I know...its fascinating isn't it...with two or more bugs injecting same seed cooperating to digest! Yes...this what my channel is all about..not just cool photos...but the story behind each organisms millions of years of evolution with their amazing adaptations we are not aware of at first glance. Every organism has a fascinating "story" as well as cultural histories with humans!

It's no mystery then why Milkweed bugs shoot your seeds' viability to hell. I get 0 to low germination when these bugs show up

Ha! That's great. I more rewarding comment I could not have! I hope you will enjoy checking out my playlists for more content that might interest you!

Very welcome!

Thank you! Will do! I am so glad you found my channel as well! Be sure to check out my playlists! Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! It means a lot to me!

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you for sharing! I had really had fun with the close-ups!

You are so welcome!

Hi Sandy! So glad you discovered my channel!

Me too! ❤

Glad to hear about that milkweed and hope your patch continues to grow!

Hi Beverly! I appreciate you checking in with me and supporting my effort. Send me questions anytime I will be glad to help out anyway I can.

Ha! Thank you so much Monica. I have loved my experiences in Seattle and climbing MT Baker and Mt Adams!

Glad you liked it! Hope you will peruse through my channel shares!

Could be!

Yes..right? 🙂🙂🙂

Awe Jenny you made me smile!! This is my intended response! Thanks so much for your kind comments and always encouraging me! Much appreciated!

@@natureatyourdoor, You are TOO KIND!!:)) I was a Biology major/ RN. Had a Big TBI long before I had intended to ‘retire’. Now I eagerly await the fun videos you share!!:) MANY THANKS ✌️

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you so much Roni! I enjoy making close-up filming and photography look really interesting!

Awe! I really love sharing about nature too. Glad you learned some new things today! I hope you will enjoy exploring my channel!

Thank you Paul. Swamp milkweed is my favorite!

Sounds great Ed thanks for energizing me for next video. Those aphids are likely the invasive oleander aphids and you might want to crush them with your fingers! Great that you are planting milkweed if everyone did that....

Ed I am also growing milkweed plants for the monarchs! Those orange aphids just love milkweed. I fortunately was successful growing many milkweed plants this summer. Everyday I have to go out and crush those little demons! Other plants are right besides the milkweed and have no aphids on them. There are a lot of milkweed bugs also but don't seem to hurt the milkweed. Good luck with your garden. I have many monarch butterflies in my garden now. I think this is their next to last journey before heading to California. I live in the low desert of AZ. My first monarchs arrive in early October.

Those Tussock cats likely did your Milkweed transplants a favor by defoliating them, preventing a lot of evapotranspiration. The aphids, not so much.

Awesome about your milkweed patch!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

Awesome, thank you! Welcome to NAYD! I hope you will enjoy exploring playlists on my channel!

Glad you enjoyed it

You are welcome! Very fun filming the close-ups on this one!

Do they colonize your sunflowers in same way?

@@natureatyourdoor I think so. They are all over but don't seem to be doing any harm

Thank you Sebastian! I hope you will enjoy exploring my channel.

Thanks for subbing. Yes...Same experience here...caterpillars are all to few...I often walk road sides and inspect hundreds of individual plants before I se even one. Each year they seem harder to find!

Terri! Oh my gosh! I never imagined a mammal eating milkweed! That is a first for me....wow...what was that furry guy thinking..it is bad tasting and sticky milky! Nature is amazing.

Good question! I would let them be! I have heard of them being problematic.

You are welcome James!

Great idea!

@@natureatyourdoor Grandma was genius!

😄!

The milkweed bugs and monarchs can live peacefully together. The caterpillars eat the leaves and the milkweed bugs are on the seed pods with their interest in the seeds. Aphids? Well..the suck. Pun intended. If aphid numbers get to high..I manually crush them on the leaves with my fingers! Keep in touch..let me know how it goes!

Hi June! Locally I have only seen milkweed bugs on milkweed but I also know you can keep them in the lab feeding them raw sunflower seeds so they must also be some level of opportunist. Thanks for sharing and including habitat and geographic notes with me and our NAYD learning community!

Interesting. I do know that milkweed will grow back vigorously...even into late summer when cut back!

