Tussock moth cats

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Gardentoad
Posts: 1428
Joined: Oct 26, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 5
Location: Indiana

Tussock moth cats

Post by Gardentoad »

I have a lot of these all over my milkweeds.
Are they a problem?
I did a search and read they would overmultiply and eat 30% of a fir tree and other sites say they are only found on older milkweeds and dont even compete with monarch cats. Other sites don't say either way.
I don't know if I should let them be or not.

These are the brown and black ones.
Never before have so few with so much promised to take away so much from so many and then laugh their asses off as the so many with so little vote for the so few with so much.

---James Pence
nanny_56
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Joined: Jul 01, 2006 5:07 pm
USDA Zone: 5b
Location: Putnam County, Indiana Lat. 39* 45' 54.2892" Long. -86* 41' 55.9284''

Re: Tussock moth cats

Post by nanny_56 »

I am not that familar with those particular cats...but too many of anything is bad for the food source. If they are eating the mikweed then they are competing with the monarchs. I don't grow milkweed because of the aphids it attracts but we have lots of wild milkweed around here. Guess it is your judgement call to make. Sorry I am not much help!
Claudia
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest" - John Muir
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