Its sad, but unfortunately it happens. Some years are worse than others.

Some bring in the Monarch eggs - hopefully before they become parasitized.

I have not found butterfly weed to be a preferred larval host for Monarchs. It is an excellent source for nectar for all butterflies, tho.

Other good milkweeds for Oklahoma include Swamp Milkwees (Asclepias incarnata), Asclepias speciosa, A. Asperula (Antelope Horns), A. Sullivante (prairie milkweed), and A. Viridis (green milkweed). These are all native perennials. You will have to order seeds from a native seed source like Prairie Moon, Ion Exchange, or

Everwilde Farms on the web.

Susan

SUSAN!!!! Good to see you!

While tachinids sometimes do feed on the larvae of beneficial and desirable butterflies and moths like the Monarchs, they also feed on the larvae of many destructive caterpillars that harm ornamental and edible plants alike. My attitude is that you just have to take the bad along with the good. It is impossible to keep the ecosystem that is your yard perfectly safe for a preferred butterfly. You just can't do it. If you want to raise monarchs yourself indoors and then release them outside, you can ask Susan or Lisa to tell you how to do it. I have plenty of monarchs around during the summer so even if tachinids are feeding on them, there's lots of monarchs left. Every single thing in the ecosystem eats something or is eaten by something. That's just how it works.

For what it is worth, I have a huge garden filled with veggies, ornamental plants, fruit trees and herbs and don't see nearly as many tachinids as I'd like to see, so they are not particularly common. The milkweeds that grow most often in our pasture are Antelope Horns, Green Milkweed and, occasionally in freshly disturbed soil we'll get showy milkweed that pops up out of nowhere. I assume dormant seeds were lying in the soil. Occasionally we have tropical milkweed pop up, but it is more common in sandier soils south of us than it is in our clay.

Thanks. I'm not going to raise them indoors. I'll just enjoy them outside and provide as much milkweed as I can for them thanks Susan all the milk weed you mentioned will grow in NEOk to?

All of them are hardy in your zone, for sure. I supplement native, perennial milkweeds with A. curassavica, aka Tropical milkweed, hardy only as far North as Zone 8 or 9, and A. physocarpa, aka Hairy Balls, Family Jewels, due to the shape of the seedpods. I start these early indoors or winter sow late, around late March to early April, or direct sow in late April to mid-May. They won't germinate until the soil is warm anyway. The Monarchs love these, too! And they are fantastic nectar plants for all butterflies and other beneficials. The perennial milkweeds need cold stratification to break dormancy.

Susan