This year has been a bit odd, in that I found two tiger swallowtail caterpillars and many spicebush swallowtail cats before I've found the first red admirals, which are usually first. But, finally, I found three red admiral cats, and I brought them to the porch to raise. I had stayed away from the part of the garden with the most false nettles, because a pair of cardinals have a nest in the nearby gardenia, and I didn't want to venture that way and make the cardinals nervous, which is why I missed these cats - they're pretty far along, instar wise.

I saw an American lady, also usually a first of the season, laying eggs on some cudweed the other day, so I should be finding some of their nests pretty soon. By the way, I planted some Anaphalis margaritacea and transplanted some rabbit's tobacco last year to my garden and couldn't see any difference between the two. Plants that look like those two are coming up in my garden and along my roadside. I don't know which one they are, probably rabbit's tobacco, but it's good to have additional host plants for American ladies - cudweed is reliable, but the more the better!

My husband had a heart attack, is still in bad shape, is on home oxygen, and I spend so much time taking care of him that it's hard for me to get outside and garden. I certainly can't raise as many caterpillars as I normally do. I've got jillions of luna moth cats, I put some of them on sweet gum trees recently, and I'll have to transfer some more. I've also got some promethea moth eggs from a female from last year who recently emerged, mated, and left eggs on the cage before she left the cage. I hope to have no more than a dozen of each to raise - it's all I can handle.

My first spicebush swallowtail just molted and is now in the first green instar, and the tiger swallowtails are in that cute, first green instar with the cream colored saddle. I've found several palamedes swallowtail eggs on redbays, so I'll be monitoring them and bringing them to the porch to raise shortly after they hatch before the wasps get them!

Sherry