sunfish

Parsley (along with dill and fennel) is a favorite food of the brightly striped parsleyworm caterpillar, which becomes the treasured black swallowtail butterfly. Some gardeners plant enough parsley for themselves and the beautiful butterflies-to-be, which are likely to appear in late summer and fall. While parsleyworms may eat much of the plant, they won’t kill it, and giving them habitat is worth it. A serious pest, though, is the whitefly. To get rid of it, spray the undersides of the leaves thoroughly with insecticidal soap.

Kat2

I have to admit that I heartily discouraged my parselyworms ages ago; I was supremely ticked that those aliens were destroying my crop so I plucked them off and drowned them or sprayed them with soap water. Fortunately I got lazy and read up on what they were even after having my mugo pines destroyed by some other "worms" and saw the babies in my gardens--how pretty!

Eventually I learned to plant extras of Swiss chard for the goldfinches who loved the seeds and bronze fennel for "worms" which they preferred to parsley. Years later I'm still fuming about that total parsley loss--I had plans for tabbouleh from my 3 plants that didn't happen that year.

Plant extra if you plant a "trap" crop is the best way to coexist with nature.

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cincinnana

I plant parsley and milkweed just to TRY to draw the Monarch butterfly .

For the longest time there was a Monarch butterfly" shortage"in my area ,there still is.
Parsley should be for butterflies and not on a plate in a restaurant.

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Richard

The Monarchs come around here in the Fall, but never in the Spring. When I see a host of caterpillars on my herbs and vegetables, I spray with Evergreen EC, but when the Monarchs are around I don't spray at all. The Monarch's timing is very good because none of the other usual suspects are present at that time.

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Kat2

Parsley as a garnish is a total waste unless diners realize it's a great breath freshener so partake of it to kill the garlic they've inhaled--I do. But tabbouleh is a wonderful salad that should be enjoyed. Plant extras or other trap plants. BTW, it wasn't Monarchs attracted to my MD garden but beautiful black and blue swallowtails. Watching the cloud of babies in my city garden where I couldn't attract a hummingbird to save my life (they're thick in Ohio) was amazing. As were the praying mantis babies when they hatched. (I've confessed before to destroying nests thinking they were mud daubers--life is a lesson.)

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