My questin is, if your digestive system cannot brake down tomato skin, how can you benefit from it?. As I explained before, you don't peel tomato like a potato. You put them in boiling water few second, then in ice water. Only the though thins skin will be peeled off. Tomato itself has plenty of good stuff in it(vitamines, carataine,..) so what is the point trying to get just a little more which is not even available if the skin is not ground up before eating. Also from a visual stand point, tomato skin does not look very nice in your cooking(omlett, stew..). But peeling carrots, apples, potatos, cucumbers is not necessary in my view. BECAUSE their skin is digestable and beneficial and if you peel them (like most people that I have seen) you are actually MUDERing them. I peel any of those that has surface damage/is soiled or in case of cucumbere , it is very old... Finally, aside from facts and fictions, we all have ways and preferences in all aspects of life. So here too, I have no quarrel with anybody; Just expressing my view points. Cyrus

Mary, my experience is much like yours. I have seen very few Zebra Longwings this year so far. I saw a pretty one today, but they have been few and far in between. Like Marsha I have a lot of Eastern Black Swallowtails this year. Lots of butterflies and cats. I see Sulphers every day, but not lots like last year. The same for Monarchs. They are here all the time, but not in big numbers yet. I see Giant Swallowtails every other day or so, but I have only seen two or three Tiger Swallowtails all year. I have lots of Goldrims or Polydamas, as always, but I haven't seen one Pipevine this year. For some reason there are more Palamedes around this year and fewer Skippers. I now see Fritillaries daily, but only a few. We had a dry spring, but the rains should bring out more and more butterflies. July, August, September and Ocotober ought to be great, Guys!

Yea they are pretty to look at,but I think Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed though.I'm thinking these are from a black swallowtail butterfly.I saw the hornworn You have FLgardenmom & it is huge.Has anyone seen what I think are called "dogface caterpillars"?They seem to only live on some types of citrus & until they are disturbed look like a blob of bird poop.Once threatened though,the head puffs up & sends out what looks like a red forked tongue.To me it looks like it is trying to pass itself off as a snake,as a defence mechanism.I think they are the young of a type of swallowtail butterfly(black & yellow).I will try to snap a pic if I see any

About the only butterflies I'm seeing this year are the Pipevine swallowtails and that's because they're using the scores of little Aristolochia fimbriata plants I've planted throughout the garden. As they strip one I have to carry the caterpillars to another. Nothing has touched the Passiflra caerulea that has fed many generations of Gulf fritillaries, nor have they used the several small native Texas passion vines which are usually eaten to the ground. I've seen only one Gulf frit and it did not lay eggs. I haven't seen but maybe one or two skippers but no sulfurs although I have senna for them, no giant swallowtails, no buckeyes, and I have host plants for them; not even one little hairstreak has been seen, nor any cabbage whites. No Monarchs either. Nothing has used the fennel. There were a few Painted ladies this spring. The only thing using the many nectar plants are bumblebees, a few honey bees and the Pipevine swallowtails. It seems very strange not to have butterflies everywhere, but according to these articles it's happening not only in the US, but in the UK as well. Here, here and here are recent articles that discuss the dearth of butterflies.