There was an Adventure Time episode like this. It was very weird, even by Adventure Time standards.
Great information! My wife and I planted milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants in our backyard last year. We had some monarch visitors throughout the past two summers but didn’t see any caterpillars. Maybe next year. Beautiful creatures!
Neat! Time to get some butterfly weed for my back yard.
I very vaguely have the expertise, and if I had the time I’d do a Kickstarter to fund making a Roundup-resistant milkweed to release into the wild. This might make anti-GMO heads explode, but it would sure be good for monarchs.
When I was a kid I lived next door to a guy who was never home. Milkweed grew all over his yard. I’ve always wondered why I don’t see it much since I live in a place where it grows as a weed. I just hope some local nurseries carry it.
It would also be nice to establish a seed bank that people could contribute to and withdraw from.
What’s the current thinking on monarch migration? They’ve only been doing this since the last Ice Age?
The last time I saw it mentioned, I was left with the impression that milkweed growing wild on the edges of highways was still prevalent. Is/was milkweed growing on the “edges” of millions of acres of cropland indeed a significant proportion of available milkweed?
If I plant milkweed in some pots, will it spread to my whole yard and give my lawn guys a coronary?
I remember reading this old National Geographic of my Dad’s as a kid. I believe it was the first discovery of the (breeding?/resting?) place in Mexico for Monarchs. The article photography was spectacular.
What’s the European Monarch story? Is there a Milkweed issue here too?
Edit:
Here’s the link to Catalina Trail’s story, the team member on the cover.
Never mind, milkweed is toxic to pets, and we Americans love our pets more than butterflies.
Well it’s not just GMOs, it’s that many farmers are cultivating more intensively with multiple crops per season and planting things like winter wheat. This has led to the decline of birds that nest on the ground. There’s simply a lot less open land sitting idle for part of the year. And roadsides are getting mowed because we have mowers and we don’t rely on the chain gang to cut the weeds.
There are 1000s of abandoned fields in NY which have lots of milkweed. I have 25 acres of them myself. I watched along the thruway and roadsides last week and there are millions of milkweed that I can see from the road. I cannot believe that there is not enough milkweed for the monarchs. I suspect you will find your problem in Mexico in the over wintering areas. The amount of cropland in the US is decreasing and it has always been the aim of the farmers to control weeds in their fields and they don’t spray the edges of the fields.
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