There's an article in "Texas Co-op Power" this
month about butterfly gardening:
http://tinyurl.com/fpvef (It's a pdf file).

Be sure to read the embarrassing admission by the
editor, who planted a butterfly garden, freaked
when the caterpillars started eating her plants,
and started flinging Sevin dust....

DT


J Kolenovsky wrote:
The reason you have catapillars is that the plant is a HOST for them.
The cats are probably butterflies or moths in the making. The eating of
the plant is not harmful for the plant, just in your eyes. Open your
eyes and find out what butterflies are hosted by your passionflower.
Then you can observe the beauty when they metamorphose. If you are
keeping watch so you can squash, look for the cocoon and put it in a jar
with a metal top and some air holes and a leaf or two from plant, wait a
short time and you'll have a butterfly.

JK

T.B. wrote:

i have a passionflower vine that is doing great this season after not
doing
so hot last year. I think it will finally bloom this season, if I can
keep
the caterpillars off of it. They tore it apart last year and even
though I
was checking daily, they still were winning the battle.

My question to the group is, aside from keeping an eye out for them and
squashing them and/or using pesticides, is there any way to keep them
off of
the vine?

TB in Austin





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