What do milkweed tussock caterpillars eat

They also require milkweed as a food source in order to be able to complete their lifecycles. Of the milkweed-feeding insects, milkweed tussock caterpillars can seem alarming because of their voracious appetites. Gardeners who grow milkweed specifically for monarch butterflies are often dismayed to find milkweed tussock caterpillars rapidly devouring their plants.

Yet, milkweed tussock is a native species that evolved alongside the monarch. Knowing that species diversity is an essential part of a healthy ecosystem, there is no harm in leaving milkweed tussock caterpillars alone to eat a few milkweed plants. Adult milkweed tussock moths emerge in early summer to mate and lay eggs. Adults are rather non-descript, with gray wings and hairy yellow-orange abdomens.

Females may go unnoticed as they lay clusters of eggs directly next to one another on the undersides of milkweed leaves. The resulting caterpillars feed gregariously in clusters of ten or more throughout their first three instars stages of development.

The larvae are initially difficult to detect. They are pale yellow and bristly with black heads, and they prefer to eat on the undersides of leaves. If you are giving native insects a feeding place, expect leaf damage will accompany the feeding.

Flowers are incredibly fragrant and several plants in a clump can have dozens blooming at the same time. Be a smart gardener and give our native insects a table at your milkweed restaurant.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. Milkweed tussock moth larvae feed on common milkweed. Newly hatched milkweed tussock moth larvae feeding. The black tufts are beginning. Black tufts lengthening and feeding on leaf. Leaf bridge to another plant. Did you find this article useful? Please tell us why Submit. Smart lakefront plants. Common Bees in Michigan. Enhancing Beneficial Insects with Native Plants. I live in northern Vermont and do not recall seeing it before.

I was really surprised to find 5 to 6 Tussock moth eating away on my milkweed. Man they are suppose to be in Southern states. I think they got lost. Have let lots of milkweed grow over the years in central Vermont and get a crop of tussock caterpillars every Fall. We live between Georgetown and Florence. I live in north central Kentucky Meade county , Just west of Louisville. I bought an Asclepias Incarnata plant last spring.

It has what I am pretty sure are Cyncia moth larvae on it. Not sure if it is a significant find, but allows for documentation. I found a black caterpillar It looked like the second picture on the top of the website, what type is it?

I have at least 40 milkweed plants in various places on our 94 acres in the Missouri Ozarks, and this year I have only seen 1 Monarch butterfly. In years past there have been lots of them, although not so much last year.

There used to be so many I raised some of the caterpillars in my butterfly box. Sure miss them. This morning I saw so many Tussock Moth caterpillars on one stem of the milkweed that they had stripped at least 4 of the bottom leaves, leaving them looking like lace. There were probably 30 or more of the Tussock Moths caterpillars, and they were still very small.

I also have butterfly bush, butterfly weed, tall Garden Phlox, etc for the bees and butterflies. Sure miss the Monarchs. We have over 60 plants. This time last year I was releasing by the dozens.

I decided to leave them alone — bad idea. They stripped all of my swamp milkweed in 2 days. So I had to squish them.

A few more found the common milkweed — squish. Tussock moth caterpillars denude trees and bushes as well as milkweed. My common milkweed all died of the yellows. At this time I only have a few regrown swamp milkweed and a few tiny pop up common milkweeds and the butterflies are continually laying eggs on them.

This year is a wash. Leave lots of space for air circulation. Far, far too many milkweed bugs and milkweed beetles. I live in Northern NJ and have been seeing tons of Tussock Moth caterpillars on our local milkweed plants.

We have become a monarch butterfly way station and apparently the town council Livingston, NJ is involved in saving the monarchs too.

Even on our first outing, we learned quite a bit. So we came home armed with lots of photos and started searching the internet. What we saw was a huge group of Tussock Moth caterpillars!

I have been using a bucket of water with blue dawn dish soap to get rid of them. I seen 2 Milkweed plant filled on underside of with those tussock caterpillars here in Western Wi. If left a day or two, i see they are gone and big holes in leaves next time. I had went to butterfly class and the speaker had raised over 1 yr. I am in Stillwater MN and have found many milkweed Tussock on my orange butterfly bushes.

Not knowing what they were, I decided to cut off the stems and toss them onto our burn pile. My butterfly bushes are covered with monarch caterpillars and I want them to thrive. We have the Tussock here in PA as well. I let them live. I have been collecting and releasing monarchs for over 40 years, there are bumper years and there are lean years, I look at it as a cycle that happens. I am from southern minnesota.

We have 3 or 4 milkweed tussock catepillars. They are really stripping the milkweed in our lawn. I am in Montague, New ersey. We have been saving and raising mammoths; we are up to 24 this year and we have to harvest milkweed leaves from nearby fields. This is our 3rd summer. The first year we raised 4. I live in Holland, MI. Last week I experienced a Tussock moth caterpillar, almost land right on my head, just passed my face, I looked down and thought that looks dangerous so I google lens searched this fluffy bugger numerous times because I had never seen one like this before….

