Late Start!

Kind of a late start to our butterfly season... life keeps getting in the way of raising monarchs! Never the less, here are my thoughts for the season...

It has been slow. Reports from Monarchwatch indicate the overwintering area was devastated by storms this past winter, reducing the breeding area to the smallest size on record. Consequently, there are smaller than normal numbers of monarchs headed north this year. Hopefully they will have good breeding season and expand the overwintering area next year.

Locally, we finally have some larvae in the butterfly house... maybe 50 or so. We have a good supply of milkweed growing in pots, so we can support many more if we can get them. We watch constantly for any females visiting our gardens or the milkweed itself, capturing her to allow her to lay eggs on our milkweed.

The calls and emails are beginning to come in from the school teachers wanting larvae for the classroom. Last year, we had many hundreds of caterpillars to share. Unless we really start getting lucky with females for egg laying, we may be short this year for the teachers. We will do the best we can! If you manage to capture a female and want to help the effort, certainly send me an email and we can arrange for pickup.

That's all for now!