Longhorn beetle

Many people regard the milkweed and it's many varieties as weeds and like having the Milweed Beetle in their gardens. The milkweed beetle's main purpose in life is to "destroy" milkweed. It sucks the plant sap from the tender parts of new growth, seed pods and flowers and eats the seeds. It will destroy a patch of milkweed in a short period of time.

However, Milkweeds are food / host plants to many butterflies such as the Queen, Monarch and Viceroy. I plant as many varieties as I can get to grow in the Florida Keys for the express purpose of being a nursery for the caterpillars.

The only way I have found to control the Milkweed Beetle, which I view as a pest, without killing off the caterpillars and beneficials, is to use insecticidal soap. BUT FIRS... read moreT re-locate the caterpillars so they don't don't caught in the cross fire. Once the soap is dry, the caterpillars can go back to grazing as usual.

This beetle, to the best of my knowledge, because it eats the milkweed and ingest it's toxins, does not have any natural predators. Does anyone else know differently? Does it have a natural control/predator to keep it in check? I do not want to use chemicals such as seven dust or triazidine but I sure would like to get these critters under control without unhingeing the ecology by poisoning everything else.... Flora