Monarchs and Aphids?

[TrainingWheels]

Hello! I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, and I've just started raising Monarch caterpillars. One of my dad's friends at work raises them, and she gave me one to take care of. It was hard to find milkweed, since we weren't sure what it looked like, and she said it looks different from the ones in the pictures you'd see on the internet, but we found a bunch of leaves, and s/he seemed to find the right ones to eat, so we've been giving him/her them.

Just a few minutes ago, I found another, wild Monarch cat on the side of the road. Figuring that's not a safe place to stay , I picked up the Milkweed s/he was on, and some nearby, and brought them home. However, it seems I also brought home Aphids that were on the cat's leaf.. Should I be worried? I know they just eat plants, but could they hurt her/him somehow?

[Mona Miller]

Just wash off the leaves, pat them dry, and the leaves without the aphids should be fine for them to eat. Aphids do make the milkweed look awful and they can transmit diseases so I would avoid feeding leaves with aphids on them.

[TrainingWheels]

Thanks! I started getting really paranoid while waiting for a response, so I just took the leaves with aphids on them and threw them outside on a tree we've been wanting to get rid of anyway. But, the other leaves that didn't have aphids on them should be alright, right?

[TrainingWheels]

Oh man, these aphids are so small and sneaky! There were so many everywhere, I ended up having to get rid of the entire little plant! Good thing I got that extra plant for the little guy.

By the way, while searching the plant for more aphids, or at least a few leaves I could save, I found one with a lot of little white dots underneath. I figured they'd be way too small to be eggs, but I'm not sure. They're really tiny, they look like little flecks of powder!

[Mona Miller]

If you can post a picture, that would be good. Look in the FAQ section, upper right to learn how.

Sometimes the milkweed will bleed a little and the latex will dry and almost look just like an egg.

[applestar]

That's so GREAT that you are starting to raise Monarchs!

I want to say, though, that you'll end up wasting a lot of milkweed that you/your cats/other Monarchs may need if you pick/cut then throw out all the milkweed with aphids. differentiate good looking leaves and only cut those, or simply give them a good swish in a bucket or tub of water. I put a tub under the garden faucet and rinse with running water too. The tub is to catch and save the water for other uses and to catch any caterpillars that decide to curl up and fall off. I give the caterpillars a dunk anyway to hopefully wash off anything loose that can wash off of them.

I think in the wild, the caterpillars avoid aphid infested leaves if they can help it brcause the leaves would have less sap in them, and because the attending ants would attack them. But check the aphid cluster for ladybugs and ladybug, as well as green lacewing and aphid killer larvae that eat aphids. You don't want to cut those leaves and stalks off the milkweed plants or you'll take away their protection.

[TrainingWheels]

I'm sorry, I'm such a slow replier!

Anyway, how everything's been? For one, so far so good. The one my Dad got me has been doing well, and is pupating now. The other one... So far, so many mistakes, I'm surprised he survived this long. And the most recent problem I'm gonna have to ask about in another thread.