Thanks all for your compliments. I meant to go back out every few minutes to get some good pics of the dragonfly nymph, but you know how it is when you get old(er). You go in the house with good intentions to come back out but you see a lamp that needs to be dusted. While you're dusting the lamp you see the bottle of Resolve you left on the end table. You put the Resolve back under the sink and take the cleanser to clean the sink. When you put the cleanser back you find the plant food you've been looking for for weeks. You mix it up and water the plants and find the scissors you have been looking for in the sunroom. You put the scissors back in the drawer where you keep the extra batteries for the camera............the camera, the dragon fly nymph, you fly out the door. There is no nymph, no dragon fly, no exoskeleton. Darn, I missed it, oh well maybe next year. I could have just sat out on the swing and waited, but it was 90º+ outside. Here's one more pic I shot last night. Jenny

Most definitely NOT a VFT. I think you've got some kind of herb (maybe pineapple sage???) Did you end up with little red flowers? I want to try my hand at growing VFTs as well and have been reading up on how to germinate and grow these fascinating plants. Here's a link I found very helpful about how to grow these guys. I just ordered some seeds on eBay, so we'll have to wait and see what comes up. BTW, you should be able to find photos of actual VFT seedlings online. They look just like mini VFT. Here is a link that might be useful: Venus Flytrap Info

and you are in Jersey....hmmm. Hope we can get a few others to chime in, perhaps add some other insight. One year we were positively THICK with them. We were constantly having flyers gliding past the garage and this would trigger the automatic light. The joke around here was the need to find a security light with red-eye reduction for the squirrels. Course, there is a tree every 5-10 feet or so, surrounded by an ultra plush carpet of leaves and moss so I guess there weren't too many crash-and-burns...that thing flashing on must have been like an atomic sunrise to those little cuties. Sure do miss their twitterings.

trudymom do a search on the "valsalva maneuver". I use it when I fly and it keeps my ears clear. I get terrible pressure build up in my ears - particularly when pilots descend too quickly. have someone who uses the maneuver show you how to do it since it is a little weird - but it does work.