This is my main milkweed plant (Silky Milkweed if I remember correctly, it was planted probably a year and a half ago in inland San Diego). It's doing fairly well but it's been a huge battle with Oleander Aphids this year. Nearly every week I've been going through the plant to remove Monarch caterpillars before spraying the heck out of the undersides of the leaves, stems, new growth, etc to remove the aphids. This week I've come across quite a few (and by that I mean 5-10) ladybug larvae that I've watched munching aphids... here's one who's clearly got a lot of work ahead of him...

The aphids are building up again, but I'm worrying about damaging the beneficial bugs with a hose spray. I've tried using a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol on the aphids in the past (which worked), but it was time consuming and I didn't see any predators around at that time. Are there any other ways people keep the aphid population down? I do have some other smaller milkweeds around this year, but they've been going through rotations in my butterfly house- there are a few aphids on those new plants when they sit outside the butterfly house, but nothing like what I'm seeing on the main. It's to the point where I think the aphids are causing damage to the plant (or they will soon if something's not done). The other milkweeds are mostly Silky, though I think there's at least one Tropical mixed in there. How do you manage your aphid problems?? Any suggestions?

And on the subject of questions... what the heck is this thing??

It's a small brownish-black, hard "shelled".... caterpillar? It's firmly attached to the end of the leaf, but I really can't see a head or a tail. I guess the tail end (tapered to a point) is where it's connected to the leaf, but it's hard to tell. I was thinking aphid wolf at first, but they have a clear head area. The plant has a few of these scattered on leaves, one or two on a small stem.

And just for fun, here's a cool crab spider trying to hid in the milkweed flowers. I hope he's not after little caterpillars! I wish he'd decide he liked aphids....