All of Kelvin Read’s swan plants have been stripped clean by at least 100 caterpillars that have made his home their home.
He said they were everywhere, including on his door handles, broomsticks and umbrella.
"It’s worse than raising kids, I tell you."
Mr Read said there were no caterpillars in his garden and then "it went mental" about four weeks ago.
At their peak, they looked like tiny maggots covering the formerly dense foliage on his plants.
He had to buy new plants so they would have something to munch on.
Mr Read said he did not usually get that many caterpillars in his garden and was unsure why so many had invaded his yard this year.
There were so many he had to watch where he stepped in case he crushed one of them and his robotic lawn mower had to be parked up in case it swallowed them.
Since the influx, watching the caterpillars develop into chrysalises and then monarch butterflies had become a fascination and obsession.
"It's just an absolute time waster [watching them transform]," he said.
"It kind of just takes over you — they’re just everywhere."
He had even made a makeshift emergency department with some meshed wire for the caterpillars that needed a bit of help during their transformation process.
"It's just if a chrysalis falls off. I've got double-sided tape. I just go and stick them on."
Some butterflies were still laying eggs and more caterpillars were on the way.
