I think I might have discovered what's eating my milkweed tips -- earwigs. I looked closely at some of the wilted plant tops, and buried in the wilted foliage of some of the plants were earwigs. I'm not 100% positive they're doing the damage, but I can't find any other insects - I see bite marks on the stems, and tops are wilted, but nothing else but the earwigs. So I'm going to blame them for now. How can I control them? I obviously don't want to spray because these are milkweed. Will diatomaceous earth at the base of the plants work? Any other mechanical traps or other ideas? I've been cutting off wilted parts so lateral growth should start filling in, but I need to prevent the damage from recurring.

Also, some of my milkweed clumps had all the emerging stem growth chomped off right above soil level -- I thought they were dead but when I looked closer I could see the green shoots trying to come up but getting mowed right off. I dug up those clumps and potted them, they are now recovering nicely. Maybe further evidence of earwig damage? Never had any problem like this before. But I did post recently about more insect damage in general this year...