When I had 3 larger koi I had no problem with the snails... They ate them like candy... but I only have small ones now and the snails are taking over...

Sandy, Hope all goes well with your mother and and that your daughter has an easy flight. Trying times, but it will be nice for all of you to be together to be each others support to get through them. drzoidberg, No idea of what Live Monarch sells for sleeves, but it sounds like they must be really small. I made my own sleeves. The size picked for each situation should be big and roomy enough to enclose several branches with enough plant to see the larva all the way to pupation. Doesn't mean you have to leave them in the sleeve to pupate, just that it gives them enough plant "choices" to feed on until they get there if needed. IE, when I went out to service the sleeves in nature I let the remaining plant enclosed in the sleeve be my guide. If not enough I usually redid the sleeves to enclose new branches and simply moved the larva to the new location. That said it sounds like you will have to move the late instar cats to larger quarters to pupate. Either a bigger sleeve, to some kind of emergence cage or just unsleeve them and let them find pupation sites on their own. The sleeve itself acts like a sun shade up to a point. Works much the same as the spines on cactus for example. Even so I always tried to place my sleeves so a portion of them was in direct sunlight and a portion in shade or filtered light. Gave the cats a choice and they could freely move to what they wanted. If not possible because of where your plants grow, simply mist the sleeve at least a couple of times a day. That has the same effect as a swamp cooler to cool the cats off.

Since this is a home garden, you can fluff up the top 6-8" of soil and pick out the grubs near where you are planting your beans. Cut them with a scissor or squish them and leave them for the birds to eat. New gardener? You will soon get used to the ups and downs of the insect world in your garden. Some years are worse than others for each insect. Some frustrations and failures are expected. Go with the flow. Squish bugs, tap them into a can of soapy water, spray them off with water, pick them off with gloves. Many ways to get your food without chemicals. Wait till the rodents come, then you will first know garden rage!! lol.

I am going through the same thing. I went away on vacation and left my cat with my parents and their two dogs which my cat Bailey grew up with until I moved out. He often visits them when I go away. Then I took Bailey home and he started throwing up white foam. First it was once and a while, then it started picking up to 2-3 times a day. So I took the cat to the vet. They started with it being a hairball and gave me hairball lube as I call it. That made it worse. He started throwing up 6-7 times a day and stopped eating. I took him back 3 days later and they did x-rays and blood work and everything came back fine. They put him on fluids and Reglan, Carafate and Pepcid and sent him home $$$ dollars later. He was good for 3-4 days then went right back to throwing up. I was told to add gas x and baby food. The baby food made him barf just from the smell. He had an endoscopy yesteday and they found nothing visable. His biopsies were shipped to Cornell Veternary school befoe I even picked him up. (Haven't heard back yet). The doctor says that he really doesn't know whats causing it, but that once the results come back he may run lower GI testing and put him on steriods. The poor cat who had so much life in him (4 years old) all he does is sleep now. I haven't seen his eyes open since he came home. I rub him to make sure he is still with us sometimes. I really don't understand how a perfectly healthy cat gets so sick suddenly. I wish there was something more I could do while we try to figure this all out. I have to pick him up and move him to different locations. He's lost 3 lbs in a month. :(