Butterflies Need Your Help!

[applestar]

Consider planting a Butterfly Garden this spring.

I just received an email from the monarchwatch.org
Apparently, there have been major winter storm related landslide disasters in Mexico. (Related to the earthquakes, I wonder?) Sadly lives were lost.

In addition, they're estimating that over 50% of overwintering Monarch butterflies were killed. My children and I have been raising and releasing Monarch butterflies every summer/fall. We'll be anxiously watching out for our returning Monarchs.

Here's an excerpt:

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Storms in Mexico
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There has been a disaster of extraordinary proportions in the heart of the monarch overwintering area. Unprecedented rainfall from 31 January - 4 February led to flooding and landslides that resulted in the loss of many lives and the near destruction of the towns of Angangueo and Ocampo, the two municipalities that serve as hubs for those visiting the monarch colonies at Sierra Chincua and El Rosario. The community of El Rosario was also hit hard with a major landslide that buried more than a dozen residents and destroyed bridges and homes. The consequences of this disaster will be felt for years by some and for a lifetime by others. Angangueo will never be the same - the one we remember before the flooding is gone.

The monarch colonies were also strongly impacted by the rainfall but the monarch population will recover - how long this recovery will take is a question that can't be answered at this time.

We have posted a series of articles about the storms in Mexico, the status of the monarch population, etc. via our blog:

https://monarchwatch.org/blog/category/mexico/

A few quick facts:
1) An unprecedented amount of rainfall in eastern Michoacan in the first four days of February led to landslides and massive flooding in Angangueo and the surrounding area. About 50 people lost their lives in landslides and Angangueo was severely damaged. The story of the storm and the aftermath are extensively chronicled on our Blog.

2) A series of storms in January and February have taken a toll on the monarch population. The final estimate on the mortality suffered by the monarchs is not yet in but it is clear that over 50% of the overwintering population died as a result the harsh winter conditions.

3) Because of the severe mortality at the overwintering colonies, the number of monarchs returning to the breeding areas this spring will be fewer than at anytime since the colonies became known to science in 1975. These numbers are so low that they are certain to impact the number of monarchs that return to Mexico next fall.

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Bring Back the Monarch Campaign
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In response to mortality suffered by the monarchs in Mexico we will be launching a "Bring Back the Monarch" campaign by encouraging a nationwide expansion of the Monarch Waystation Program and the planting of milkweed on private and public lands. This effort will be supported in part by the Monarch Joint Venture, a new nationwide program whose mission is to foster monarch conservation. We will post more information about these efforts in the coming months, in the meantime you can learn more about our Monarch Waystation conservation initiative at

https://monarchwatch.org/waystations

[cynthia_h]

Sad news.

"Landslide" is a term I've seen used by East-Coast-based media. It conveys a sense of land movement akin to that of earthquakes, but the two are very different--and unrelated--phenomena.

Out here, on the Left Coast, the term "mudslide" is more often used. Mudslides occur when the plants on hilly terrain (trees, shrubs, weeds, everything) have been lost due to timber harvest, food foraging, or--most commonly--wildfire.

The mudslides in California during January and February, although apparently triggered by heavy rains, were possible because of the wildfires last year and the year before. There were no deep-rooted plants to stabilize those hillsides, so the rains brought the hillsides down. Elsewhere here on the forum, I posted a word-for-word description by a geologist of a mudslide. Something to the effect of a 30-foot wall of mud moving at 35 miles per hour. Nothing can withstand it.

I haven't kept sufficiently abreast of conditions in Michoacán to know whether they suffered fire during the dry season, but it may be that the land has been foraged/subsistence farmed of necessity and that few deep-rooted trees remain to stabilize the hillsides.

(The lack of trees is why Haitians are so desperate for housing: the rainy season is approaching and mosquitoes are breeding. The January 12 earthquake destroyed almost all the housing in that country.)

If 50% of the Monarch butterflies in Michoacán have been destroyed, how are the people doing? Did their homes survive? Do they have clean water?

Monarch "groves" of trees (sadly, the hated eucalyptus) in Pacific Grove were spared from destruction just a few years ago, when it was proved that these were unique breeding grounds.

We can each pitch in somewhere along this Great Cycle: Monarchs => Trees => People

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Pineville]

The Monarch is quite specific in its requirements for host plant (food for caterpillars) and nectar plants (food for adult butterflies) . Many butterflies prefer what most gardeners would call 'weeds.'

The Monarch need Asclepias (Milkweed) which is absent in most gardens. I remember as a kid walking through fallow fields loaded with what we called Giant Milkweed and seeing many many Monarch caterpillars and butterflies.

