Green Group discussion

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholla...

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholla...

As Brian mentioned elsewhere, there has been some progress with monarchs. But I would not get too excited just yet. It is a fragile creature making an extremely long journey.

My wife and I just gave birth to two .1 ounce baby monarchs. We raised them from caterpillars in our milkweed garden.

My wife fed them by hand.

Here is how she fed them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kua2a...

We also noticed a few grown butterflies.

Every time I pass a milkweed patch, I check them for caterpillars. They have a very neat, characteristic way of eating around the edge of a leaf (from the underside. Lots of milkweed around, no caterpillars--for years :-(

There are too many battles to fight on this issue of saving the monarchs. But we go on fighting.

Great losses in California:

https://www.ecowatch.com/monarch-butt...

You won't regret watching this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7SSt...

Monarch turns into chrysalis in ten minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4WYo...

Jimmy wrote: "You won't regret watching this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7SSt..."

Gorgeous, Jimmy, thanks! Beautifully filmed for us.

Jimmy wrote: "Here is how she fed them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kua2a..."

I just checked this out, thanks! Fascinating.

My wife, the monarch butterfly whisperer, has captured several young monarch caterpillars and is now raising them like her own children. It has been a good year so far. Here's hoping they all become butterflies. Left on their own we worry that too many will be killed by predators.

Please thank your lady wife for me.
Yesterday I found an unusual moth in a laurel hedge I was cutting; I looked it up at home and I think it was Copper Underwing. I just don't have a way to photograph moths up a big hedge. This biodiversity is around us all the time, but more so in gardens now that householders have woken up to the perils of pesticides.

I volunteer for trail maintenance at a local nature center. In one of the large meadows there, we have a healthy crop of milkweed... and what appears to be a bumper crop of Monarchs. I know this is anecdotal and not scientific... but seeing so many flitting around that meadow sure makes me smile!

Ahhhhh!

We had a good year for monarchs in my yard this past season. But let's face reality here. Climate change is going to do enormous damage.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...

In Mexico, two monarch butterfly activists were murdered:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monarch-...

Eco Watch has that story too. Shocking.

https://www.ecowatch.com/butterfly-de...

The demands for the earth's resources goes on unabated.

Also, tucked into that story is the fact that there has been no visible progress in the number of monarch butterflies.

and two local conservation champions fighting illegal logging in the tiny area of montane forest where the monarchs literally 'hang' out for the winter, have been murdered, to show that lawlessness is now the norm down there// I don't know what to tell myself and my worried friends to generate just the tiniest spark of hope...oh, and (yes another topic, one of the countless that happens to pop into my mind...) the vulture population so ESSENTIAL for cleaning up pathogens in our world, is being poisoned grand scale by ivory poachers who don't want to be 'found' at their kill sites too easily/ vulture numbers are down overall by 80, 90 procent

There was a 53% drop in monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico this year. We are living in a shit storm, folks, We have to start taking all of this seriously. Hope and "good news" are nice, but it cannot overcome what I am witnessing every day. Drastic action is needed; actually it was needed many years ago.

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wir...

Not looking good, Jimmy.
Pesticide residues are found in all milkweed sampled in Central Valley, California.

https://phys.org/news/2020-06-milkwee...

"The study's findings paint a harsh picture for western monarchs, with the 64 different pesticides identified in milkweed. Out of a possible 262 chemicals screened, there was an average of nine types of individual pesticides per sample and as many as 25. Agricultural and retail samples generally had more residues than wildlife refuges and urban areas, but no area was entirely free from contamination. Certain pesticides were present across all landscapes, with five pesticides appearing more than 80% of the time. Chlorantraniliprole, the second most abundant compound, was found at lethal concentrations to Monarchs in 25% of all samples.

Understanding of pesticide toxicity to the monarch is limited, and is based on previously reported lab experiments. Thus we have much to learn about the concentrations encountered in field, but these new results raise concerns nonetheless. While this research focused on monarch toxicity, other pollinators and beneficial insects are also at risk from pesticide contamination throughout the landscape."

"Monarchs are native to North America, but have also established non-migrating populations in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. These island-hopping butterflies may have been blown by storms before being lucky enough to reach dry land.

Monarchs that established new, non-migrating populations also had those larger wings. But over time, the wings of these colonists got smaller.

Selection at work in opposing directions

The shift between longer and shorter wings shows two opposite selection forces at work, Freedman and colleagues wrote in a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Migration selects for longer, larger forewings while non-migration seems to relax this and lead to smaller wings.

Alternatively, wing size could be influenced by other environmental factors depending on where butterflies are hatched and grow up. To test this, Freedman raised Monarch butterflies from non-migrating populations in Hawaii, Guam, Australia and Puerto Rico outdoors in Davis, California alongside native migrating Monarchs. The non-migrating butterflies retained their smaller wings, showing that the effect is due to genetics and not the rearing environment."

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-centuri...

More information: Micah G. Freedman et al, Two centuries of monarch butterfly collections reveal contrasting effects of range expansion and migration loss on wing traits, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2001283117
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by UC Davis

We had a better year in our yard for monarchs. Here are some problems that monarchs face. Good to know if you are trying to save them:

https://monarchbutterflylifecycle.com...

Jimmy wrote: "As Brian mentioned elsewhere, there has been some progress with monarchs. But I would not get too excited just yet. It is a fragile creature making an extremely long journey.

My wife and I just g..."