Glad I could help!

Hi Samanth! I hear you! Insects are fascinating...so many unique adaptations and I am really enjoying spending time with them to get close up video to see them in a new way! Thanks for share! I hope you will go to my insect play list and see more of my insect episodes! Check out my Hellgramite episode..I thought that one was really special!

@@natureatyourdoor I will do that! Also joined on FB. I love insects and I found that if you talk to them, they listen...well, except for ticks, mosquitoes, and such.....but others do. Allergic to bees and have them all over me (and have disrupted nests), but we have an understanding and I haven't been stung in years. I have yellow jackets that come to me like hummingbirds. I feed them out of bottle caps. My kids think I am crazy. 🤣

@@samanthadoe4742 😃👍👍👍👍

That is a very good question rising waters! Unlike invasive species that swoop in with no checks and balances milkweed, monarchs, milkweed bugs, milkweed beetles coevolved over millions of years. The milkweed bugs are focused on sap and mostly nutrition inside seeds...caterpillars focused on consuming entire leaves so overall ...all in balance. The oleander aphids are invasive!

@@natureatyourdoor The aphids aren't native here??

That with my question. Do you have a presentation on thr aphids on milkweed. For some reason I'm not seeing any caterpillars on my milkweed this year.

I knew they would be! 😉 Thank you for checking in!!!

@@natureatyourdoor I tried staying on top of removing the seed pods (once I had harvested a few for next year's crop), but these plants are so prolific they got away from me. Now my yard is covered in white fluff and the bugs are literally everywhere. 🤣 At least I have collected about a dozen monarch caterpillars to keep them safe from the wasps. This is my first year with monarchs in my yard, and your videos about their care have been super helpful. Thank you! 💛🧡

@@ashleighnelson512 awesome! great to hear of your passion and contribution to this endangered phenomenon! Keep in touch!

Interesting! I don't know the answer. but an interesting observation.

Ah guppies! My first fish...and of course they multiplied!

@@natureatyourdoor 🤣. Yes. Out of control. Had to bring some to the pet shop a couple months ago "I don't want to know" as I walked out the store.

@@manwithaporpoiseYTsucksD 😁

Glad you enjoyed it!

They will only harm the seeds they are feeding on. They won't open the seed pod...that will occur naturally as seeds mature. There are plenty of seeds in lots of seed pods. Rest assured there is little worry about a few seeds predated! 🙂

Yes! They digest/suck nutrition from seeds. Numerous seeds in pod..there will always be plenty of viable seeds. More difficult is the scarification process need for seeds to sprout successfully!

Pretty cool Madcity Jack!

Hi Alaris TheDruid. Perhaps you were seeing Box Elder Bug? Google images for that and tell me what you think. Your comment that you usually see them around trees makes me think that!

@@natureatyourdoor I would say they're more like the milkweed bugs as they don't have those big red eyes on the box elder, but they are certainly very similar!

@@maiasaura.2019 you are definitely on top of your insect ID. If you have photos you can post as a visitor on my NAYD facebook page. Very interesting to me!

@@natureatyourdoor Sure thing! I should see if I can look around for them and get some pictures of them sometime. They sure are interesting little creatures :-)

@@maiasaura.2019 thanks Alaris. I share here but I also learn A LOT from my viewers, too!!!

? Send photo to natureatyourdooryt@gmail.com

First I have to ask ...could they have been box elder bugs because: In fall, box elder bugs will feed, like stink bugs, on developing fruits like apples and pears. Numerous insects feeding on the fruit cause damage called “catfacing,” which results in lumpy and misshapen fruit. It is on fruit trees that these insects are most likely to cause actual damage. I need to study more about milkweed bugs to see if they do fruit as well.

I did find this: Description Despite its common name, the milkweed bug feeds on many types of crop, including apricot, citrus, cotton, maize, mangoes, millet, sorghum, sunflower and sweet potato. Adults feed either alone or in small groups. Generally, the milkweed bug is regarded as a minor pest. Occasionally, however, large numbers occur on plants. The reason for this is unknown. Unlike many other pests which feed on leaves or stems, milkweed bugs feed on the seeds. The bug injects a digestive saliva into the seed that dissolves the contents, which it then sucks up. Seeds that have been attacked shrivel up and die, and seed pods may deform.

