It could be one of the oakworms, Sue, probably the spiny oakworm/anisota stigma. This cat is highly variable in coloring, but it has the long, red-spotted purple style "horns" that few moths have. If it were me, I'd offer it some oak leaves - still, it may not eat them, because when you see caterpillars wandering around they're usually going to pupate/cocoon. MissSherry

The tea can cause mold...it's anti-mold capabilities aren't really expressed when diluted heavily into a water solution. Leave a glass of it around a couple days and see that in action. That said, the tea is more "effort overkill" than it is harmful to the seed. Germinating them in the fridge is a bad idea, though... Germinating pepper seeds has 2 requirements...warmth and moisture. The warmth part is what really sends it into gear. That said, you could probably generate them in a number of conditions, but the ideal conditions involve warmth and moisture.

oh i can't wait to show my daughter the flamingo! my daughter is a flamingo FREAK. She wants to move to florida so she can "have" one lol. My favorite mediums are fabric and paint. I make primitive crafts.. it is an absolute passion, and i sell on ebay, but prior to my diagnosis, we were getting ready to start a huge remodeling project on our house, so all my crafting stuff is in boxes in the garage, and then all summer i have been recovering frmo surgery and then chemo.. i just finished radiation, and now am on to 6 more cycles of chemo, so i just haven't felt up to unpacking everything or doing crafts. I hope to start again in the spring! So interesting to hear updates to your lives.. i know so much can happen in 7 years... seems just crazy how fast this time has gone..

Well, I do grow Haworthias now, Imontestella- keep up, man ;-). My experimentation with gritty mixes was about 2 years ago. Too bad you weren't there as the voice of reason then, Imontestello. I had planned to try just a few plants, but others on the site didnt think caution necessary, so I jumped in with both feet. More recently, I advised someone else to experiment with just a couple of plants first, and Al jumped all over me about it- simply because I warned the person of some of the downsides of gritty mix. It's an insanely contentious subject on this forum. It is true that I'm very new to growing Haworthia- like new in the last week, but I've been growing plants for 3-1/2 decades; I read, and my thumbs are very green. I had not read that Haworthias lose their roots occasionally. Why is this? That sounds like a reaction to some environmental stressor to me. Where can I read about the phenomenon? I can imagine root loss occurring as a plant uses that stored water during a drought, but it would be evolutionary suicide to lose roots at a time when there is adequate water and the plant needs it. Renee, now that the search feature on this site is working, search the cacti and succulent forum for "failing to thrive in gritty mix" and you will find 2 pages of threads about dehydration in gritty mix and other people having problems just like yours. Here's one of my previous posts attempting to draw attention to this exact problem. Lots of helpful commentary on it. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3068289/a-warning-about-gritty-mixes?n=31