{ "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "attribution": "Milkweed USA (https://milkweedusa.com), CC BY 4.0", "note": "Text and data are CC BY 4.0. Photographs carry their own licenses, listed per image on each page.", "generated": "2026-09-26", "count": 16, "wildlife": [ { "slug": "monarch-butterfly", "commonName": "Monarch butterfly", "scientificName": "Danaus plexippus", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A female monarch lays her eggs on Asclepias and nothing else. Remove milkweed from a landscape and monarchs vanish from it.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Monarch caterpillars are obligate feeders on milkweed. They eat the leaves, tolerate the cardenolides that would stop the heart of most animals, store those toxins in their own tissue, and advertise the fact in orange and black. Adults are not fussy about nectar and will feed at almost anything in flower, but the egg goes on milkweed or the larva starves.", "identification": "Adults are orange with heavy black veining and a black border set with white dots. Caterpillars are banded in yellow, black and white, with two pairs of black filaments, longer at the head end than the tail. The chrysalis is jade green with a line of gold dots.", "range": "Every state except Alaska. Eastern populations winter in the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico; western populations winter in coastal California groves.", "monthsPresent": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/monarch-butterfly/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/monarch-butterfly/index.md" }, { "slug": "queen-butterfly", "commonName": "Queen butterfly", "scientificName": "Danaus gilippus", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A milkweed specialist of the southern states, resident year-round where winters are mild and often more numerous than the monarch itself.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Queen caterpillars eat Asclepias and the twining milkweed vines of the genus Funastrum, and sequester cardenolides in the same way monarchs do. Adult males have a second requirement: they gather pyrrolizidine alkaloids from dried dogbane, heliotrope and boneset, and convert them into the pheromone they need to court a female. A garden with milkweed and no alkaloid source will hold queens but breed few.", "identification": "Deep chestnut brown rather than orange, without the monarch’s heavy black veining on the upper wing, and scattered with white spots across the forewing. Caterpillars look much like a monarch’s but carry three pairs of filaments rather than two.", "range": "Florida, the Gulf coast, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California, straying north in late summer.", "monthsPresent": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/queen-butterfly/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/queen-butterfly/index.md" }, { "slug": "soldier-butterfly", "commonName": "Soldier butterfly", "scientificName": "Danaus eresimus", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A tropical milkweed butterfly at the northern edge of its range in the United States, where it is uncommon and often mistaken for a worn queen.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Soldier caterpillars feed on milkweeds and, more often, on the twining milkweed vines. Adults nectar widely and, like the queen, males seek pyrrolizidine alkaloids from withered heliotrope.", "identification": "Brown like a queen but with softer, paler wing veining and a distinctive pale patch across the hindwing underside. Best confirmed with a photograph rather than a glance.", "range": "South Texas and southern Florida, occasionally straying north along the Gulf.", "monthsPresent": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/soldier-butterfly/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/soldier-butterfly/index.md" }, { "slug": "milkweed-tussock-moth", "commonName": "Milkweed tussock moth", "scientificName": "Euchaetes egle", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A milkweed specialist whose gregarious caterpillars can defoliate a plant in late season, and which is entirely harmless to established milkweed.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "The moth lays eggs in a mass, and the young caterpillars feed together, skeletonizing whole leaves before dispersing as they grow. They accept older, tougher foliage that a monarch larva would refuse, so they mostly appear after the monarchs have finished. Adults are among the moths that answer a hunting bat with a burst of ultrasonic clicks, which the bat has learned means an unpalatable meal.", "identification": "Caterpillars are unmistakable: dense tufts of orange, black and white hair. Early instars are pale gray and hairy and feed in a mass. The adult moth is plain mouse-gray with a yellow-orange abdomen spotted in black.", "range": "Eastern and central North America, west to the Great Plains.", "monthsPresent": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/milkweed-tussock-moth/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/milkweed-tussock-moth/index.md" }, { "slug": "large-milkweed-bug", "commonName": "Large milkweed bug", "scientificName": "Oncopeltus fasciatus", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A seed feeder that clusters on milkweed pods in late summer. It costs you seed, and nothing else.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Large milkweed bugs pierce a pod with their stylet and feed on the developing seed, so heavy infestations reduce a seed harvest. They pass through five nymphal stages without a pupa, so a pod often carries every size at once. Northern populations migrate south in fall rather than overwintering.", "identification": "About 12 to 18 mm, orange-red with a broad black band across the middle of the back and a black patch at each end. Nymphs are rounder, brighter orange, and wingless.", "range": "Across the United States wherever milkweed grows, most abundant in the east and south.", "monthsPresent": [ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/large-milkweed-bug/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/large-milkweed-bug/index.md" }, { "slug": "small-milkweed-bug", "commonName": "Small milkweed bug", "scientificName": "Lygaeus kalmii", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A common milkweed seed bug with a red X across its back, and one of the few milkweed insects that also scavenges.