I've had pain for years...digestive (biliary/pancreatic?). Been to as many Dr and hospitals as you can count. But I'm determined to find a name for the monster and deal with it. I've missed you guys. I was going to post regarding whether my false nettles in pots would come back, as the freeze really nailed them, but I saw sprouts....so good news. MissSherry, you gave me some thistle seeds last year, the ones I planted in summer never emerged, but I kept some in an evelope, and earlier this winter stuck the enveloe ion the side of an outdoor pot to chill the seeds, and opened it, and some are sprouting, so m any hopes there. The construction of the garden has been on hold, I'm really eager to finish, but I believe i'm probably 10k away from that day, and it will have to wait....but I'm certainly going to contuinue improving the plantings. There is someone here I've promised some A humistrada seeds, and I'm about to FINALLY get them out, I feel bad, but have been so consumed with family and health issues.... I've got birds galore coming to the feeders, but looking to introduce more berry producing plants, I put a serviceberry in this winter, my first one died....hope this one makes it. I put in a lot of my pipevines around the perimeter of the fence last fall, really hoping it will take over, and lots of P caerulea as well.....I recently read somewhere that p caerulea (sp?) is a south American passionflower, but it did very well for GF, my first VF and zebra longwings. I found some native passionflower in areas soon to be developed, and hope a couple of them survived the transplant..... I'm going to be starting a lot earlier, and take my lesson to heart....you can never have enough host plants! I have started a website, but haven't worked on it since last fall....hope to resume that as well.

How on earth do you go about eradicating tiny wasps and flies like these? You would have to spend so much of your time standing in the garden with a fly swatter and all your plants would probably end up beaten to the ground. I hate losing cats to these critters because so often you lose them after weeks of tending them daily. I have also heard that some of the predatory flies or wasps lay their eggs on the leaves which are then ingested by the eating cats. How do you prevent that either? A number of years ago I lost just about EVERY Anise Swallowtail cat to those wasps. I almost gave up altogether on the butterfly gardening. Murray

I am afraid I didnt explain the situation correctly. Most BST caterpillars are predominately green or yellow, cant remember which, in the fourth instar. I had a batch of 24 and their primary color was black in the fourth instar. They did have the yellow and green to a lesser degree. I remember a conversation about caterpillars like this on this forum in the end of 2006, but can not locate it now. One person said it was just a variation. A second person said they didnt have much luck with this type of caterpillar surviving to butterflyhood. I believe MissSherry was one of the people in the conversation. I am trying to find out any information on the variation of the BST that turns predominately black in the fourth instar. I have had three butterflies eclose, but I had also added in four caterpillars that had the normal pattern. Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

I've had 7 BSTs elcose so far this season...all were in the morning. It seems to me they take less time to "dry" than Monarchs and can be set free sooner. And yes, they do flit around like crazy when they are ready to leave :)