Three Days within the Lifetime of a Milkweed Patch – Halton Area Grasp Gardeners

Cathy Kavassalis Halton Grasp Gardener

July 31, 2025

Many gardeners develop milkweed (Asclepias spp.) to help monarch butterflies. It’s an incredible concept, however it’s just one motive to incorporate milkweed in your backyard.

Milkweeds have a lot to show us about evolution, relationships, and ecosystems. With over 140 species stretching from Canada to South America, these crops have tailored to deserts, meadows, and wetlands. Some have leaves cloaked in hairs or glandular trichomes to modulate temperature, cut back water loss, replicate gentle, and discourage hungry bugs. Others put on waxy, water-repellent coats that assist forestall fungal spores from germinating. All produce some form of poisonous latex—a sticky chemical cocktail wealthy in cardiac glycosides. It deters most, however not all, would-be diners. Over time, a exceptional neighborhood of specialist bugs has advanced not simply to tolerate milkweed’s toxins, however to rely upon them.

Life on a milkweed might be fragile and transient.

Curious concerning the guests to my milkweed patch in Seguin, I took a better look, specializing in simply widespread milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). What I noticed over the course of some days astonished me.

Guests and Interactions

*Two Shiny Beetles (Household Phalacridae) https://uwm.edu/area…/bug-of-the-week/two-shiny-beetles/*

A tumbling ragdoll beetle, doubtless Mordella marginata, shocked me because it moved throughout the leaf and hovered over spots of sap. When disturbed, it certainly tumbled. What was it doing there? I’m undecided. Its larvae are saproxylic, depending on polyporous fungi that break down wooden.

Close by, tiny black beetles skittered throughout the leaves. At first, I assumed they had been the pollen-feeding shining flower beetles (Olibrus spp.) I’d seen on my Joe-Pye weed. However these had been behaving in another way. What had been they doing? I made a decision they is likely to be shining mould beetles (Phalacrus spp.) grazing on yeast or fungal threads rising the place insect excretions or plant sap had collected.

Talking of excretions, I discovered a colony of dogwood-milkweed aphids (Aphis asclepiadis) producing honeydew for his or her attending ants. I used to be nipped by one diligent guard as I leaned in for a photograph. These ants aggressively defend their colonies from would-be rivals. Different ants and bugs steer clear. It’s a cool symbiotic relationship to witness.

Among the many leaves, I discovered a teddy-bear of a girl beetle (Brachiacantha ursina), a lacewing egg perched on a filament stalk, and spined soldier bugs searching by the foliage.

Many species of aphids can happen on milkweed and appreciable experience is required to determine them. I could have this one unsuitable. There have been actually many aphids not in colonies that I couldn’t acknowledge. There have been additionally at the least 4 species of ants on the plant.

I questioned—had the milkweeds referred to as to them for assist by chemical alerts?

I used to be gobsmacked by a strolling fuzz ball, which I got here to find was the larva of a stripe-horned inexperienced lacewing within the household Chrysopidae. I had seen a brown lacewing in a spider’s net and its distinctly completely different dragon-like larva consuming aphids (household Hemerobiidae). I had no concept there was such a variety of lacewings.

Equally mesmerizing was a shimmering inexperienced midge (Stenochironomus spp.) waving its improbably lengthy entrance legs within the breeze. I feel it was simply resting within the shade. The grownup stage of this small fly is short-lived and primarily targeted on replica. Vegetation generally simply present refuge.

Monarchs and milkweed tussock moth caterpillars had been each current. Monarchs had been few. Tussocks congregate. A big mass of caterpillars can thwart some would-be predators, however I witnessed lots of disappear in a single day. Life on a milkweed might be fragile and transient.

Over the course of some days, I noticed dozens of creatures feeding, hiding, searching, and reproducing. Some interactions had been clear. Others had been past my understanding.

A Residing Group

It’s value noting that planting an excessive amount of of a single species in a dense patch can have unintended penalties. Concentrations of milkweed could make it simpler for predators to search out monarch caterpillars, or for aphids and illnesses to flourish. A little bit of randomness, extra patchiness, may help tip the percentages in favour of monarch survival.

While you plant milkweed, you’re inviting a various neighborhood to develop. That is life. Right here’s wishing you the enjoyment of witnessing it unfold as you create gardens that foster connections.

A Gallery of Life on Milkweed

Description of Gallery – (clockwise from high left): 1. It’s value noting that planting an excessive amount of of a single species in a dense patch can have unintended penalties. Concentrations of milkweed could make it simpler for predators to search out monarch caterpillars, or for aphids and illnesses to flourish. A little bit of randomness, extra patchiness, may help tip the percentages in favour of monarch survival. 2. Monarchs and tussocks had been each being closely predated. Right here right now . . . gone the following. 3. From searching long-legged flies to resting dragon flies, there was fixed change. 4. Butterflies and bees on the flowers – most flowers had been accomplished 5. The fuzzy stuff consists of plant hairs: “Larvae carry a particles packet of plant trichomes.” https://bugguide.web/node/view/341460…. 6. I noticed the eggs someday and after I checked once more that they had hatched. 7. Girl bugs, moths, spiders . . .