Gone

That's it. I haven't seen Madam for two weeks now, although I searched the plant extensively at day and night.
Here in Northern Alabama, autumn has set in. It is still 97 F during the daytime, but at night the temperatures go back to chilly low-70s. That might be already too frosty for our Miss Carolina, who always seemed to thrive the more hot and humid it was.
That, of course, torpedoes my brilliant plan to document her life from nymph to Ootheca - it leaves out the mating part and the egg laying part.
I just wonder what exactly became of her. Has she succumbed to the temperatures, has a bird or bigger insect eaten her, or has she just left the plant, which is in a very sorry state right now, for better and greener pastures?
There are several big, ugly catterpillars in the plant, that totally destroy the leafs, there are two locusts, the damn spider mites are also still there - in short, every conceivable pest thrives in our plant, only Madam is gone. For good? I refuse to write her off completely yet, but I think if we don't spot her in the next few days, we will take the plant and put it at a spot in the backyard and let nature have her way.
We already have a healthy new plant in the front-yard, that we will then put at the spot of the old plant, with the faint hope that next year we may be lucky and have a new Madam. Who knows what could happen ...

One word about the plant: it is a very resilient creature, not giving up the fight easily. During the last week, several new blooms have appeared - that is its strategy to combat all those pests that are destroying the leafs. The plant just tries to grow more leafs faster than can be eaten by the various bugs, caterpillars, and spider mites - a picture of those damn critters is shown above.
Eventually, it will lose this battle - too many front-lines at once ...