My Hercules Club Tree finally grew up enough to attract a Giant Swallowtail Butterfly; I caught her laying eggs on it:

The bird-poo looking Giant Swallowtal Caterpillars slowly nibble on the leaves, but on this Hercules Club Tree they have some competition. See that white dot on the leaf above my finger? That's one of the many evil M. Undatus Weevils munching on the tree.

The weevils are on all of my plants; they seem to eat everything.

Another sap sucking critter on this tree is this nasty scale. The bugs are disgusting; they look like green, white and brown scabs stuck all around the branch.

I don't like to use bug spray, and refuse to use it on a host plant like this Hercules Club Tree while the Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars are on it, so one of my favorite ways of fighting the scale is to roast it briefly with a grill lighter (Disclaimer - use that method only if you're an adult, and at your own risk. Use of any flame can cause burns and fires.) It's hard to kill all of the scale, but it gets rid of some of it. Unfortunately, if you cook it too long, that method gets rid of the plant too.

Bugs aside, this is still one of my favorite plants now that I've seen the Swallowtails on it several times.

I could do without the thorns, but everything those big butterflies lay eggs on seems to be thorny, and I enjoy having the butterflies around.

This Ambush Bug was lurking under a leaf on the Hercules Club too. I've never seen one with a Giant Swallowtail, but I have seen them kill other butterflies, so I didn't leave this one on the tree.