Monarch butterflies are now considered an endangered species

[pete6032]

Very depressing news but I'm not surprised. Growing up in the Midwest there used to be milkweed and Monarch butterflies everywhere. Now you hardly see any milkweed. I would love to see business leaders and policymakers band together to save this species.

Monarch Butterflies Are Endangered, Leading Wildlife Monitor Says (Published 2022)

Researchers cited climate change and habitat loss. But they also said the public can help give the insects a boost.

www.nytimes.com

The numbers of Western monarchs, which live west of the Rocky Mountains, plummeted by an estimated 99.9 percent between the 1980s and 2021. While they rebounded somewhat this year, they remain in great peril. Eastern monarchs, which make up most of the population in North America, dropped by 84 percent from 1996 to 2014. The new designation of endangered covers both populations.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Very depressing news but I'm not surprised. Growing up in the Midwest there used to be milkweed and Monarch butterflies everywhere. Now you hardly see any milkweed. I would love to see business leaders and policymakers band together to save this species.

Monarch Butterflies Are Endangered, Leading Wildlife Monitor Says (Published 2022)

Researchers cited climate change and habitat loss. But they also said the public can help give the insects a boost.

www.nytimes.com

We have a massive amount of milkweed on our property to help these guys out. Pity.

 

[Pohemi]

Wow...I've been wondering why I see less and less of them each year (in WI). Sad.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Sucks but I kind of saw this coming. Things have not been looking good for them in a while. This should be a wakeup call to be more serious about bees too, because they could be next.

 

[Muse]

I used to see them once in a while growing up in L.A. Their larval food plant was wild milkweed which we found in vacant lots. We'd pick milkweed and keep it alive in water and raise the caterpillars.

Now, living in the SF Bay Area I'm seeing Monarchs, more than growing up in Socal. I bought milkweed at local nursery and have it growing in my back yard. I see Monarchs most days out there and they lay eggs on my milkweed.

They are beautiful, not just their magnificent coloration, but their flight style is wonderful to behold. They usually just fly right through whereever but if their food plant is there (milkweed, of which there are many different distinctive species) they will stick around, circle the area, light on plants and rest, take off, repeat, etc. I sometimes see more than one at a time.

They have been endangered (don't know about the official status) for decades. I probably have the wrong species of milkweed growing, so I am told. It's tropical milkweed and fools the butterflies into sticking around when they should be migrating. I should, if that's true, eradicate the perennial plants and replace with an appropriate one. I didn't find out until after I'd grown it a couple years that the nursery sold me a variety that they really shouldn't have, Asclepias curassavica..., Tropical Milkweed.

Tropical Milkweed—a No-Grow

Milkweed is in demand, and that demand has been filled in recent years by tropical milkweed, a non-native species. But is planting tropical milkweed potentially doing more harm than good?

xerces.org

 

[Captante]

So sad .... my mom used to love Monarchs.

We had huge flower-gardens when I was kid and there were tons of them every year... been a long time since I've seen one at all now that I think about it.

 

[BoomerD]

Hey, we can't let some stupid insect (that doesn't add to our bottom line) be interfering with making money!

 

[Iron Woode]

we have loads of milkweed growing here. We also get a fair amount of monarch butterflies here as we are in the northern end of their range.

 

[bbhaag]

The reduction of natural pollinators has been a problem for MANY years especially in urban landscapes. People need to think twice before they douse their lawns in weed killers, pesticides, and insecticides.

I've been following this topic for years now and made numerous adjustment on how I manage my gardens. It amazes me how many people are ignorant of the topic or how many just don't care.

 

[Muse]

The reduction of natural pollinators has been a problem for MANY years especially in urban landscapes. People need to think twice before they douse their lawns in weed killers, pesticides, and insecticides.

I've been following this topic for years now and made numerous adjustment on how I manage my gardens. It amazes me how many people are ignorant of the topic or how many just don't care.

I collected butterflies in my young teens and met a guy around 10 years older than me and we became friends. Initially it was over our shared interest in butterflies. He was going to UCLA studying engineering, was pretty expert at lepidoptery (butterflies and moths) and imparted his knowledge... how to hunt them, raise them, mount them like a pro. We were members for a time in the Southern California Entomological Society. We'd hunt moths, too, at night of course, taking rides out into the country and stopping at diners and such, grabbing a few moths off their windows! We lost touch after he moved, and I suppose because he'd graduated from UCLA.

I picked a tomato horn worm off one of my tomato plants today (if they pupate and hatch, they become sphinx moths)! I imagine there are several more on my tomato plants. The larvae get rather huge and can consume a fair amount of foliage. I should do an inspection. They get really big but their coloration makes them hard to notice even so.