Another common question that I receive is "My plants look terrible. The caterpillars ate everything! What do I do?" To me, this is a good thing! This means that the gardener has a successful butterfly garden. The garden has attracted the right butterflies to his/her host plants. These butterflies have laid eggs which have hatched. Now those caterpillars have eaten well and are continuing on their life cycle journey. I usually assure the gardener that their plants will return. In fact, I find that the caterpillars are natural pruners - otherwise the milkweed would grow out of control!
Here is my milkweed patch today - all sticks, no leaves (please see my previous posting for comparison). Those caterpillars are hungry!
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| Leaves are almost all gone. |
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The caterpillars have migrated towards the north side of the
Milkweed patch where some leaves still remain. |
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| We counted at least 24 caterpillars! |
Have a great weekend!
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