Angie, I know the feeling. My huge Incense out front has been *devastated* this past week by swarms of caterpillars. It sounds like you've got p. caerulea--the common blue passionflower--so you're in the same boat I am. The good news is that these are very resilient plants. My Incense is putting out new sprouts already, and even if the cats ate it to the ground, it'd regrow from the roots. I seriously doubt they could kill an established plant.

That said, I have been picking off any eggs I find of late. There are a couple dozen big cats that will go into pupa stage within the next week or so, and I'm leaving them alone. But the Incense is looking horrible, so I'm trying to give it a breather and get some leafy new growth to fill in the tattered areas. There's a rather large sucker that is climbing up the side of the house around the corner that the butterflies haven't bothered with much, so I've been relocating cats to that one as well.

I know Gulf fritilary cats couldn't survive on vitifolia, but I'd always assumed Lavender Lady/Amethyst was a suitable host. Learn something new every day.

Wow I moved my one of my passion to front yard to catch up it seem to be comin back most the cats have cocooned and the plant is havein a catch up time before new eggs hatch...did see some new cats on my lavender lady they small hope they live never seen any befor so kinda excitedwish them luck hehe angie

Here's a thought- dont know if it will work but who knows?
I read that some passiflora will develop egg like things on their leaves and flower buds that mimic butterfly eggs. They do this as a natural defense to keep butterflies from laying eggs on them (the idea is that some butterflies will not lay eggs on a plant that has eggs of a diff type already on them. I have seen this on my vitrifolia -little red egglike bumps that look similar to butterfly eggs. So-- if we created something that looks like eggs that wont hurt the plants maybe that can deter the cats for awhile at least long enough for plants to recover?
Any ideas?
~SJN

wow thx never thought of that....might work good news is i have lots of red passion full of full grown cats and they are also doing great on my lavender lady so they seem to be on them buying time for my others to catch up ...so cats can live on red passion have 3 cocoons and more comin im so happy i have plenty of red and lavender passion to keep them happy...hehe angie

I have Gulf Frits on my Amethyst that have successfully gone into chrysalis. They do not usually survive on the red passionvines though.