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| Aphids |
The first time I saw Aphids on my milkweeds I was worried that they would kill all of my new plants & drive the monarch butterflies away. I tried washing them off the stems & leaves with the hose & when that didn't work I tried scraping them off each plant, one by one. Now, I know better... I leave them alone & enjoy watching them! They do feed on the newer leaves & stems of the plants but they attract ladybugs & other beneficial insects to the garden & the monarchs don't seem to mind. This is the 1st time I've seen them this year..
Aphids have been really bad for the wild milkweed this year around here.
ReplyDeleteThe ants are always taking care of the pesky aphids and ruining the milkweed..
I've seen a few tiny ants on some of my plants too. Recently I've been finding black bugs with orange spots...when I looked them up, I found out that they're assassin bugs..I'm learning so much-the first time I saw aphids I thought they were bits of pollen stuck to my plants 'til finally I looked close enough to see that the "pollen" was scurrying around and that's when i tried to get rid of them...thanks for commenting on my post!
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