Washington Co., WI – The conversation about the current status of a favorite summertime hobby, spotting or raising monarch butterflies, drew some attention this week after David Fechter from Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary posted a note on social media.
The responses came in fast, and the consensus showed a disappointing trend.
Mary Holleback is the citizen science coordinator and local insect expert at Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg and she said what people are seeing is pretty normal this year.
“They are few and far between, at least in this area,” said Holleback about the monarchs.
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Riveredge Nature Center held its annual butterfly count on Saturday, June 25. “We saw one monarch,” said Holleback. “This really could be simply a local issue because other parts of the Midwest and Wisconsin there are more of them; for some reason the winds weren’t right when they were migrating or whatever. But yes, in general, we haven’t seen very many here.”
Holleback recommended a couple of websites to track the monarch population including The Journey North and Monarch Watch
“Their migration is very weather related,” said Holleback. “It was a colder spring, so they’re later in hatching out the next generation, the wind has an effect and that doesn’t mean it’ll end up that way at the very end of the season but at the moment, yes, the numbers are down.”
Holleback cites information from Journey North which indicated monarchs had a better year, in Mexico. “They occupied more habitat there this last winter than they have in the last couple of years. So, one way or the other, they felt this migration was going to be good.”
Remember in 2020 when Addison and Nathan raised over 100 butterflies in a backyard project in West Bend. Click HERE to read their story.
Holleback said monarchs are good for the environment. “They’re a pollinator and all the other butterflies are, and they’re food for other things like birds, even though they have that kind of bitter taste to them. They play a role in the food chain but mostly monarchs are well known for being pollinators.
Holleback said it doesn’t pay to stress about the situation but there are things people in the community can do to help.
“If you’re trying to specifically help monarchs the milkweed, and all different species of milkweed is useful to the monarchs,” she said. “It’s the caterpillar stage that requires the milkweed not the adult butterfly, while the adult butterfly needs it to lay the eggs on. But they don’t necessarily need the flower to nectar on they will nectar on a lot of other different species of flowers. So, native flowers in general would be helpful to the monarchs.”
What plants other than milkweed do they like? Too late to plant now? In Hubertus Wi.