I have some square foot garden mats growing in my raised beds in the community garden. One of the ones that is near harvesting is the Envy Carrot Mat. When I went to check on it, I noticed 6 or 7 large, actually quite beautiful caterpillars munching on my carrot tops. I realized they were the Black Swallowtail caterpillars. So the questions is, do I spray them or pick them off and destroy them to save my carrots knowing that in the near future they will turn into this….
I choose to let them feed happily on my carrot leaves. I am only interested in the carrots themselves and they will have no effect on the carrots. I would rather see the butterflies flit about on a warmer August afternoon than have a perfectly “pest” free garden.
Here’s an image of one of the caterpillars – I’ve seen a lot of them, especially in the carrot patch, this season:
