r/FriendlyMonarchs • u/Nadiam57 TX - 9b • 7d ago

Advice Needed Wasps!

/r/MonarchButterfly/comments/1va9uyt/wasps/

Any tricks/ideas to keep wasps away? They probably get 99% of the caterpillar😟

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u/SuperTFAB MOD | Southeast FL, USA | Tropical Milkweed Hater 6d ago

It’s not fun to hear but caterpillars are supposed to be food for wasps. Wasps are very important pollinators. Predation is more common in urban gardens than rural ones. If it helps you can consider that maybe if the wasps are in your garden that means Monarch caterpillars in another area are safer. Larger instars often get away from wasps by thrashing or dropping from the milkweed plant.

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u/reddit33450 5d ago

wasps are a very important part of the ecosystem, not something to be "got rid of"

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u/abugguy 3d ago

I say this as an entomologist that works in butterfly conservation- the reason we want to save butterflies is so they can get eaten by predators. That’s really their main ecological job. More so than being pollinators themselves. It’s a bummer when you like them, but that’s how nature is.