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Aaron’s father, who is also our neighbor, remembers when monarch butterflies in our area used to be everywhere. These days…not so much. On the brink of endangerment, monarchs need our help. One of our goals here at Fail Better Farms is to become a certified monarch waystation, so we’ve been cultivating diverse, native plants for a couple of years. We’ve enjoyed watching the wildlife population thrive, and we’ve kept our eyes open especially for any signs of monarchs. Well, they’re here, and we couldn’t be prouder!
Interesting Stuff You May or May Not Know
Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed. The momma monarch (momnarch?) lays her eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves, one egg per leaf. Then the eggs grow into adorably fat, striped caterpillars that eat the milkweed leaves before snuggling up into chrysalis mode and popping out as beautiful butterflies, dancing with top hats and canes.
Even though the caterpillars love milkweed, adult monarch butterflies can’t eat milkweed for energy. So we encourage other plants like Mexican sunflower (That’s Tithonia diversifolia for all of our fellow nerds.) as a food source for the grown butterflies before they embark on the next leg of their epic journey. (Start at about minute 4:50 of the TED Talk below to learn about this journey. It’s nuts.)
Anyway, after years of working to create a pollinator utopia, we finally had a respectable patch of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa. You’re welcome.) growing in one of the back fields. Lo and behold, those puppies are lousy with monarch caterpillars! In the short video below you can see several of our monarch caterpillar friends. Please forgive the blurry videography; I had a really hard time getting my camera to focus on the caterpillars themselves.
The Milkweed Dilemma
As I’m sure you’re aware, the monarch population has been in a steep decline for the past couple of decades, and that decline has in large part been tied to the scarcity of milkweed. So what’s going on with the milkweed? Two things:
Pesticides and herbicides. Here’s the thing about genetically modified organisms (GMOs): they aren’t necessarily evil in and of themselves. The problem lies in what they’ve been modified to do, which is withstand a barrage of glyphosate. This means a few things for the land where modern farming practices are being used: 1) native plants that are minding their own business are poisoned by an inundation of poison, and 2) a lot of the food we eat is laced with glyphosate. To read more about the connection between milkweed decline and glyphosate, click here.
Climate change. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the environment is thought to screw around with the level of cardenolides present in the plant. The cardenolides (a word I’m typing here but can by no means pronounce) are the proteins in milkweed that are harmless to the monarch caterpillar but poisonous to parasites that attack the monarch. Cool, right? (Learn more about this at minute 6:50 in the TED Talk below.) If milkweed contains too many of these proteins, the plant will be too poisonous for monarch caterpillars to consume; if it contains too few of these proteins, the plant will not provide monarchs with protection from parasites. It’s a delicate balance. You can read more about this here.
What You Can Do
Plant native species of milkweed along with native pollinator-friendly plants. You’ll feel good, your outdoor space will look amazing, and you’ll have scads of bees and butterflies keeping you company.
Avoid buying and consuming GMOs. If consumers refuse to buy foods that have been doused with glyphosate, big farms will have to modify their practices.
Learn More About Butterflies
If you don’t have time for the full video, start at 4:50. If you’re reeeeally short on time, start at 6:50.