We have invasion of the wasps again! Ugh!
My DH sprayed (carefully away from the plants) the wasp's nests today. They were getting out of control again. I believe they have managed to snatch all my baby Monarch cats again. I didn't find a single one and there were about 2 dozen Monarch eggs a couple days ago. The wasps fly up and down my milkweed looking under and over the leaves for the cats. They are such smart predators. Maybe now that the wasps were sprayed, some of the cats will have a chance in the wild or at least until I can gather them up to raise in a cage.
The female Monarch was back in my yard again today, so hopefully she laid more eggs.
I have tried so hard to go organically with my garden. I must have had about 8 wasp nests started again on my fence around my backyard. I don't know of any other way to keep their population down.
I would love to hear some of the great ideas from those of you who are organic gardeners. I could sure use the help!
Organic Gardening Question
I don't know of any organic way to keep the flying predatory insects off, they come and go so fast. You could join the ranks of us who are Monarch farming lol, and build or buy a cage. Or, you could buy some netting and put a tall stake by the plant and tie the netting around the plant to keep the cats relatively safe. Ants could still get up there but they are easy to squish.
fly-girl - Thanks for the suggestion. I have thought about using netting around some of my plants once there are eggs on the leaves. I might resort to doing just that. The reason I have been reluctant to do that though is because the female butterflies often come back to that particular plant many times before their own life cycle ends. When I tried pulling leaves that the eggs are on and putting them in a container (with air holes), the eggs never hatch. Don't know why.
I have only been gardening 2 years. My first year I had tons of cats of various butterflies. We raised some Monarchs in my classroom, so I got hooked after that!
Over the past 2 years I have released close to 300 butterflies, mostly Monarchs and Swallowtails. This year the wasps have been so bad that finding baby cats has been almost impossible. The only thing I have had any luck finding recently are the Black Eastern Swallowtails cats. I don't know why the wasps haven't gotten them yet. Possibly because my herb garden is a little more lush and dense than my other gardens, so the cats are hidden better. The ST cats do release that foul odor when harrassed too, so maybe the wasps don't like being sprayed? I don't know.
My favorite cat and butterfly though is the Monarch. They are just gorgeous in all stages of development! As butterflies, they seem to just float around my yard, rarely in a hurry. So beautiful to watch! I am really disappointed this year that I have not been able to find more Monarch cats to raise and release. I know it's the wasps, which seem to be multiplying in and around my yard. I wish there was an organic way to decrease their numbers. Are there any known wasp predators (besides humans)?