Lots of Monarch Butterflys

Anybody notice this? Seems like an unusually high number this year. I would guess that is a good thing?

Yes, I would agree! I feel like I’ve been seeing lots of them this summer and I love it. I would think it’s a good thing too, but maybe it was just a good growing season for the plants they eat?

We did a tagging event with the kids in August. It was pretty neat! They’re really incredible creatures.

My mother in law lives in Belgrade, MN, and she had hundreds in her yard over Labor Day. It was awesome to see. We got out the beers and captured a few.

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I thought the numbers were dwindling? Good to hear. We have a few residents here I see from time to time. Just planted some butterfly attracting bushes last weekend, I hope to see more.

If you ever visit the state and you like butterflies I wish you to see a zebra butterfly. It’s not the coloring which is yellow with black stripes, but rather their wing shape and how they fly.

I am familiar with a group that has tagged them for years, and this year was by far (by hundreds) the most they have ever tagged in a year. A few thoughts on why there are more: More people are aware of them and their habitat, even little pollinator plants and gardens in yards can help. The late and wet planting season and summer resulted in less fields being sprayed for insecticides and less fields being sprayed with herbicides resulting in more milkweed and such. Who knows what all is true, but some of what I’ve heard. I do feel like fields, especially bean fields, are far more weedier than I’ve ever seen them before.

We have several milkweed plants that come up each spring and we leave them be. We actually had 6 of the monarch caterpillars on the five plants and I was hoping to finally see a cocoon devlope and hatch a Monarch but the birds got them.

2 weeks ago I noticed about 30 when mowing grass at my storage shed.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

We have several milkweed plants that come up each spring and we leave them be. We actually had 6 of the monarch caterpillars on the five plants and I was hoping to finally see a cocoon devlope and hatch a Monarch but the birds got them.

I thought they ate milkweed so birds wouldn’t eat them?

As a kid and adult I’ve raised them from specks to mature caterpillars and watched them caccoon and emerge from the caccoon.

A couple years ago we got tropical milkweed. We panicked one Sunday as all the leaves were eaten and I got 3 large bushes before the nursery closed and they weren’t cheap. Eventually some bug like a boxelder and aphids got to the bushes and I gave up.

The wife got to see the caccooning and emerging for the first time which was cool.

If you want to plant wild milkweed up there, I did it from seed. Iharvested them in the fall and kept them in a refrigerator. You can find info online, however it takes a few seasons before they are big enough to attract butterflies. It’s probably easier digging up wild ones and transplanting them.

I too have noticed a increased number, love to see those things out in the middle of Lake Ontario, they don’t exactly fly in a straight line. I learned that while there is a lot more this year things arent good for them with habitat loss.

Here in Illinois I have seen more also, one thing I see is more people are letting milkweed patches grow in different areas. I live in town I have a patch that was visited by many monarchs. If you can control them in a area they are not to bad to grow.

There was a push this spring for people that have rain gardens to plant milkweed around them. I don’t recall if that message came through Carpenters Nature Center or if it was the MN Volunteer.

No matter what the reason, something’s working!

They’re migrating in groups and they stay together when they rest usually. You’ll see branches full of them, it looks really sweet

Tom Sawvell wrote:

We have several milkweed plants that come up each spring and we leave them be. We actually had 6 of the monarch caterpillars on the five plants and I was hoping to finally see a cocoon develop and hatch a Monarch but the birds got them.

Tom:

Next year you might want to take the caterpillars and set them a safe palce for them to develop and hatch… I was at my dentist’s office this year and they had about a dozen of them… I wish they would have tagged them and I suggested that for next year… It’s the first time I’ve seen that since I was a kid growing up and there was no problem with their population. Great stuff!!!

Mark

My buddy got a grant through the MN DNR to plant milk weed on his farm for them. There is other stuff in the seed mix as well.
DT

Plant some sedum flowers the monarchs love them..