Save Our Monarchs

You may have noticed the many organizations working to save the monarch butterfly.  They are in serious danger.  Since 1992, their numbers are down 90%.  During this time, the milkweed plant, their sole source of food, is also down 90%.  The reason for this is that the habitat where the milkweed formerly grew has been removed through development, or the use of insecticides has killed the plants and the butterflies too!

In Ocean Hills (Oceanside, California), a secure habitat for butterflies has been established.  There is plenty of milkweed for the monarchs to feast on, and plenty of area for the butterflies to breed.  I was recently talking to one organizer of the program who told me has she has become a "mother" to the butterflies.  

Recently one of her butterflies emerged from its chrysalis, a process called eclosion.  At this point the butterflies open their wings, and just hang out for a few hours, while their wings dry, before flying off.  Well, my friend noticed after several hours that this particular butterfly was not moving.  He was flapping his wings, to no avail.  On further inspection, and after checking U-Tube to see how the butterfly emerges and what happens next, she noticed a thin string of silk like thread.  She simply clipped the piece of silk, and the butterfly was able to flap his wings.  She knew it was a male monarch, by the black dots on each hind leg.  In about two hours (poor thing was exhausted from struggling to break away from the silk thread), he flew off, and my friend felt like a proud mom.

Another act she performed to save a chrysalis who was hanging out at the base of a plant, a very unsafe place to be.  Again, with the information she obtained from a U-tube video, she clipped off the thread holding the chrysalis in place, used dental floss to attach a holder for the chrysalis, and moved him to a safer location.  Another life saved.  Hopefully the efforts of the many groups working to restore the number of monarchs will be successful.  Plant milkweed in your yard to attract and feed these beauties!