Wild City of Fuzzy Munchers: Milkweed Tussock Moth

My husband and I are very proud of our milkweed patch. A few years ago, we had just one or two plants, but we had hungry caterpillars, so my husband brought a few plants back from up the road and we planted those, too. 

The milkweed plants keep growing and expanding and now we have tons of plants. They are super-huge, too: some of them are about 10 feet tall! And no, I'm not exaggerating!

We have watched for monarch butterflies, and have seen a few, but we don't have a confirmed monarch sighting in our own yard yet. The milkweed patch should have monarch caterpillars in it at this point, but it does not. Sadly, we have not seen a single one.

A milkweed patch is a fine ecosystem for bugs of all kinds, though, and on this day, I did find that we have a number of tenants. These little fellas are milkweed tussock moth larvae. Aren't they adorable? It looked like a wild city of little fuzzy little munchers to me. 

Sort of chaotic but fun and interesting. The two in the lower right reminded me of a pair of ladies gossiping over the back fence:

Caterpillar 1: "Hi, can I borrow a cup of sugar?"

Caterpillar 2: "No, you don't NEED a cup of sugar. 
You're a tussock moth, you loon! Keep munching!"

Critters who grow up feeding on milkweed consume cardiac glycosides. These make the larvae poisonous and therefore unattractive to predators (as is also the case with monarch larvae and butterflies). So I'm going with a soundtrack song by Poison. Look, they're having Nothin' but a Good Time, just like in the song!