Monarch butterfly help, anyone? Buy some milkweed, create a Monarch waystation!

[Flaxbee]

Please, if you have some extra space, make a butterfly garden.

You can get very inexpensive seeds here:
https://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm

Info on Waystations here:

http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/

Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to overwintering areas in Mexico and California where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders, yet it is threatened by habitat loss in North America - at the overwintering sites and throughout the spring and summer breeding range as well.

Monarch Waystation Habitats
Monarch Waystations are places that provide resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. Without milkweeds throughout their spring and summer breeding areas in North America, monarchs would not be able to produce the successive generations that culminate in the migration each fall. Similarly, without nectar from flowers these fall migratory monarch butterflies would be unable to make their long journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico. The need for host plants for larvae and energy sources for adults applies to all monarch and butterfly populations around the world.

Why We Are Concerned
Milkweeds and nectar sources are declining due to development and the widespread use of herbicides in croplands, pastures and roadsides. Because 90% of all milkweed/monarch habitats occur within the agricultural landscape, farm practices have the potential to strongly influence monarch populations.

Development. Development (subdivisions, factories, shopping centers, etc.) in the U.S. is consuming habitats for monarchs and other wildlife at a rate of 6,000 acres per day - that's 2.2 million acres each year, the area of Delaware and Rhode Island combined!

Genetically Modified Crops. Widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans has resulted in the loss of more than 80 million acres of monarch habitat in recent years. The planting of these crops genetically modified to resist the non-selective systemic herbicide glyphosate (Roundup®) allows growers to spray fields with this herbicide instead of tilling to control weeds. Milkweeds survive tilling but not the repeated use of glyphosate. This habitat loss is significant since these croplands represent more than 30% of the summer breeding area for monarchs.

Roadside Management. The use of herbicides and frequent mowing along roadsides has converted much of this habitat to grasslands - a habitat generally lacking in food and shelter for wildlife. Although some states have started to increase the diversity of plantings along roadsides, including milkweeds, these programs are small.

Unfortunately, the remaining milkweed habitats in pastures, hayfields, edges of forests, grasslands, native prairies, and urban areas are not sufficient to sustain the large monarch populations seen in the 1990s. Monarchs need our help.

What You Can Do
To offset the loss of milkweeds and nectar sources we need to create, conserve, and protect milkweed/monarch habitats. We need you to help us and help monarchs by creating "Monarch Waystations" (monarch habitats) in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides, and on other unused plots of land. Without a major effort to restore milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch population is certain to decline to extremely low levels.

The Value of Monarch Waystations
By creating and maintaining a Monarch Waystation you are contributing to monarch conservation, an effort that will help assure the preservation of the species and the continuation of the spectacular monarch migration phenomenon.

[Brother Buzz]

1. My neighbor has his own little program going

He's a retired wetland biologist (State and Federal) and developed a lot of connections with farmers and ranchers over California's central Valley. He knows tons of marginal areas that are perfect, and seems to have an unlimited supply of milkweed seeds, so he broadcasts a little here and a little there in his travels.

I grew up near a modest winter Monarch butterfly colony in a eucalyptus grove in southern Marin County, California. I visited it recently and was devastated to discover condominiums had displaced the grove - gone, just totally gone. Fortunately, there are other sites in the area, but the butterfly population has been decimated; totally underwhelming compared to my childhood memories of butterflies everywhere.

[Separation]

2. Be careful!

I ended up with these running around my backyard last year. Must have gotten into to some wicked pesticide.



This year Im sticking with my beehives.

[NV Whino]

3. I donated or the monarchs this year.

[Flaxbee]

4. boosting this for the butterflies! :)

[MH1]

5. I have milkweed that comes back every year on its own

I let it have a big part of my side yard. The fragrance is wonderful.

[Flaxbee]

6. have you noticed any butterflies stopping by?

I'm going to order a bunch soon; looking forward to the fragrance.

[MH1]

7. A few, not as many as I like.

I suspect, after reading the site in the OP, that the reason is that I don't have enough of the nectar plants that were mentioned at that site. I'm going to look at planting some of those and see if I get more butterflies.

I get a lot of bees though. Not a problem for me, and I think it's good environmentally. It's not a problem because as long as you aren't getting between the bee and its milkweed, it is not caring about your presence at all.

[progressoid]

8. We haven't seen Monarchs in years.

Or milkweed for that matter.

As a child, I would see milkweed all the time. Farmers took care of that.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. thank you!

Not only did I check and save the links, but I know what to look for at the plant store.