Thanks Gumby... I took those pics a few years ago on an Atlantic Giant pumpkin plant in my yard. The bottom pic was zoomed in, the actual eggs are more the size seen in the top pic, that's why they are often hard to find. My plant this year is only approaching 10-12 feet and was out there this weekend and an adult SVB landed on a leaf and I blasted it with the pump sprayer but it flew away. It was the first one I've seen so far. While the plant is still a manageable size, you can carefully inspect the vine and its underside and only after complete inspection and no eggs found, you can bury the vine with an inch or 2 of dirt or compost--this reduces the places the moth can lay eggs, as well as increases the plant's strength by putting out roots at the nodes along the vine. This works for most squash, especially pumpkins and winter squash. I know on AG pumpkins, the nodes will put out roots from both the bottom of the vine node as well as the top. It also helps anchor the plant in strong winds. Of course, you must make sure there are no eggs before burying it. As for pyrethrins "killing" the eggs, I don't have a definitive answer. I did remove a tendril piece of stalk with 2 eggs on it one year after spraying a couple days earlier and stuck it in a baggy and kept it in my garage for a couple weeks to see if they would hatch but the eggs looked the same at 2 weeks. It may depend on the pyrethrin or permethrin used. The most effective active ingredients I've found were lambda cyhalothrin, followed by esfenvalerate. I've had no luck on SVB's with neem, Bt, Malathion, Methoxychlor or Carbaryl (Sevin.) Hope this helps. Mark

Wow, it looks like she left you the mother lode there, Sherry! ;-) I think the most I ever had in a bunch was about 24. They're my very favorite caterpillar to raise. I love to put a few lengths of vine in a big storage container and watch the cats scurry along on their way to somewhere that I guess they have in mind. They always make it look like it's urgent. Ha. That's a Carolina wren for ya, building a nest in such a strange place. One year I had a pair build a nest on one of the shelves in my workshop after those little opportunists sneaked in there a few days when I had the door open and made themselves right at home. I didn't shut the door again until after the babies fledged. I have bluebird houses stacked up in our corncrib and one year the Carolina wrens made a nest in one of them even with it turned upside down. My dad had one build a nest in his fishing net one yet. Out of all of the birds that I get here, I call them the most eccentric. :) They sure are cute little things and they love the peanut butter/cornmeal/shortening mix that I put out in a log feeder for them in the winter. Cathy

Congrats, Christie - ten tigers is a lot to find! You'll undoubtedly be finding spicebush and black swallowtail eggs, soon. I've found lots of spicebush eggs that I'll be bringing in today, probably. Sherry

Wow! I hope you've got enough aristolochia to raise all the cats you'll be getting. Where did you get your A. triloba? My Mama pipevine swallowtail laid more eggs on the new growth that came on my pipevines after cutting off so many leaves and small branches to feed the big group of caterpillars. I went to the new property and got some leaves for the ones I'm raising now, hoping that trimming those vines would stimulate those vines to make new growth, and no Mama PVS would find them just yet. Six of the ones I'm raising now have purged. I put them in the cage with black swallowtail chrysalides and the giant swallowtail chrysalis - all but one have stuck themselves onto the top or side of the cage to make their chrysalis. I put one big leaf in the cage with them in case that one wasn't ready to pupate, just running around like its hair was on fire for the fun of it! I'm really busy! I remember how glad I was when my pipevine swallowtail caterpillars were done raising! :0 Sherry