Even after cracking all those tomato plant hornworm eggs, I'm still finding more caterpillars on my plants, including a few that have been badly parasitized by whatever it is that makes those white things on their backs. They've gotten to some of my actual tomatoes, eating big chunks out of them. I've been cutting off the stems they're on, putting them in water picks and sticking them in the soil of the big container that had a tomato growing in it - it was going to be the plant I gave the hornworms, but it's just a skeleton of one now. Wagner says that tobacco hornworms have 7 diagonal lines and tomato hornworms have 8 with an extra horizontal line along the bottom making the diagonal lines look like sideways 'Vs' - mine all have 7 diagonal lines, no white line across the bottom, plus all their horns have turned red, so they must all be tobacco hornworms/manducca sexta. I'm just going to let them find their own place to tunnel underground - there's plenty of it out there! I've been feeding them the stems on my tomato plants that are in shady spots that will never flower and make tomatoes, like the lowermost leaves and others. Several times people have asked how I got interested in butterflies and moths. After finding so many stripped tomato plant branches and tomatoes that had been bitten into, I remembered that it was actually tomato/tobacco hornworms that prompted me to really get into wildlife. It was all the beautiful butterflies I saw on this property when we first looked at it that really made me want to buy it. Then after we moved here, I enjoyed the butterflies, but didn't study them, much less raise any myself. I planted a garden each spring like I did when I lived in town - in town, I'd get an occasional hornworm, but they didn't do enough damage to worry about. After we moved here I'd hardly get any tomatoes at all because of the JILLIONS of huge hornworms that totally devoured my plants. The weeds grew more rampantly than they ever did in town, too. I finally decided that the only way I'd ever be able to grow tomatoes or other vegetables here was to use vast amounts of insecticides, which is something I didn't want to do - this has got to be one of the "buggiest" places in America! Since I couldn't lick 'em, I joined 'em! The grocery store has plenty of vegetables, I thought, so that's where I'd get them. I made this picture of two of the tobacco hornworms - notice that one has dark lines and the other doesn't - MissSherry

What you are describing is very typical of ichneumon wasps. They tend to have one larva that exits and pupates. The cocoon can even have very pretty patterns (see http://bugguide.net/node/view/21674/bgimage ). There are wasps that lay eggs inside eggs. These are the trichogramas typically. However, they usually kill the developing eggs and a fully grown wasp emerges. KC is right about the boom-bust cycle. We are seeing Red Admirals down here in the South Dayton area (just wait KC they are coming to Columbus soon). Last year though, I swear I saw two all summer long. I caught a nice, hopefully, female for the house just last night. She was hanging around the hops vine and nettle outside the house so hopefully she will lay some eggs for us. I am afraid the only thing you can do is to net the plants as soon as mom lays the eggs. As soon as they hatch and start munching the wasps find them. The wasps locate the caterpillar by using the chemical clues around the plant. Both volatiles that the plant produces and that of the caterpillar. It has been well studied in the Manduca sexta. The tobacco plant even has evolved to produce different chemical responses to the types of damage it receives. If it is a caterpillar munching on it, the plant releases chemicals that alert wasps to the presence of the caterpillar. Cheers, Elisabeth

Whew! 'Sounds like it's just as hot and humid in OK as it is here in southeast MS! I worked outside last night until it was so dark I couldn't see - a cloud cover had moved in, and the temps were much cooler. I finally got the new passis planted that I hadn't planted yet, specifically, p. mucronata (2), p. umbilicata (2), p. 'Amethyst', p. amethystina'Minas Gervais', and p. eichlerianna. I went to Walmart right after supper, got 2 giant bags of potting soil, and used this potting soil mixed with the native soil and some chicken manure in the raised bed boxes that are no longer useful in my garden, which I moved from my garden to places next to my new fence. I've got something planted and/or growing in front of just about every square inch of my picket fence! The gulf frits are continuing to lay more eggs on my passis, so I should reach the 'no vines left' stage again this year by early fall. I'm still not finding any palamedes swallowtail eggs or cats - I'm only seeing males, and the female I released the other day hasn't shown up. I hope she's alright! I'm raising lots of pipevine, giant, and spicebush swallowtails, and gulf frits, also cecropias - the red-spotted purples and buckeyes have all pupated, so they should be emerging soon. It's been a good year, but I wish I could see and raise question marks and viceroys again like I used to. The heat is the big thing now, but then it IS mid-July! Sherry

I think you're right, Karri. It looks like it has "slashes" (manduca sexta) rather than "Chevrons" which are typical of the tomato hornworm (manduca quinquemaculata). These are really fun to raise! Just put some potting soil (about 3-4") in the bottom of a container when they are close to being ready to pupate, as many of the sphingidae pupate underground. The cocoon will have a little "hook" on it, which contains the probiscus of the moth. Susan