[applestar]

Yep. I started out with a stray common Asclepias syriaca patch that I let grow (as is my usual practice with unID'd weeds) in an out of the way spot in my garden. I didn't even know what they were except that they had huge pompoms of tiny flowers that on close inspection, looked incredibly tropical (like orchids) and attracted tons of nectaring bees, wasps, and butterflies.

Then DH came home one July evening with several stalks of the same plant with 1/2 dozen striped green caterpillars on them. He said he found them near work, and that they were Monarch butterfly larvae and he used to raise them to pupate and emerge when he was a boy, suggesting that the kids might want to try raising them.

Recognizing the leaves, I started feeding the cats with our own unsprayed unchemically treated milkweed leaves. We found a few more cats in our own patch that year, and we were hooked. The number of caterpillars we've raised and released as butterflies doubled every year, and soon we learned about the Monarch tagging program. We released nearly 75 tagged butterflies last fall.

I now have in our garden Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Butterfly plant (Asclepias tuberosa), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Whirled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata), Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens). This year, I'm growing from seed Blue/Honey/Sand Vine Milkweed (Cynanchum laeve), Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), and Oscar's Giant Swan Milkweed (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) as well. The existing milkweed varieties as well as Blue Vine Milkweed are native perennials, the other two are tropicals grown as annuals.

(And yes, our garden is a registered Monarch Waystation )

[rainbowgardener]

I always grow milkweed for them, but how do you do the raise and release thing? Where do you get the cocoons or whatever you are starting with?

[applestar]

I'm SO glad you asked!

If you have milkweed in your garden, start watching out for the butterflies to arrive. In my garden, they appear around beginning of July, but this website will give you a reliable migration pattern and schedule: https://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/index.html

You'll see the females flitting from one milkweed plant to another, laying eggs. A few days later, the 1st instar caterpillars will hatch and make tiny pin holes in the leaves. After that just look for eaten leaves or poops. Monarch larvae look similar throughout their 5 instar stages, but here's a guide: https://www.mymonarchguide.com/2008/08/life-stages-determining-instars.html

We try to collect them as eggs or 1st~2nd instars. Eggs are delicate when first deposited but can be rolled off the leaves by the next day. I either clip the leaves around the eggs or collect detached eggs in a small container. I like putting them in clear egg cartons, a piece of moistened paper towel, then a piece of leaf, then egg, then another piece of leaf in each egg cup.

1st and 2nd instars can go in a community container like salad container lined with paper towel.

3rd instar is about the limit. Later stages can lead to heartaches as they can be already infested by tachinid fly or braconid wasp. They are also prone to bacterial infection called Oe which can affect them at any stage. https://www.evansonart.com/monarchdisease.html

The earlier collected the better, because despite the common belief that eating poisonous milkweed keeps Monarch larvae safe from predators, the cats disappear quickly from the garden if we don't rescue them and bring them inside.

[Pineville]

applestar- What you are doing with the Monarchs is pretty amazing.

If you haven't seen this site https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/ check it out, it is a great resource for butterfly ID, host plants, nectar plants, and even lets you search butterflies by county.

[ButterflyMa]

Raising butterflies is an awesome experience. We did it for the first time last year and released 3 Monarchs. We got the caterpillars from a friends garden...she didn't have enough Milkweed to feed them all. So we bought a plant. We have seeds planted now for a full out butterfly garden this year...with lots of Milkweed for the Monarchs.

[DanHurt]

My wife and I are rounding up plants for our monarch garden. So far we have 8 milkweed, 2 butterfly bush, 4 lantana, 4 pentas, 4 coreopsis, 8 salvia and 4 rue. We'll put them all in the ground in the next couple of days. Can anyone suggest any must haves that we have missed that are native to south Texas?

[rainbowgardener]

As far as host plants for the monarch caterpillar, milkweed (various species) is basically it.

Wiki gives this as a list of nectar plants for the adult monarch butterfly:

Apocynum cannabinum - Indian Hemp
Asclepias incarnata - Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca - Common Milkweed
Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Weed
Aster sp. - asters
Cirsium sp. - thistles
Daucus carota - Wild Carrot
Dipsacus sylvestris - Teasel
Erigeron canadensis - Horseweed
Eupatorium maculatum - Spotted Joe-Pye Weed
Eupatorium perfoliatum - Common Boneset
Hesperis matronalis - Dame's Rocket
Medicago sativa - Alfalfa
Solidago sp. - golden rods
Syringa vulgaris - Lilac
Trifolium pratense - Red Clover
Vernonia altissima - Tall Ironweed[26]

If you just want butterflies (not specifically monarch butterflies) purple conflower, bee balm, and penstemon are good native wildflower choices and the bee balm is also attractive to hummingbirds.

[DanHurt]

Thank you, we're going to plant what we have and if we have the space we'll see what our local nurseries have in stock.