Another pic

Yay! Did you have milkweed before and just no caterpillars on them? Or started this year and they were just waiting for you?

Yes that is a ladybug peaking through. :) I started the milkweed garden three years ago with one plant. I kept planting the seeds from the first plant and I now have about 16 plants grouped together and am trying to establish two other milkweed areas in my garden. Those two other areas have 2 small milkweed plants each. This is the first year I have cats.

Today I took my husband out to see them. You could actually hear one of them munching on a leaf.

What kind of milkweed is pictured, Blue?

That’s really exiting! Sounds like me, I took my husband to show him “my” Polyphemus caterpillar. Now he checks daily on the cocoon if he is around.

Javiwa it is common milkweed.

Hi, everyone. I myself just learned something new and wanted to share it. Please be careful planting different types of MW. I've been raising monarch cats for 5 years outside and never ran into this problem until now.
I have 4 different types of MW and had eggs laid on all types. The problem is when one ran out. I moved those cats to a new MW plant and they refused to eat it. I moved them again and again with no success. I had to put them on the last of the MW they originally were on and have MW shipped to me over night from E**y. If anyone starts a monarch host garden. Stick with all the same MW or plant a huge amount of each one, because you may have the same problem I'm having now.