I hope everybody gets their vines going good this year! Mine really are vigorous! I dug up three of the volunteers, and I was sure they were going to wilt immediately, because I had to break the big root that connected them to the main plant. I potted them up in some good dirt, watered them, put them in a shady spot, and then it rained on them yesterday. This morning, they're still turgid and healthy looking! I did notice that they had some small fibrous roots of their own - if they can keep making more of those, then I'll have three more a. tomentosas to plant. The original four cats I brought in have all successfully pupated - three are brown and one is green. The others that I brought into another cage are starting to pupate also - when you have plenty of tender new growth to feed your PVS cats, and don't have to use older leaves, they grow SOOOO fast and pupate so easily! You should see all the cats on my vines now - you wouldn't believe your eyes! MissSherry

I guess this means that we never have enough food for any caterpillar, right? I always get really low on passion vine when the Gulf Fritillaries are here, low on milkweed when the Monarchs are in abundance, and low on Rue and parsley when the Black Swallowtails are here. I keep crossing my fingers and hoping that the PVS's will NOT lay eggs on my pipevines until they are big enough to sustain a population. Right now, I'm hoping the 8-spotted foresters and eumorpha achemons will leave some VC on the vines. They eat all the tender, new foliage first. The EAs eat a TON of foliage. Voracious appetites. But, yesterday, it seemed like every new tendril I checked had an 8SF on it. I don't recall ever having that many. I've never had many caterpillars this early in the season, like the sulphurs for example. So, this is a new and exciting experience for me. I hope Linda is okay, those tornados were fairly close to her. Geez, what a night for those folks in western Oklahoma. The town of Sweetwater had great damage to the school that they rebuilt after a tornado in 2003. Those "after dark" tornados are frightening - even to the storm trackers - because they can't SEE the tornados developing. Susan

I've seen butterflies lay eggs on nearby plants other than the host plant many times - it usually happens when the host plant vine is intermingling with another type vine. I've even seen gulf frits and question marks lay eggs on the fence that their host vines are growing on. If I were you, I'd cut off the whole four o'clock stem that the eggs are on and either put it in a water pick or other container with water in it (like a leftovers container) with a pipevine leaf or stem piece stuck right next to the four o'clock stem or attach the leaf the eggs are on directly to a pipevine stem - I use twist ties for this. This way when the eggs hatch, the hatchlings can easily travel to proper food. If you know when the eggs were laid you can wait to do this until right before they normally hatch - I can't remember PVS eggs ever hatching before 6 days. MissSherry

Paul, Congratulations on your PVS eggs and Monarch cats! Yes, I bet you'll be getting more Monarch eggs. I hope that you also find those GF eggs that you're hoping for. I love this time of year too. Maryann, I agree about the Monarchs. I didn't mark down when they showed up here last year, but I thought I had some by now. They still aren't here. I'm practically butterflyless. I see an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail about every day; today I watched it nectaring on the orange cosmos and some clover in our yard. I've been seeing a sulphur (I'm not good at IDing and am not sure if it was Clouded, Cloudless, or Orange. I saw my first Silver-spotted Skipper on Thursday; it was nectaring on some violas. I've been seeing Cabbage Whites for probably about two months now. I have no idea if the black butterfly with markings that I've seen flying around here is a Spicebush Swallowtail or the black form of the ETST. Nothing has been eating at any of my plants except the groundhog (it's still here but up further in the yard now) and the slugs. I put shallow dishes outside in the flower beds with beer in them to kill the slugs. I think they eat anything and everything. I don't know if they're the ones that have holes in my hyacinth bean vines but they're holey. The two Dutchmans Pipevine plants that I have outside are real nice looking and starting to climb up the trellis that I made for them. It's not the fanciest-looking trellis in the world, but I guess they won't mind. Yesterday I was working up the garden section where I want to put the Agastache foeniculum and will plant those today. I still have my Dame's Rocket to plant and a lot of other things like I said before. I think it would be kind of ironic if I wouldn't get any Monarchs and I probably have enough to feed several hundred cats. Now, if I don't see any a month from now yet, then I will definitely wonder where in the world they are. Cathy