A Monarch caterpillar feeding on a Milkweed in our treebed in Bed Stuy.
Two caterpillars ate almost the entire plant in a couple days.
So I moved them to another milkweed in an empty lot on our block. For 3 years I’ve been weeding out the Japanese Knotweed, an invasive species that is no good for native pollinators and throwing seeds from native plants and letting other weeds grow.
Here’s a picture of the garden.
A Black Swallowtail caterpillar eating Queen Anne’s Lace. They look very similar to the Monarch except for the yellow dots. Queen Anne’s lace is not native but has become the preferred plant for swallowtails and draws a lot of small pollinators.
Two pictures of the American Lady showing how different the two sides of the wings are.
Blue Winged Digger Wasp, a nonaggressive beneficial wasp, on Goldenrod. It’s larva eats white grubs.
And another picture of the shady area.
