Check your milkweed plants. The aphids are moving in. They’re easy to spot because the kind that really likes our native showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), and they’re bright orange-yellow. Oleander aphids (Aphis nerii) seem to multiply overnight. How do they mate that fast? Well, they don’t have to. These insects are all females that were born pregnant that give birth to females already pregnant. Say what? They clone themselves. Yes, some males are involved but that is weird, too. Read about it here. I’m sure this was inspiration for a horror movie or two.
Even though aphids have reproductive superpowers, they are rather defenseless with soft, squish bodies. This is how I control them on my milkweed plants.
Sometimes, ladybugs help. Wasps hunt them for snacks, and spiders help, too. NOTE: Do not use chemicals. Remember that monarch butterfly caterpillars eat milkweed and if you use poison, you could harm them. You don’t want to do THAT.
In the end, if you do nothing, milkweed is a tenacious plant and will survive the aphid invasion. The leaves may wilt, though, and keeping plants in top-top shape is the best invitation for monarch butterflies to use your plants for their babies.
P.S. Monarchs have never chosen my yard, but I always hope.
~Debbie