Aphid Leaf question

[TypingMonkey]

Will the caterpillars eat a leaf full of aphids? I have a milkweed plant that has every underside of the leaves on it, full of aphids.

[TypingMonkey]

Forgot to mention...

If I need to take these aphids out, what's a way that I can do it that is easy to use and find with a caterpillar and maybe some eggs already in there? I tried spraying down the plant with a high pressure hose, and not one aphid came loose. I have the yellow aphids. There is a nursery where I can buy ladybugs from, but I'm concerned that they will eat the caterpillars also. Will the aphids keep most of the ladybug's attention and leave a good amount of monarch caterpillars alone?

[Paul Cherubini]

If the caterpillars are large in size they should be able to devour the milkweed leaves even with the aphids present. But small caterpillars seem to have problems surviving with alot of aphids covering the plant and the health of the milkweed plant also suffers if there are alot of yellow aphids. This thread covers yellow aphid control in detail: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=198

The Lady bugs sold in stores love to eat small monarch caterpillars and monarch eggs but they don't seem to bother large monarch caterpillars too much.

[Mona Miller]

"Feeding your larvae 'bad' leaves may make them sick and who wants unhealthy caterpillars? Remember, poor food quality often = problems with completing a healthy life-cycle…"
http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/08/m ... blems.html
Milkweed leaf 'problems'

Aphids can transmit/cause diseases to be transplanted to the plant and the other insects that eat it. This was an interesting article about how ants protect aphids from a fungal infection:
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 5.full.pdf
"Ants defend aphids against lethal disease"

http://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/rpds/926.pdf
Page 2, "Disease Cycle" next to the last paragraph
"CMV is usually introduced into cultivated vine crop fields and gardens by more than 60 species of aphids (especially the green-peach aphid, Myzus persicae) after they pick up the virus by feeding on reservoirhosts for a few seconds to a minute (non-persistent transmission)."

This is very interesting:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r280101411.html
"Cultural Control
In open field crop production, silver reflective mulch has been shown to repel aphids and whiteflies, thus reducing their numbers in and around plant canopies. In addition, virus transmission by these insects was greatly reduced. For best results, apply mulches at the time of planting or transplanting the crop. Apart from reducing aphid and virus incidence, silver reflective mulch increased cut flower production and reduced the crop requirement for irrigation water and fertilizer. This method is acceptable for organic production."