My starts of Mexican milkweed plants seem to be a magnet for every type problem. Yellow aphids I decided to leave alone. Other things I don't know the name of. Now powdery mildew so bad I decided I had to do something. Was going to try the baking soda, veg. oil and water treatment but thought I better look closely before spraying and found this new item that looks like an egg of some type. So do I spray or not?
Glenna
Looks like the cocoon of the hover fly - their larva look like hairstreak caterpillars - they love grabbing aphids and sucking out the innards :o) Good guys for milkweed pests and they won't harm butterfly caterpillars.
~ Cat
Glad this MW has attracted something positive. LOL. The powdery mildew tooks like it may kill all 3 pots. It is REALLY sick. Gets plenty of wind and sun but only gets worse. The wild milkweed in the field around us is very healthy, so any Monarchs will probably have to use it.
It must be the high heat & humidity...some of my tropical milkweed has powdery mildew too.
I still have some nice looking milkweed and I'm not sure what to do about the damaged ones? cut down, pull, treat ?
any suggestions.
also found a strange looking cat put it in the nursery to see what it becomes- will try to get a picture and some what apear to be brown "eggs" twice the size of monarch eggs.
again will post pics.
after closer inspection with magnifying glass- I think we have hover fly larva too - and what I thought were brown eggs have legs.
I'm ready to head to the butterfly nursery Lukas and buy some ladybugs because our aphids are everywhere. I squish, squish, squish and some crawl on me .. just creepy and gross.
What can I use to treat the powdery mildew and not hurt the monarch cats?
I cat hunted today and only found 2 itsy bisty cats. Lots of wasps..
someone mention wasp catchers - How di that work?
I still feel like something is crawling on me- ok.. only a hair caught on my arm.. shivers ....
I am recuperating from what I think is a reaction to Lantana- some of mine was out of control and I wacked it back - and gathered it .. and ended up with a rash all over my arms ..
so itchy itchy itchy.
Long ago I was told that the apids-eatting-milkweed may release an odor that attracts monarchs. I don't mind the aphids. But I have a few horrible fat beetles who chew the milkweed down really fast. Since these appeared 3 yrs ago, only a couple of monarchs have selected my plants to lay. Apparently this neighborhood has gone to dogs!
Johanna
after a bunch of searching on "organic" gardening...
I've decided to continue with the squishing of aphids until I can buy some ladybugs.
I did find a site that suggested 1/2 milk & 1/2 water sprayed on the Powdery mildew for 3 weeks every 7 days or so. I'll let you know if it works.
Ruth
I have been away for two weeks and when I returned I see the tops of my older MW look like they have powdery mildew and maybe spider mites too. I wonder if the aphids have sucked the leaves until they "look" like it is mildew? Not pretty never the less. I whacked the tops off and after rescuing any cats, washed they thouroughly and clipped the leaves to root the stems. One plant had a fairly large cat eating on the leaves, so I fed the washed leaves to my cats. They never skipped a beat.
My nursery is back in business now and thriving with BST, GST, Monarch, NOID Skipper (found on Rue), and for the first time I have Pipevine STs!!! Thanks to Datura12's gift of tiny PV plants in June. The female must have come while I was on vacation. They are very tiny but there are 12 of them!!! I hope I have enough leaves to keep them happy.
Shelia,
What kind of pipevines are you growing?
Well I am very bummed!
About half of my PVST cats died. I think I know why.
The plant they were on at first is very tiny Aristolochia fimbriata; and I was afraid I wouldn't have enough to feed them. Then I remembered a Aristolochia tomentosa that was given to me last year. It had not ever had cats so had more mature leaves. I picked several and they began eating it up. Also found three cats on it. (In hine site there may have been more at first). Today several were crawling away from the new leaves and tonight all were off the plant and looking bad. I think they may have gotten sprayed by over spray of something from my neighbor’s side . I put them in a fresh cage and cut leaves from the A fimbriata, but may be too late. I hate learning lessons at the expense of my cats!
Out here the PVS uses aristolochia erecta as a larval host. Whenever I tried to introduce a. fimbriata - the little ones died. Perhaps it is something regional with the species because I've read where others raise them just fine on a. fimbriata. You'd think if a butterfly laid eggs on a plant it would know whether it was the right plant for it's young???
~ Cat
I don't think I will try bringing them in again. Maybe next year when I have more of the vine to feed them. BTW...the rest were dead this morning and they never ate the new leaves.
Bummer Sheila...as we say...Frass Happens.
There'll be more next season...and you can always remember all the healthy ones you raised and released and all the ones we all do to and will continue to do so :o)
~ Cat
Well these were my first..but on a up note, I did find one more wee one that I missed on the first rescue. It will stay on the plant I know hasn't been sprayed. I will cut the other one back so it doesn't have eggs laid on it. I will dig and move it to my controlled beds.
I have grown a. fimbritta for several years. It reseeds in pots where I have large brugs planted. Since butterflies lay on leaves in the sun and mine are shaded by brugs, maybe that is why I get no cats. I also have had a. ringins for years in full sun and never have had pipevine cats. I even put cats on the ringins (taken from someone elses tomentosa) and they died..Some cats will feed only on the exact kind of plant on which they hatched. I have seen this happen with other kinds of cats as well.
Johanna
