Well, nobody home here, though Houzz is now recovered from it's posting problems. But from another forum, I gather these are just aphids, which are not necessarily damaging to milkweed. Squishing them, or spraying with insecticidal soap is the monarch-careful way of eradicating them.

My milkweeds are plagued with those orange things (aphids) every year. Several times a summer, they have to be washed off. Except this year because none of my milkweeds have returned. It was very warm in January and February so quite a few plants were beginning to show a sprout in February and then we got a 15 degree freeze that killed the new sprouts so my milkweeds must have been among those bitten by the freeze.

OK, thank you. But I'm trying to understand what I see. What are the black dots under the leaves, as opposed to the larger orange balls clustered on the stems?

Dan those aphids are on my milkweed (both tropical and zizotes) about half the time. I've sprayed them with insecticidal soap, but eventually they come back. They don't seem to adversely affect plant growth, and they don't spread to the nearby roses thank goodness. I wonder if the black ones are dead, dried up aphids.

This is in NE San Antonio. I've been growing tropical milkweed for 8 years. Last fall I noticed 1 or 2 new Monarchs with deformed wings (presumably from the OE parasite) and so I finally pulled up all the tropical milkweed before winter. None have come back this spring, and no new ones sprouted from the drifting seeds. My A. zizotes is very slow growing. I had many Monarchs last fall, but none this spring. Last fall when I went to the Botanical Garden there were many Queens but few Monarchs.

hey daninthedirt, the black dots may be caterpillar scat. Just my opinion, but that reminds me of scat found on passion vines. Milkweed always looks sad to me, between the aphids and the Monarch's feeding (mostly the aphids though).