I have plenty of up close photos to share. Im in ohio near Cleveland the last few days i have been seeing this fluffly caterpillar on milkweed. Glad to have it identfied!! Says its native to texas and southwest…but here it is in ohio! We have alot of problems with a flying milkweed orange and black also that left unchecked lays eggs and the young destroy the milkweed havent seen many this year till today which i smashed we had a very cold windy week here with wind chills of — Didnt have many Japanese beetles this year either,a blessing think cold helped but lost several butterfly bushes.

We had monarch caterpillars last summer. This year is the first year we have seen Monarch caterpillars o our plants. Today, I also just saw 2 Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars. Never saw anything like it before! I live in Minnesota, and my Asclepius Tuberosa milkweed plants are full of fluffy Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars right now. There were very few Monarch caterpillars on my milkweed this summer, and sadly, far less monarchs than last year flying around.

Last year there were so many monarchs that for several weeks that I drove v-e-r-y slowly on the country roads to try to avoid hitting them. It was amazing! I am not sure what happened this year, except for our extremely late spring. In southern georgian bay, ontario we have a bumper crop of monarchs and they are flying everywhere right now.

Totally trying to avoid during our drives. We have also had a few of the fluffy milkweed tussocks eating on our milkweed as we speak. Thanks to this site for identifying them.

Here in the northeastern corner of Illinois I am for the very first time seeing several of the Tussock moth caterpillars on my milkweed plants. Thank you for helping me identify them. Sadly, i do not have as many Monarch caterpillars as last year. Hardly saw any last year. Should I stop them? The monarchs sure are a hungry bunch so we have to keep getting fresh leaves from our milkweed.

The question we have is how to keep snails from gathering on the milkweed? Does anyone have any ideas on this problem? I live in Maine and have 15 Tussock Moth caterpillars on 4 Milkweed stalks just munching away on the leaves. We live in southwest Missouri, and I have had tussock moth caterpillars on my milkweed for some time now. Since I had practically no Monarchs this year, I am just letting them eat the milkweed. They are sort of pretty. I have the Cyncia inopinatus caterpillar on my milk weed this year.

Had the Tussocks last year. Have never seen monarch worm ever on my milkweed in 3 or 4 years. I have found the Cyncia caterpillar on my milkweed this year. We live in Southeast Nebraska, and this is the first time in the 13 years we have lived at our address that I have found these caterpillars.

I am currently attempting to raise two of the. I live in southeastern Pennsylvania Chambersburg area and was inspecting my milkweed for Monarch caterpillars. I did not find any of those but I did run across a cute little fellow which Google showed is a Tussock Moth caterpillar.

Just thought I would share. I live near Newville, PA and have also seen lots of the Tussock moth caterpillars defoliating my milkweed. The fact that I had five caterpillars to raise and release does mean that the adults had been her though! I live in Cleveland Ohio. We live in the middle of the mitten in Michigan and we have a lot milkweed around us.

Recently we have seen quite a few Tussock moth caterpillars on some of the plants. Seeing them eat milkweed leaves, I thought they might be young monarch caterpillars until I got to this website and found out otherwise.

I live in Southern NJ, 15 mins from Phila, and just found at least 50 of the Tussock moth caterpillars on my milkweed, but no Monarchs. So far this year the butterflies all varieties and bees have been extremely scarce even though I have many different flowers planted just for them. I have caterpillars on my milkweed and they resemble monarchs but rather than having a pair of tentacles at the front and the back they also have a pair of tentacles, for lack of better description, close to the center of their bodies.

But otherwise they look like monarchs. Are they? What about a light green insect that looks like a small worm. I found it on milkweed and it is eating it voraciously! What is it? Richard Kutner That caterpillar that you are talking about is called a queen caterpillar. They look quite similar to the monarch- as a caterpillar and butterfly. I live in sussex nj , and have many tussock moth caterpillars on my milkweed. I have some caged along with a few monarch caterpillars. Is the moth butterfly a good species to have around my house and plants?

I have small inch long caterpillars on my asclepias and on my large swamp milkweed bush. I doubt it is the Tussock moth caterpillar, has no white hairs on it.

I found 3 of the Tussock on my deck today. Never seen them before but we do have Milkweed. We live in Northeast Pa. I saw a few Cyncia inopinatus caterpillars on two of our orange milkweeds earlier this summer just outside of Goessel, Kansas.

Monarch butterfly caterpillar on milkweed, its host plant. Photo by Monika Maeckle. Molly Jacobson found this Striped garden caterpillar crossing a path and resting on a dead leaf.

Photo by Molly Jacobson. Cyncia inopinatus caterpillar. Another milkweed feeder. Photo by Kip Kiphart. Cyncia adult moth. Photos by Kip Kiphart. Have you seen any of these other milkweed feeders? Let us know.

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