Milkweed Visitors

When we left for vacation, my milkweed was pretty much overrun by aphids and I wondered if it would survive. We returned to find fewer aphids but many of the leaves are covered in sticky aphid secretions. I also found several of these:

This is a ladybug larva. I've read that they sometimes eat monarch eggs and/or the first instar caterpillars, which is a con, but they also eat aphids, which is a big pro. I don't know if they just did a remarkable job cleaning up the aphids or if some of the aphids died off on their own. Either way, I'm glad to see the ladybugs. (As you can see in the background, they still have work to do!)

We also found 4 monarch caterpillars! And they are probably in their 4th or 5th instar already. That means we must have had eggs or 1st instar caterpillars before we left. I have a lot of milkweed and a lot of milkweed pests, so I guess I just didn't notice them. I noticed a couple holey leaves before we left but attributed it to the other visitors. Interestingly, almost all of the milkweed I have this year sprouted from seeds that must have dropped from my plant last year. The seeds survived the winter and sprouted where they landed. This stuff has the pink flowers, which is not my favorite. The stalks are thinner and more fragile than the kind with the orange flowers. My milkweed with the orange flowers did not go to seed before the frost last year. I ordered some seeds online and did plant a little of that this spring. If the aphids don't ruin the seed pods, I should get some before it frosts this year.

This guy still has a couple drops of water on him from our brief downpour this afternoon.