…but Mary planted all this milkweed in a patch, and now it’s covered with a mob of Monarch larvae.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
…but Mary planted all this milkweed in a patch, and now it’s covered with a mob of Monarch larvae.
Yes, that is its back end.
I hope you will get plenty of monarch butterflies from these!
Yes! Soon they will enter the pupa state and EMERGE AS A SWARM OF DEADLY MONARCHS, READY TO DESTROY DR. THADDEUS VENTURE!!! FLY MY MINONS!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
an often over looked gardening practice, hopefully growing, is planting butterfly plants.
Out here is Ca. not so many monarchs but there is the tiger swallow tail a really large yellow and black butterfly. I planted one of their alternate food plants fennel a little late so the caterpillars that showed up on the young plants kind of overwhelmed them I hope there is enough for them to mature, all the leaves are gone and they are working on the stems, it’s going to be close.
uncle frogy
Much nicer than milkweed bugs or aphids. Over here it seems to be an either-or situation on a given plant.
Good old competition.
The mildly deranged penguin suggests dealing with the infestation by sitting back, drinking a large Scotch (or a large Scots if you prefer something a bit feistier), putting some reggae on, and doing nothing else until they fly away. Then you can claim success ! Especially if they eat the peas.
I hafta wonder what one plants milkweed for if not for assisting in monarch preservation. Is it decorative? Edible? Pretty sure parts of it are mildly toxic, unless Venture Brothers lied to me.
They are quite beautiful when flowering, so definitely decorative in addition to aiding the only good monarchs that are not already dead. Unfortunately, they are native wildflowers so lots of idjits hate them in favor of fugly invasive old-world species like privet. Planted four small asclepias incarnata plants early this year and they appear to be doing quite well despite my deadthumb preventing any of the hundreds of seeds (several species of asclepias and joe-pye weed) I tried to start last year making it beyond seedling state. Several other unidentified native wildflowers have been establishing themselves pretty well in wake of my pokeweed and privet extermination campaign, but still need to get a chainsaw to finish off the privet and prune back some of the trees that are crowding out everything around them.
Lucky. Although I have lots of butterflies, the only things eating my milkweed are milkweed bugs. Although those are at least visually interesting.
In grade school we used to collect the empty pods, dry them, paint them red inside and silver outside, and glue them on a board to make poinsettias for Christmas. :D
Democracy’s not working out so you’re pining for monarchy now?