Monarch catipillar ?

[Gordo33]

I noticed the caterpiller on this plant two days ago. Today there is a second one. The plant leaves are completely gone.
I planted several native flowers about a month ago hoping to attract butterflies next year.
What should I do with these caterpillars?
Will the plant recover if the leaves are chewed to the stem?
Do the catipillars usually distroy plants that are supposed to attract butterflies?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

View attachment 103635 I noticed the caterpiller on this plant two days ago. Today there is a second one. The plant leaves are completely gone.
I planted several native flowers about a month ago hoping to attract butterflies next year.
What should I do with these caterpillars?
Will the plant recover if the leaves are chewed to the stem?
Do the catipillars usually distroy plants that are supposed to attract butterflies?

Your native plant is a member of the milkweed family, and that caterpillar is exactly why you want milkweed! Your plants are already attracting butterflies! Milkweed attracts Monarch butterflies because they lay eggs on the plant. Monarch caterpillars need milkweed to survive. The caterpillar will continue to eat the leaves until it's big enough to crawl away and form a chrysalis. While it causes visual damage, the plant itself will be just fine and come back stronger and often healthier. This looks like a fairly small plant, so my only concern would be that the caterpillars could run out of food. If you have more milkweeds, you may want to move them to one with more leaves when they get close to finishing the ones on this plant, or if you know a place where milkweed grows in the wild, you may want to bring these caterpillars to those milkweeds just so they don't run out of food. Next year, your plant will be much bigger and will be able to support caterpillars better. Once a milkweed is two or three seasons old, it's big enough that you won't really see any visual damage.


I just had this female Monarch laying eggs on my milkweed yesterday.

 

[Gordo33]

Your native plant is a member of the milkweed family, and that caterpillar is exactly why you want milkweed! Your plants are already attracting butterflies! Milkweed attracts Monarch butterflies because they lay eggs on the plant. Monarch caterpillars need milkweed to survive. The caterpillar will continue to eat the leaves until it's big enough to crawl away and form a chrysalis. While it causes visual damage, the plant itself will be just fine and come back stronger and often healthier. This looks like a fairly small plant, so my only concern would be that the caterpillars could run out of food. If you have more milkweeds, you may want to move them to one with more leaves when they get close to finishing the ones on this plant, or if you know a place where milkweed grows in the wild, you may want to bring these caterpillars to those milkweeds just so they don't run out of food. Next year, your plant will be much bigger and will be able to support caterpillars better. Once a milkweed is two or three seasons old, it's big enough that you won't really see any visual damage.


I just had this female Monarch laying eggs on my milkweed yesterday.
View attachment 103636

Thanks for the detailed response. I do have two larger milkweed plants that I can transfer the catipillars to. Unfortunately they found my smallest plant. I plan on adding more plants either this fall or next spring.

 

[Lisak1]

That's a welcome sight!

 

[Gordo33]

If you have more milkweeds, you may want to move them to one with more leaves when they get close to finishing the ones on this plant,

So I got home late last night and went out to transfer the catipillars to another plant and the little buggers found them on their own.. They have a hardy appetite as they now have moved onto the second and last milkweed plant I have.
I noticed these little yellow bugs on the plants. Are they monarch eggs or should I get rid of them. If I need to get rid of them any suggestion should how would be appreciated

 

[JBtheExplorer]

So I got home late last night and went out to transfer the catipillars to another plant and the little buggers found them on their own.. They have a hardy appetite as they now have moved onto the second and last milkweed plant I have.
I noticed these little yellow bugs on the plants. Are they monarch eggs or should I get rid of them. If I need to get rid of them any suggestion should how would be appreciated
View attachment 103648

These are Oleander aphids.
Are they good? Not really.
Are they bad? Not really.

I have them on just about every milkweed I have. They multiply quickly. I've read that spraying them off with a blast of water will help remove them since they won't be able to get back on the plant, but I worry that doing that could also remove and kill hidden monarch eggs or caterpillars. If a milkweed is completely filled with aphids, Monarch butterflies will often choose to lay eggs on another plant. In some cases, aphids can weaken a plant, but shouldn't do any long-term damage. The plant will come back just fine next season. I'd say the worst part about them is that they can stain your clothes. I accidentally brushed against a plant a couple years ago, and now one of my pairs of shorts has little orange stains all over it. Couldn't get them out.

The first year, I tried removing the aphids, but it really didn't work. Now I just leave them be and haven't really seen anything negative come from them. Just like Monarchs, they're a living thing that relies on Milkweed. There is plenty of info on the web about Oleander aphids and milkweed. Some of that info contradicts other sources of info. Some sources say they are horrible pests that kill milkweed, some sources say that they won't do any harm at all. I've personally never seen any real harm come from them. Maybe the 'horrible pests' writers had an exceptionally bad case of them, or maybe something else was killing the milkweed and the aphids just happened to be there at the time.

 

[Gordo33]

Ok I will play the wait and see game. My philosophy is no foul no harm.
To the contradictory info out there on the web, I'm not surprised. It seems experience not always facts dictates what is written. And like you said the conclusions drawn don't always line up with what may have been the cause.

 

[Cynthia Shelton]

Ok I will play the wait and see game. My philosophy is no foul no harm.
To the contradictory info out there on the web, I'm not surprised. It seems experience not always facts dictates what is written. And like you said the conclusions drawn don't always line up with what may have been the cause.

The aphids - while ugly - won't really do any harm. I have a bunch of those same plants all over my yard and all I get ARE the aphids! A friend of mine actually has a wood box with screen sides and she keeps the caterpillars along with milkweed leaves in the box. They eat and eat and then attach themselves to the roof of the box in a chrysalis. Before too long, they are hatching into beautiful Monarch butterflies which she then releases. Very few eggs in the wild will see adulthood, so she prides herself on "raising and releasing" Monarchs. Plus, it is awesome to watch the adult butterfly emerge!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Monarch butterflies are poisonous to predators BECAUSE the caterpillars eat milkweed.
We have two other butterflies here...The Queen and the Viceroy. They both get mistaken for Monarchs by birds and remain uneaten...Even though neither of them are poisonous.
Nature.....