Milkweeds and Butterfly Gardens to Save Butterfly Monarchs

Monarch butterflies are the iconic orange wings laced with black lines. White dots are in grave danger and maybe in the list of endangered species soon. But there is hope: milkweed plant, its lifeline is in scarce supply. Planting this shrub in your yard or better yet, making a butterfly garden may save the precious butterfly.

The Butterfly Monarchs

Monarch butterflies are known for their seasonal migration from the United States and Canada to California and Mexico. They travel in millions, using the sun to stay on track. On cloudy days, they rely on their magnetic compass to find their way through. Butterfly monarchs are gifted with a special gene for highly efficient muscles designed for flights of 3,000 miles.

The butterflies are native to North and South America, but records say that they have moved to various warm places where Milkweed grows. The monarchs are no longer found in South America. In North America, it is now classified into two groups: the western Monarchs, which breed in the west of the Rocky Mountain and spend winters in southern California. On the other hand, the eastern monarch comes from Great Plains and Canada and spend winters in Central Mexico. Monarchs also thrive in Hawaii, Portugal and Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania.

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The female monarchs lay between 300 to 500 eggs on a milkweed plant leaf for a two-to-five-week period. The caterpillar's diet consists only of Milkweed, the reason mother monarch lays her eggs on the particular plant. It takes one to two weeks for the butterfly to emerge. Should they emerge in spring or early summer, they will start reproducing for days. But when they emerge in later part of summer or fall, they head south to avoid the winter cold.

The monarch's attractive colors are a red flag to predators that they are foul-tasting and poisonous, which may be attributed to their diet, the Milkweed. Their main food, the Milkweed, is toxic, but monarchs have evolved to tolerate it and store the toxins in their bodies, making them poisonous to predators.

It is also because of the disappearance of the Milkweed that the monarch's population is rapidly declining. The Milkweed is the only crop that monarchs lay their eggs and eat as caterpillars. The plant used to grow abundantly around crops. Over the years, milkweeds were systematically removed from fields and applying herbicides, and the mowing has driven the butterflies away.

Butterfly monarchs are sensitive to temperature and weather changes; thus, climate change is also the culprit to its dramatic decline.

Butterfly Garden

To save the butterfly monarch from decline, conservationists proposed several activities to bring the monarch population back to life.

The most doable may be planting more milkweeds in your garden or even starting your butterfly garden. The only requirement has an outdoor space that has direct sun. From there, cultivate a small pollinator garden that attracts the monarch butterflies and other butterflies, bees, moths, and other insects.