I always leave them alone on my milkweed. I am very concerned about spraying them and then spraying off a newly hatched caterpillar. The new caterpillars are roughly 2 mm long and fragile. The aphids don't hurt the milkweed. I just leave mine. Eventually I'll see lady bug ?larvae? on the leaves as they LOVE aphids, and nature begins to do some cleanup. I would highly recommend leaving the aphids alone this year to allow any caterpillar the greatest chance fo survival, especially since their numbers are painfully and dangerously low this year.

I'm not sure but those orange 'aphids' on my milkweed I think eventually become the long red and black milkweed beetles and/or red and black humped milkweed bugs which look like lady bugs but aren't. Two different insects. Both of those do eat the milkweed. You may also get milkweed tussock moth caterpillars and they can eat a full grown milkweed plant in a day or two. I just strip and squish those 'aphids' with my fingers. It's gross but I think necessary for healthy plants. Just my opinion....

I did squish some eggs but I did not think it was going to help this matter. I would be squishing all day. I have four nice size caterpillars 🐛 on the plants now so I’m afraid to spray the hose at it. Thanks for the help. Should I trim this back in fall or next Spring? There may not be much left. I planted this to try to help the monarch population and teach my grandchildren some fun science.

I trim mine in the fall. After the leaves turn yellow and caterpillars are done.

They're oleander aphids, and once you have that many, I'd say just leave them. If you catch the invasion early, squishing is effective, and it can still be semi-effective with more, just a bigger project. On stems, sometimes I'll grab a leaf or paper towel bit that I can run up and down to squish and dislodge, but at some point it's more than I want to bother squishing. Oh, and I just avoid anywhere near caterpillars ... don't want to interrupt their dining or bump them. Cats can be pretty little and hard to spot, despite being stripy, so check carefully before aphid smashing if you go that route.

I leave the sticks over winter and spring, but mine are in the ground on a deer highway, so I need something to protect from getting trampled when they first come up.

I decided to do my best to lightly hose those eggs off the plants without harming the four caterpillars 🐛 I have hanging out on the leaves. I squished some more eggs that I could too. When I came home from work tonight I was shocked at their size. The caterpillars are 3 times the size they were since finding them Saturday. My plants are getting eaten by the caterpillars. I am hoping to see what happens and if we will see any of them develop into a butterfly. Thanks all for the help to all who answered. I am trying to grow perennial plants now and I started orange butterfly weed and showy milkweed. The showy milkweed did not flower but I did not expect it would this year. I just will pray the winter isn’t too bad. I will overwinter it in the unheated garage.

Patti , did the aphids hurt your milkweed ?

I planted 6 plants this spring.. was looking at them yesterday , an they were LOADED with what I thought were aphids...yellow / orange

I don't want to spray with anything

ANYONE ?

ron

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You can spray with a sharp spray of water. Repeat every few days.

tj

I do not remember them hurting them too much. It was certainly a gross invasion. This year my orange milkweed only flowered on one of the tips and my showy milkweed is in it's second year and never flowered at all yet. The showy milkweed just doesn't seem to be strong plants. They have dropped many bottom leaves. I check my milkweed daily and so far I have no aphids or caterpillars yet. Last year was great to watch them.

This year I added two types of the dwarf tomatoes and the one type are a white fly and a reddish purple aphid magnet. I spray them twice daily some days and I can't get rid of them. Does anyone have any help to give me on that issue. I have tried the hose sprayed with force and neem oil at night a few times but I am not sure how often to use that. I don't want to do more harm than good. I am looking forward to the cats if they find me. The bees seem to love my collection of flowers I planted for them. I only get to see my plants in the am and after work so I do not know who is visiting them during the day. ;-) I see many bees so that is a great thing.

I had a bad investation of those yellow aphids this year in the front garden on milkweed. They got so bad, worse than I've ever had them and they really destroyed the plants and I had to pull them. They were blackened, awful. I'm sure the roots will send more back next year there, but I can't see how the monarchs can use the plants when they are that bad. I normally get lady bugs, and I did this year too, but I don't think they actually eat these yellow aphids that are on the milkweed.

I haven't seen monarch eggs. I've only seen a couple of butterflies all season which is usual for me. Next year, I am going to have to try to do something about it. I don't spray and I thought the lady bugs would take care of them, but I think I should have been spraying them off with water. Next year I'll try that.

I have never had aphids in my yard in 35 yrs. I've been gardening here.

these milkweed are newly planted this year, the aphids must have come with them .

I'm BUMMED OUT

ron

You also have a large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus). If you plant it, they will come. Hose ’em down.

tj

@plantkiller_il_5 I too have been gardening for a very long time and this year the aphids are destroying all the same type of dwarf tomato plant that I grew from seed. No aphids on the butterfly weed or showy milkweed yet. I spray the hose at the tomato plants in the am and by the time work is over the plants are loaded again. I do not know if I will grow this type next year. I have never seen so many bugs on my plants. I certainly won't put them in the same bed as my other types of tomato plants. Good luck Ron and I hope the good bugs come along very soon to get those plants cleaned. I was bummed last year too. It is disheartening to see those aphids destroying your plants and your hard work seems like a waste. Between the aphids attacking the plants and the city rats eating all my big tomatoes I am at a loss.

I have lady bugs and they took care of regular aphids on other plants, my roses and other perennials but these aphids that are yellow on the milkweed, they ignore. Did someone say that these aphids are not native here? Could that be it?

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA - You are lucky to have lady bugs near you. :-) I have not seen a lady bug in years. I know people buy them but I don't have money to do that. It sounds wonderful as long as they stay near your garden and don't fly off.

I've been gardening organically at this same location for 40+ years. As I've gotten older, I've done that in a more passive way. I think if I could be more actively doing everything I could, I'd probably have even better beneficials. I don't think I do too bad though. I get very few beetle attacks, no slugs. I've seen wasps patrol the brassicas to attack the caterpillars and the lady bugs do show up for aphids in the spring and early summer. You do have to patiently ignore the aphids which do attract the lady bugs. I don't know why they don't feast on the yellow aphids on the Milkweed. Now if I could figure out how to keep the rabbits out. [g] Oh, and I've had a bad infestation of earwigs this year that I should have gotten after, but I didn't.

I think the more plant diversity you have, the better chance of attracting pest predators. I don't take any action against the pests, and I get very little damage from, earwigs, aphids, and Japanese beetles. I had some beetle larvae turning my Viburnum dentatum into Swiss cheese, and since I've added more native plants to the area, the Viburnum are hardly nibbled on any more. An owl house might help with the rabbit problem.

Jay, thank you for sharing that. I am adding more natives when I can. I already have a lot of native shrubs, but not as many perennials. I did try adding a few things this spring but the jury is still out whether they are thriving. I'm waiting to see how they do next spring. I had to plant them bare root this spring.

I have beetles that affect my last Viburnum, so what natives did you add?

Not sure there are any owls in our area. We're somewhat urban. We even stopped seeing bats and hawks in the past few years. Sad. There are coyotes in the neighborhood though. Last year as the summer went on, we had fewer rabbits, but by then they did a number on my vegetable garden.

We've got owls, hawks, falcons, coyotes, a fox, and bunnies ... the only change I've seen in bunnies is thatthey moved under the back deck instead of living in the front/side yard. I'm not sure what our owls eat (there's a couple barred, and at least one barn and eastern screech that I've seen or heard), but the hawks have been seen capturing squirrels, so Im sure they'd be open to bunnies, too; the peregrines have been seen catching birds, so bunnies might not be their favorite.