Delayed hatch�

2006-12-11

I don�t know why, I�m kind of afraid to know why, but we have a population explosion of caterpillars right now. It�s winter, for crying out loud. Caterpillars and butterflies should all be quiescent for the season.

They�re actually doing what I�ve hoped they would do for a long while, which is keep the passion flower vines in check. The passion flower vines are so in check that they are nothing but leafless twigs.

And all of those leafless twigs have caterpillars in various stages of growth clinging to them. Normally I�d put them in one of my plastic terrariums and fill it with leaves for them to eat. But because I did such a drastic pruning job on the vines last spring, there are no leaves.

This summer I didn�t see many butterflies and I thought it was because I�d pruned the vines. I�m kind of thinking not at this point. It looks like the timing on the hatch is delayed by several months. I�d really like to know why.

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