I don't know what it is, but I usually let things be unless I know for sure it's destructive and doesn't help out the food web (like Japanese Beetles). If it's not destroying your fennel, I'd leave it so that perhaps predators will take that and not your BST caterpillars. You could remove it and put it nearby--it sounds like some type of moth, so it might eat many kinds of plants.

I just went out and counted 43 cats on my fennel. I let all of my fennel go to seed last fall, and I have lots of little fennel plants with cats all over. Fennel is a great underused culinary herb. All parts of the plant can be used, i.e. leaves, stems, seeds and bulb. It has a mild anise flavor that is good in lots of recipes. It can be substituted in recipes that call for French tarragon. It is good in beef, pork, chicken, and seafood. You can add some to a salad for a nice surprise flavor. The bulb can be thinly sliced and sautéed in a little olive oil with a little balsamic vinegar poured on top. A while back I wrote the following about fennel. There are only three basic fennels and all are said to be self seeders. Foeniculum vulgare is often referred to as common fennel, sweet fennel or wild fennel, zones 4-10. It is a tall (H 6' S 18") biennial or perennial plant with yellow flowers (umbels) which are produced during summer and then the flowers are followed by grey-brown seeds (fennel seeds used in cooking and for planting). It is not reliably hardy in climates that have cold, damp winters. Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum often referred to as Florence fennel, bulb fennel, sweet fennel or finocchio, zones 5-9, is a smaller fennel (H 2' S 18") and is considered the bulb fennel because it is said to have the best flavor used for cooking. It is generally grown as a "half-hardy annual". Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' or Foeniculum vulgare 'Rubrum', depending on which book you are using, zones 4-9, is a biennial or perennial plant known as bronze fennel (H 4'-5' S 18") and is known to "come true from seed". All three like well-drained soil and full sun with partial sun during the afternoons in hot climates. All fennels self seed freely in most soils. Just let the plant go to seed, i.e. small, dull yellow flowers followed by grey-brown seeds, and when the temperature is right, you should start to see new baby plants coming up all around the mother plant. All parts of the plants can be used in cooking. NOTE: Dill and fennel will cross pollinate. According to the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses by Deni Bown, page 386, she states the following: . . .when some herbs, including Marjorams and Lavenders, are grown near each other, the chances of hybridization are high. Closely related genera may also interbreed if they are grown together and flower at the same time; dill and fennel are known to cross, resulting in plants that are indeterminate in flavor. We found this to be true in our Master Gardener demonstration gardens here in Rockport. Also all of the fennels are host plants for striped green, black and yellow swallowtail caterpillars which become swallowtail butterflies.

Are you remodeling because the kitchen is dark, or for some other reason? If only because of the lighting issue, there are many solutions to that, and some have been suggested already. I don't think borrowing light from the sunroom is going to be helpful. Pass thru openings aren't a good solution unless the room you're borrowing light from is super bright, and you'll lose storage; plus you have 2 doors that swing into that wall. They'll be awkward if hung to swing in the opposite directions. Painting the walls a lighter color with higher LRV will help, as will a new, brighter backsplash, and possibly a new lighter countertop.. No one has mentioned LEDs above the cabinets, but that can be helpful too. If you can't increase the window size, maybe you can add a skylight above the sink area. At the least, dropping a pendant closer to the work area should help. Painting the island to match the other cabinetry will increase brightness as well. Love the floors!

Hi Maria, So far no luck finding an actual plant list of plants affected by Aster Yellows, but the number of affected plant species has increased from the commonly quoted 300 to 350, according to this link: Aster yellows is caused by the aster yellows phytoplasma, a bacterium-like microorganism. The disease has an extremely diverse host list, affecting more than 350 species in 54 plant families. The phytoplasma is vectored by several species of leafhoppers (Family Cicadellidae); primarily Macrosteles quadrilineatus (formerly M. fascifrons) in North America. " When you say you disposed of your infected plants as if they were contaminants, what exactly did you do? I'm guessing don't put them with yard waste, for starters? " I sort of did, but I double wrapped them in a plastic bag inside a plastic bag, which was then included in a larger plastic trash bag that went directly to a commercial landfill. And I washed my hands. I don't know if there are any "official" instructions on what to do with Aster yellows infected plants. A large-scale infection could be problematic. ZM