hidesert_windy - FWIW, the V.cardui "blew" through southern Nevada a month ago. And there was not very many of them down here, in fact so light that they were almost missed. Normal years the move north is usually at least heavy enough that even a person not interested in leps will notice them. Not this year. With all the crazy cold/hot/cold and very windy weather we've had this year I'd bet a lot of the early leps have their schedules out of whack. So I don't know if that was the migration or not. If so many individuals were probably killed by the freak cold fronts and storms. What you saw could have blown into your area, could have been over wintered pupa that emerged someplace near your area or even over wintered adults right from your area. Of interest maybe... the migrations appear to be cyclic and heavier than normal every few years. But since I started seriously studying leps in 1964, the heaviest spring migration of V. cardui I have ever seen was in about 1989-90-91 while living in northern Utah. Can't remember for sure which year and my logs are all packed in storage. But it was so heavy that the cardui literally covered any surface they could hang onto wing tip to wing tip, with more hovering and trying to find a place to land. The ground, all plants, buildings... everything moved with them. It wasn't localized either. I drove out onto the west desert all the way to the Nevada border on back roads to photograph them that weekend, and never found a place they were not just as thick. You couldn't even get out of your vehicle without stepping on them. The following week I left Utah on a business trip that took me to Boise, then Twin Falls, Sun Valley and Idaho Falls before making a loop through western Montana from Butte to Missoula, Kalispell, Great Falls and back down to Bozeman, then to Jackson Wyoming before returning home. They were just as thick everywhere I went along that trip and were actually a driving hazard. The roads everywhere were littered with uncountable numbers of them that had been killed by vehicles. No doubt I was kind of following the migration north much of that trip, even if it was scheduled by my secretary, but it was still quite a sight. LOL L.

Just some food for thought Minor fluctuations in populations from year to year or even from brood to brood with multiple or biennial brooded species are pretty normal. Massive fluctuations are not and probably caused by sudden environmental changes. Things like a spike in parasitoid or natural predator populations, a spike in disease in either lepidopteran livestock or their food plants, extreme unseasonable weather, fires or other causes of habitat loss, large scale poisoning, etc, etc, etc. With the weird and often extreme weather patterns NA has experienced this year so far, it probably should be no surprise that the bugs are late or in smaller numbers this year and that they may not improve much as the season progresses. A lot of them probably have not survived, so future broods will be smaller or even nonexistent for a while. Mother Nature will help them bounce back though eventually... she almost always does except where habitat has been lost. It may take years though for some species if they were more susceptible than others. Larry

Hi Dottie- Pineville here, around the corner of Charlotte from you! I moved here 2 years ago from the coast so I am still learning the particulars, but I would expect vincas to return next year. I planted some this year and am just going to leave them where they are. Dianthus definitely comes back as do some salvias and most herbs. I moved into a home with a blank slate and am working on a garden pond, butterfly gardens, etc. (Never had butterfly plants before.) My favorite new flower is Mexican Petunia. You can hardly kill it and it makes daily flowers. Here is a link that might be useful:

thank you for all the nice comments! My daughter is actually five months already--where does the time go??!! She is currently sleeping in our room. Now that her room is finished, I need to be brave and move her in there. Newhomebuilder--I had the same concerns about the decals and had my older daughter (who is 2) stand in the crib set on the lowest setting and had her raise her arm up as high as it would go--and then I made sure the decals were just a bit higher. So we shouldn't have a problem.