There is a group of us gardenwebbers that get together a couple of times a year for a plant swap and Bar-B-Q. Some of us ladies get together thru out the year, visiting each others gardens and swapping plants and going to plant sales and nurseries together. It is one of these ladies who I visited with that I received these plants from. It is now her turn to visit with me and we hope to make a side trip to Gardino's nursery. Denise....there is a yellow heushkeliana and I think that is what I may have. It does have peduncles on it now and they sure do look like all the photo's I see. I just wish I could get a good picture to show ya'll. Would make me feel so much better if it was confirmed. You confirmed my thoughts pretty much on the others.#8 has to be some kind of a publicalyx, #5 has me baffled too. Several of these Hoya's have the huge leaves with stout vines. And I think I read somewhere that you are a big fan of the big leaf hoya's. pugluvr I feel very fortunate that I received these plants from this wonderful and generous lady. I hope I can return her gererousity 10 fold when she visits with me. Thanks again everyone for taking the time to look and ID for me. Regina

I actually think there may be some parasites attacking them now! Recent pictures have shown more of the white ghost looking things on the backs of the red ones & now I think that they're some parasitic insect. They look a lot like the syrphid fly larva in this picture. Isn't nature grand? I hope they make headway before I have as many adults as in your picture, Viola. I'm originally from New Jersey, Laetitia. Every now & then I bore my husband with my rendition of 'My Garden State', we sang it in Elementary school. Are you coming to the Mag swap, cheilik ? Hope to see you there. Details on the Mid Atlantic Gardening exchange page. Rose Here is a link that might be useful: syrphid fly larva eating aphids

The only way I know to kill these nasty grubs organically is to slice open the stalk and pull them out and kill as you please...I personally like to squish them or drown them (I examine my squash plants daily for squash bugs and always have a container with soapy water in my hand to drown them in). If the borer grub hasn't done too much damage to the plant, it will survive. I look for signs of them near the bottom of the stalk...looks like sawdust where the grub bored into it. Then I take a knife or razor blade (and sometimes my fingernail) and slice open the stalk vertically, grab the grub, and kill it. I've only had one of my squash plants die from this...and that was because the borer had destroyed the inside stalk at least 2 1/2 inches. If I do not attempt to remove the borer grubs, the plant will die (as you have discovered), so at least by slicing the stalk and killing the grub I give my plants a chance. Good luck, and I feel your pain.

These are both neonate (hatchling) snakes which can have patterns very different from the adults. This one looks to me like it might be a baby Calico Snake (Oxyrhopus petolarius). The head shape and pattern are pretty close for that species. I have attached a photo of an adult from Chiapas, Mexico for comparison.