pests on milkweed

[Paul Cherubini]

Here is the "Summit Year Round Spray Oil" that monarch breeders say is fairly effective against aphids and very effective against white flies: http://www.summitchemical.com/view-products.aspx?id=1 The breeders claim medium sized and large monarch caterpillars can be returned to treated plants as soon as the spray has dried. They also advise waiting a few days before attempting to let baby caterpillars feed on treated plants.

[Mona Miller]

http://www.summitchemical.com/labels/YE ... ONCENTRATE).pdf
Check the caution statement. Looks like it could be harmful to humans. It's 98% petroleum.

[Vicki]

I spent an hour outside with a hose getting all the aphids off my 8-potted milkweed plants! They had to be gently rubbed off and then rinsed off also. I used Murphy's Oil Soap as was suggested in this thread and did a light mixture of a tablespoon per gallon in a spray bottle. It has held them off for a few days but now they are appearing again. This time I'm going to "smash em quick" before they get such a large presence on the plant. It isn't possible for me to stand all these plants in water to keep the ants away. It may work if I bought a small childs swimming pool! It wouldn't take much water I don't suppose.
I would like to know if caterpillars are adversely affected by the presence of aphids? What if a caterpillar ate on a leaf where aphids were inhabiting?

[Mona Miller]

Aphids can transmit diseases, but on the other hand I have found huge monarch caterpillars on very aphid infested milkweeds in the wild. The adult butterflies nectar on the honeydew that the aphids make on the pecan trees in Texas as they migrate through.

[mmjbutterfly]

Help!

My milkweeds (A syriaca, incarnata, pulchra) are not doing well (curasivica okay) - many of the leaves have brown spots, are turning yellow and dropping (I am trying to take them off - pick them up from ground and ditch them) (fungus??)
, I have hundreds of the milkweed tussock moth caterpillars, (they seem to be multiplying daily) - do I just leave them be - they are cute little things, but so many of them!!
- as there are red & black bugs (beetles??) that are eating the pods and also increasing in alarming numbers daily
- and to add insult to injury, there are also aphids!!!!
Q. 1 - do the tussock moth caterpillars interfere with monarch caterpillars? there are hundreds of them and more every day - should I leave them be or destroy/murder them?
Q 2 - should I try to get rid of the red and black bugs , which are in ever increasing numbers each the day? and if so, do you know the best organic method? ( a can with soapy water and throw them in as with Japanese beetles??)
Q. 3 - aphids - I could try the baking soda/dish soap/water spray??????

Last year I was plaqued by seemingly millions of big yellow aphids on stalks - which I diligently got off by hand with soapy water and organic green cure ( wearing surgical gloves) and paper towels - doing this many many times - they seemed to come from the soil - they did not return this year - but now!!!!!!! all this other ugly stuff.....

Any suggestions on what to do or whom to ask? - I have hundreds of milkweed .that are being decimated on many fronts........................

Many thanks - I still have a few caterpillars I need to feed and need healthy milkweed.

Maraleen Manos-Jones
mmjbutterfly@hvc.rr.com

[Mona Miller]

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plan ... %20syriaca
Problems Associated with Asclepias syriaca

I take a gallon plastic container (i.e., a milk jug), cut about a 3-4 inch circle under the top. Leave the top and the handle. Then, I add soapy water. If you place that under the milkweed, then you can just knock the pest into the soapy water. The milkweed tussock moths in my yard if I left them alone would eat all the milkweed. Aphids, I hand squish and then hose them off. It is an endless battle. You can also clip the top of your plants. Many of the aphids concentrate in the top. No matter how many ladybugs there are out there, the aphids seem to mutiply faster. Milkweed beetles are after your milkweed seeds. I also drop those into the soapy water. My milkweed is for my Monarchs.

[mmjbutterfly]

Thank you Mona - it's time to get out there and battle.

