what are these and why are they eating my milkweed

[mommalepapillon]

Are these little worms ?
thanks
Christine
mommalepapillon
Sutton NH

[mommalepapillon]

is it a Greater Wax Moth? and should I "relocate" the little cuties?
c

[Jim]

Raise 'em up and see what they turn into Those may be tussock moths, whose color changes dramatically over the course of their caterpillarhood (yeah, I just made that word up):


Their feeding pattern is very distinct - a little more info here:
http://www.monarchwatch.org/milkweed/damage.html

[mommalepapillon]

Raise 'em up and see what they turn into Those may be tussock moths, whose color changes dramatically over the course of their caterpillarhood (yeah, I just made that word up):

NOOOO I DON'T WANT THOSE MEGA MUNCHERS I'LL HAVE NO MILK WEED LEFT!!!

Have had two very active Monarchs around all day today and have seen a few cats in varying instas one sooo smallit got lost in the picture I took!
But a really neat thing happened... one of the butterflies landed on a leaf that a fat cat was muching on ... and I got a pic!!! Off to get some ? neem oil ... I've see those pesky flies and maybe that will help

thanks for all of your help here Love this site!
Christine

[Lindabird]

I am so glad you took a picture of those little worms, or caterpillars, or whatever. I found a bunch of them on one of my plants today too. I had some last year but I pinched the leaves off that they were on and got rid of them. I was afraid they were maggots or something. I keep hearing about the tachnid fly so I was worried thats what they were.

Anyway, I was going to take a picture today and post it here to see what they were, but I got side tracked.

I haven't seen a Monarch for what seems like 6 weeks or so, and today I had two females at the same time. I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't find any eggs, but I'm hoping they will come back tomorrow.

Whatever they are, they can sure do some damage to your milkweed quick.

Linda

[mommalepapillon]

WELL THAT'S GREAT THAT WE BOTH HAD TWO FEMALES AT THE SAME TIME.

I REALLY HOPE THAT THOSE LITTLE ONES ARE NOT THE TUSSOCK MOTH CAT THEY ARE PRETTY BUT NOT FOR THIS BUTTERFLY GARDEN.

GOOD LUCK THIS WEEKEND, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A GOOD WEATHER WEEKEND SO I AM HOPING TO SEE MORE TODAY!
HAVE FUN
CHRIS

I am so glad you took a picture of those little worms, or caterpillars, or whatever. I found a bunch of them on one of my plants today too. I had some last year but I pinched the leaves off that they were on and got rid of them. I was afraid they were maggots or something. I keep hearing about the tachnid fly so I was worried thats what they were.

Anyway, I was going to take a picture today and post it here to see what they were, but I got side tracked.

I haven't seen a Monarch for what seems like 6 weeks or so, and today I had two females at the same time. I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't find any eggs, but I'm hoping they will come back tomorrow.

Whatever they are, they can sure do some damage to your milkweed quick.

Linda

[Lindabird]

Momma,

Jim was right....like always! My little caterpillars/worms are indeed those of the Tussock Moth. I picked the leaf that they were on and through it on the ground. A day or two later I found them spread out on different plants. They now have the orange and black fur. They are eating away on my milkweed.

I'm just going to let them eat because I haven't seen any Monarch eggs on my milkweed since April. This year I have plenty of milkweed, and no eggs. Last year, I had tons of eggs and my son had to make trips to his fishing spot to get me more milkweed every couple of days.

Linda

[mommalepapillon]

Oh my! I'm glad I got rid of mine!

I have one in a chrysallis and now I forget home many days till I have my butterfly!
I have seen 4 or 5 in varying stages of insta so I'm hoping to have a few this year.

Now if I could just get rid of the tachnid fly... I did squish a few but I'm afraid to hit the leaves as to distrub eggs.
Sorry you don't have any.... Maybe you coudl go with your son to the fishing spot and get a few ? Just to keep inside?
Good Luch
momma

Momma,

Jim was right....like always! My little caterpillars/worms are indeed those of the Tussock Moth. I picked the leaf that they were on and through it on the ground. A day or two later I found them spread out on different plants. They now have the orange and black fur. They are eating away on my milkweed.

I'm just going to let them eat because I haven't seen any Monarch eggs on my milkweed since April. This year I have plenty of milkweed, and no eggs. Last year, I had tons of eggs and my son had to make trips to his fishing spot to get me more milkweed every couple of days.

Linda

[Lindabird]

Momma....when I get a chance I'm going to go to a little milkweed patch by my house and see if there are any signs of cats/eggs there. I don't think it is just my garden that doesn't have any, I suspect they are slim to none around here. I'll let you know when I check it out.

Linda

[mommalepapillon]

I wonder what is causing your lack of activity this year...
Maybe they got lost and will arrive later?
Hope so!
Momma

Momma....when I get a chance I'm going to go to a little milkweed patch by my house and see if there are any signs of cats/eggs there. I don't think it is just my garden that doesn't have any, I suspect they are slim to none around here. I'll let you know when I check it out.

Linda

[mommalepapillon]

I was in the Monarch Watch home site looking up some information and when I went to the Monarch Biology, I decided to look at the Life Cycle..

Oh No what have I done... on that page is a picture of the stages of cat.... is that little one is it just like the ones on my plant I got rid of??? (picture above?)

I give up! I thought they were tussocks..

bad momma

[GBMonarch]

Whenever I see the tiny monarch cats on my plants I can still see the stripes, unless they just came our of the egg. They are really, really small then.
That photo you mentioned is really blown up and unless you looked though a powerful magnifying glass, you don't see the tiny hairs on the newborn monarch cats.

Your photo looked like the cats were larger and definitely hairy. My guess is that they weren't Monarchs but perhaps the tussock moth.
Sorry you had a scare. Hope the Monarchs make it to your garden soon!

[mommalepapillon]

Hi
Thank you for your insight! I have 8 cats now in varying stages... so I'm going to think those were Tussocks and hope they like where I moved them too!!

THANKS AGAIN

Whenever I see the tiny monarch cats on my plants I can still see the stripes, unless they just came our of the egg. They are really, really small then.
That photo you mentioned is really blown up and unless you looked though a powerful magnifying glass, you don't see the tiny hairs on the newborn monarch cats.

Your photo looked like the cats were larger and definitely hairy. My guess is that they weren't Monarchs but perhaps the tussock moth.
Sorry you had a scare. Hope the Monarchs make it to your garden soon!

[Jim]

The other clue is that you will never see that many monarch caterpillars on a milkweed plant in the wild (as shown in the original photo above), as a female will lay a single egg on a leaf and move on. OTOH, moths tend to lay eggs in clusters and so you may observe dozens of cats per plant.

[mommalepapillon]

OK THANKS..could have used that clue earlier in my agony!!!

The other clue is that you will never see that many monarch caterpillars on a milkweed plant in the wild (as shown in the original photo above), as a female will lay a single egg on a leaf and move on. OTOH, moths tend to lay eggs in clusters and so you may observe dozens of cats per plant.