[Dani Watson]

how do i keep pests like ants and spiders out of my butterfly enclosure, i have tryed many methods with ants like pouring boiling water on the nest and spreading grits or cream of wheat around the mound but it doesn’t seem to be working. please help i fear they will eat all the eggs and chrysalis.

[Jacqui]

Yes, ants and ladybirds will eat monarch caterpillars.

If you search on ants and ladybirds here you will come up with some suggestions for the ants – but nothing for ladybirds. The latter will be doing a good job keeping your plants free from aphids.

https://www.monarch.org.nz/forum/topic-tag/ants

Good luck!

[Pedropackman]

Hi Little Flyer. I have been farming monarchs for some 20 years. I have managed to maintain a balance between paper wasps, soldier bugs and caterpillar population, however for the last 3 years something has come in that eats the eggs and caterpillars before they are more than two mm long. This year there are very few butterflies here on our property (Kuaotunu Coromandel0 and the wasps seem to have gone there being no caterpillars. I have lain under plants – usually between 8 and 40 scattered around – and the only thing I can put it down to is either lady bugs or ants. Can you confirm this or could you please suggest a source of info on this topic? What do you suggest?
Thanks, Pedropackman.

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