Forum:

pollinators

Monarch caterpillars are here! (and other activity on the milkweeds)

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6945

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

4368

I like...

posted 1 year ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

The above picture was from yesterday afternoon, so I just went out to analyze milkweed. Not many caterpillars yet, but all kinds of things love them.

IMG_4374.jpeg

IMG_4379.jpeg

IMG_4380.jpeg

IMG_4382.jpeg

IMG_4378.jpeg

PEP - BB100 Badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by gir bot

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2317

Location: Zone 6b

1548

I like...

posted 1 year ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Christopher, your milkweed patch is full of activities!

My milkweed has done with the blooming and seed pods are maturing. The stalks are 7-8ft tall and I need yo climb the ladder to check for monarch eggs (found some!).

IMG_20250729_101218.jpg

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

PEP - BB5 Badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by gir bot

gardening - air badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Mike Haasl

textiles - air badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Ash Jackson

woodland care - air badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Mike Haasl

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6945

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

4368

I like...

posted 1 year ago

3
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Wow! I didn't know it would grow that tall. I think ours maxes out at 5' and plenty of the stalks end the year at only 3'!

John Weiland

pollinator

Posts: 3024

Location: RRV of da Nort, USA

982

posted 1 year ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Christopher Weeks wrote:Wow! I didn't know it would grow that tall. I think ours maxes out at 5' and plenty of the stalks end the year at only 3'!

That's because you experience the 'lake effect' from Lake Superior. Much like trying to grow open-garden tomatoes on the Oregon coast, the cooling temperatures of Lake Superior will stunt the growth of milkweed and humans alike.... :-) Only half kidding as a friend of mine who lived on the north end of Duluth along the shoreline really struggled to grow certain warm-loving plants. His kale did great! Yet you also are correct even as we are warmer than you but at the same latitude near Fargo....the milkweed probably peaks at around 4-5 feet and just doesn't seem to have the growing season to get taller. Funny that my wife also announced yesterday as having seen the first monarch. We also have a good dose of volunteer dill this year, but no swallowtail butterflies yet. Also, the cornice at the peak of our old farmhouse roof has a vent for the attic: The noise of all the bats going in an out of that vent is amazing as they probably raise young ones up there and start the evening festivities of insect gathering after dusk.

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6945

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

4368

I like...

posted 1 year ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I just stumbled across this paper and *had* to drop a link to it here! https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2019.00474/full

Monarch eggs and larvae were 2.5–4 times more abundant in gardens having milkweeds evenly spaced in a 1 m corridor around the perimeter, surrounding the nectar plants and grasses, than in gardens in which milkweeds were surrounded by or intermixed with the other plants.

I don't personally have a milkweed garden -- I just allow milkweed anywhere I don't need something else. Where milkweed is thick, I mow a path through it, but no more. If milkweed grows right next to a cultivated vegetable, I'll pull it, but on the edge of a veggie bed, I'll leave it. But for anyone growing it on purpose for monarchs, this might be useful.

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 1 year ago

2
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

that's some good information Christopher...thanks for posting.

I learned my lesson with common milkweed though and plan to keep it contained by mowing and pulling strays a good distance from the cultivated gardens as it runs long distances.

I had planted one at the edge of our big garden and after realizing my mistake and cutting it down I've spent the summer pulling dozens of sprouts, some as far as 6 or more feet from the original plant.

I like the idea of a mixed milkweed boarder though and need to work more on all the other milkweeds especially butterfly weeds.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2317

Location: Zone 6b

1548

I like...

posted 1 year ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

My personal observation is that butterflies that depend on specific host plants will choose healthy plants to lay eggs on. It's different from pest insects that feed on sick ones with compromised metabolism. If there are more milkweeds growing nearby, the caterpillars have a choice and pick the more nutritious one. If it is a single plant and later gets infested with aphids, the caterpillar will have difficulty relocating. This year after I amended my soil, I saw zebra swallowtails on pawpaw for the first time. Maybe it's coincidental, but it makes sense and I am really encouraged.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2317

Location: Zone 6b

1548

I like...

posted 1 year ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I found five caterpillars on the milkweed. They will be the super generation to head south and over winter. We are in drought so I water the plant to keep it as healthy as possible. Last month there was a caterpillar feeding on a different plant that got an aphid outbreak. The caterpillar was way smaller in size and failed to morph. Fungal fruiting bodies grew out of the dead body.

