Plant Milkweed for the endangered Monarch Butterfly
joeinmo 6b-7a
8 years ago
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viper114
8 years agojalcon
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Plant Milkweed for Monarch Butterflies
Comments (7)There is a patch of anise or fennel weed that reseeds every year in the lot behind our house. It seems to attract butterfly habitat, but not sure about milkweed. However, about 5 years ago, we awoke one morning - and going outside, found ourselves in the midst of a huge Monarch migration. What a sight, they just kept on coming, and seemed to be from the ocean. It looked as though they were headed for a huge growth of wild mustard - down in the canyon behind our house. We have lived here over 30 years, and that was the first one we had seen. Fantastic! We see swallowtail, mourning cloaks, a few monarchs every year, but that migration was a once-in-a-lifetime event, I'm afraid. Bejay...See MoreMonarch butterflies harmed by garden milkweed
Comments (11)Woodyoak, I'm pretty sure vine milkweed covers a large area of the US & seems like I read it grows native all the way up into Canada. I believe planting milkweed makes people feel good and like they are helping and to a small degree I imagine it does help a small percent of them. Still, I can't help but think its just a tiny drop of 'fix' in a big bucket toward improving the larger problem of whats going on. A bigger problem is the situation in Mexico with the "handful" of remaining wintering shelter areas warm enough for large numbers of them to survive so they can make the yearly migration at all and make use of all that milkweed being planted in peoples yards. I certainly have the plants growing here to attract butterflies but we have been pretty short on many types of butterflies, not just monarchs, and those are just as big a concern to me even though they don't get the press coverage. Some years are good for butterflies, some bad. Sometimes fall is heavy, sometimes spring is, sometimes neither. It varies from year to year. I'm editing to add that the terrible and lengthy drought we've had throughout the mid section, which we are hopefully coming out of, probably did more to reduce the populations than tropical butterfly weed planted in peoples gardens which by the way isn't winter hardy except in the deep southern zones. Here is some good news. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/9337/20141002/monarch-butterflies-expected-rebound-mexico.htm This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sat, Jan 17, 15 at 18:24...See MoreMilkweeds (Butterfly Bush) seeding today - Save them and the Monarchs!
Comments (14)OK, here's the update. I took the dog out for an hour this morning. When I left, the caterpillar was hanging upside down in a "J" shape. When I returned he had gone into the pupa stage; it happened in one hour! I was astonished. It's a beautiful nearly iridescent green. Research tells me this phase takes 10 days. I took the paper off the top of the vase (which was there before to keep it from crawling out) and set the vase outside in the shade which seems the most natural environment for it....See MoreMonarch Butterfly Cats on My Milkweed
Comments (8)Hi, everyone. I myself just learned something new and wanted to share it. Please be careful planting different types of MW. I've been raising monarch cats for 5 years outside and never ran into this problem until now. I have 4 different types of MW and had eggs laid on all types. The problem is when one ran out. I moved those cats to a new MW plant and they refused to eat it. I moved them again and again with no success. I had to put them on the last of the MW they originally were on and have MW shipped to me over night from E**y. If anyone starts a monarch host garden. Stick with all the same MW or plant a huge amount of each one, because you may have the same problem I'm having now....See Morebrandon7 TN_zone7
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