In mid-September I witnessed a transformation so extraordinary, miraculous, and surprising that I am still in awe. In just four minutes I watched a monarch change from a dangling, J-shaped, black and yellow caterpillar into a green shell-like chrysalis speckled with gold trim. In those four minutes, the drama and complexity of life were on display; it was both humbling and exciting.
How many monarch butterflies have you seen this summer and fall? I’ve been asking everyone that question lately because of my concern for the species. As of this writing in mid-September, I have seen only six, a worrisome change from past years when roadsides and meadows were filled with the lovely orange and black fliers.
According to renowned monarch scientist Lincoln Brower, “Monarchs are in a deadly free fall, and the threats they face are now so large in scale that Endangered Species Act protection is needed sooner rather than later, while there is still time to reverse the severe decline in the heart of their range.”
Scientists agree that the monarch’s 90% decline over the past 20 years is due to the widespread planting of genetically engineered crops in the Midwest, where most monarchs are born. Those crops, mostly corn and soybeans, are engineered to be resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. Farmers control weeds by treating croplands with Roundup, which then wipes out nearby milkweed plants, the monarch caterpillar’s only food.
How is it that farming practices far away affect the local monarch population, you might wonder? Let’s review the monarch’s life cycle.
The butterflies that you see in September will fly from New Hampshire to the Oyamel fir forest in northern Mexico, where they spend the winter. In March, those same butterflies begin the return journey, stopping to lay eggs on the first milkweed they find; and then they die.
Why milkweed? Because when the tiny black and yellow striped caterpillars hatch, milkweed is the only food they can eat. The caterpillars eat, grow, shed their skin, and repeat that process for weeks until they are large enough to pupate. They spin silk to attach themselves to the underside of a leaf, curl into a J-shape, and eventually form a chrysalis.
Soon the familiar butterfly emerges and flies north, relying on nectar from flowering plants for sustenance. This process repeats for several generations over the summer; in fact, it is the great-great-grandchildren of our original butterflies that will make the journey to Mexico the following fall.
Not long ago, it was easy to find a monarch caterpillar, bring it inside, and fashion a cage for it using a huge jar or old fish tank. Simply supplying that caterpillar with fresh milkweed leaves daily and cleaning the waste from the bottom of the cage allows you to watch the miracle of transformation.
What better way is there to inspire an interest in and understanding of the natural world for the children in your life? How sad it is to think that this opportunity may no longer exist for our children and their children.
In Canterbury, Donna Miller is demonstrating a commitment to monarchs that shows how the rest of us can get involved. She and her husband Jim have transformed their wooded property into a garden paradise, home of her business Petals in the Pines (PetalsInThePines.com). Donna sells flowers cut from her vast collection, offers tours of the many themed gardens, organizes garden-theme children’s birthday parties and workshops, and teaches classes on making leaf stone bird baths. I learned about all these activities on the day I visited to see her monarchs.
At her farm, Donna has a “monarch maternity ward” – a garden area loaded with milkweed. She has planted flowers that monarchs love, encouraging them to visit her property and providing necessary nectar for the newly-emerging butterflies and thereby establishing her yard as an official Monarch Way Station. These are steps we can all take.
Donna is also helping scientists collect migration data by tagging her butterflies. She presses a tiny adhesive numbered dot on the monarch’s wing before it flies.
If you have milkweed on your property, don’t pull it up! Plant the flowers that butterflies love: Joe-Pye weed, coneflower, zinnia, sedum, black-eyed Susan, bee balm, coreopsis, liatris, aster, and butterfly weed, among others.
As a special treat for the children in your life, consider ordering a batch of monarch caterpillars next summer from MonarchWatch.org so you can enjoy the thrill of metamorphosis together. You might even offer to sponsor a monarch experience in your local elementary school.
Exactly 100 years ago, the very last passenger pigeon died, a species that was possibly the most abundant bird ever. If we humans have learned anything since that extinction, it should be that timely conservation action can work; peregrine falcons, California condors, and bald eagles are proof. Let us all do what we can to protect nature’s bounty.
Lunar Eclipse on October 8
Another treat from the natural world is a total lunar eclipse. If the weather cooperates you should be able to view one between 6:25 and 7:24 AM on Wednesday, October 8. A pair of binoculars will add some detail of the moon’s surface. There is no danger in looking directly at a lunar eclipse.