I love milkweed seeds! Aren’t they just mesmerizing? We finally got our milkweed planted – our first planting (you will appreciate my outrage over this) was sprayed with something very toxic at the growers w/o the nursery knowing and the caterpillars DIED after ingesting it. Isn’t that just ridiculous? There is one reason to plant milkweed and that’s as a food crop.
And those are “Small Milkweed Bugs” (rather than “Large Milkweed Bugs”) on the seed-head. My son was impressed as he has taken lots of photos of Large Milkweed Bugs but has never seen the Small M.B. That is the name used in Kaufmann’s field guide — guess you can see why it got its name!
Lindsay, thank you!! We spent some time yesterday trying to ID the bugs but had no luck. I was hoping someone here would know…
I’m cracking up about their name. They were all over the milkweed pods at 8:30 in the morning. When I went back out an hour later, they were gone. In the cool of the evening, there they were again. We’ll have to read up on them a bit.
We had our very first Milkweed beetles this weekend! No seedpods yet, but, unfortunately, TONS of aphids. And yet, despite their destructiveness, it was very cool to find the ladybugs there eating them and the ants there herding them. And teaching my son about them was an interesting experience as well. I think he was more interested in catching and moving the ladybugs and then in spraying the plants with soapy water than in the gaining of knowledge, but he did do an excellent job with the sprayer.
Laurie M says:
That is a gorgeous shot. Almost looks animated… the brown seeds on the white background!!
Save me some seeds!!!
On July 17, 2009 at 10:53 am
Melissa Wiley says:
We’ve got seedpods by the dozen! And caterpillars too, WOOHOO!!!
On July 17, 2009 at 10:57 am
Jennifer says:
I love milkweed seeds! Aren’t they just mesmerizing? We finally got our milkweed planted – our first planting (you will appreciate my outrage over this) was sprayed with something very toxic at the growers w/o the nursery knowing and the caterpillars DIED after ingesting it. Isn’t that just ridiculous? There is one reason to plant milkweed and that’s as a food crop.
On July 17, 2009 at 11:09 am
Theresa says:
Cool picture! And Jennifer that is awful!!!!
On July 17, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Lindsay says:
And those are “Small Milkweed Bugs” (rather than “Large Milkweed Bugs”) on the seed-head. My son was impressed as he has taken lots of photos of Large Milkweed Bugs but has never seen the Small M.B. That is the name used in Kaufmann’s field guide — guess you can see why it got its name!
On July 18, 2009 at 7:01 am
Melissa Wiley says:
Lindsay, thank you!! We spent some time yesterday trying to ID the bugs but had no luck. I was hoping someone here would know…
I’m cracking up about their name. They were all over the milkweed pods at 8:30 in the morning. When I went back out an hour later, they were gone. In the cool of the evening, there they were again. We’ll have to read up on them a bit.
Here they are at Bug Guide: http://bugguide.net/node/view/244787/bgimage
On July 18, 2009 at 7:10 am
Anne says:
We had our very first Milkweed beetles this weekend! No seedpods yet, but, unfortunately, TONS of aphids. And yet, despite their destructiveness, it was very cool to find the ladybugs there eating them and the ants there herding them. And teaching my son about them was an interesting experience as well. I think he was more interested in catching and moving the ladybugs and then in spraying the plants with soapy water than in the gaining of knowledge, but he did do an excellent job with the sprayer.
On July 20, 2009 at 4:28 am