I have horrible small orange and black insects on my milkweed. I left it alone & now it is covered with these things and is doing poorly! how do I get rid of the pests w/o hurting my caterpillars or "good" bugs?
Unwanted Bugs on Butterfly Garden
pics? Ladybug larvae are orange and black...
will try for pix. they're not ladybug larvae - I wish they were!!
Eat them Morgan. Yummy and tart! LOL
Catch a few and put them in a jar with some of the MW- Let's see what they morph into! Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase. :D
They sound like they might be milkweed bugs. We raise them in the classroom some years. (In captivity, they eat sunflower seeds!) I'm not an entomologist, but I would think that if you spray them, the spray would poison the plant for the caterpillars you want. You could try picking them off and putting them in the freezer. The hatchlings are so small you can barely see them. These bugs don't undergo a complete metamorphsis -- so the babies do look similar to the adults -- like crickets do.
This message was edited May 3, 2004 6:45 AM
Wow, milkweed has its share of orange and black bugs! Who knew?
Big black dots: milkweed beetle
Small black dots: milkweed borer
Orange "X" on black: milkweed bug
http://www.enature.com/guides/select_Insects_and_Spiders.asp
First two under 'Beetle', the last under 'Plant Bugs'.
Neat site, eh? -- X.
thanks, crystalspin. that web-site is terrific. It's a milkweed borer. Sorry re no pix: this is my first week on this website & I don't have the camera thing figured out yet.
So.... how do I get rid of these things? my husband thinks we should buy a small vacuum cleaner and vacuum them off. we have a HUGE infestation & I had cut the milkweed down to the ground but when it grew back, the bugs were on it! should I use insecticidal soap? leaving them alone sure isn't working!
thanks, everybody! what we ended up doing was... taking out all the milkweed bushes. we are going to replant milkweed somewhere else in the butterfly garden & watch it like a hawk this time & grab the bugs as soon as they surface.
Well, hey, I forgot to say "WELCOME!" Sorry your first query wasn't more helpfully answered; sometimes purging is the best solution. Better keep an eye on any open wood surfaces in the area as well, according to that site! Watch for unexplained sawdust appearing.
Welcome! ~spin!~
When you grow milkweed for the larvae to eat, you have to keep in mind that if you want to remove the bad insects, you'll also probably end up removing the good insects.
There isn't much that you can do for your milkweed other than bear it. Milkweed holds up to alot of abuse.
Thx. CaptMicha-
I agree, normally, but these devastated the plants and when I cut the plants back, they devastated the new growth.
we planted new milkweed & have only had about 4 of the milkweed pests. I picked them up and crushed them and haven't had them back again. so hopefully the infestation is over.
This message was edited Jun 9, 2004 8:50 AM