Maraleen

[Vicki]

I read somewhere that you can put your potted plants in about an inch of water and that keeps the ants from depositing aphid eggs. I was in a drug store not long ago and they had a 6 foot shallow swimming pool on sale for $5 so I bought it. It was easy to inflate and made for toddlers. I put a half inch of water in the bottom and then placed all 10 of my potted milkweed plants in the water! I haven't had any problem with any bugs or aphids since! What a relief to have healthy plants growing for my next batch of monarchs. The past week I released 39 healthy monarch butterflies! Hope this helps somebody...
Vicki

[Mona Miller]

I'll have to try that. But, the ants don't deposit the eggs, they carry the aphids. The aphids have live births. And, yes they do winter over in the soil. But, some of the aphids can fly.

[sbannister]

I guess with the swimming pool arrangement, you would have to move the fifth instar cats before they start looking to pupate.?. I would be afraid that they might drown when they go wandering

[Vicki]

Oh yes! When the caterpillars are near the finish..it wouldn't be a good idea to have the pot in water. Thanks for pointing this out.

[Joylin]

Soap, Baking soda in a spray bottle will free the milkweeds. Ah if you have them planted on pots you can spray them with malation and wait a week to put them to be feed to the catts. This have worked for me in years

[Mona Miller]

Baking soda will free the milkweed of aphids?

Malathion is something that I never want to use. The effects on humans and animals is still being cataloged.

[Joylin]

Yes we are doing these technique for sevar years when I was at The University of Mayaguez, Here they have a Butterfly house at the zoo of Mayaguez, all students of biology and entomology has to do several hours of lab in the butterfly labs. I was there for a year, they gave us that technique thas has even work for me for years, faster that the ladybugs if you have an infestation after that you can mantain even with ladybugs or spray. The aphids hate the ph of the soda but they wont harm the plants or the catts as well.

[Mona Miller]

Can you tell us the ratio of water to soda? Many of us don't like dealing with pesticides. We've seen the backlash from years of trying to control nature that way. The predators become immune and the beneficials die. I'd rather try to use a simplier method like the baking soda. Thanks.

[Paul Cherubini]

Malathion has been around for 50 years and is still effective in home garden sistuations which is one reason it's still a popular product. It's a favorite of butterfly farmers (the farmers who aren't prejudiced* against synthetic chemicals) because it's residues are not highly toxic to butterfly caterpillars and they degrade quickly.

*Merriam-Webster definition of prejudice: "An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts." "A preconceived preference or idea."

[Joylin]

In a gallon put 90%water 10% baking soda, mix it and add 3 spoons on liquid soap Please the one that is pink called Vell or the regular pink do not use antibacterial or with aroma stuff. Mix it in the gallon close it, shake it and wait a few minutes for efervecence to go down. Now is ready to spray, for heavy infestations do this on dayly basis until its all gone (maybe 3-4 aplications) The rest of the gallon try to save it on a fresh part of the house or on the fridge, Label it so noone take a disgusting drink. This will work only with aphids and trips.

[Mona Miller]

*Merriam-Webster definition of prejudice: "An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts." "A preconceived preference or idea."

My knowledge is of an educational one. I am a master gardener. I have also read the fact sheets on these chemicals. Use of any chemical other than what is written on the label is illegal. Spraying it on and washing off is not a direction of its use.

http://www.pbigordon.com/pdfs/Malathion50Spray-SL.pdf
Directions

[Mona Miller]

In a gallon put 90%water 10% baking soda, mix it and add 3 spoons on liquid soap

Doesn't the soap kill the caterpillars of the butterflies? Or, do you recommend waiting a certain amount of time before you use it.

[texas butterfly]

Anything you put on your plants ends back up in the food chain.
Along with all of the high blood pressure medicines, birth control pills, etc...
Anything put into water ends back in the water. Anything put in the human body, ends back in the water. To get it out of the drinking supply, each chemical, each drug must be known so it can be removed at filtering time. That is why so much bad stuff is staying in our drinking water.

