After our rains finally arrived-thank goodness because with over 18000 gallons of water used last month I simply cannot water anymore-I have been enjoying the garden more. During the high heat days of July and early August I did not venture outside at all unless I had to. It has been a tough summer! At any rate I was looking around the garden while watering and noticed something missing-my tropical milkweed!
I did a double take because even though we had been in a drought I could not see how 20+ two foot tall plants fully leafed out could just disappear. Okay, well maybe I can understand it if I had a rabbit or deer problem. I have neither one of those issues here so I then surmised the drought took out the milkweed-until I looked closer. Can you see what I saw? Stems! Just stems that were chewed off about six inches above the ground. Ha! You can tell I am not too used to this happening but those butterfly aficionados out there in cyberland will immediately realize what happened to the butterfly weed-caterpillars ate it. I have never had this happen to my native butterfly weed and while I'm not begrudging the monarch caterpillars their food (I assume it is them) I am a bit distressed to think that if there are no blooms on my plants then there will be no seedlings next year. Not to worry, the plants are growing back nicely and there are a few stray seedlings in other parts of the garden that will surely continue on this wonderful milkweed in my garden. It is really a nice plant to be so accommodating to the caterpillars and to grow back for the gardener too!
Another really cool thing about this milkweed is that it is a host for several insects. When I first found the orange eggs above I was most excited to think they were monarch eggs but upon further research I know they most likely are not monarch eggs but ladybug eggs! This is very good for my garden and makes total sense to me. As anyone who grows tropical milkweed knows this milkweed is most attractive to aphids. What do ladybugs eat but aphids? These ladybug eggs will hatch and the larve will make short work of the aphids. But! They may also eat the monarch caterpillars so the eggs are a quandary for me. Note: These eggs can be mistaken for aphids but they have no legs and are mobile so are definitely not aphids. For more on this check this link about monarchs and butterfly weed.
The swallowtail photo was only to distract you from the picture of the ugly milkweed sticks and is not a culprit in the missing milkweed. This caterpillar and a ton of its buddies made my dillweed all disappear....
in the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,
In the Garden
Finally! Late August saw the caterpillars showing up here at Tiger Gardens. I thought this date was very late when compared to last year's arrival of swallowtail caterpillars, but when I went back and looked at my Metamorphosis post I found that the caterpillar hatched out in a jar hatched on the 19th of September. It would have taken about two to three weeks for it to hatch so the timing this year must be right.
I always find swallowtail caterpillars munching on parsley here in my garden. I grow it for this very reason and love the caterpillars. Now if some monarchs will just find that butterfly weed I planted...
The above pictured caterpillar is the larva of a stout moth that is quite common to the United States and it also made its appearance here recently. I have been stung by these poisonous barbs on more than one occasion and I can tell you it is most painful. It is akin to having boiling water poured on your skin and will hurt and sting for a good amount of time after you are stung. The bad thing about these caterpillars is that you rarely see them because number one, you are not looking for them, and number two, even if you are they are hiding in places you'd least expect to find them. I found a whole passel of them (along with a sawfly larva) munching on my Common Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana). The only way I spotted them was because I noticed half of the plant was gone; chewed right down to the leaf ribs. This munching had not been going on long but the damage was pretty severe. I was most lucky that when I turned over a leaf to look for the culprits I did not accidentally brush up against one of these caterpillars. They are dangerous and you must use care in the garden to keep from getting stung.
Can you tell why they are known as saddleback caterpillars? That dot on their back clearly gives it away and while it looks nice and smooth you would not ever want to touch one or brush up against one. They are not at all friendly like the black swallowtail caterpillars. Nonetheless, I left these guys alone-for now.
What kind of caterpillars are munching....
in your garden....?
I want to tell Marnie a big thanks for helping me make Skeeter's picture fit into the frame on the header of this blog. She was kind enough to send me some code from her template; which I could paste into my template and it made the picture fit-finally! It only took two years but hey-it's there now! Thanks!
Please add your input to my survey on my sidebar. Do you soil test or not? I am working on a post for this and I'd be interested in seeing how many folks soil test. Thanks.
