Insects in the City: Monarch Update

Monday, March 22, 2010

Monarch Update

Once again, Insects in the City is ahead of the curve. Our early news last month about monarch butterflies is being confirmed in the newspapers this week. Gardeners in urban areas are being encouraged to plant milkweed to provide some extra food sources to help migrating butterflies this summer and fall.

Monarch butterflies making trek north from Mexico in lowest numbers in decades
Fort Worth Star Telegram By BILL HANNA

Monarch butterflies, hit hard by strong storms at their winter home in Mexico, have dwindled to their lowest population levels in decades as they begin to return to Texas on their springtime flight back to the
United States and Canada.

The monarch loss is estimated at 50 to 60 percent and means that the breeding population flying northward is expected to be the smallest since the Mexican overwintering colonies were discovered in 1975, said
Chip Taylor, a professor of entomology and director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas.

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