Monarch butterflies left their forested roosts in Michoacán, Mexico, on March 24 in what appears to be their latest departure on record, citizen science organization Journey North reported last week. The migrating insects will be showing up in San Antonio soon, and the late launch of the 2015 season appears to suggest that the butterflies will have a good year.
Dr. Chip Taylor, founder of Monarch Watch, said it’s too early to make predictions about the 2015 Monarch season. Austin entomologist and Austin Butterfly Forum president Mike Quinn pointed out that cool Texas weather should be good news for the migrating insects. Mild winter temps “slow down their larval predators and the exhaustion of their adult lipid reserves,” he said.
Typically, Monarch butterflies leave their roosts in the Oyamel forests of the Mexican mountains around the Spring Equinox and head north. They make initial migratory stops in South Texas to lay the first generation of eggs in the multi-generation migration exclusively on Asclepias species – that is, various milkweeds.
The success of that first round of Texan eggs sets the stage for a successful-or-not Monarch butterfly migration, as subsequent generations of the hatch make their way north to Canada over the summer before flying home to Mexico to overwinter in the Fall. Because of Texas’ unique position in the geographic path of the Monarch butterfly migration – the first stop in the Spring and the “funnel” to Mexico in the Fall – the Lone Star State has been called “the most important state” to the iconic butterfly migration.
Local sources report that milkweeds are sprouting in the area and in San Antonio gardens, so the butterflies will enjoy sustenance for their offspring when their eggs hatch into caterpillars in the coming weeks. They’ll also find continuing political tumult.
After their worst year in history followed by a 70% rebound in 2014, the butterflies have taken center stage in pollinator advocacy and habitat restoration circles in recent months. The three NAFTA leaders – U.S. President Barack Obama, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada — met in early 2014 and committed to working together to save the Monarch butterfly migration. Weeks later, First Lady Michelle Obama planted the first-ever pollinator garden at the White House, including milkweed for Monarch butterflies. Then in June, Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing government agencies to craft a federal strategy to protect Monarchs, bees and other pollinators.
In August, a petition submitted to the Department of the Interior requested Monarchs be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Strong reactions have resulted – from lawsuits by the National Resource Defense Council taking the EPA to task for dragging its feet on Monarch protection to admirable public-private partnerships like the $3.2 million in federal grants announced recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Just this week, environmentalists’ favorite villain, Monsanto Corporation, whose Round-Up ready crops have been blamed for much Monarch decline, committed to $4 million in grants to help the Monarch butterfly migration and other pollinators.
Here in Texas, the State Comptroller’s office recently announced the appointment of San Antonio water hero and endangered species expert Dr. Robert Gulley to head a task force that will assess the financial consequences of endangered species listings on the state. The Monarch butterfly will be one of five species on which the task force will focus.
The ensuing media attention has raised awareness in the general population: we can all help sustain the Monarch butterfly migration by planting clean, chemical-free, preferably native milkweeds.
The challenge is that it’s almost impossible to find native milkweeds in commercial nurseries. Only the technically nonnative Tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, is widely available along with occasional Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa. Another challenge is that commercial growers often spray milkweeds with systemic pesticides that poison Monarch caterpillars that eat the plants’ leaves. Clean, chemical-free, native milkweeds are in great demand and hard to find.
That’s why our friend Mitch Hagney of Local Sprout and yours truly via the Texas Butterfly Ranch have been experimenting with the Texas native Swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, to see about offering local, chemical-free milkweeds later in the Spring. Stay tuned.
Like many, as a safeguard, I’ve planted and overwintered the reliable Tropical milkweed. Detractors have their concerns, but I’m a huge fan and provide the host plant in my downtown San Antonio garden. Leaves are lush and ready for Monarchs on those I overwintered, after slashing them to the ground in December as recommended.
Often, local botanical and conservation organizations are the only sources for clean, native, chemical-free milkweeds. Here’s several upcoming native plant sales where you might find them:
Friday – Saturday, April 4
25th Annual Cibolo Nature Center Mostly Native Plant Sale at Kendall County Fairgrounds on Highway 46 in Boerne; Friday evening “Sip and Shop” for members only (we get first pick!); Saturday and Sunday open to public.