20250904_083451.jpg

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Alder Burns

pollinator

Posts: 1870

Location: southern Illinois, USA

414

I like...

posted 1 year ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Though I've never seen them doing this for myself, I've read some papers recently describing several species of fireflies that forage on common milkweed flowers as adults!! Apparently they are eating the milky sap as well and this makes them unattractive to predators, much like the monarchs. So there is another benefit of having milkweed around and it is providing sustenance for another iconic, beautiful, and endangered insect!

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 4 months ago

8
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

We saw one monarch butterfly weeks ago and nothing more recently....but the caterpillars are here!
Caught three chomping away early and soon after they headed down the milkweed stalk.

IMG_20260521_073950_406-2.jpg

IMG_20260521_074034_357-2.jpg

IMG_20260521_074010_602-2.jpg

IMG_20260521_073919_909-2.jpg

IMG_20260521_073907_159-2.jpg

IMG_20260521_073937_967-2.jpg

IMG_20260521_074054_423-2.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 4 months ago

7
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

the monarch caterpillars are out of sight today but finally a single great spangled fritillary on the orange butterfly weed and a pipe vine enjoying the yellow butterfly weed...seems late but more likely I'm impatient!

photo with aphids on the common milkweed...upper right flowers (with fritillary on the lower left) have orange aphids ...have seen several lady bugs around also.

IMG_20260524_130747_312-2.jpg

IMG_20260524_130929_BURST5-2.jpg

IMG_20260524_130916_896-2.jpg

IMG_20260524_130454_428-3.jpg

IMG_20260524_130506_BURST1-2.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5472

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

2450

I like...

posted 4 months ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

So, the monarchs show up at your place before you find ladybugs? Here, at last frost I find them crawing about . I haven't seen a monarch yet. I'm also not outside as much as I used to be...

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 4 months ago

7
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

the ladybugs have been in the gardens for awhile now, early like yours.
These are just the first I've noticed on the milkweed and they've definitely come for the aphids!
we're not seeing monarchs yet either but one at least must have snuck in and laid some eggs...

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2317

Location: Zone 6b

1548

I like...

posted 3 months ago

9
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I saw a few spring migration monarch butterflies this month and they love my purple milkweeds! Survival rate for the caterpillars is low though and I only found two in the last instar.

P5240451.JPG

P5240459.JPG

Fritillary butterflies on purple milkweed

P5280476.JPG

Predatory stinkbug targeting caterpillar

P5280483.JPG

Common milkweed in bloom 6ft and growing

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 3 months ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

May, those are some gorgeous photos!
I think I have some of your purple milkweed up as seedlings, planted in the fall and up and overwintered outside...still pretty small but hope I can set them in this fall!

I have not seem more caterpillars since the previous three but we did see one monarch....mostly fritillaries and a buckeye and pipevine and maybe a painted lady.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 3 months ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Have not seen any monarch caterpillars since the three earlier but this morning these were busy chomping on a small plant. When I first saw there were dozens but by the time I took the photo down to just a few.

Maybe Euchaetes egle, the milkweed tiger moth or milkweed tussock moth?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchaetes_egle

IMG_20260628_110641_047-2.jpg

IMG_20260628_110641_047-3.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2317

Location: Zone 6b

1548

I like...

posted 2 months ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Could be. I had an outbreak of tussok caterpillars last year and they demolished the butterfly weeds in a short time. Only one plant back this year. The caterpillars come out at night and travel down to the soil and hide. I find out keeping the soil on a leaner side makes wildflowers less attractive to pests. They don't need organic fertilizer or pee.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6945

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

4368

I like...

posted 2 months ago

8
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Another trip around the sun and monarchs have a place to grow up at my place!

IMG_6120.jpeg

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6945

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

4368

I like...

posted 1 month ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

They don't always pick the smartest spots to do their thing...

IMG_6179.jpg

Judith Browning

Posts: 10797

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3997

posted 1 week ago

3
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

a surprise caterpillar on the yellow butterfly weed that had a spurt of growth recently.
I think my common milkweed is too old for caterpillars to feed on but there are a lot of new plants popping up in the mowed area to the side of it ...maybe they will have some activity although only 6 or 8 inches tall.

IMG_20260917_090141_792-2.jpg

IMG_20260917_073113_933-2.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work - Edison. Tiny ad:

Extend your growing season with the Hotbed Plans eBook + Self Heating Winter Greenhouse Plans eBook

https://permies.com/wiki/192368/ebooks/Hotbed-Plans-eBook-Heating-Winter