Here is an interesting resource, it allows you to check off characteristics of the caterpillar and refine a search. By clicking black and dense hair, it goes down to 13 choices. The Banded Tussock moth caterpillar is black with dense gray hair in one form. http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Caterpillars The only other suggestion I have is for your friend to contact the local Agricultural Extension office and see if they have any ideas. Hope this helps.

My friend is in Canyon TX. She was stoked on the rain too. Your plants look awesome. All my plants are in containers so I'm happy if they get 3ft tall. =P You can probably transplant the maple fairly easily now. It's not huge. It'll end up shading that spot and possibly crowding the fence. Don't know though. Too hard to see it through the jungle of peppers. =)

I have all my diaries from when I was 12 onwards. I sure was boy crazy LOL I recently reconnected with my first boyfriend and we have had a blast reading back over our time together when we were 16 years old. He said I brought back so many good memories from his youth that he had forgotten about. I was so surprised he even remember the colour and the shape of the buttons (flowers) on my favourite top that I always wore. Anne

Can you get Bayer 3-in-1 Insect, Disease and Mite control there? It's a systemic and you can use it on houseplants. It has imidacloprid in it which works the best on scale (from what I've read). I have an Ixora I used it on that had scale and it worked.