hat makes you sure they aren't monarch eggs? If you Google image search monarch eggs, you'll find many are whitish, not yellow. https://ruthschickens.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/my-butterfly-garden-supporting-the-monarch-butterfly/ and http://www3.canisius.edu/~grandem/butterflylifecycle/The_Lifecycle_of_a_Butterfly_print.html .

Most likely from a "true bug," something in the Hemiptera order.

Monarchs don't lay eggs in clusters like this.

So a "True Bug" is a good bug or bad one?

Thanks, Jeannie :)

Interesting - both links I shared show clusters and one is a .edu site. Art Shapiro, professor of entymology has the most reliable butterfly site - he notes gulf fritillary lay eggs in clusters .. looking for monarchs there .. a few butterflies he notes as laying eggs in masses. http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/search/node/butterfly+eggs - most DO say monarch usually lay singly but that other butterflies may lay in clusters (2 more sites Kentucky.edu and UC Davis. I have a link to a page that will show who else feeds on milkweed - gotta go find it.

I have had hoards of Tussock Moths on my milkweed in the past. They can skeletonize a plant in no time, since they travel in large groups. I haven't ever seen them as eggs, so I don't know what you might have there. But, I don't consider any insect "bad."

Martha

To Maggie,

I looked up the link, not sure if I work this right. With my Zip code for example the Queen shows up and looking at a map of its range that would be very unlikely. Also didn't think the Isabella Tiger moth eats milkweed and this shows up, too.

I'm wondering if these are eggs of the Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus. I came across a grouping of eggs on one of my milkweed plants recently that looked similar and the grouping looks like a photo of the Large Milkweed Bug eggs found online. If I've squished one of those black and orange bugs, I've squished 100 or more in the past few days. Do you see these bugs in your garden? If so, the eggs may belong to them.

Mary

I have seen orange and black bugs in my yard.

Thanks, Jeannie :)

Yes, that looks like the bug I mentioned. They are fast and skittish if they think you're after them! :-) Even their babies are fast though they can't fly until they mature. This bug lives about 6 weeks, I think I read, so they will undoubtedly lay eggs somewhere. I destroyed the egg grouping I found in my garden.

Mary

Hi Iris - I would have thought the National Wildlife foundation would have gotten it right(they've been around a long time) - it looks pretty good for my area. Website is recent - you should email them your concerns and perhaps they'll check it out.

WAY too early in Ohio for milkweed bugs. Don't know about TX.

There are a zillion "true bugs." They have piercing mouth parts. Whether they are predators or plant eaters depends on the species. I don't like the predatory ones when they eat my caterpillars but I do like them when they eat the darn brown marmorated stink bugs that are overrunning Ohio.

Are these the babies for that black and orange milkweed bug?

I found all 3 of these types of bugs all together in the same crepe myrtle (close to my milkweed plants). Are they the same bug, just different stages?

Thanks, Jeannie :)