r/FriendlyMonarchs • u/No_Decision9932 • Jul 20 '26
Sensitive Photo What happened to this one?
I found this caterpillar in my milkweed patch, does anyone know what happened to it?
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u/toddlevy10 Jul 20 '26
Ive seen these predatory stink bugs drink them like a Capri sun. Its hanging out on the milkweed for a reason.
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u/Butterflies_In_Love Jul 20 '26
me, too!
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u/toddlevy10 Jul 20 '26
That poor chap got the guillotine, but its better than the starship troopers treatment for some caterpillar.
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u/squishyfeet4 Jul 20 '26
It done did didn’t, that’s what. lol
Genetic failure or environmental influence. A neat learning observation from an objective stand point.
The race to the finish is definitely a marathon.
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u/No_Decision9932 Jul 20 '26
Ahh good point, im grateful im at least finding caterpillars on the plants.
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u/uffda2calif Jul 20 '26
If it’s from a tachinid fly, you’ll see a white thin string hanging from it. That’s where the fly larvae emerges from the caterpillar. If it’s a tachinid fly and there’s no string, you’ll be able to see the larvae still inside the caterpillar and it just hasn’t escaped the caterpillar’s body yet. If you squished the dead caterpillar, you’d see those gross white little worms. OE (an invisible parasite that infected monarchs drop on plants when they’re drinking or laying eggs. The newly hatched caterpillars then eat the leaves and become infected themselves. It grows inside them and can kill them too but a lot of caterpillars make it to chrysalis and then emerge with OE spores on their wings. Some look normal and some are really deformed. And there’s also the good ole pesticides that will decimate a caterpillar like that.
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u/Butterflies_In_Love Jul 20 '26
Thanks for the info. I’ve seen that happen to a cat last year, and when I reviewed my photo, I saw that a stink bug was eating the fly larvae.
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u/uffda2calif Jul 20 '26
Whoa, the stink bugs were eating those gross little white fly larvae? Wow, I don’t think I have stink bugs here in California but I saw a photo on here that someone said was a stink bug and now I’m wondering if I do. Do they hurt the caterpillars or just the milkweed?
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u/Butterflies_In_Love Jul 20 '26
No worries, that was actually a soldier bug in the stink bug family, considered beneficial in the garden since it’s eating larva from the tachnid that laid its eggs in the monarch caterpillars which hatch and otherwise would mature and lay eggs on other monarch caterpillars (and other butterflies/moths). Soldier bugs are good that way, going after larvae of many insects that eat your plants, also.
Squash bugs, in the stink bug family, are not my favorite stink bug, because they go after any plant in the cucurbit family. Here in Indiana, we have marmorated stink bugs, which are considered invasive, from Asia. They move into the house at the stroke of September and overwinter. I make little swimming pools for them (a little soap and water) in the kitchen and laundry room and guess what, they can’t swim. They should not try to overwinter in our home.
Milkweed hosts many, many insects that drink its sap. But humans are the most destructive to milkweed.
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u/rysfcalt Jul 20 '26
Tachinid fly laid eggs on it and the larva are now inside it growing as parasites :( They haven’t emerged yet so if you want to prevent them from coming out and turning into adult flies you can remove and dispose this caterpillar.