The birds won't bother the Monarch butterflies. Monarchs are poisonious to birds and other natural predators. The monarch caterpillar eats the toxic milky sap from the milkweed plant, and this toxin carries over to the adult butterfly. Normally with mother nature, the poisonious creatures exibit themselves with bright colors so other non-poisonious creatures know to stay away from them. As for nectar, I wouldn't worry about it. The milkweed is mostly a host plant for laying eggs. The adult monarchs have many many sources for nectar, not just milkweed. And regarding your mexican milkweed plant, I would check the underside of the leaves for monarch eggs. =)

My faith in humankind has been restored on this beautiful Lord's Day! As I prepare to go to Church & worship my God above, the one who has been taken out of schools, courthouses, & many homes in this day & time, it is so good to see a great bunch of people that are 'back to the basics I was brought up with, in rural NC. I feel that my love for nature & the 'calling to raise b'flies' has been given to me from God, it is the greatest therapy for a person that lives in daily agonizing pain, & I have done that since '82. It has gotten me off of the sofa, looking at soaps. Never was one to pop pills, though there were pills given by the various drs, for Lupus pain, Fibromyalgia pain, which is unrelenting, pain from 3 failed lower back surgeries, & so on. But I can go outside, among my plants, (with a very moderate amount of pain medication), which have always been a hobby all my adult life, & find a peace, unlike any other. Seeing the seeds planted, growing each day, & the growth spurt after the evening t-shower, more than if I had given a good dose of fertilizer, knowing the purity of the water released from the heavens above has a growing power unlike anything man can make. I am not a fanatic, but I do find a special inner peace watching the creation emerging from the chrysalis, knowing it "went in as a caterpillar", came out as a beautiful creation, & that amazing change was done by One greater than I or anyone I know, on this earth in the flesh, today. We all are doing our part to make this world a better place to live in. We are, I believe trying to help get back to that time when the earth was a cleaner place; before the dirt & smut was so in control. I can remember when a young teen guy wouldn't go out without his jeans being starched & ironed, with that sharp crease, & that button down collar wasn't just right. Some of you probably don't remember those days. But in sharp contrast, the more ragged, & dirtier they can look, the better they like it. No more neat clean hair styles, but unkept unruly, & dirtier they look the more "in" they are. I am not being judgemental, to each to his own. But to get out among the plants, gives me a sense of being in contact with something good & clean, no matter how bad the pain, or what is on my mind, I can find a sense of peace unlike any other place, during the normal weekday. I enjoy my Church & what I find there, but I feel I bring part of that home with me, in scripture I hear, sometimes it is reflected in my activities outside during the week. None comes to mind at the moment, but God is so good, to give us these beautiful creatures, & place the love in our hearts to want to help them. To go beyond planting the flowers, but to go that step further that some don't understand. Let them take one egg, watch it go through the stages of growth, into the pupa, then the beautiful chrysalis of the Monarch, especially, like a piece of jade that a master artisian sculpted, & flecked with gold, I sat in total awe when I saw my 1st one, & then to watch when it gets transparent, & see the new creature inside. And, on to the final stage, when that beauty of the spread drying wings is present, they are magestic. Nobody can tell me that came as a result of the 'big bang theory'! Not even sure what they say made the ocean that this big bang or whatever it was supposed to have been. Some magical force? No, a Creator, that loved us enough, & I won't go any further, but we are all giving nature some help that the world has taken away. And we wonder why there are guns in schools, & knives.. I well remember the shock in our small town when the "No guns or knives allowed on school property" sign went up! The very thought of this was shocking, & then the rest is history. We are doing our part to help keep our world a better place to live. I don't know of too many men or ladies who raise b'flies who shot their c-store operator, or robbed the bank, or turned out to be serial killers. Didn't mean to go on so, but I see God Almighty in every butterfly that I release, & I thank Him for giving me the 'want to' to do this hobby. I just found a picture that I took of my first BST & a little saying I felt inspired to write "For by watching the phases of the butterfly, from the egg, to the caterpillar, all the way tp the final stage, the beautiful butterfly; surely we see the Hand of God at work, before our eyes, in today's world, as in the days of old, and appreciate even more His Wonderous Love for us daily." The photo is old, & the ink of the writing is a bit smeared, but it is so special to me. This was before I knew anything about butterflies & the terms, etc. Love to you all & In God I do trust..monarchs

Cameron, I think I only saw one swallowtail this summer :o(. I don't know what's going on there use to be lots of butterflies around here during the summer. We're almost sitting on top of a four lane highway I'm wondering if it's too many pollutants in the air since they widened the road. How exciting to watch the whole process, lucky you. I've planted fennel and a few other things that might attract more butterflies to my garden hopefully nex year I'll see a few more. Annette

Dfscudder, with the introduction of GMO crops engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, farmers can now apply the herbicide to their fields throughout the growing season. This practice eliminates all plants other than the GMO crop, including milkweed, that used to provide habitat for numerous insects. Carrying it one step further, those insects in turn provided food for birds. No insects - no birds; even seed-eating birds need insects to feed their young; insects make up about 90% of the young birds' diet. Therefore, many of our agricultural areas are now virtual deserts. Adding to the damage, surveys have shown that a great many farmers also apply herbicide well beyond the perimeter of their fields, eliminating still more habitat. Another product under great suspicion for adding to the problem is the new class of pesticides call neonicotinoids, or "neonics" for short. These are systemic and are taken up into the tissues of the plant, delivering a dose of poison to any insect that feeds upon it. Initially it was maintained that the material was only taken into the stems and leaves, but now it seems that it is, in fact, translocated to the pollen and nectar as well. Neonics seem to be quite persistent; rather than breaking down quickly, they can remain present and toxic in plant tissues for many months. Certainly there are other problems facing the monarchs: loss of habitat in their overwintering sites, diseases like OE, nuclear polyhedrosis virus, and pseudomonas bacteria, also parasitic insects like tachinid flies and braconid wasps, as well as unfavorable weather, particularly during migrating season. Cool, wet weather in spring makes their northward journey more difficult, and dry summers can leave them with precious few nectaring plants on their southward journey in late summer/early autumn. Any one or two of these challenges probably would not be insurmountable, but it seems the monarch is facing the proverbial "perfect storm" of multiple challenges to its survival.