A researcher who is not affiliated with PBS read some of my posts in the archives about Ipomoea pandurata. He contacted me to ask about my success growing them from seed. Anyway, to make a long story short, I went back to one of the wild populations near my house to harvest some seeds for him. When I harvested seed there before, it was always much later in the year than September (like mid-winter). And much of the seed was parasitized (?) by a beetle (Nicrophorus?) egg that hatched when brought into prolonged warmth. That prevented me from donating seeds to the BX. I didn't want to spread beetles everywhere. Flash forward to today... as I'm picking the seeds out of the pods, I'm finding lots of them in tact, without evidence of beetle holes. (In fact, I haven't found any evidence of beetle holes whatsoever.) So I'm wondering.... - is it too early in the season for the beetles to have laid eggs yet? - am I lucky and this is an "off" year for the beetles? - should I send some seed in to the BX ? Even if eggs are present, it's so warm that I am confident they can go through the BX without "hatching". They go through winter dormant and hatch in the spring. So it hasn't been cold enough yet. So.... I'd like feedback from the PBSers on this peculiar situation. Dennis in Cincinnati