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Small milkweed bugs feed mainly on milkweed seed but will also take nectar and scavenge dead insects, including ones that died trapped in milkweed flowers. That flexibility lets them appear earlier in the season than the large milkweed bug, before there is any seed to eat. They overwinter as adults in leaf litter.", "identification": "About 10 to 12 mm. Black with a red X shape across the folded wings, formed by a red band across the front and a red stripe down each side, and two small white spots at the wing tips.", "range": "Throughout the United States, including the arid West.", "monthsPresent": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/small-milkweed-bug/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/small-milkweed-bug/index.md" }, { "slug": "red-milkweed-beetle", "commonName": "Red milkweed beetle", "scientificName": "Tetraopes tetrophthalmus", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A milkweed longhorn beetle whose larvae bore in the roots and whose adults chew leaves and flowers. Its scientific name means four eyes twice over.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Adults feed on milkweed leaves, buds and flowers through midsummer. Females lay eggs in stems near the base, and the larvae drop to the soil and tunnel into the roots, where they overwinter. Adults stridulate audibly when handled. Both Tetraopes and Latin tetrophthalmus mean four-eyed, a double reference to the fact that the base of each antenna passes straight through the eye and divides it.", "identification": "Around 8 to 15 mm, bright brick red with four black spots on the wing covers and long black antennae. Look closely at the head: each antenna emerges from the middle of an eye.", "range": "Eastern and central North America, closely following common milkweed.", "monthsPresent": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/red-milkweed-beetle/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/red-milkweed-beetle/index.md" }, { "slug": "swamp-milkweed-leaf-beetle", "commonName": "Swamp milkweed leaf beetle", "scientificName": "Labidomera clivicollis", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A leaf beetle of swamp and common milkweed that disarms the plant’s sap before feeding, and that a passing glance mistakes for a large ladybird.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Milkweed defends itself with latex under pressure, which can glue an insect’s mouthparts shut. This beetle answers by chewing through the veins upstream of where it intends to feed, letting the latex bleed out, then eating the drained tissue. Larvae feed on the same leaves. Adults overwinter under mullein rosettes and other low foliage.", "identification": "A rounded, domed beetle about 8 to 11 mm, glossy orange with irregular black markings. Larger and far more convex than any ladybird, with a black head.", "range": "Eastern and central United States, most often on swamp and common milkweed.", "monthsPresent": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/swamp-milkweed-leaf-beetle/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/swamp-milkweed-leaf-beetle/index.md" }, { "slug": "oleander-aphid", "commonName": "Oleander aphid", "scientificName": "Aphis nerii", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": false, "summary": "A non-native aphid found on almost every milkweed in the country. It is the most asked-about milkweed problem, and the least serious.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Aphis nerii feeds on the sap of milkweeds, oleander and their relatives. In North America the species is entirely parthenogenetic: no males are known here, and every aphid you see is a female producing live female clones, which is why a colony appears overnight. Like the plant’s other specialists it stores cardenolides, and its yellow is a warning. It draws in ladybirds, lacewings, hoverfly larvae and the parasitoid wasp Lysiphlebus testaceipes, which leaves behind papery brown mummies.", "identification": "Small, bright lemon to orange-yellow, with black legs, black antennae and two black cornicles projecting from the rear. Densely packed on stems, buds and the undersides of new leaves.", "range": "Everywhere milkweed is grown in the United States.", "monthsPresent": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/oleander-aphid/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/oleander-aphid/index.md" }, { "slug": "milkweed-stem-weevil", "commonName": "Milkweed stem weevil", "scientificName": "Rhyssomatus lineaticollis", "role": "Milkweed specialists", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "A weevil whose females drill a line of holes in a milkweed stem to lay eggs, and whose larvae then tunnel down inside it.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "The female chews a short row of punctures through the stem wall, lays into the pith, and the hatching larvae tunnel through the stem before dropping to pupate in the soil. The wound is often the visible symptom: a shoot wilts above a small ladder of scars. Adults also feed on leaves and shoot tips.", "identification": "A stout black weevil about 6 to 9 mm with a downcurved snout and fine ridges along the thorax. The evidence is easier to find than the insect: a neat vertical row of punctures on the stem.", "range": "Eastern and central North America.", "monthsPresent": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/milkweed-stem-weevil/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/milkweed-stem-weevil/index.md" }, { "slug": "bumble-bees", "commonName": "Bumble bees", "scientificName": "Bombus species", "role": "Nectar visitors", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "Among the few insects heavy enough to pollinate milkweed reliably, and one of the main reasons a milkweed patch is worth planting even where monarchs are scarce.