Monarchs have started laying eggs on my milkweed and I daily smash as many of those orange aphids as I can, careful not to smash the butterfly eggs.
Are aphids harmful to the butterfly eggs or the caterpillars? Not that I need another reason to hate aphids.
Thanks,
Maureen
Monarch eggs and aphids
lol...I'm also an Aphid Hater. No, they won't hurt your cats or eggs. They just make the plant look sickly.
It's hard to control them when there are eggs and cats. You have a few choices:
1) remove the eggs by either taking the entire leaf or cutting off just the portion with the egg and then squishing the aphids
2) use my "bucket o' death" method. I do this earlier in the season with a bucket or bowl (bowl seems to be easier) and putting a tiny bit of soap in it and filling it with water. Take the top of the plant and gently bend it over into the bucket and swish it around and wash the aphids off. Not all come off but 3/4 of mine do and I just keep on it for a few days.
I did this just yesterday but used just plain water. I have eggs on them and swished them, aphids and eggs, in the water and the eggs didn't move. Most of my eggs are on lower branches but hopefully the few that did get washed won't be bothered. I think I'll bring them in tonight and watch them to make sure. So mine will be the "guinea pig eggs".
3) do nothing is your other choice and the easiest. The aphids will eventually go away and/or the cats will eat them or around them.
If you do swish them off the plants you have to make sure that no cats are inside the top of the plant. First instars can be hard to see so you have to know what to look for.
Hope this helps a little. I'm always full of advice. lol
I would wait until the eggs become caterpillars and then start wiping the aphids off.
I would NOT use soap, because it can be harmful to the caterpillars, escpecially when they are tiny.
The aphids are not harmful to the caterpillars but they can suck the plants dry - which is not good for the caterpillars.
A few aphids are not a problem. A plant covered in aphids is likely to dry out and not be able to feed the caterpillars. In nature, the caterpillar would probably crawl off the plant on to another, or it would die...
I just wanted to clarify in case I didn't post clear enough that I do NOT use soap (in the bucket of water) when there are caterpillars on my plants. Thus why I added that if you are going to wash the aphids off at all you have to LOOK for the cats closely. Usually I just hand squish them (with gloves of course) or maybe hose them off or nothing at all.
I think it helps my plants greatly to wash the aphids off. You all up north might not have as much a problem as we do tho. Our plants start growing much sooner will grow much longer down here. They can quickly become taken over by the aphids which could ruin having milkweed later when they pass back thru on their way to Mexico. If I can keep the aphids under control them my plants can last so much longer and submersing them in the water hydrates the leaves drying out from the sun and aphids.
well i have left the aphids alone one year, just to see what would happen, it was pretty bad... the plant looked like an orange stick from a distance.
I did take some pictures that year, perhaps I can post them later. I have a great pic of a few caterpillars surrounded by thousands (maybe millions) of aphids. Now if only I could find it...
That helps alot Koncrete--I'm glad you're always full of advice! I may try the bucket-o-death next year if I can catch the aphids before the monarchs start laying. I don't think i'm adept enought to remove an egg without destroying it.
"...the plant looked like an orange stick from a distance." I hate aphids! Good to know they won't hurt the cats though.
I have a pink a. incarnata that grew to be quite leafy this year although no blooms this year, but still has cats on it. I didn't realize they came in red, guess I'll check the plantfiles.
Maureen
The term red is just a "common" name for a. incanarta... in reality the flowers are more pink than red, depends upon the soil and moisture etc. etc. They tend to look red when they first open, then as the white flower parts mature it looks pinker. The other common name is "swamp milkweed"... which I think sounds icky - so I usually say "red".
The latin work incanarta - means red, so ...
that's the problem with common names, I guess...
Well, I am thoroughly disgusted this evening. Those horrid aphids have really come back. I think the problem is that I don't notice them until they cover the top new leaves and by then they're all under the bottom leaves. ggggrrrr!!! I squished and swished and got rid of a ton. I only saw one little ladybug so she better get busy! lol
I sprayed my milkweed last year, no insecticidal soap or swishing, and it was a continuous battle. They didn't completely win but they kept me frustrated and busy. I'd hose them off the plants and the next day "they're baaaack!" How DO they do that?! And don't you wonder WHERE they come from?!? So this year I started spraying the first crop with insectidal soap and that stopped many generations. It was safe then because I didn't have any Monarchs at the time.
I ended up collecting 6 Monarch cats and 1 Queen tonight. I wasn't going to bring any inside but as usual I was forced to when I was looking at one on the plant and saw a spider on the next leaf. Bad spider! I bet 95% of my cats die-by-spider and the other 5% by wasps.
Which brings me to another question: do wasps eat butterfly eggs? I see them looking around on my milkweed but am not sure if they are eating honeydew or what.
Maureen, to collect the eggs you can just take the whole leave or cut only the part/end where the egg is. I do this all the time. This week I found one and sat it inside on the cabinet and forgot about it until I saw this TINY black speck way down on the bar. I'm so used to doing that so I keep my magnifying eye glass on the bar and know what to look for. lol
Koncrete--I have taken the whole leaf off for two eggs. However, this morning, one of the bigger cats was munching away on one of the leaves with the egg, and I couldn't see the eggs anymore! Could he have inadverdently munched it? :(
magnifying glass--good idea--does that mean the black speck is the newly hatched cat?
I've always just assumed that cats will eat eggs if they are the leaves because they will eat smaller cats that are in their way too!
I have a magnifying glass that looks like something a jeweler uses and it's great. Without it or just a regular magnifying glass I can't tell that tiny black speck of dirt IS a cat. (so, yes it is)