I'm not sure any synthetic poison in any amounts is safe.

The Cockrell Butterfly center here in Houston, no longer uses pesticides from what I understood from a recent presentation. They use natural predators if a bug gets out of control in the butterfly attrium. They did use pesticides at one time. But then someone came in and suggested they use natural predators and when they saw the results they are convinced. So, if they get re-infested, they just go get more of the predators and it quickly fixes their problem.

[Paul Cherubini]

A great irony of these synthetic pesticide debates is that no over-the-counter pesticides are as toxic as the sap in a tropical milkweed leaf. Get a trace of the sap from a tropical milkweed leaf in your eye and you will be fully blinded for at least one full day. No over-the-counter pesticide can do that. Diluted Malathion, for example, causes no eye irritation nor any irritation if you spill some on an open sore.

No one worries about the "food chain effects" of tropical milkweed leaf residues or other naturally occuring plant toxins in the water supply. Monarch adults, caterpillars and chrysalids are also toxic regardless of what species of milkweed they fed on - try scratching your eye after handling them and see what happens.

[Joylin]

If you have catts on the plant or feedin just use baking soda, the soap its to retain the soda to the leaves, when theres no need of feeding, you add the soap . I do not know if there where you live sales vel soap, is pink in color , this soap is harmless to plants, to the soil but stays on leaves as well. With or without the soap it will work but without it you may need several sprays as the baking will dissapear when rain or watering.

[Mona Miller]

I remember Vel when I was growing up in Kentucky, but I haven't seen it here in VA. We just have those fancy bacterial dish detergents. Frankly, I think we need to get back to basics.

For example, something as simple as radishes growing in a bean patch will keep the bean bugs off the bean plants. I've heard that Nasturtiums are a trap crop for aphids, too.

[dandjtaylor]

Mona

It so happens that I have 3 Nasturtiums that I grew from seed and put them close to the Salvias and cabbages. I use them as an alternative host for the cute little cabbage whites. There are Zero aphids on any plants within 4 feet of each of the Nasturtiums. Plus, little did I know that the Nasturtiums grow almost like a vine, so I have trained them to go up my fence on one side and behind plants on the other. This gets more aphid deterrant range.

They are a very beautiful red blossom. I will use them again next year. They are a nice addition to a butterfly garden.

Dwayne
Salem, MA
Waystation #2638

ps...I finally have the first 2 Monarchs of the season to eclose this afternoon. The remaining 10 will be a couple more days.

[joann0811]

hmmmmm maybe this explains why I'm not having anymore issues with aphids. I've squashed and rinsed the aphids off my container milkweed twice and haven't had more problems. I also have a large container of nasturtiums sitting beside the milkweed.

I was recently given a flat of muffin top marigolds, I've used them before in my vegitable gardens to help keep pest way as well.

[Tia]

Okay, this is just ONE data point -- but several years ago, I tried to control aphids on an Asc. incarnata in my front yard by spraying it all over with diluted dish soap with a bit of some spice from my kitchen cabinet (sorry; can't remember what the magic spice was). It worked a treat: the aphids blackened and fell off. I rinsed the plant really well with the garden hose. And every monarch larva that fed on that plant later died. Never had a failure like that before or since. Can't swear it was the dishsoap, but I'm not doing that again.

Tia

[Mona Miller]

Edith has a huge commercial farm. I'd tried to tell her that she is polluting her ground water, but she just won't listen. Not using pesticides is sometimes a hard thing to change. It is the responsible thing to do though because we should care about the future generations of children, butterflies, and other wildlife who will have to deal with how we are polluting our environment right now.
Try telling a smoker that tocacco will kill them. They will rationalize their use, but there are too many facts that state there is a connection. There is also a connect between pesticide use and cancers. Try telling a family that lost a 4 year old to cancer that you were just trying to kill a few aphids.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 102306.htm
Common Household Pesticides Linked To Childhood Cancer Cases In Washington Area

[Paul Cherubini]

The study author said: ""We shouldn't assume that pesticides caused these cancers" and so the EPA is not going to ban certain household pesticides on the basis of that study.

