Okay, this is the third year I've grown milkweed (well, I planted seeds three years ago, now it just pops up everywhere in my gardens and I let it thrive) but had a disappointing monarch turnout. I saw ONE laying eggs about two weeks ago, and that's it. And haven't seen a single caterpillar. The plants are kind of ugly (the seed is from back home in CT, it's the tall milkweed with big leaves and beautiful flowers) and they don't improve the looks of my gardens, but I let them grow because I want the monarchs, but I'm thinking about just pulling the plants. They tend to start yellowing after a while and get REALLY ugly, and other things chew on them.
Has anyone in my zone been seeing monarchs??
Plenty of milkweed, no monarchs!!!
Don't give up. The Monarchs need our help all over the US. They have their roosting area being cut in Mexico, Fires destroying wild MW in TX and who knows what the tornados have done all across the country. Keep the faith. Maybe pot up what you have so it isn't an eye sore, but plant more seeds .....they need to recoop this year.
If you are concerned about the look there are several visually appealing milkweeds that should do well in your area. Maybe tropical milkweed or butterfly weed.
Had a Monarch female in the yard yesterday...hoping she left eggs on the MW.
I have the other varieties as well, and they are nicer looking for sure!! I am SO waiting for the monarchs to appear, I can handle the weedy look of my garden if I know I'm helping them. The buds are ready to open up soon, I love the florets, and they'll bring in lots of butterflies. But when the blossoms are gone, we're back to ugly again. Send your monarch over this way Sheila!!!
I hope it did come your way before our cold rainy weather hit! It was 40-45 degrees the last two days and wind something else! It would have given her a fast ride that way!!
I am in a totally different part of the country but in my area we should start seeing Monarchs pretty soon but they don't appear in force for another couple of months. The adults that come this way need to lay eggs and those babies need to mature into adults to populate the area.
In my garden they lay a ton of eggs on the milkweed but the caterpillars have a pretty high mortality rate. The ones that do live are pretty good at hiding in plan sight. I don't know how involved you want to be but you can collect the eggs as you find them and keep them indoors to raise/release the adults.
From your description the milkweed you have sounds like it could be common milkweed. If you pinch it back it will branch and create a small shrub of sorts and usually re-flower...but that wont do anything about the yellowing at the end of the season.
That is what I do plexi; I raise the larva of several swallowtails, monarch and queens, and others when I have the opportunity. I know only about 2 % of our eggs actually get to mature mate and lay eggs. I do what I can. It takes time, but I am retired now and as long as I am planting the host plants there is nothing to buy after the initial cage is made.
Hi Thea, hope you are doing well.
No monarchs here yet.. plenty of milkweed already blooming (kept some in the greenhouse over the winter) I don't think my seed from you came up. I have one small red ring milkweed that I found growing wild in my woods. Need to go out and look for some more tomorrow.
Well today I went out and cut down five stalks of milkweed that were growing too close to other plants. I didn't pull them, so a new stalk will probably come up there or close by, later. I put the stalks in water to keep them alive for a while longer, just in case there were any eggs on the leaves. Went back into the garden and wouldn't you know, there was a monarch merrily laying eggs on my other thousand milkweed plants!!! Yay!!!
Ms. Elaine, it took a long time for my milkweed seeds to germinate the first year, and they didn't come up full strength until the next year. Yours may show yet. The plants aren't as nice looking as the other varieties, but the flower is SO sweetly scented.
Love those sweet-smelling flowers. I will keep watching.
Thea....that is natures way of telling you "stop" don't cut any more...LOL! I personally think the Monarchs can smell the MW. Not sure that is true, but they can find the smallest plants some time.
Saw a very tattered Var. frit yesterday and today. She was tasting everything, but not sure if she laid eggs on the passi or not. Also had a.... hmmm mind went blank.. the butterfly that looks like an orange/brown leaf. She loves the pea gravel.
Question Mark or Comma maybe?
Well, I've got Monarchs year-round, but I recently returned from Grandma's in southwestern WV and saw a Monarch breeze by me one day. It's the first one I've seen in that county in WV. The milkweed was about a foot tall but I didn't see any cats - didn't look much for them, though. But they're definitely around. I'm having a pretty high mortality rate around here in FL, but I was gone for three weeks and I think the wasps have gotten ahead of me. Time to get the spray out!
Melanie
Oh my goodness {{Melanie}} !! it is so good to hear from you again. Missed you girlfriend! You have a lot of catching up to do. LOL!
Oh,, yes, the question mark.
I was out walking this morning and saw a tiger swallowtail. He/she had one tail missing, but was happily getting moisture/salts from the side of the road.
I heard something chilling on the bug show on NPR yesterday morning. A woman calling in to the show said she went out to check on her monarch cats and found one impaled by a stink bug, sucking the life out of the cat. She said she'd wondered about not seeing many cats on her plants. I have a HUGE number of those darned stink bugs in my gardens every year; crafty little buggers know when you're just about ready to catch them, and flip to the other side of a leaf.
