I'm hoping it wasn't something we did wrong....the milkweed was infested with aphids...when the ladybugs never arrived, I sprayed them with insecticidal soap, made sure all the aphids were gone, then hosed them down really well before I put them in the ground. I hope that didn't do something wrong. The only other treatment we did was a heavy soaking of compost tea and applied coco-coir mulch chunks to the bed. If I killed anything besides those aphids, I will be really sad!!!

On a second note, these plants all came from a nursery that is strictly organic (and biodynamic too, I think) and they have proven to be the strongest, most prolific and beautiful plants I've ever purchased. Hands down. It's the Florida Native Plant Nursery in Myakka. Very knowledgeable people!

Sad to say if there were tiny Monarch caterpillars on your milkweed, the soap may have killed them. For future reference (and those yellow aphids surely will come back, btw) try just spraying them off with plain water from the hose next time. The aphids are killed but if there are tiny caterpillars, they will climb back up onto the plants.

Another thing to note, I always interplant the milkweed fairly close to something else that will cover it up once the caterpillars do find it. All my milkweed plants are just sticks right now, completely denuded by the monarchs. It's what you want to happen, but it's not pretty. Gaillardia make a nice companion planting and the butterflies like it too.

I grow Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) and sometimes in mid summer when it's really hot and there's not much air moving, the plants will be covered with aphids and ants. The aphids produce a honeydew that the ants feed on. I love when I see lady bugs/lady beetles in the garden because they devour aphids. I've purchased lady bugs in the past and released them in the garden but unfortunately you can't control where they decide to go. One year as soon as I released them, they flew off to gardens unknown ... I hope my neighbors appreciated my help.

From Wikipedia:
~ Some species of ants "farm" aphids, protecting them on the plants they eat, eating the honeydew the aphids release from the terminations of their alimentary canals. This is a "mutualistic relationship". These "dairying ants" "milk" the aphids by stroking them with their antennae. Some farming ant species gather and store the aphid eggs in their nests over the winter. In the spring, the ants carry the newly hatched aphids back to the plants. Some species of dairying ants (such as the European yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus) manage large "herds" of aphids that feed on roots of plants in the ant colony. Queens leaving to start a new colony take an aphid egg to found a new herd of underground aphids in the new colony. These farming ants protect the aphids by fighting off aphid predators. ~

From last August ... Aphids!:

The aphid lesson is a hard one.
They will attract Ladybugs, so they aren't all bad.
Plant Parsley at the back of your gardens. Caterpillars will eat those too.
Trying to garden without OD-ing the soil is tricky in Florida. If you are near a pond, just pump that water to your garden. You will never have to buy fertilizer again.
Sidney

Ughhhhhhhhh shame on me. Sighhhh. I did it in hopes of eliminating competition for the caterpillars so they could eat the milkweed all to themselves... Hopefully they come back. Lots of swallowtails and a hummingbird yesterday, and tons of bees and wasps. I actually did plant Gaillardia right next to the milkweed and it's blooming now, and seems to attract more attention to the garden.

I've never seen a single ladybug on the island...I was worried they wouldn't come. The island seems eerily devoid of insects....though probably not much a mystery as to why....