The EPA looks at multiple studies when deciding whether or not to ban certain pesticides for home use due to their carcinogenic potential. In the case of Vapona no pest strips, for example, 9 different animal exposure studies indicated it didn't cause cancer and 2 studies suggested it was weakly or moderately carcinogenic. So the EPA concluded Vapona was a possible (but unlikely) human carcinogen.

The horrible, deadly side effect of the Science Daily article is that it distracts the public from doing anything about KNOWN causes of cancer in children such as obesity. Banning high fat foods from fast food restaurant menu's would do vastly more to prevent childhood cancer than banning household insecticides.

[Mona Miller]

http://www.ryansminiadventure.com/RYANS_STORY.html
She wasn't overweight, her parents didn't feed her too much fast food. But, genetically, she was predisposed to not be able to tolerate the level of pesticides in her environment. How many other people and butterflies will die due to our toxic environment? The butterfly counts show how numbers are declining.

[Paul Cherubini]

According to the National Cancer Institute: "little is known about the causes of and risk factors for childhood ALL"

www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/ALLinchildren

What causes ALL?
With the exception of prenatal exposure to X-rays and specific genetic syndromes, such as Down syndrome, little is known about the causes of and risk factors for childhood ALL.

Scientists know that ALL in children occurs slightly more often in boys than in girls and in white children more often than in black children. However, they cannot explain why one person gets leukemia and another does not.

[Mona Miller]

That fact sheet does not include the new research that I just posted. I don't know why you can't accept the fact that pesticides can cause cancer and do kill butterflies.

[Paul Cherubini]

The new research in the Science Daily article you posted said: ""We shouldn't assume that pesticides caused these cancers" The US Environmental Protection Agency wouldn't allow the use of the organophosphate pesticides mentioned in the Science Daily article inside of homes if they were known human or animal carcinogens.

The EPA DOES allow people to eat KNOWN animal carcinogens if they are not pesticides. Example: lab testing has revealed that the benzopyrenes found in a flame broiled hamburgers are powerful animal carcinogens. So I would be much more concerned about eating "flame broiled", "charbroiled" and "barbequed" meats than I would be about minor exposures to any pesticides I might buy from Home Depot (e.g. Ortho Malathion Plus) to use against the aphids in my milkweed garden.

[Mona Miller]

I hope folk remember that those test on those pesticides are being done by the chemical companies and not the EPA. The results are submitted to the EPA by the chemical companies.

[dandjtaylor]

Folks

Trust me on this, where I have Nasturtium planted, the aphids are not. So this year, I have Nasturtium scattered throughout my garden. Plus the Cabbage Whites use it as a host plant.

D

[Mona Miller]

I read somewhere that the Nasturtium are a trap crop for aphids. I've got to get mine planted.

[drexel.n@gmail]

Thanks so much for the heads up! I just bought some nasturtium seeds this weekend! I'll get some planted near my milkweed asap.

n.

[Robert61]

Hello from Waystation #613 in NW Ohio. I've got them too (last year), but the songbird population has increased dramatically ever since I made a Waystation. The succulent bugs were ravaged by songbirds. By the way,for the MLMP, I've numbered the MW plants, so I can record info on each one. I've noticed that the Common MW grows much faster than the Swamp MW, as far as height in inches on 5/14/10. Also, last year I recorded eggs laid and found that the Monarchs prefer Swamp over Common MW by far. Robert at CREATE A WILDIFE-FRIENDLY YARD. Wondered if anyone else noticed these two observations.

http://wildlifefriendlylawn.blogspot.com/

[sbannister]

I have nastursium planted only in my front garden and no aphids there! However, there aren't many in the back either- so I dont know if it's the nastursiums in front or some other factor.