Sheesh! What nerve! And she even asked you to include host plant material? That's the reason you're giving them away - too many eggs/cats, not enough host plant material.
I've finally covered the baker's racks my little potted ptelea trifoliatas are on, because the GSTs are laying so many eggs on them, they keep getting eaten down to the nubs - they'll never grow tall enough that I can plant them out like this!
I'm about throwing up my hands with the PVSs! I can't plant enough aristolochia for them, it's impossible because they multiply faster than the plants. I've been digging up a. tomoentosa ground sprouts and planting them in some of the raised beds by my new fence, and, fortunately, most of them were taking and starting to make new growth, but I noticed yesterday that the cats had gotten on them and eaten the few leaves on them!
Sherry

Sandy, I agree with you and Sherry, that person has some nerve! You made the decision to turn the person down just like I did last year. Some of my other online friends know that I raise butterflies and the one guy who owns a business emailed me wondering how many Monarchs I could raise in a season. He wanted to make a deal with me to sell them! I told him that mine aren't for sale. I will trade with people if they want to and they have to have host plants for them, but selling them is a totally different story. I wish I could adopt some of your eggs because I have pipevine and no PVS's. Sheesh, it's no wonder that person offered you $100 for them if he/she stands to gain a lot of money. Grrrr.
Cathy

Cathy,

I wish you were close by, I'd definitely share with you. I did get a response to my message and 22 of my caterpillars went home with a nice lady that is retired from the zoo. She has a "lovely" 8-year old Tomentosa pipevine that has never attracted any PVs. She adopts larvae every year. I felt good about this adoption placement!

That's awful! Some people have such nerve.

Welcome to the real world Sandy.

For starters, wanting all of your livestock is a BIG red flag that tells you this is not just a hobbyist wanting to do some butterfly gardening. Asking for all is just plain rude and selfish, especially when from a stranger.

Offering to pay shipping is just being courteous, especially if only a one-way "trade". But the "boot" for your trouble is also a red flag. Folks who trade bugs back and forth for fun or even serious rearing studies do not normally charge for or offer to pay for them. It is usually a trade of livestock or specimens, now or promised later. Dealer's on the other hand do buy, and try to so for pennies on the dollar to increase thier profit margins.

BTW, the extra plant was to assure the larvae made the trip alive and to give the dealer time to switch them over to their available plant once the package is recieved. Common practice when shipping livestock... the plant material (and oxygen) available to them has to exceed the travel time. I often sent huge boxes full of longividy prepared plant containing only a few larva when it was sent to countries where the package could take up to weeks to get there.

The stories I could tell about the years of very extensive rearing I did of so many worldwide species and for profit dealers, especially once the word got around the Lepidopteran community of my work. I was contacted constantly by dealers wanting to buy livestock and/or specimens, and by egotists wanting the livestock to establish new colonies in ranges they did not occur in naturally so they could "find" new state/county, etc records.

Pricing... did you know there are many "legal" to collect species in just this country alone that bring up to several hundred dollars each on the world black market? Or foreign species that bring up to 10's of thousands of dollars each. And with illegal species the price goes up, drastically. I remember one jerk from Japan who actually sent me a purchase order for 200 pairs each of 5 subspecies from one species complex I was rearing in large numbers over several years for an in depth study project, and he offered to pay $300 per pair. Yep, $60K worth. And when I traveled to the South Pacfic one time I got an offer for all the Trogonoptera/Troides I could collect and I could set my own price for them. There is big money in Lepidoptera if your ethics reside down there with the bottom feeders.

That greed changes otherwise good people too. I could also tell some BIG stories about that pertaining to Lepidoptera, some that were and still are far reaching worldwide. Maybe another day.

I am proud of you for not falling for this Sandy. FWIW, I never did either.

Larry

Sandy, I wish too that I lived close to you, and I know that you would share. I would do the same if our situations were reversed. I'm so glad that you found someone to take some of the PVS eggs, and I can see why you'd feel good about their adoption placement. I think that you found a very good home for them! Gosh, you'd think that sooner or later that lady would have PVS find her tomentosa. Hopefully they will find her sometime.

Larry, Wow, I had no idea that there's so much money with Lepidoptera! It disheartens me knowing that there are people around who would stoop so low as to be offering you money for the ones you were rearing. Then that South Pacific offer where they said you could set your own price. :-O Yes, that's pretty much what a person would be to be going around offering money for them like that and also for a person who would sell them...bottom feeders is right.
Cathy