Saw a monarch butterfly today

[mark kosse]

May not be a big deal to you but it's the first one I've seen in at least 5 years. I have lots of green and antelope horn milkweed growing but there have been no cats on them either.

glad to have seen one.

[Mike Trent]

How very cool. I saw them as a child living in TX and later CA; haven’t seen any since moving to VA

[Matt Day]

Good to hear! There are still a lot around here in Ohio, probably making it your way soon.

[Lee Schierer]

We have hundreds migrating south over the past few weeks. They head south every year in October.

[mark kosse]

I used to see them a lot but they disappeared from my area.

[Larry Frank]

There have been many observation of them in Texas over the last week as they migrate to Mexico. You can see a map of them on the migration (http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/monarch_peak_fall2017.html)

[Jerry Bruette]

Saw one last Friday while I was blowing leaves and thought, buddy you got a long way to go and looks like you got a late start. I don't think we have as many around now as when I was a kid.

[Stewie Simpson]

http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/vanishing-monarch-butterflies.html

[Mike Null]

We had a lot of them in Ohio but I've been in Missouri for 20 years and don't remember seeing one.

[Jerome Stanek]

I saw the one on Saturday. That was the first one I saw in a few years. There used to be a lot of them. I don't even see the white and yellow ones like when I was a kid. back then the fields would be full of them

[Larry Frank]

I have several places on my property where I grow milkweed for the Monarchs. I also have planted quite a few other flowers for them. I have had some show up and last year laid eggs on the milkweed and had a chrysalis and watched a Monarch emerge.

Interesting, Monarchs have been in New Zealand and Australia since the 1870s along with some types of milkweed.

[roger wiegand]

We've been restoring our meadow with native plants that support bees and butterflies and the transformation has been amazing. This summer we'd routinely have dozens of butterflies of 3-6 species any time you looked and 20-40+ native bee species that could be counted in any 20 minute observation period-- up from zilch when we bought the place five years ago. Monarchs are still scarce, we saw one obvious pair and a half dozen singletons over the summer. Hoping they will like the place well enough to reproduce. Lots of milkweeds here!

Build it and they will come is the message I guess.

[jared herbert]

I live in northwest iowa. Monarchs are here throughout the summer. In the first week of september they migrate through here. Always within a day or two of the same time every year. They also roost in the same trees every year and on the same branches of those trees. I have never been able to figure out how they know to roost in the same tree branches, when it is obviously different butterflies every year. My son did a school project one fall that involved tagging some of them. Apparently the ones we tagged were never found, we never heard back on that, but I know some are tagged here and found a long ways away. Populations have decreased here due to having less milkweed around.

[michael langman]

The monarch has declined a lot in Vermont. I saw one up high flying about a week ago; probably migrating. My wife plants for the butterflies, but the milkweed doesn't do as well at our place.

[Rod Sheridan]

I am glad to hear you have them.

A few years ago we planted some milkweed, now we have them every summer as well............Regards, Rod.

[Matt Day]

We took the kids to a butterfly tagging trip at a local nature preserve a couple months ago. They tag the location and on the other end in Mexico they will tell us if they found any that we tagged.

Apparently monarchs have declined mainly because farmers in the breadbasket use very effective weed control measures and have very little to no fields where plants and milkweed and flowers can grow, which the monarchs need to stop at for their migration south.

[mark kosse]

I have several places on my property where I grow milkweed for the Monarchs. I also have planted quite a few other flowers for them. I have had some show up and last year laid eggs on the milkweed and had a chrysalis and watched a Monarch emerge.

Interesting, Monarchs have been in New Zealand and Australia since the 1870s along with some types of milkweed.
Jerry, no doubt in my mind all butterflies have declined.
larry, here in tx the state even tracks where milkweed grows. You can register yours to help them track. This monarch was on a hummingbird bush.

[Stan Calow]

Around here, "painted lady" butterflies are frequently mistaken for monarchs. They look pretty similar. If we see monarchs its usually more than one. Last year we had a large number; this year I'm not sure I saw one.

Fireflies used to be plentiful as well. Everyone in suburbia sprays their lawns for grubs, ticks and mosquitoes now, so much of the pretty things have disappeared.

[Larry Frank]

I like this thread ....a bug thread.

This summer one evening I was out front in the dark. The multi-acre lot across the street is empty except for tall weeds and brush. That evening I saw thousands and thousands of lightning bugs and they seemed to be flashing in waves. I brought the rest of my family out to watch and we were amazed.

Yes, we have lots of painted lady butterflies also.

I am glad to see so many other people have an interest in the Monarchs.

This is something I recently made. The flower and leaves are made from plane shavings. The Monarch is made of 1/8" BB with colored epoxy. The Monarch body is a walnut turning.


370411

[Jerry Bruette]

Had to look up Painted Lady butterflies, have seen them but never knew their name.

We used to see some Viceroy butterflies around but I haven't seen one of them for a very long time. They are commonly mistaken for Monarchs.

Larry very cool project, did you dye the shavings yellow?

[Dave Richards]

We've had monarchs for the last five or six years. Some volunteer milkweed came up in the flowerbeds and we've left it for them. Usually we get a few eggs and hatch them in a large jar. Then feed them all the milkweed they can eat and let them do their chrysalis thing before releasing the new butterflies. No one came to eat the milkweed this year, though. Maybe next year they'll be back.

[John K Jordan]

Fantastic!! I haven't seen one here for a long time.

I am seeing bats around the barn and over the fields this year. Yea! Not as many as 6-8 years ago but any are better than none.

JKJ