Comments on: Flowers that attract pollinators: It’s not about the grown-ups

By: Jennifer Goodrich

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 15:06:43 +0000

That just happened to be where the adult monarch laid her eggs, that’s all. The swamp milkweed will be back next year, I promise. They eat mine to the nub every year and it always comes back the next spring. They do tend to prefer it to some other types, but I wouldn’t worry about it one bit.

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By: Sonia Bulifant

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 01:35:06 +0000

I planted six milkweed plants and happen to have one swamp weed for all the monarchs in my butterfly garden. They ate the swamp weed literally to death and didn’t touch the milkweed. What happened? Should I plant swamp weed instead?

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By: Allison Sloan

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 03:47:57 +0000

I am the steward for a natural area restoration in a local park in Illinois. We were thrilled last week to find three Giant Swallowtail caterpillars on the Prickly Ash and Wafer Ash shrubs we planted three years ago. At home, I let a number of native weedy volunteers grow specifically because they appear to be so important to caterpillars based on the amount of leaf damage. Violets, asters and choke cherries get chewed to shreds, I’ve noticed, as well as our American elms and hackberry trees. I have tried to identify all of our weeds using iNaturalist and let most of the native ones stay. Our pollinator populations are definitely growing as a result.

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By: Jessica Walliser

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:18:31 +0000

In reply to Lourdes Aguila.

There is little you can do to discourage this natural predation. If you cage the plants, the monarchs won’t be able to get in to lay their eggs either.

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By: Lourdes Aguila

Sun, 14 Jun 2020 16:44:52 +0000

Hi, I live in Southwest Florida and was very successful raising Monarchs inside the lanai last year. This year I placed the milkweed plants outside and even though I find monarchs visiting the plants, feeding on the flowers and laying their eggs, the caterpillars disappear promptlyand I have witnessed wasps getting the caterpillars and eating them. Is there something I can do to protect them from these predators?
Thank you for your help.

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By: Jessica Walliser

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:22:10 +0000

In reply to Kara Kweder.

Larval caterpillars rarely outright kill a host plant (it’s not in their best interest to, after all). Even if the plant doesn’t look so great temporarily, it will rebound quickly.

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By: Kara Kweder

Sun, 22 Dec 2019 17:40:52 +0000

I just found a bunch of caterpillars in my garden. I forget the plant but I know it’s a pollinator. Will they kill this plant by eating its leaves? I’m excited to see them there!

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By: Jessica Walliser

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 19:20:38 +0000

In reply to Suzann.

That’s such a challenge, I’m sure. Praying mantids are lovely, except most of the time, the ones we see in our gardens are introduced species – either European mantids or more commonly, Chinese mantids. There’s not much you can do other than relocate the mantids when you find them.

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By: Suzann

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 00:42:48 +0000

I have a catapillar garden, but the praying mantises are ruthless. What can I do?

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