Monarch Season

The Monarchs have returned! Well, to be more accurate, at least one monarch female has laid eggs on the milkweed plants in my backyard. I still haven’t spotted an orange and black butterfly in my yard this summer. They are very late. My friend, Trina, who is an expert on the subject and has raised hundreds of butterflies, was worried because she too, had not seen any yet. 

But now the evidence says they are back. It is surely a mixed blessing. When I innocently accepted a milkweed plant from Trina some years ago, I didn’t realize what was involved in being a butterfly farmer. The plants spread rapidly—they are, after all, weeds. And Trina told me that 98 percent of the eggs do not make it to butterflies. Eggs or caterpillars are eaten or do not survive weather conditions. So of course I felt obligated to: search for the teensy eggs, bring them into my home on a milkweed leaf, and each day toss out the frass (insects get a special word for their poop) and replenish their supply of milkweed. Then, when they are ready to go into chrysalis, I find a container for them to cling to.

Each butterfly release is a reward as is sharing them with others. People are excited to get a butterfly chrysalis of their own and watch the amazing metamorphosis. At least three teachers in the school where I used to work expect me to supply them with last stage caterpillars at the beginning of each school year. And of course, with so many people using insecticides along their pathways of migration, monarchs might well be endangered if it were not for the many people who are raising them.

So I expect tomorrow morning to find tiny holes in my milkweed leaves indicating that the newly hatched caterpillars are now at the business of eating. The caterpillars start so small that I cannot see them without a magnifying glass. But that will change all too soon because they are eating, pooping and growing machines.

The tiny dots on the leaves in the picture are monarch eggs.