guy has, or ever will make it to adulthood. We noticed it in our garden a couple of weeks ago, until we didn't.

We have no idea if it worked its way to a tree or somewhere else to transform into a chrysalis, or if it ultimately got plucked by a bird or became a meal for something else.

I was told that birds to like to eat these caterpillars, and it's one of the reasons why we were debating getting a jar for it. Ultimately, we decided to leave it free and let nature do whatever was meant for it. Hopefully, our little New Jersey visitor made it to adulthood.

Caterpillar eating parsley in a New Jersey garden

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.