Bon, That little green and yellow gourd is not a C. moschata. It is a C. pepo. As you might recall, SVBs love C. pepo plants. The reason that C. moschata types of squash/pumpkins are seemingly immune to damage from the squash vine borer grubs is because their vines are fairly, though not necessarily totally, solid. Most other squash/pumpkin types have fairly hollow vines. I guess you could say C. moschata vines are more like a wood dowel or a stick and C. pepo, C. argyrosperma and C. maxima are more like soda straws. If you were an SVB, which one would you generally prefer to tunnel through? This leads us to Amy's problem with butternuts. While the SVBs prefer other types of squash, they sometimes do tunnel through the butternuts and other types of C. moschata. I haven't had it happen here, but know people who have had it happen to their plants. One year I had a huge butternut squash plant that had already produced ripe squash die back to the ground quite abruptly. I had no idea why and since it had not had any symptoms of disease, I assumed SVBs got it. A couple of months later, I noticed it had completely regrown from the roots. That sort of miracle resurrection does not often occur with any kind of squash though. Amy, Do we dare ask why you had hair conditioner in the garden???? Hairspray? This is all too funny. Apparently I need to carry a bucket of hair products out to the garden with me in case I see anything evil I need to spray. My pest of the day, y'all, is a bobcat. It is killing all the beautiful mourning doves that sit on the powerlines and fencelines and coo early in the morning, which is a sound that takes me right back to summertimes spent at my grandparents' place in the country where I always awakened to the sound of the doves' cooing. I've been finding bird feathers all over, especially near the wild sunflowers, and today I saw the little wildcat near my compost pile. Then I had a rat in the chicken coop and, later on, a snake on the porch steps. Sometimes I think I should just stay inside all summer long if I don't want to see what hungry animals are prowling around. After butting heads with a bobcat, rat and snake, I would be okay if the only thing I encounter outdoors tomorrow is a squash vine borer. Now that the bobcat it here, all the beautiful little cottontails I enjoy watching every day will begin to disappear one by one. One year I planted Butternut squash super early. It had to have been in 2012 when the last freeze was in early March. I was harvesting mature squash before we ever saw an SVB moth. That never has happened before or since, but I still get good harvests when I plant summer squash as early as I can. It is trickier with winter squash since they need warmer soil and warmer air temperatures and will just sit there and not grow if they are too cold. Summer squash is not quite a picky about soil and air temps as winter squash. Dawn

He is beautiful! We have a couple who live in my area.

I am an owner of a bobcat. Or I guess I might say he owns me. lol. It is very hard to explain to someone over the internet their behaviors and how they act. You always see pictures of cute exotic cats doing funny things or just laying on their owners laps. Yes, that stuff does happen. But seeing those pictures are not a realistic portrayal of what everyday life is with one of them. I always encourage people to volunteer at a wildcat sanctuary. There are a lot around. Get to know their behaviors first hand. Get hands on experience. Wildcats cannot eat dog food. They will die. Not immediately, but they need a complete raw diet just like they would eat in the wild. Most of the cats that have been brought to our sanctuary by their owners that are sick have beeen fed the wrong diet. Some have fed their exotics canned domestic cat food, or hard domestic dog food. Some have fed meat, but have cooked it. It HAS to be raw. As soon as you cook it, you take out every nutrient that your cat needs. It is messy to feed an exotic because they like to throw their food around. Ours eats outside in his enclosure. It is very important in my opinion to have an outdoor enclosure. They need that enrichment. If you have any questions feel free to email me. I am glad to answer any questions you may have. So many people get an exotic because they are so adorable as kittens, and then end up giving them up when they grow up because they do not know how to handle the biting, or the destroying of your house. Most exotic cat owners have to do extensive remodelling to their houses to accomodate their cat. You should have a double door entry at every entrance to your house to prevent escape. You will never catch an exotic cat that escapes. and that is very dangerous, to the cat and to others who may come in contact with it. An exotic cat is not really anything like living with a domestic cat. and there is no such thing as a bobcat hybrid cat. people claim this all the time, but there have only ever been two cases ever proven in history of a successful birth of bobcat hybrid kittens. the genetic makeup,....chromosomes are just too different for a pregnancy to occur. When raised with humans, exotics bond very strongly with them. they see you as their parent. They look to you for all their needs. But raising an exotic takes an experienced person. That is why I always recommend volunteering at a sanctuary or spending time with someone's exotic. they do bite. and an exotic bit hurts. They crush bones, since they eat bones in their diet, they have the ability to cause a lot of damage when they bite you, and at some point or several points in their lives you will most likely be bitten. Litterbox habits are different between exotics. Bobs are very good about using the liitter box, while some other exotics may not use them 100%. Any more questions, feel free to ask.

As the northern Italian hills and mountains empty of people, wild animals come flooding back. Roe deer and wolves have returned since we came to live at the farm in 2002, for example, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if bears and lynxes eventually followed them. I'm generally for predators; of course I don't pasture livestock, and I would hate for my dog to end up in the belly of a wolf. I see no reason to expect a (human) repopulation of rural areas in the near future. Nik, is the same thing happening in Greece, everybody going to live in and around cities? Oaks are the dominant trees in dry woods in the hills where we live; chestnuts are found a thousand feet (300 meters) higher, though perhaps beechwoods are more common. Wild boars will stay quite close to human dwellings. After they tore down a dry stone wall ten yards from our front door, we called the boar hunting squad and they shot eight or so of them that had taken up housekeeping in the woods immediately below our house. About the boars rooting, I'm repeating what I read and can't vouch for its accuracy. I have read elsewhere that the boars are one of the threats to our rich but diminishing population of wild orchids (other dangers are the abandonment of grazing and, of course, agriculture and development). Hunters don't seem able to keep the boars under control. I heard that last year they shot 900 of them in our and the two adjacent townships ("comuni"). That's a lot of wild boars. Apparently wolves are hybridizing with dogs here, presenting problems for the wildlife biologists. I had read that the European wild cats can't hybridize with domestic cats, whether tame or feral: the offspring are weak and don't survive. True or false? They do seem like the kind of animal that would escape notice, being neither edible nor likely to cause economic damage. Suzy, I'm a vegetarian and have never held a gun in my life. Though I think I could eat game, just because most of the reasons for my not eating meat don't apply to them, and in fact I realize they need predators to limit their numbers. Then there's that murderous rage when I find a young recently planted tree or shrub destroyed by their nibbling teeth. It does no honor at all to my principles. I was glad yesterday evening when the dog scared up a deer in the woods below the big garden and chased it all over the hillside. I want them to be uncomfortable here. fduk, that's interesting: thanks for sharing. I do learn all kinds of things here. Melissa