skip to main content

Butterfly Garden

pests on my milkweed

16 years ago

This is my first butterfly garden. My milkweed is looking terrible.Falling leaves, turning yellow-black spots. It is being attached by just about everything from aphids, black and orange beetle bugs, green worm/cat looking thing to ants and cute tiny cats. I don't know what to do! I'm scared to spray them with water and knock off any eggs or small cats. I picked up insecticidal soap spray but am very nervouse to use it too. Please help don't know what to do. I will try to post a picture to show what's happening. I live in Northern Florida and don't know if it is too warm for ladybugs...

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

karyn1
16 years ago
Don't use an insecticidal soap. I'd just pick off all the offending bugs by hand. You can use a cotton swab to wipe off the aphids. I pick off the milkweed beetles at least twice a day. It's not too warm for ladybugs but they can't do anything to help get rid of the larger hard shelled insects. Good luck.
Karyn
tdogmom
16 years ago
Are you planning on raising the Monarchs indoors? If so, then check the leaves first then hose off the Aphids with a strong spray of water. I wear my gloves and squish the others. Yucky job but that's the best way to do it if you don't want to harm the butterflies. Keep in mind that if you do get Ladybugs that they will EAT the butterfly eggs.
Related Discussions
No Milkweed Pests
Q
Comments (6)
My milkweeds always look gorgeous, then get nasty just before the monarchs arrive. Last year I had my first eggs in early July. My milkweeds were also up much earlier this year than I can remember in the past. Even my tuberosa's, which normally only sprout in early June, were up by Mothers Day. On another note, I did squash my first japanese beetle (well, a relative anyway), and it's also much earlier than usual. Sigh... At least a BST left me 2 eggs about 2 weeks ago that are happily chomping down the dill ;)
...See More
Bugs to ID please?
Q
Comments (2)
You can blast the aphids off with harsh spraying with the hose. As much as I hate those blasted aphids, I rear monarchs from the egg stage and would never consider getting rid of my milkweeds. One year, I had such a severe infestation that I cut it all back, before my knowledge of caterpillars & ladybugs. It was going dormant anyway. Keep your eye out for ladybug larvae too; they'll have a feast! Here's one of my pics from 2006:
...See More
What disease(s) and/or pest(s) are making my sedums sad?
Q
Comments (9)
Yeah I think you're right about the white; looked again today and it was gone. The scale on the last plant if there is subtle, but how about the numerous non-subtle brown spots, some of which look eaten into the leaf? Some kind of mite? If so, here's the combo I've come up with: Acephate - Amazon: "97UP 1lb bag Generic Orthene Insect & Fire Ant Killer" - http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05507.html says "Insecticide with some effectiveness against spider mites. Systemic." Forbid 4F - eBay: "Free Forbid 4F Miticide Spiromesifen 1/4 OZ free gift when u purchase 3 pipettes" - "Like Avid, it is translaminar. The active ingredient, spiromesifin, while not systemic (i.e., it does not move through the plant’s vascular system like, for example, Merit does), is absorbed by the plant’s leaves and will move from the tops of the leaves to the bottoms where the mites feed." A lot of the more mainstream systemic products use Imidacloprid, and while they don't claim to work against mites, they also don't mention that one reason that spider mites become a problem is insecticides [such as Imidacloprid] that kill their natural predators.
...See More
Milkweed pest ID
Q
Comments (7)
Thank you for this additional information. Yes, this is what is commonly known as Tropical milkweed. It should recover totally from the little cats feeding. I grow potted tropical milkweed to use as food for the cats and the plants put out new growth, even when eaten down to stubs. Lightly fertilize to help it recover. Timed release granules are easy to use or a diluted liquid, poured around the base. You might consider starting a bunch of plants by seed. It will take them a couple of months to get a bit of growth on them, but it is a way to ultimately have a nice supply. Tropical MW seed germinates easily and grows faster than most varieties milkweed. There is a milkweed forum here with lots of help if you want to look into growing more plants from seed. Living where you do, another suggestion would be to plant one of the giant milkweeds in ground, which would produce larger leaves for food. One of our forum members lives in central Florida and grows a giant milkweed. Once the little cats hatch and get a bit of size, you could move them to the larger plant to finish out their last molts. Thank you so much for growing for the butterflies and pollinators. .. Mary click here to go to Milkweed Forum Mary
...See More
fl-michele
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you Karyn and tdogmom. Since I am a beginner not sure about where to raise the monarchs. Is it best to raise them indoors??? I was thinking about sharing the Monarchs with my teacher friends. I was a Kindergarten teacher for 11 years. I just had a baby and now I'm staying home.
Will the milkweed be ok if I left them alone?? What causes the plants to get aphids??
susanlynne48
16 years ago
I leave them alone until I just can't stand it any longer. Yeck.............

Then I hose them off and wipe them off with my fingers, like Tdogmom. I have hoverfly larvae on mine right now, and no eggs yet, so I'm letting them do their job. They are eating a LOT of aphids.

Aphids aren't near as damaging as milkweed beetles (not the bugs, the beetles). The beetles consumer the foliage and leave these ghastly black oily spots on what foliage is left after they've had breakfast. I try to find them and squish 'em. This is the first year I've had them, but I only started growing milkweed last year. In the drought, we didn't have much of anything except the aphids. This year, I've got plenty of bugs around. I caught a stink bug devouring a BST cat the other day. Too late for the poor BST cat, but the day was OVER for the stink bug as it was caught between the sidewalk and the sole of my shoe.

Susan

Related Stories

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Milkweed

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Quit cringing. This not-weed plant is a sight to behold in the garden, has a delicious vanilla scent and is a magnet for butterflies

GARDENING GUIDES Organic Matters: Thwart Insect Pests With Trap Crops

By Therese Ciesinski

Add a few sacrificial plants to your garden to lure insects away from the harvest

GARDENING GUIDES This Fly Is One of the Most Beneficial Insects Around

By Pollination Press LLC

Meet the syrphid fly, a colorful pollinator that also beats chemicals for controlling aphids and other garden pests

GARDENING GUIDES 6 Plants That Beat Butterfly Bush for the Wildlife Draw

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

It's invasive, a nonnative and a poor insect magnet. Check out these better alternatives to butterfly bush in the garden

GARDENING GUIDES 7 Ecofriendly Gardening Ideas That Also Cut Chore Time

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Spend less time weeding, less money watering and more moments just sitting back and enjoying your healthy garden

GARDENING GUIDES Central Plains Gardener's July Checklist

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Can you believe there are only 2 important garden tasks this month? Find out what they are here

GARDENING FOR BUTTERFLIES Be a Butterfly Savior — Garden for the Monarchs

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Keep hope, beauty and kindness alive in the landscape by providing a refuge for these threatened enchanters

GARDENING GUIDES 6 Steps to Creating Your Butterfly Garden

By Debbie Ballentine

Encourage these fanciful winged beauties to visit your garden while helping restore their fragmented habitat

GARDENING FOR BUTTERFLIES 3 Ways Native Plants Make Gardening So Much Better

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

You probably know about the lower maintenance. But native plants' other benefits go far beyond a little less watering and weeding

GARDENING GUIDES Top 10 Native Plants for the Northeast

By Ellen Sousa/Turkey Hill Brook Farm

For a low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly landscape, use native plants adapted to the climate and range of soils in the Northeast

Sponsored

More Discussions

?what to do with this little guy?

3