#nursery work

So I found this cocoon unburied in one of the liner pots because (what I assume was) a deer got into the hoop house, tore a bunch of my cuttings out, ate the leaves and left the stems. A whole nursery of plants to munch on, and you go for my babies. Rude.

Knowing these guys like to pupate underground, I filled a smaller pot with soil and reburied it just under the surface, and literally the next day this guy emerges!

This is a Broad-Bordered Bee Hawkmoth (Hemaris fuciformis). It took a couple of hours to dry its wings and had taken off by the time I got back from my lunch break. What a treat!

Anyway here’s the aforementioned deer damage. I mean. Good to see they’re rooting.

I replanted them. They’ll be fine.

Probably.