That reminds me that people who hear the word for butterfly (Schmetterling) in German for the first time usually think it sounds extremely violent. Ok, then again, "butterfly" sounds slightly disgusting if you think about it. But TIL that they actually have a similar root: the "Schmetter-" doesn't come from smashing, but from "Schmetten", a word derived from the Slavic "smetana" (cream). Apparently butterflies got their name from the popular belief that witches could turn into butterflies to steal milk or cream (and probably also other dairy products?).

Honestly you're lucky there were any leaves left.

You must have caught it within two or three hours after its arrival.

In the US we have similar hawk moths; the tomato hornworm also looks like a hummingbird when it reaches maturity.

Yeah I've wondered about just really nasty ass stinky fresh manure around the base of each tree. That would attract flies.

Probably a flush of nitrogen at exactly the wrong time tho. Most plants respond to that by pushing excess green growth instead of flowering and fruit set.

Email me and I can connect you with some. There is a FB group for folks growing them in the NYC area, plus a list of all the parks where they are planted.

No, from those trees we basically only get enough for personal consumption because fruit bearing (so far) is so unreliable.

Also, southern Ontario.

plenty of sap beetles around here, but i don't tend to see them on my pawpaws. they come around later season when my raspberries ripen

would not rule out the cash crop farming on both sides of me from doing a number on the insects, though i seem to have plenty overall.

unfortunately an excessive number of japanese beetles