Most butterfly gardeners use plain water sprays or just plain squishing. The soapy water can be sprayed when butterflies or moths aren't nectaring, but it would still be bad for eggs and caterpillars.

Water doesn't really help for me. I have so many that they have taken over my milkweed and it's fading off, not even healthy looking anymore. The milkweed bugs seem to be taking over, too.

Ladybugs should do the trick. Aphids are an endangered species in my garden thanks to ladybugs.

The mlkweed bugs are looking for the seed pods. They have never caused damage to my plants.

But its to get ladybugs!! I've only seen about 5-6 of those this season.

Yeah, the milkweed bugs aren't doing any damage... they are just covering everything! The babies are cute, though.

I have some pots with butterfly weed that's re-establishing the roots that I damaged when I dug them up. They are loaded with yellow aphids, and my swamp milweed also has them. I've seen some swamp milkweed plants with worse infestations than mine though.

If the milkweed is in such bad shape that it is not attracting butterflies, you may as well cut it down. You may have enough season left for it to regrow, especially if it has well-established roots. Look for leaf buds about three or four inches from the ground and cut just above them. Even if it doesn't come back this year, you won't have lost anything -- except the aphids.

I'm glad I read this thread. My different kinds of milkweed get aphids almost every year. Some years I've cut the two taller varieties, one with white flowers, the other pink (swamp milkweed?) way back. This year, I cut less so the butterflies would have some leaves to lay eggs on. They have regrown, and I'm surprised there are no aphids so far. I haven't seen any cats, either, though. My orange and hello yellow have aphids, but are not covered, and I have ignored them so far. I should squirt them or squish some, but I hate squishing them. The plants are doing OK so far. I have never seen cats on any of them, as far as that goes, but haven't always looked for them in the past.

Here's to healthy milkweed!

Sue

Glad I found this post!! We have milkweed and have had tons of caterpillars all summer long. Last week, I noticed all these yellow egg looking things. Figured they were aphids. The milkweed did not have any leaves, as the cats had eaten it bare. Tonight, there are no aphids and some growth is restarting. Do I need to do anything or let it just grow?

Also, do you cut it back or let it die back? I plan on buying a lot for next year, just so I have enough for the caterpillars.

This is the fourth year I've had milkweed here and I've never seen aphids so bad as what they have been this year! :-O I was squishing and squishing daily or every other day for about the past two months. I've finally gotten tired of it and have given up. There are several big cats out in the milkweed patch that I didn't bring in because I already have lots inside that I'm scraping to find milkweed for; I don't need any more mouths to feed. Between the Monarchs I'm raising and also the GST's, I barely have time for anything else. I guess I feel like I have to save every single one, but now I'm to the point where I'll be relieved when the cat raising is done for the year. I like it but man am I tired!

Besides the aphids on the milkweed, I've also had milkweed bugs so bad, much more than other years. The swamp milkweed has had spots on it all summer, like mildew (I guess) and very unsightly. I don't know if that affects the nutrition value for the cats or not.

Cathy

My milkweed has looked like it has a mildew problem too. I wonder if it caught it from my black eyed Susan's. It has done poorly all summer so I guess it is a good thing we never got any monarch cats. I too have many, many aphids. I saw some advice on a Shady Oak newsletter suggesting buying a packet of ladybugs to put into your butterfly garden to control the aphids on milkweed. I feel like it's a bit too late for me to take that step as it is almost fall. I am not sure where to get them anyway. I have told my son to put any he finds on the milkweed. He tend to spend all f his free time hunting for insects. But he has not found any.

I can not cut my milkweed down or back right now. Mid to late September is peak Monarch season for my area. It is so covered in bugs right now that spraying wouldn't even be beneficial - would take me forever. And, I have little tiny cats in the middle of all these bugs. So, I have decided to be proactive by... putting all of the cats I can find in my screened in b-fly enclosure and cutting pieces of milkweed daily, examine the cuttings for bugs and eggs, spray them well to remove bugs, and place the stems in water in my enclosure for the cats to eat. If we weren't expecting constant rain and cold for the next several days, I would just move them to my one good milkweed which I don't understand why it's not covered in bugs yet. I also read somewhere that ladybugs eat b-fly eggs? Anyone know the truth on this one? I haven't seen any ladybugs around. What about any natural detourants (sp) for aphids like other kinds of plants or something?

My dill also has little tiny green bugs that may be aphids, but they are green... hard to see on the plant, but if you look for them, you see them. But... my dill is not dying from them and it's not a problem right now.

The rain (constant downpour for about 12 hours here) has washed most of the aphids off, but still have tiny black bugs (size of aphids) on the underside of leaves and still lots of milkweed beetles. But I found 2 more babies on the plant that I was able to remove to safety.

I've gotten aphids on my milkweed last year and this year. Last year I cut it back, this year I went to local plant nursery, bought container of live ladybugs, covered the milkweed in tulle, staked it into the dirt, released the lady bugs under the tulle... voila in 3-4 days they'd eaten all the aphids. I planted some yarrow next to the milkweed b/c bug guy at nursery said the ladybugs would lay their eggs in it. Haven't seen any baby ladybugs. Haven't really seen any ladybugs since I removed the tulle, but haven't gotten any more aphids!