Building or buying a caterpillar house

[Hank & Priscilla Brodkin]

James Kruse wrote:
> 
 (SNIP)
> At first I was mad, but amazed at the ability that this bird demonstrated. I
> was no longer wishing the bird ill, but it met its demise weeks later
> against a window, chasing male promethea moths being attracted to a female
> that had emerged earlier in the day.
> 
> James J. Kruse, Ph.D.

Dr. Kruse makes an interesting point.  I remember one post to the list
decrying those interested in Odonata because the eat butterflies.  A
friend of ours goes into fits when he sees wasps because they eat
butterfly and moth larvae.  
We have a fairly well balanced very small pond built for us by a
friend.  It contains non-native mosquito fish (gambesi), and a few
native frogs, some snails from somewhere, various water beetles, once a
black-necked garter snake, etc.
The frogs will eat butterflies and dragonflies and damselflies, the
mosquito fish seem to eat eggs these odonata lay, and if the frogs
successfully breed - these fish will eat some of the newly emerged
tadpoles.
All animal behavior is worth observing.  
The only exception to this tolerant attitude might be a graduate student
having his dissertation spoiled by unwanted predation.  But otherwise, I
feel, we should relax and enjoy and observe - we might at the very least
learn something, and perhaps see something no one else has ever seen
before!
Cheers!


-- 
	             Hank & Priscilla Brodkin
	          Carr Canyon, Cochise County, AZ
                   Send Mailto:hankb at theriver.com
             SouthEast Arizona Butterfly Association
          http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/home.html
         "Butterflies of Arizona - a Photographic Guide" 
    by Bob Stewart, Priscilla and Hank Brodkin - due October 2001
         http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/book.html

 
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