Uh oh, doesn't sound very good, Angie. But, stranger things have happened and it might eclose yet. Wow, those Tersas were that early in spring for you? I mean, I know you're in zone 7b in Georgia, right? But still seems a bit early for them. I usually get them in late summer, and not every year. I had lots of Pentas this summer, but no Tersas. I have 2 Manduca sextas preparing to pupate, and one smaller one still consuming Datura leaves. They will definitely overwinter. Also have 3 Amorpha juglandis overwintering as pupae, too. These are also small sphinx moths, and very pretty. I love the way the males have an abdoment that curves upward. I find them on the Pecan trees. These Obscure Sphinx moths were a real surprise for me, since they are a rare sight in Oklahoma, though they are known to fly here occasionally at that time of year - early September. Was glad I had the opportunity to observe and raise them. All 4 cats pupated and emerged successfully, so they seemed pretty easy to work with. Thanks a lot ladies! Susan

Susan, Oh, I definitely have tobacco and tomato hornworms every year and lots of them, but they just ignore the tomato plants almost all the time. I recognize them well, having dealt with them all my life in Texas. They used to devour my dad's tomato plants until he planted 4 o'clocks near them. They devour the neighbors' tomato plants but not mine. I am not sure where the credit should go--but likely the borage, four o'clocks and other companion plants are either repelling the hornworms or attracting beneficial insects that prey upon them. One of my neighbors did tell me he thinks the reason I don't have hornworms on the tomato plants and pepper plants has got to be because I don't spray pesticides that kill off the beneficials, because our gardens grow very similarly in other respects but he sprays broad-spectrum pesticides so has more pest problems. (Hard to teach an old dog new tricks, though he sprays less now than he used to.) We do have the sphinx moths/cats that you find on Virginia Creeper and Trumpet Creeper vines, but just not in large numbers. With acres and acres of Virginia Creeper in the woodlands, I am sure there's a lot of them that we don't see since there is so much food available. The Virginia Creeper near the house rarely has pest issues but will have an occasional hornworm. We also have whatever it is that eats pentas and I cannot keep pentas alive if I leave them uncovered, so I have pretty much stopped planting them. I love pentas, but there is not a lot of point in planting ornamentals that get eaten back to the ground in mere days after the cats find them. They aren't very ornamental when they are just stubs of plants right above the soil line. We also have something that eats the brugmansia leaves, particularly early in the spring. It looks like it is going to be a great moth and butterfly year here. We have dozens and dozens of moths flocking to the porch lights every evening, and lots of butterfly and bee activity all day every day. The butterfly population still consists mostly of sulphurs so far, and we have tons of them here every year---both the really big ones and the small ones. Dawn

Last evening the air around my crap apple tree was full of butterflies. Probably 90% Monarchs. I don't ever remember this many at a time before. Maybe till I started seeing the posts on here I didn't pay as much attention. I'm sure they will be moving on before long. All sizes and light colored to bright. Evidently they like the crap apple blooms. I stood and watched them for a few minutes. There are a few sulphurs and one I don't remember seeing before. It was black and red. More black. I found a picture on an internet search but no name.

Well, a power loss caused me to lose the post I was typing detailing the recent lions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Anyone can read cougarnet.org to get the background behind them and the current situation. The difficulty around making official statements about cats being here can be shown by looking at the one best-known confirmation here in Oklahoma. It was a tagged cat that was born in the Black Hills of S. Dakota and managed to travel here in a few months time looking for its own territory (young male). It was killed by a train in northern Oklahoma after it's location had been recently pinpointed in North Dakota. What are authorities supposed to say to accurately provide information to Oklahomans and Kansans after that. The official statement is that we have occasional ones pass through but no resident ones except some possibly starting to make permanent homes in the far NW. There have been a few confirmation in other parts of the state that were not reported but they were more likely to be from the exotic pet trade than native, wild ones based on the evidence, so the wildlife people do not publicize them. The guy that killed the one in Kansas last year did so illegally, but got in almost no trouble because he cooperated and provided the remains to the wildlife people who were so eager to confirm the first one proven there in many years that they didn't press the issue. In Oklahoma btw you can kill any lion that is posing a danger to you or any livestock you own. It is perfectly legal. In fact, if you call the game warden in my local area to say you have one posing a danger to you or your animals, you will be told to kill it if needed and then call them back after you have. I'm sure there are many sightings in Oklahoma that are accurate and not mistaken identity, but the vast majority are incorrect. This is obvious by the fact that more black ones are reported than any other color, and there is no large black cat that exists anywhere near here except for the ones (not cougars) imported to this country as part of the exotic pet trade. That is absolute FACT. Even these are now heavily regulated so they are almost non-existent. Sorry, I have been out of town and didn't get a chance to read this thread the last few days. No hard feelings from this end. I just want people to know the facts of the situation. There is a big difference between being mistaken and lying. I am mistaken a lot, but I don't lie. Nobody is saying that most people who say they have seen cougars are liars, it is just mistaken identity. The truth should not offend anyone, and eventually when we start seeing evidence of resident populations, I will as happy as anyone. I think it is starting, but I think our population density combined with their needed size of home range will make it almost impossible for them to increase in population very much in most of Oklahoma. After all, between 20% and 30% of all the highly studied cougars in the remote Black Hills area were killed by autos over a three year period. BTW, I killed another pygmy rattlesnake last week!