@Perennialfan: If the smaller red bugs look like those in the second picture down on the right-hand side of the link I posted, they are immature milkweed bugs. MBs have an incomplete metamorphosis (meaning that the young look very much like the adults). @Ken: Milkweed bugs are in the order hemiptera, all of which have sucking mouthparts. This order of insects are commonly referred to as "true bugs" and includes such insects as aphids, woolly adelgids, leafhoppers, planthoppers, cicadas, stinkbugs and tens of thousands of others. I don't know whether they're called "true bugs" so as to distinguish them from the term "bug" to describe any insect, or whether there's another reason ... but I'm sure it's a lot easier for most people to handle than "hemiptera" (which really isn't so difficult, once you get used to it). Considering their apparent promiscuity, I don't know if any bugs are really true ;-) @Echinaceamaniac: You've sure got that right! I've seen the milkweed in our park take a lot of abuse from nature ... and still it thrives!

I've attached a link to help ID which bug you have. Right now, the Leaf Milkweed Beetle just showed up in my garden. I fight them every year. They are nasty, because the eat the foliage quickly, and leaf behind a trail of black, slimy residue (frass) on the foliage. The nymphs are soft-bodied, and I hand pick them, put them on the sidewalk and stomp them to pieces. The adult looks like a Lady Beetle, with a hard shell, and I much prefer picking these off for the "stomping" method. Later, I get a few of the seed eating Large Milkweed Bugs and I use the same control method, of hand picking and squashing them. Haven't seen the small ones yet. As you'll see in the attached info, there is also a Swamp Milkweed Beetle, but I have never seen them here. I may yet. Just don't know their range. If you find clusters of yellow eggs on the undersides of the leaves, they are most likely milkweed beetle/bug eggs. Get em before they hatch if you can! Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Milkweed Bugs and Beetles

It is about time for the final egg dumps before the Monarchs start to fatten up on nectar for the trip home to Mexico. The surviving cats will be these South bound migrators. Those are not boxelder bugs, which aren't beetles at all but "true bugs", or Hemipterans. Box Elder bugs are more related to Milkweed bugs. Those shown are milkweed beetles, which differ in that they have chewing mouthparts and undergo complete metamorphosis. They are Coleopterans, or Beetles. They do a lot more damage than the bugs do. The larvae get into the stems and eat the pith out of the middle. They also eat the roots. I find Milkweed Beetles to be very destructive in large numbers, like in the last two years.

You are most welcome. I'm just a home gardener, certainly no expert and that might be something else but it sure looks like what I find when the milkweed leaf beetle is on my milkweed. The adults will hide under leaves so you might have to gently bend over the top of the plant and search underneath the leaves. As adults, they're so big they are easy to spot but they move quickly. The tropical milkweed does make a wonderful late season nectar plant. With my first batch of Monarch cats this year, I put pots of tropical into the enclosure, and of course, they ate it bare. Now I'm just picking off leaves, so the plants can continue to offer blooms for nectar. I thought I was set for this year with enough milkweed but now, with all the eggs and new hatchlings, I'm a bit nervous. Happens every year but this year has been exceptional for Monarch sightings and eggs. Next year I'm planning on planting even more. Rather have plenty that's not needed than worried I won't have enough. I've manged to keep the common going (it's usually toast by this late in the season) so think I'll be able to manage this season by feeding common toward the end of the cat's development. Thank you so much for growing milkweed for the Monarchs. Mary