My Swamp Milkweed is beginning to form a handful of pods. I am not sure which beetle it is, but I know one will eat the seeds or some part of the pod. Is there any way to protect these? I have a couple of friends who want seeds, and I'd like to grow more of this Milkweed.


What is funny is I planted some Swamp Milkweed plugs in a wet spot in our yard and they only came up two years, then never to be seen again. This year this Milkweed came up in a drier area and it is doing very well. I do not remember pods developing on those first plants.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Swamp Milkweeds are slow to mature , More like a tall field plant than a true Swamp plant ,I have two that are five or six yrs old , did not make mature seed pods until their fourth year ,
Glove and soap , or soapy water and dishwashing kitchen glove , to takes the Beetles off , I get three kinds of Beetle and Aphids , Spider mites that attack the pods ,
Taking them off by hand as often and clean dry dusting the seeds , if the seeds mature , is about the only way I know of ,
I do not get good viability from the seeds from mine either , but some have grown ,
Not a Super easy plant , more like a field weed , that does not like being messed with or that does not get invasive ,
Remembering , if I gave my self a grade at growing plants as gardening it would only be a good solid "C " this is my experience . some better , some worse ,,

Would tying an organza bag on the flower clusters after removing the insects work?
Or maybe a paper, or plastic bag?

That was my first thought Caroline, but i think Chilly wants the seeds to mature and i'm not sure they would mature very well tied up in bags. I don't have experience with Swamp milkweed, but with other milkweeds the caterpillars will often enjoy eating the seed pods. Chilly are you sure beetles are eating your seed pods and not caterpillars?

I doubt organza bag will affect seed maturing. I have used them on Hibiscus and Ruellia with no problem.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/H...

Zone is near the same as mine Caterpillars usually only tear the pods ,, Milkweed Beetles are bad , Large reddish orange Spider Mites are a Terror , The last does terrible damage to seeds and the pods ,,
Chalk or Dimetacious (spelled wrong again , oh well) Earth will kill plant juice sucking insects but even as natural it will also kill caterpillars , clogs their inerds ,.. Water , soap and water removing the invaders with the hand is about the only caterpillar saving option ,

Rather than edit again , I will from experience add this , this particular pest is after milkweed and milkweed only . I tried using Nylons over the pods , The red Mites chewed through the branch , to get to the pods , They would probably do the same with organza bags ,, Yes ,, the killed the stem branch to get the pods ,

Thank you so much for your replies. I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I have no problems at this time. It is only from reading of others' troubles and seeing what the beetles do to the milkweeds on the side of the road that I was looking for ideas to prevent this if possible.

And Horntoad! I knew I saw that idea, but couldn't remember what those things were called. I am having a horrid time with Corn Rootworm adults on my native hibiscus, but oh! I better not get started on this thread because I am miffed about this.

So far this season , photo today ,, Swamp Milkweed , seed pods

So far the pods are fine and maybe I do not need to worry too much. I have been going crazy trying to get a photo of those Sedge Wrens singing in our pasture. Today, in my search, I found a large stand of Swamp Milkweed!

I am blessed with abundance. YAY! I will have plenty to share and more pods are ripening. I've only found a couple of the full grown Milkweed bugs on the pods, but I just pull them off.

Now I am waiting for my Butterflyweed pods to ripen. That looks to be a great harvest too.