If anyone wants some worm castings, worm tea and live worm for fertilizers and breeding, please email me rodliz12002@yahoo.com

One of my biggest Meyer growers fertilizes all his trees (in ground, of course) with a tea made from worm castings distributed through a drip irrigation system. I put worm castings on all my garden roses and citrus a couple of times per year, just as a bonus; when I create my container soil I also include worm castings. Worm castings and worm casting tea are excellent for citrus; but you have to put quite a lot; same with cow manure... excellent; but you have to put a lot.

To revise albert's comment based on my experience with Purina worm-chow (today). If I sniffed on the worm-chow especially when damp, I noticed some ammonia smell. Could just be me but I rather be cautious. So I do not bury it, just a light dusting over the top, moving the shredded newspaper aside. It could also be just this batch of Purina worm chow because I can understand that one batch could be different from the other, they are floor sweepings from producing all other dry pet food. Al: I did an experiment to fatten up worms and it seems to work. Use a take out plastic container and select ca. 50-100 mature worms. Cut a couple of holes in the lid. Add some flat pieces of egg carton material layered and some bedding for bacteria start-up, shredded newspaper and add some food on the opposite side. I have access to used weed grass mats from a juice store. These are excellent material for a worm bin, especially start-ups, and I imagine because of the microbes and tight spaces to rub off their cocoons off their neck. I checked and the majority of cocoons were found there. But also pot worms. They seem to be in the habit to attached themselves to worms and cocoons, providing them with moisture and that slimy saliva like stuff worms have around their body. So, I just sprinkle powdered egg shells around it. I keep them moist rather than damp, if you know what I mean. Because of the tight space, use worm chow sparingly.

The first one is probably a marsh fern moth/Fagitana littera - The bottom, green one is a pink shaded fern moth/Callopistria mollissima. This type caterpillar is usually green, but the name apparently comes from the rarer, pink/red type, which has the same body markings - The other, darker cats are probably pink shaded fern moths about to make their cocoon. Many moth cats change color a little (or a lot?) when they do this, but this is just a guess on my part. If you really want to get into IDing caterpillars, you can get Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, and the book where I found these cats, Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, Dale F. Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan and Richard C. Reardon. David Wagner is pretty much the caterpillar guru of eastern North America. Sherry