Orange Aphids can reproduce in high enough numbers to severely impact the milkweed plant. They reproduce by parthenogenisis...as single female aphid will produce many offspring. I need to do an episode on the orange aphids found on milkweed plants. In the meantime ..check out my monarch buttery videos that explain the whole life story from,egg to adult butterfly.

@@natureatyourdoor thank you !

Ha! Right? Have you seen my assasin bug /wheel bug episode? I think you will like it!

I also have a praying mantis episode where mantis is eating a stink bug! Equally rewarding!

@@natureatyourdoor Will be checking them out with my morning coffee!! Cheers!

Hi Alma. It is possible but I haven't observed them on phlox. One can colonize them in the lab on raw sunflower seeds so I imagine that they could move to other seeds if their first choice is not available!

The reason I'm asking. My Phlox is being wiped out. Don't know what to do. I don't use insectcides.

I haven't saw Milkweed in my area in quite awhile. I'm not saying it isn't here, I have not saw any. I know what Milkweed is.

I live in Southwest Va.

Tell me about the milk weed beetle. Help!!!!!!

To some of the seeds on the milkweed pod they are on but not in the big picture. Not invasive.

They are beneficial in a way that all insects are as part of a balanced ecology. To they have "value" to humans...do they do anything that would help in things we humans might value? I would say no. Lol!

Pretty much , if they have time to grow to maturity. I often see immature milkweed growing later in fall with no visible pods or flowers. They are resprouts from root stock of milkweed cut by mowing . They may resprout several times during a mowing season.

That is curious. I dont know!!

They have that warning coloration recognized by predators as stinging or bad tasting! It works! :-)

@@natureatyourdoor Or perhaps birds can't see the orange color like humans do, so they don't see them as food. Wild animals don't see things like we do. In nature, most insects have colors and tastes similar to the plants they eat. Some insects use extra energy to make their own stinky and yucky taste and strange colors, to avoid being eaten. This is my theory. LOL

Ck out this link on aposematic coloration in nature: www.amazingnature-nancygoor.com/warning-colors.html

@@natureatyourdoor The question is, is it really poisonous to birds? Is orange the color of a toxin? Aposematic coloration is a human theory based on our perception of nature, which has nothing to do with what other predators actually perceive in nature. Say dogs are color blind and can only see blue and yellow. They rely on smell, not vision to find preys. I doubt if they can distinguish between an orange lizard and a piece of brown feces.

@@trumplostlol3007 true...I do know they carry the toxic alkolids from milkweed plant.

Awesome! Welcome Rintaro!

Probably poisonous but not venomous!

Good question. Praying mantsis will eat stink bugs readily but not sure about these.

@@natureatyourdoor uh oh bc i just fed my pet mantid some😰😰😰

👍😃

Oh noooo! 😞

Where do you live? Locally in VA I have not seen them in large enough numbers to kill a plant! Tell me more!

@@natureatyourdoor I live in Southwest Florida. I’ve lost so many Asclepius plants to them that I’m afraid to plant anymore of them. And those little bugs are hard to get rid of.

Well......I work hard to have strong content and teach something new each week! Hoping my outreach can grow!

Mr Frank you do such an amazing job!!! I have been binge watching your videos and I have learned so much. I live in Louisiana and my family has a rather large dairy farm. I planted several plants about 5 years ago, I only knew them as "butterfly bushes". I recently got a few from a local nursery and I was researching where best to plant them. That's when I discovered that the plants I have grown to love is actually "MILK WEED"! Up until now I have always heard that term from my Brother in law. I have heard him complain about "MILK WEED" in the hay fields!!!! We will be having science class over Sunday dinner!!! Thanks so much!!!! Have a good one and May God bless y'all!​@natureatyourdoor

Yes...kissing bugs carry disease. and no while in the bug family..distantly related to blood sucking kissing bugs. These are strictly plant feeders. And yes...you are right ..they have a similar overall shape and proboscis!

Thank you A Moth!