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Milkweed does not shed loose pollen. It packages it into waxy saddlebags, clipped in pairs to a wiry yoke, and a visiting insect has to slip a leg into a narrow slot and then pull hard enough to draw the pair out. Bumble bees have the mass and grip to manage it, and to insert the pollen into the next flower. Milkweed nectar is among the richest in the North American flora, and a stand in flower will hold several bumble bee species at once.", "identification": "Large, furry, banded black and yellow, often with orange or white on the tail. Look at the legs of one working a milkweed umbel and you may see the pollen sacs still clipped on.", "range": "Across the United States. Species composition changes sharply with region and elevation.", "monthsPresent": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/bumble-bees/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/bumble-bees/index.md" }, { "slug": "wasps-on-milkweed", "commonName": "Wasps", "scientificName": "Sphex, Polistes and others", "role": "Nectar visitors", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "Large wasps carry more milkweed pollen than almost anything else, and a milkweed stand will be busy with them all summer.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "The great golden digger wasp, thread-waisted wasps and paper wasps all work milkweed heavily for nectar, and their long legs are well suited to the flower’s slot-and-clip mechanism. Studies of who actually moves milkweed pollen tend to put wasps and bumble bees at the top and honey bees a long way down.", "identification": "Great golden digger wasps are large, black and orange with golden hair on the thorax. Paper wasps are slimmer, brown or black with yellow markings, and hang their legs in flight.", "range": "Throughout the United States.", "monthsPresent": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/wasps-on-milkweed/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/wasps-on-milkweed/index.md" }, { "slug": "nectar-butterflies", "commonName": "Fritillaries and other nectar butterflies", "scientificName": "Speyeria and others", "role": "Nectar visitors", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "Milkweed is one of the richest nectar plants in North America, and most of the butterflies at a stand are there to drink, not to breed.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Great spangled fritillaries, swallowtails, hairstreaks, skippers and painted ladies all work milkweed heavily. None of them can use it as a host plant; their caterpillars eat violets, willows, legumes and thistles. They come for a nectar supply that arrives in high summer, when many other flowers have finished.", "identification": "The great spangled fritillary is large and orange with black chevrons above and rows of silver spots beneath the hindwing. Everything else at a milkweed umbel is worth a second look.", "range": "Throughout the United States, with the mix changing by region.", "monthsPresent": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/nectar-butterflies/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/nectar-butterflies/index.md" }, { "slug": "crab-spiders-and-ambush-bugs", "commonName": "Crab spiders and ambush bugs", "scientificName": "Misumena, Phymata", "role": "Predators", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "Sit-and-wait predators that hunt from inside a milkweed umbel, and take a real share of the pollinators and the occasional monarch.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Crab spiders hold position in a flower head with their front legs spread, and some can shift color between white and yellow over several days to match where they are sitting. Ambush bugs do the same job with raptorial forelegs and take prey many times their own size. Neither builds a web. Both are part of why an umbel is worth watching for ten minutes.", "identification": "Crab spiders sit with the first two pairs of legs held wide, crab-fashion, usually white or yellow. Ambush bugs are small, angular, mottled yellow-brown and green, with thickened front legs.", "range": "Throughout the United States.", "monthsPresent": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/crab-spiders-and-ambush-bugs/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/crab-spiders-and-ambush-bugs/index.md" }, { "slug": "goldfinches-and-orioles", "commonName": "Goldfinches and orioles", "scientificName": "Spinus tristis, Icterus galbula", "role": "Birds", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "American goldfinches line their nests with milkweed floss and Baltimore orioles weave them from milkweed stem fiber, which is one reason to leave dead stems standing.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "The goldfinch nests later than almost any North American songbird, timing it to the seeding of thistles and milkweeds, and lines the cup with the silky floss from a split pod. Baltimore orioles strip long fibers from the bast of dead milkweed stems and weave them into their hanging nests. Neither bird eats any part of the plant, and neither can use a stand that is cut down each fall.", "identification": "Goldfinches are small and bright yellow with black caps and wings in summer. Baltimore orioles are the size of a thrush, the males brilliant orange and black.", "range": "Goldfinches across most of the United States, orioles across the east and midwest.", "monthsPresent": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/goldfinches-and-orioles/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/goldfinches-and-orioles/index.md" }, { "slug": "deer-and-livestock", "commonName": "Deer and livestock", "scientificName": "Odocoileus, Equus, Ovis", "role": "Grazing animals", "nativeToUS": true, "summary": "Cardenolides make milkweed unpalatable to grazing mammals, which is useful in a deer-browsed garden and a real hazard in hay.", "relationshipToMilkweed": "Deer, cattle, horses and sheep avoid living milkweed because it is bitter and makes them ill. That makes milkweed one of the more reliably deer-resistant perennials available. The danger is dried milkweed in baled hay, where the bitterness fades but the toxins do not, and an animal with nothing else to eat will take it. The narrow-leaved western species, particularly whorled and western whorled milkweed, are the most dangerous per mouthful.", "identification": "Not applicable, but the sign is: an ungrazed milkweed standing in a closely browsed pasture.", "range": "Nationwide. Livestock poisoning cases concentrate in the arid West, where forage is thin.", "monthsPresent": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "url": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/deer-and-livestock/", "markdown": "https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/deer-and-livestock/index.md" } ] }