My old mesh/nylon crates are falling apart, I'm frantically looking thru old DG posts to find ideas for making cages for raising my butterflies this year. Every time I think I won't have time to take care of them this year, I think of those poor cats' vulnerability and I just can't stand it. The butterflies need me! And I need them....
Elaine, aren't those question marks unique? I had them for the first time last year, and have seen one already this year. They seem to enjoy rotting fruit (yum).
thea....Could be it wasn't a stink bug but an assassin bug. http://www.eduwebs.org/bugs/assassin_bug.htm
No, the caller was adamant about it being a stink bug, and she caught it with the caterpillar impaled on it. She said she googled it to identify it as a stink bug. And I have a ton of them in my gardens (as well as the assasin bugs). I found this picture in the DG Bug Files, though it may not be this particular one. Some of them are a pretty green too. I guess either way, between the stink bugs and the assasins, I've got to hustle and come up with a good pupating box to protect my cats.....
I use the Glad containers, cut out the tops and tack tricot (inside swimsuits) to the lid. They are easy to see in and quick to add food, dump frass etc.
They have no problem afixing to the plastic or a branch when pupating. I use the "wet" floral foam wrapped in Glad press n seal to keep food fresh. The cup is the bottom of a pudding container.
When needing to remove the chrysalis, I scrape the silk with my nail and put a pin through it or glue it (careful not to let glue touch chrysalis). Using a piece of foam covered with material, I tilt it in a emerging cage. When they eclose I simply unzip and allow them to fly out.
Before I switched to the zipper cages, I made one from PVC and covered it with tricot. Using strips of foam to hold chrysalis.
The smaller castle cubes are much easier to minuplate and fold up when I don't have but a few.
This message was edited May 12, 2011 8:26 AM
Your set-ups are fabulous Sheila. Where are these shelves, do you have a room in the house for them, or in the garage? And the little zippered thingy you have the monarchs in, where did you find that? And how many BST's do you keep in a Glad container? Do you move them as they get into their later instar stages so you have fewer in a container? I'm always afraid of handling them too much. Unfortunately, I'm still not seeing any monarch cats, though I did have a monarch ovipositing last week. I'm about to give up on them, but I have my old reliable BST's crowding my dill plants.
I am lucky enough to have a large "shop" we call it out back. One end is mine for butterflies and potting shed. Since that time we have completed paneling the shop and painting shelving...trust me it looks better. LOL!
This critter is defoilating my swamp milkweed and others too. http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/549/ Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle
It is the first year for the pest in my yard. Watch out for them, they cause a lot of damage and will drop to the ground if disturbed.
This message was edited Jun 10, 2011 4:17 PM
I haven't seen this one yet! I just have a ton of aphids.
Sheila, how big are those critters? A size of a Japanese beetle? Sorry they've proven to be so destructive to your plantings.
Here is a link. They are about 1/2 inch in the adult stage. The ones I posted were only little dots of red, and I thought at first they were aphids, but when they didn't move, I took them inside. http://bugguide.net/node/view/2970
Sheila - we have an insect with the same coloring, but body shape, size, even antennae look like lightning bugs. We looked it up last year and learned them also to be milkweed "bugs" of some sort, but it looked to me like all they ever did was make babies. I didn't note any damage from them. Plenty from aphids.
I wonder . . ..?
No the Milkweed bug is different than the MW beetle. These were a wee bit larger than a pencil eraser size and round like ladybugs. The did a lot of damage. The MW bug doesn't do that much but I want the seeds and that is what they feed on mainly.
Well I'm so lame as you know I let them stay too. They have only recently shown up on my A. tuberosa from which I have been pulling seed pods to try to encourage more blooms.
I worked my way into the thicket and pruned a mass of seeds and floss from A. incarnata today.
The curassavica are still semi-infant stage (I'm way behind this year) 3"-5". I finally put my purple milkweed seedlings in this week and the A. exalta will go in tomorrow. These guys are perennial I think. I ran out of A. physocarpa/didn't germinate this year.
Doing a lot of pushing and pulling trying to get ready for the onslaught.
Have you grown senna/cassea alata before? I finally got one to germinate but it wasn't getting enough sun where it was. I transplanted it to FS, and it should be at 10' by the end of the weekend. :D
Enjoy yours,
A.
Well aphids etc. don't bother me. But when I find this kind of damage and I haven't even seen a Monarch, it is war. Btw, this particular plant never has rebounded.
Wow, Sheila, that is a pretty lean looking plant!
Any tips on how to control/discourage the MW beetle?
I just checked everyday for about a week, picked and stomped. They seemed to stay on the underside of the leaves or along the stems. Their name is Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle; but that is not the only variety of mw on their menu.