What the heck is in my garden?

I don't have a pic yet, but, I noticed orangey yellow dots on my milkweed. I took a closer look and they have very fine, thin black legs. Does anyone know, without a pic? They were only on the top part.

they are milkweed bugs.

I think that, since she calls them dots, they are aphids. Are they tiny, and do they stay in one place (not walking around all over the place? Try spraying them off with water. You won't get them all, but they won't kill the plant, and if you use a pesticide your Monarch caterpiilars are doomed...

I agree about the aphids--I had orange ones all over my Asclepias curassavica last year. I never knew aphids came in orange until I saw those, but they were very definitely aphids.

well, of course, LOL, i was thinking of the tiny milkweed nymphs because i had just seen about 50 of them on my milkweed. had that on my brain. it's funny that this time of year i have no orange "milkweed" aphids at all. everybody stays put on the milkweed like good little soldiers, so i leave 'em be.

Using your information, I looked up aphid. The picture that they had of milkweed aphid is definitely them. They are bad, right?

Kelly

aphids are normally bad for a plant, but they won't hurt your milkweed to any degree. milkweed, aphids, milkweed bugs, caterpillars, they all go hand in hand in the garden. when you grow milkweed, you are basically growing it for these critters, esp. the cats. it wont' die.

They never damaged my plant--I did hose them off from time to time but they never seemed to cause damage and never moved to any of the surrounding plants, so I decided to leave them alone.

Good to know. I would hate to have to find these everyday. There are tons of them on my plants.

Well, you just may find them every day - they're pretty ubiquitous - but there are lots of beneficial insects out there eating them, parasitizing them...and since they really don't damage the milkweed all that much (they suck juice from it), I leave them alone. I find it's a good place to raise beneficial insects. A nursery, if you will.

Totally agree w/ ceejaytown.

I've had stems of my milkweed wilt and die, it's been the ones with aphids on them. So, I'm thinking the aphids have weakened those stems, not sure. What do you think CJ? I spray off or squish (with gloves) the aphids daily. Occasionally I have assassin bug nymphs on them too.....more squishing. You know the saying 'the best pest control is your shadow'....those nymphs will hide under the leaves when my glove comes around.

if the nymphs are truly assassin bugs, then you are killing a very good bug who will eat aphids. cj can explain the difference in looks between assassin nymphs and the other nymphs which aren't good and they all kind of look alike at that early stage, ie: plant bug, squash bug, leaf-footed bug, milkweed bug.

sorry to lay that on you cj, but you know way better than i! *wink*

Assassin bugs are predator bugs and eat cats, I do not want them on my butterfly weed. I realize they eat other bugs, but since they seem to prefer to hang out there they have to go.

I transfer the assassin bugs that are on my larval food plants to other plants - like my cannas with the nasty leaf rollers, or something that has aphids but isn't a cat plant....I had to check my parsley every day and make the transfer, because they were getting my black swallowtail cats....

That's a good idea CJ, I'll try relocating them.