Friday – Sunday, April 10-12
Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin will be holding its Spring Native Plant Sale; Friday, April 10 is for members only; Saturday and Sunday is open to the public.
Saturday, April 11
Native Plant Society of Texas Spring Plant Sale at Hardberger Park.
Saturday, April 18
Viva Botanica and Native Plant Sale at San Antonio Botanical Garden
Check out these sales and get native milkweeds while you can. Grab some excellent native nectar plants, too – Frostweed, native lantana, purple coneflower and others. Just like the Monarchs, we have to take what we can get.
*Featured/top image: Migrant Monarch butterfly. Note faded color and tattered wings. Photo by Carol Clark.
Related Stories:
Happy Equinox: Wet, Cold Winter Means Late-but-Great Wildflowers
Second Texas Pollinator PowWow Wildly Successful
Monarch Expert to Address Butterfly Breeders in San Antonio
Something Monday: How to Tag a Monarch Butterfly
A Year in the Life of a Southtown Butterfly Garden
San Antonio’s Tropical Milkweed Patch Raises Monarch Butterfly Questions
I hope the word about growing native milkweed has gotten to all gardening associations. In the last year, I asked a Men’s Gardening Club member at a plant sale booth in San Antonio if they still had any milkweed for sale and he didn’t know what I was talking about!
I’m confused. Are you advocating the continued purchase of tropical milkweed while supporting native and non sprayed native milkweed? Would you please explain?
But it turns out that year-round tropical milkweed presents an even more direct threat to the butterflies. Milkweed hosts a protozoan parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). As caterpillars, monarchs ingest the parasite along with their normal milkweed meals, and when they hatch from their chrysalises they are covered in spores. “It’s a debilitating parasite,” Satterfield says. Infected monarchs are much weaker than their healthy counterparts and don’t live nearly as long. In fact, if an OE-infected monarch tries to migrate, it will probably die long before it arrives in central Mexico, Satterfield says.
In that way, the migration is vital to keeping OE under control in the North American monarch population, Satterfield explains. Migrating “weeds out some of the sick monarchs every year,” preventing them from passing the parasite along to their offspring. What’s more, it gives the monarchs a chance to leave behind contaminated milkweed plants, which then die off during the winter. When the butterflies return in the spring “they start over fresh” with new, clean milkweed, Satterfield says. But if the monarchs aren’t migrating, and the tropical milkweed isn’t dying off, OE never goes away.
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/01/plan-save-monarch-butterflies-backfires
Quick edit to above, sorry. The two paragraphs are from the article listed at the bottom of my question.
I’m asking because it seems there wasn’t a strong anti-tropical milkweed message in your article “I’m a huge fan.” doesn’t convince me contrasted with the message of the effects of OE parasites on the genetic strength of the Monarch.
Thank you ahead of time for your response.
RM
Ramona,
Yes, I am promoting the continued planting of clean, chemical-free Tropical milkweed. Why? Because it’s the only Asclepias species widely available and until commercial native milkweed production kicks into gear, that’s all we can pretty much supply for Monarch caterpillars to eat. Until then, it’s an all-of-the-above strategy for milkweed and Monarchs.
In addition, the science is unproven on the OE connection. Even Dara Satterfield, who I interviewed following the media craze that followed the release of her study, said the facts had been misrepresented and in no way did researchers intend to dissuade folks from planting Tropical milkweed. Here’s a link to her and Dr. Sonia Altizer’s expanded explanation of their research: http://monarchjointventure.org/news-events/news/qa-about-research-related-to-tropical-milkweed-and-monarch-parasites
Best practice calls for slashing Tropical milkweed to the ground in winter, which we should do. Meanwhile, just this week, Jeffrey Glassberg of the North American Butterfly Association, came out in favor of Tropical milkweed. Here’s the link. http://nababutterfly.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Tropical-Milkweed.pdf
Also, this story on why I plant Tropical milkweed might interest you: http://texasbutterflyranch.com/2013/02/25/tropical-milkweed-to-plant-it-or-not-its-not-a-simple-question/
Thanks for writing and taking interest. –MM
Monika,
We would like to use the Monarch Map in this article to go with a Green Spaces FB post regarding the Green Spaces Community Gardens who have installed Monarch habitat made possible by grants through the Texas Native Plant Society. Would you please let us know if this is possible? Thank you –