I should have looked at your link. Years ago, a college prof talked about the next-to-impossible USDA hurdles for importing and housing a leaf-cutter colony in his lab. I know of two zoos that talked about and discarded the idea of displaying colonies. I never heard anything about leaf cutters native to the U.S. Thank you for the information. Have you checked with the Texas and Louisiana regional forums at Garden Web?

You are right to a point. Certain pests can get out of control because of garden conditions. For example if you over fertilize, you can get lots of lush green growth which can be attacked by aphids. Certain pests are designed to attack certain plants and it is not to eliminate them in nature, but to keep them in check. Like the borers that old rugosa rose stems will get. If you've ever seen rose rugosa growing wild, you may know that it will spread creating large patches. So the borer killing off the old stems helps keep the rose from overtaking everything. Sometimes it is the weather conditions that cause perfect conditions for a pest. So one year you can be perfectly fine and the next have a problem. To keep pests in check, attracting birds to your garden can help. Birds eat lots of pests. I found that the sawfly larva problem I had on my roses diminished after working on attracting birds to the garden. Also working on having plants in successive bloom attracts beneficial insects. Even if you are not into flower gardening, having plantings really will help the health of the vegetable garden in my opinion. I've found the longer I've gardened here the less pest problems I have had, but I know that I can always get an out break of something at any time. Oh and having tolerance for a not picture perfect garden helps too. Some people get all nuts over seeing few spotted leaves, etc. when there is nothing really wrong. Knowing you insects help, some insects are fairly harmless while others need be eradicated quickly like Red Lily beetles. I have no clue about grubs eating cabbage roots. I hope someone post who does. Remy

Dalton theBengal - the class is free, because of a grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality - the MDEQ. So, in theory it is just for Michiganders. However, let's make a deal. If you help "newbies" out with general gardening questions, you can join too. How is that? Trade expertise for expertise? Be helpful on this forum when people ask rain gardening questions that you know the answers to. Like what is the best way to remove sod? Or, do I have to add compost? (yes). Sound like a deal?

when you tried to go to page 1-4 there was nothing there. All it said was no discussions. I had been on page 5 and 6 and those were just fine.