I posted a message a couple of weeks ago,in the Butterfly Forum, about the GST cats I found on my dward navel tree. There was very little growth left on the tree so I purchased another navel tree so the caterpillars would not run out of food. Well, two of the cats ate leaves from the new tree, and they both got sick and died, apparently from what I have been told on this forum, the plant had probably been treated with some type of insecticide, even though the nursery I purchased the tree from, assured me that it had not been treated with any chemicals or insecticide/pesticides. I am assuming, since I washed all the leaves on the plant very thoroughly,before I put it out for the caterpillars, that the tree had been treated with some type of systemic insecticide/pesticide. I have since found 5 GST eggs on the toxic tree, I have removed them, rinsed them, and placed them on leaves from the other tree. The first egg hatched yesterday, and he appears to be dead, he did not eat all of his egg casing and never started eating the leaf. Does systemic insecticide contaminate the butterfly eggs too? I have cut all of the new growth off of the tree, and I have removed and rinsed all of the eggs I found on it. I would like to know how long it usually takes for a systemic type chemical/toxin, to get out of the plant's system? And if these types of chemicals penetrate the casing of butterfly eggs? WIll this plant ever be safe to use as a caterpillar host plant? thanks