"shsnow" wrote in message
...
i have some zebra-striped catepillars who are all over my parsley -- like
a
whole family just appeared one day and began camping out. they are eating
the be-geesis out of the parsley, too. are they likely to move on to other
plants? should i be concerned? should i pluck 'em off and git rid of 'em?


Check this:

http://www.chias.org/online/thebutte...de/native.html

I think you have black swallowtail 'pillars. Pretty catepillars and
lovely butterflies, but waay too fond of dill and parsley. If it's
possible, and you have more than one parsley plant, you might try
relocating them to a Designated Food Plant. Your choices are to
sacrfice some parsley and save the butterfly, or, um, save the
parsley. As to the other part of your question, they're pretty
specific in their eating habits. Not likely to affect many other
plants (the above reference mentions wild carrot (Queen Anne's Lace),
parsnips (who knew?) and celery.