I wintersowed 25 containers today with a class of 1st graders. They had a blast. We experimented with several different containers. The kids were very excited. By the way our outside temps were - 8 degrees this morning ...zone 5 . My total count is 103. I just got a huge seed order so I will be sowing like crazy in the next week.

Elisabeth, when I first started my quest for sphingidae and its various tribes, I knew NOTHING! I found out about the Tomato Hornworm and Tobacco Hornworm from TomatoWorm, who has posted here recently. I raised both for a couple of years, growing tomatoes just for them, and then I planted a Datura, which works well for both, too. I discovered that the vine that covered a portion of my fence and the neighbors, was Virginia Creeper. So what, I thought, just another vine that is pretty in springtime and ratty looking by the time summer ends. I really didn't know much about it. One day I was cleaning up around the vine and found a large caterpillar on it. Came to find out it was a Eumorpha achemon. From then on I was hooked. I had most of the larval host plants I have found cats on already in the yard. I live in an older district in OKC, with many mature trees, and lots of "bird planted" shrubs, vines, and trees, too. I began looking at research on the sphinx moths found in Oklahoma, and realized I could raise a number of them. I have used, used, and used Bill Oehlke's website to find out the sphinx moths that populate Oklahoma and their hosts. I started checking out many of the trees and vines in the yard, such as Honeysuckle, Elm, Virginia Creeper (who knew it hosted so many species?), Pecan, Trumpet Vine, Ipomoea, which reseeded annually. From there, I just started checking out the plants, looking for evidence of caterpillars, e.g., frass, chewed leaves, etc. Some of the cats I've found have been purely by accident. TomatoWorm also taught me what the Snowberry Clearwing cats looked like, and how to successfully raise many of the sphinx. "Hornworm" is kind of a general term to describe sphinx cats, but there are a number of species that lose the horn in later instars, and have a "button-like" spot on the rear in place of the horn. The Eumorphas, for example, and the little Erinnyis obscura, which has a very reduced horn in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th instars of growth. I can't tell you how it's done, other than to just search the known plants available in your location and you WILL eventually find them. I find late spring, May to June, and late summer, August to early September, to be the best times in my garden to find them. Many of my finds have been purely accidental. For instance, I had no clue that the Erinnyis obscura larvae fed on Cynanchum laeve. I had a heck of a time finding good photos of the larvae, finally hooking up to Dan Jantzen's website for photos. The Elm Sphinx, or Four-Horned Sphinx, I found while walking under some Elm trees. It was just barely hanging on to a limb, and it was huge! Really cool looking cat. Still on my list is Hyles lineata, or White-lined Sphinx. It is the most common one found in Oklahoma, and yet I have not been able to either find or attract one to the garden! Go figure! So check out your trees, shrubs, vines, and other things that are native (especially). I think you guys get many more species that we do in Oklahoma. There are a lot of Northern ones. I'll attach a link to Bill's site for Ohio sphinx. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Ohio Sphinx

So if your tree is in the middle of a koi pond or there is a bunch of pregnant women standing around your tree then by all means don't spray it. Please don't tell me that you guys believe everything you read on Wikipedia. Every fall there are large amount of pyrethins sold in the mums at Lowe's and Home Depot with no warning labels. But when the same ingredients are put into a bottle and sold as an insecticide then the world is coming to an end. I am both a synthetic organic chemist and a medicinal chemist. I have seen the tox data on these compounds and there is absolutely nothing to worry about. They are just variations on what Mother Nature makes in mums. If you truly think the insecticide is bad then you have absolutely no business buying mums. It's hypocrisy if you do.

The latestUMass Landscape Message March 6, 2008 says "Winter Moth - Flight of the adult moths in late 2007 was, initially, quite noticeable; but the incidence of earlier than normal snowfall may have reduced the numbers emerging from the soil. If so, this event may result in lower numbers of caterpillars in some areas this coming spring. However, the eggs of winter moth are difficult to detect. Starting around early to mid April, carefully inspect the interior of buds on susceptible host plants for the activity of this pest. Dr. Elkinton and his research lab continue to rear the parasitic fly, Cyzenis albicans, for release this coming spring in MA. Last year, they were able to recover some winter moth larvae on Cape Cod that had been parasitized by flies from their earlier releases." It's promising that they're finding moth larvae that have been parasitized. Hopefully the population of parasitic flies will increase enough to kill most of the little monsters. Claire