I also have a few every year at 8,000 feet. The Monarch butterfly lady from Ohio gave me about 30 packets of milkweed seed at her seminar in ABQ so I managed to grow a big plant by using peat moss. It comes up every year and I get a few caterpillars. One year it was so late that my husband and I were driving up and down the pass to get milkweed to feed the caterpillars as tusset moth caterpillars ate the whole plant early. I am thrilled when a new Monarch comes out of the chrysalis and make a report to Journey North. I belong to 2 or 3 Monarch lists on Facebook. So glad to find this thread. thanks

Glad you are involved, Autumn. I remove the tussock moth caterpillars. I also breed some of the monarch larvae in my house to save them from predators. It's a lot of work but it brings so much joy.

Jimmy wrote: "Glad you are involved, Autumn. I remove the tussock moth caterpillars. I also breed some of the monarch larvae in my house to save them from predators. It's a lot of work but it brings so much joy."

I enjoy it so much. There are no tussock moth caterpillars this year perhaps because we had such a very late snow in May. A female Monarch has been hanging around about 4 days and laying eggs. She really hangs on the blooms along with some honey bees. I have also carried the caterpillars in to save them and it is sure lots of work. I finally managed to water a bit this morning.

We're blessed with a lot of milkweed plants in our part of SW Michigan, and I've seen a decent number of Monarchs this year. Hoping against hope that they're doing well....

One cool thing here: our state legislature is actually pushing bipartisan bills to safeguard Monarchs by protecting milkweed plants and banning harmful pesticides.

State bill works to protect milkweed and monarch butterflies

Great news, Brian. The more people involved, the better.

Brian wrote: "We're blessed with a lot of milkweed plants in our part of SW Michigan, and I've seen a decent number of Monarchs this year. Hoping against hope that they're doing well....

One cool thing here: ou..."

I am so very glad to read that. I wish they would do that here also. I have only seen one this year so far.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-isotope...

"Megan's trip took 74 days, traveling 20,000 kilometers over 22 states to collect samples with the help of teachers, state and federal biologists, city employees, campground owners, and farmers. She has now published a research paper demonstrating how mapping strontium isotopes can greatly improve the ability to track these important insects.

"As animals feed on the landscape, they gather and preserve the local isotopic signature in inert tissues, and with monarchs it's in their wings. These tissues preserve the isotopic signature of the individual's natal origin," says Megan, a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Science.

"In this study, we show that strontium isotopes, particularly when combined with hydrogen isotopes, can help researchers pinpoint where a monarch butterfly hatched to a more precise area. We then used the new tool by applying it to a sample of monarchs to see where they originated.""

More information: Megan S. Reich et al, Continuous‐surface geographic assignment of migratory animals using strontium isotopes: A case study with monarch butterflies, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2021). DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13707
Journal information: Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Provided by University of Ottawa

Jimmy wrote: "Here is how she fed them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kua2a..."

I sure wish I had spotted this a few years ago when I needed to feed one that didn't want to eat. I did finally get it to eat a little banana. We have moved and now have a permanent one that isn't migrating. It seems to live here in northern Arkansas. It is such a delight.

It takes a lot of patience and care not to hurt the butterfly, but it works.

Jimmy wrote: "It takes a lot of patience and care not to hurt the butterfly, but it works."

Yes, I can't even put the labels on them that I ordered from Journey North. It is to count the ones that make it south.

Author Sharon Hamilton tells me



"Mother Nature does what Mother Nature wants to do...

Lessons on raising butterflies:

1. Weather affects so much, including how fast the butterflies emerge from their Chrysalis. I've even had a few lately that never emerged. Now what do I do? I'm setting them in the garden, beneath host plants they love, and if they emerge, they will get that chance at life. But with our trip to Tennessee upon us, I cannot keep them in the cage. Boo Hoo.

2. Some butterflies produce all year round. So when the Monarchs stop laying eggs that will hatch, others are reproducing like crasy. My cage is filled with brown sticks--chrysalis for the Black Swallowtail and Giant Swallowtail butterflies. And they are S-L-O-W. So again, I'm going to be placing them in the garden where they'll have a chance while I'm gone.

3. I have to plant more host and nectar plants. Good news is that in Florida, the weather is usually so nice and temperate, things will bloom all year long, so this can be accomplished. More flowers. More trips to the nursery, until I can reliably figure out how to sprout seeds in the tropics. That's been a real challenge.

4. If it's not the right time of year, no amount of water, food, fertilizer, care will make the difference. Like I said, Mother Nature has her way with me daily. As I'm playing with the butterflies who came back after Hurricane Ian (yes! the next morning I had several I recognized), I have pups and chrysalis that are growing slower, not emerging at the same percentages.

The conclusion I've come to is perhaps started too late in the season. Next spring or early summer, I'll be ready.
So, overall, it's been a wonderful adventure. I've learned so much about the art of growing butterflies, as I grow my vegetable and fruit garden and learn more and more about how to organically grow things in the Tropics. My ego is a bit bruised, having been an organic gardener in California for over 50 years, but I learn fast, and I'm doing so many things I just love doing now that I never had the chance to do."

Sharon Hamilton tells me about her self-planted fruit garden:


"Then there are the butterflies. I transferred some eggs I found early in the garden, thinking I had about 10. I was wrong. Now I have over 60 in 2 cages. So far, I have 26 chrysalles, and another 20 or so catepillars making a “J” which means they will be turned inside out in a day or two. I have big cats still eating me out of house and home. They can destroy a gallon container of a full, blooming milkweed in one day."