"Funny Sherry I was wondering the same thing about inbreeding, never have seen any mention of it when reading about captive breeding." When I showed up here almost 7 years ago, I took some people to task about the way they were releasing large numbers of inbred giant silk moths. That went over like a lead weight so I have pretty much kept my mouth shut since then. Ladobe criticized one of our members about it last year but no one followed up on it. The quote was "Besides weakening the gene pool, forced inbreeding produces low egg viability, high malformation risk and so therefore high mortality. Not a good practice." One consequence of moth inbreeding helped cause a shift in USDA policy last month. The USDA no longer regulates interstate shipments of Bombyx mori. Those moths are so inbred they can no longer survive in the wild. I raise relatively large numbers (up to 400 of one type) of Saturniidae every year. I go to great lengths to try to make sure the wild males that my girls mate with are not the brothers or the male first cousins that I released. I also try to make sure my released males and females do not mate with each other. I do this by doing releases at least 10 miles (usually more) from my house and releasing the females and males at least 10 miles (usually more) away from each other. I used to mark my males to make sure they were not finding their way home but quit being that paranoid after years of never getting one back. I release at least 10 miles away because 7 miles seems to be the generally accepted maximum distance that a male Saturniidae can follow a female's pheromones. That said, I have seen a claim that male giant silk moths can follow female pheromones for "nearly 30" miles. YMMV I preface my next statement by saying I have no clue how this guy operates. There is a guy in Ohio that raises 3k-4k cecropias each year. I read that he has been raising them since '86. Something wiped out his cats in 2008 and he had to start over in 2009. I'm real curious if inbreeding affected his setup and I'd like to know what happens to all the moths he doesn't sell (IOW, do they get let go). As for inbreeding butterflies and affecting the gene pool, there is a lot of info/controversy on the net about it because of people raising butterflies for mass release at weddings. One related article I have posted before is linked at the end of this post. Last thought: I know of one inbred butterfly that has been studied a lot: monarchs on Hawaii. I believe around 20% of them are white now. My guess is they do alright because the favorable weather conditions don't put a lot of stress on them. They would probably have trouble with migrating to Mexico and surviving the winters there. Anyway, there is a lot of research out there about them. KC Here is a link that might be useful: All Aflutter

Mourning cloaks? Now I'd love to raise some of those, Tiffy, but I've only gotten one visit from one, and that was years ago - it was a very worn looking individual, surely on its last legs. I'm on the southern boundary of their range, so it probably came a long way. That burgundy or eggplant coloring on their wings with the gold rims is gorgeous! Hopefully, the monarchs will find your milkweed. I've got a lot of milkweed this year in my garden. I decided to go ahead and plant more, because the A. curassavica is so easy to grow, it comes back every spring, and it flowers all summer and fall with flowers that are as nearly as popular with the butterflies as lantana and butterfly bush. I'm hoping to get some monarchs in late summer or early fall - that's the only time I get eggs and cats. I just see a few individuals in the spring, flying through. I keep finding more giant swallowtail eggs, but a few of them look like duds, I'm not sure. I've also found a few more black swallowtail eggs, also more gulf frit eggs. Something weird happened yesterday with gulf frit eggs. I walked through the gate on my picket fence to go into the house, because it was about to rain. I saw a gulf frit flying away from a passionvine just as I was going through the gate, so I checked it out, and she'd laid three eggs. Just then, a downpour of rain came, didn't last too long, followed by light rain. After the rain, two of the eggs were gone! This is the first time I've ever seen eggs washed off a leaf. I assume that, since she had apparently just laid them, the 'stick-em' hadn't had time to do its job. There were a few other eggs on other vines that I'd seen earlier that stayed put, thank goodness. The little gulf frits I'm raising are getting less little every day - their growth rate is amazing, so much faster than swallowtails! It rained a little again today, and there's a good chance for more tomorrow, so the drought is better, but, as we've discussed before, I'm not seeing the butterflies like I did when it wasn't raining. They couldn't have all suddenly left, so I guess they're just hanging out somewhere waiting for fair weather! :) Sherry

Congratulations, Jeff! They're my favorite cat to raise. They're so comical and I love to hear them eat. I waited several years before I got some PVST here, but I was glad that they waited awhile because I would never have had enough pipevine the first couple years to feed very many cats. Last year after I released them, they mated and laid eggs for yet another generation here, but this year after I raised them and released them, those ingrates left never to be seen again. Ha. I think I'm happy with one "brood" a year though. Even though I have a lot of pipevine, 200+ cats last year put a pretty big dent in it! Cathy

I was reading some of these stories to my hubby tonight and he reminded me of our neighbor Jen's story and I decided I needed to share it with the stupid garden tricks... Our neighbor across the street has been divorced for about three years or so..and let his lawn go to pot as a result..he is a really nice guy, but lost interest when his family moved out. About 6 months ago, he fell in love with a girl about ten years younger than him, she was just 19...and she moved in. He aplogized all over the place to everyone that would listen about his robbing the cradle and that she was so young, but begging everyone to give them a chance and accept it because he loved her. She is JUST 19 and niave....but quickly we learned to love her too..she is a big sweetheart, even if a bit naive sometimes. Late this spring, when my hubby and I pulled in the driveway she followed behind us on foot and asked what we thought of what she had done to the yard. She had pulled and piled his mountains of weeds. I am not kidding in the back yard, the weeds were taller than cars and unused lawn equipement had sat there for years and they had grown around them while he grieved his lost marriage. What was once a nice yard had become an eyesore. She had done a ton of work and we were amazed..she said her hands had blistered even with gloves because the weeds in the back were as thick as saplings. She then asked if we had any weed killer and a sprayer she could borrow. My husband impressed with her work so far said he sure did..it was even already mixed up and it was extra good stuff. He walked with her to our garage and got it for her, and I went in the house. In the meantime, my daughter called and we began idle chit chat, I heard my hubby come in and sit in front of the tube and never thought a thing of it. I talk on the phone and walk about the house and found myself near a window. I looked out, and there was that Jen out there spraying her yard away in the front. I never thought a thing about it, admiring her determination at such a young age with the lost yard. Then she happened to turn towards me and I gasped when I saw which sprayer she had. My husband had given her the roundup sprayer...assuming she was killing the big weeds around the fence and dead lawn equipment in the back that she had been complained about..but instead she was spraying her front yard randomly. I quick hung up the phone and hollared at him to go stop her. He felt terrible...she was mortified and felt young and stupid..she didn't know there was such a thing as roundup..she thought it would only kill weeds,not grass..so she was spraying every weed she saw in the front yard. My husband told her to water quickly and see what happened..he felt terrible that he had misunderstood what she wanted. He always uses granular on the lawn weeds, not liquid so he was not even thinking that way. About two weeks later, these HUGE brown smiley faces of grass began appearing in the lawn. We walked over to apolgize to them but they were laughing bout it. Being just 19 and silly..every weed she had seen, she said..GOTTCHA and after she spritzed it with "weed killer" she drew a smiley face around it... it wasn't bad enough she had sprayed weeds in the grass with roundup but she had drawn prety faces to announce she was in power now....there were dozens of dead grass smiley faces all over the front lawn for passerbys to see. My husband couldnt even look each time we left home. He felt partly responsible. I just chucked..what else can you do? :)