It's all about saving the butterflies and the bees lately. With good reason. Without them we're pretty much screwed. If you'd like to take your monarch butterfly saving to the next level you can create a Monarch Waystation.
If you've been following me for any length of time you know two things about me. I like any food made out of a potato and I raise monarch butterflies in the summer.
I've been raising monarchs for around 15 years and to my credit haven't once tried to feed them a potato. The ONLY reason for that is because Monarch caterpillars only eat one thing every single day of their life; milkweed. It's their only food source. Period.
So when people go around pulling out milkweed from their lawns and gardens because it's invasive or ugly or whatever - they're pulling out the only plant in the world that a Monarch butterfly needs for survival. No milkweed? No Monarchs. It's as simple as that.
That's why when a little patch of milkweed showed up on my front lawn 15 years ago I left it there. The first year I saw one Monarch butterfly head towards it the entire summer. It laid its eggs and I was stunned. A day later when I went to check on the eggs they were gone. Eaten by another bug or bird or perhaps a sandal wearing hippie strolling past looking for a healthful snack.
Regardless, the eggs were gone and I was angry. That fall I did a lot of reading up on Monarchs and their steady decline to near extinction. By the next summer I was prepared and began raising Monarchs inside my house by protecting their eggs and caterpillars.
If you haven't read my series on raising Monarchs it's FASCINATING in a Steven King meets Mother Nature kind of way. You can read the first post on raising Monarchs here.
THIS post however isn't on how to raise a Monarch butterfly. Or on how to make a delicious potato based dinner. It's on how you can help support Monarch raising awareness AND take an even bigger part in increasing the Monarch population by joining an organization called Monarch Watch.
Monarch Watch is a non profit program that started at the University of Kansas in 1992. Its sole reason for being is to research monarchs, promote their protection across North America and educate people about it all.
If you're worried that milkweed won't fit into your neighbourhood's clipped lawn and trimmed boxwood aesthetic, you can order one of their signs for $17 U.S. The sign pretty much says you're better than all your neighbours with their authoritarian lawns because your garden is a haven for Monarchs and you're basically saving the world from impending doom one fluttering bug at a time.
Monarchs have 4 generations each year. The first 3 generations are short-lived, only lasting 2-6 weeks in this world. They spend that time hanging out, eating nectar, being fabulous and laying eggs. But the last generation? The 4th generation of Monarchs? They're the special ones. These 4th generation Monarchs are the ones that guarantee the survival of the species - the migrators. They are born with a very specific job; to live over 6 times as long as their predecessors so they can fly almost 5,000 kilometres (3,000 miles) to to warm land of Mexico so their journey can begin all over again. Like salmon swimming upstream to spawn before they die.
Another part of the Monarch Watch program is tagging the Monarchs you raise. Monarch Watch will mail you butterfly tags (which are little stickers you attach to your newly raised Monarch.) The tags only go on the migration Monarchs and allow Monarch Watch to keep track of the migration patterns and population of the Monarchs.
If you're interested, you can get all the information you need about ordering a sign or tags from The Monarch Watch site. This is not a sponsored post by any means. I'm just enthusiastic about Monarchs.
And potatoes.
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I'm late replying to this so Idk if you will see it.
This is so cool, Karen. I told a friend about it and she said Monarchs raised inside lose their ability to navigate. Is your cabinet on the side of your house not considered inside?
As kids we would go find the caterpillars . Then every day get them fresh milkweed leaves, always near the train station, where we would walk to meet our Dad. By far one of my favorite memories.
I’ve tried again this year to grow milkweed from seeds. Kept them moist, in the fridge for a month, and I just planted them last week. I’m not feeling confident. Any suggestions? I do my best with flowers for the bees, butterflys and hummingbirds, but I know I need to grow the milkweed for the caterpillars , so any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you
growing milkweed is not hard. i have had good luck putting the seeds in soil, on top and in milk jugs outside covered until they sprout. i started mine in January or early February this year. They are slow to sprout and grow in the cold spring but they are doing good so far.
I have always wanted to do this. I love butterflies and I am one of the very few people anywhere in my neighborhood that has flowers. I have some native wildflowers too and actually saw bumble bees and regular bees, which I haven't seen very often. Thanks :)
Hello, everyone.
I live in Massachusetts and we have an invasive weed from Europe - Black swallow-wort - that competes with milkweed for pollination. The flowers look very similar to some milkweeds, but the sap from the leaves is poison and kills Monarch eggs. After pollination (by Monarchs!), the resulting pods release seeds exactly the same way as milkweed. Please do not invite this into your yard...or neighborhood, for that matter, because it is extremely difficult to get rid of.
Please read to familiarize yourself with this plant: Black and pale swallow-worts
Copy and paste if the link does not work: https://www.sleloinvasives.org/about-invasives/target-species/swallow-wort .
Regards,
Karen Jean
What a wonderful idea. We have some butterfly plants in the yard. I'll have to see if we have any Monarchs and get some milk weed plants,