Above / Milkweed found in May Watts Park and other natural landscape around town is a food source that is attracting the return of monarch butterflies. Naperville’s many neighborhood parks provide many places to observe local wildlife and connect with nature. Enjoy the walk and discovery! (PN Photo July 2017)
Updated, Sept. 27, 2023 / Walks in local parks and forest preserves this first week in autumn were brightened with sightings of numerous monarch butterflies along the trails. And we were reminded by a story in the Daily Herald that the monarch is the Illinois State Insect.
During recent walks, monarchs were attracted to goldenrod in May Watts Park. An online search revealed that in addition to milkweed, researchers at Cornell University have reported that “goldenrod is a vital fall-blooming plant that supplies nectar on the butterflies’ long migrations to their overwintering site in Mexico.” Goldenrod is especially abundant this year.
Updated, May 31, 2022 / Early this morning we received a wonderful discovery among the young milkweed plants at May Watts Park. Thanks to Heidi Larson for providing another valuable lesson about the latest arrivals to a wonderful natural neighborhood treasure.
When monarchs are in their chrysalis, they are vulnerable to predators, wind and rain. We learned caterpillars do not usually pupate on their host milkweed plants. Instead, they move from their initial milkweed plant to another milkweed plant, a tree or even inside a house.
Help protect monarch caterpillars by keeping milkweed plants watered. If there’s a dry spell, gently spray the leaves each morning with water. The caterpillars thrive on water and likely won’t wander from a healthy, hydrated plant. Watch for monarch butterflies to return in June and July, again to feed on flowering milkweed plants.
Updated, July 26, 2019 / Monarch butterflies are back in large numbers and fun to try to capture for photos as they dash from plant to plant, feeding on prairie wildflowers in addition to milkweed in May Watts Park.
Updated, July 16, 2017 / Milkweed in May Watts Park attracts a monarch butterfly, a first for the 2017 season.
Original Post, Sept. 23, 2016 / Every time I see a brightly-colored orange and black monarch butterfly touch down in our garden, I think of the special magic of Mother Nature.
I’m also reminded of an inquisitive youngster in a first-grade class I taught while living in St. Thomas U.S.V.I. He was fascinated by bitter-tasting butterflies such as the monarch known for their ability to metamorphose in stages from caterpillars into beautiful, colorful winged creatures. He had memorized passages from a children’s book that explained the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle, and when he recited his thoughts, they were complete with pauses for the parenthesis.
More than once, he enlightened his classmates and me with words from his favorite picture book about butterflies.
“A butterfly starts its life as an egg,” I recall he’d say. “The larva (caterpillar) hatches from an egg and devours leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); a resting stage. Then it becomes an adult (butterfly).”
Milkweed & Monarchs
Our former next door neighbor in Chatham, New Jersey, planted milkweed in her garden two years ago to attract monarch butterflies and to observe their symbiotic relationship.
Diane Conlan said there was no activity last year, but recently while they attended the annual New Jersey Fireman’s Convention in Wildwood, New Jersey, her friend and neighbor, Jean Mattle, saw three caterpillars enjoying the milkweed in Diane’s garden.
All species of butterflies are known for one biological wonder: their ability to metamorphose from caterpillars into winged creatures.
Folks in the Midwest likely have read the monarch butterfly is facing a 90 percent population decline that threatens the species with some improvement noted recently.
Part of the problem is prompted by the lack of the perennial milkweed, critical to several species of butterflies’ survival. Milkweed provides nectar along the migration route and is the only plant on which these insects can lay their eggs. As subdivisions develop and farmers cultivate more open land for agricultural use, the wild pinkish-purple flowering plant with pods that dry and burst open with white seed puffs is disappearing from the Midwestern landscape.
“There is the monarch butterfly project in Cape May and the darling girl gave us lots more information this time than we got last year…” noted Diane when she sent the photo of the caterpillar in this post. “When we were on our way back home from the demonstration and I got a text from Jean and pictures of these caterpillars on my milkweed. I was so excited!”
Diane added a couple factoids.
“We were told that if an 8-pound baby ate the same amount of food for two weeks that this caterpillar eats for 2 weeks, the baby would weigh 2,500 pounds.
“A monarch can lay upwards of 200 eggs a day. They try and lay them on different plants so that there will be enough food for the caterpillar to eat and grow.”
An online search about the relationship between milkweed and the monarch butterfly that weighs less than a paperclip provides more amazing information about the biology and conservation of this butterfly that often lives longer than eight months.
In fact, the monarch often flies about 80 miles in a day, spreading it wings to journey along “Milkweed Highways” on the Atlantic Coast, venturing toward the Sierra Madre Mountains in central Mexico.
The benefits of saving the Monarch in large numbers go way beyond local boundaries. The beautiful butterfly serves as an “international and iconic representative of all pollinators.”
The stability of food sources and ecosystems are dependent on healthy pollinator populations, and conserving monarchs will secure the habitats and the environment for many species.
According to a news story in the Daily Herald posted on August 23, 2016, the number of monarchs making the 3,400-mile migration from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico had been declining before beginning to recover in 2014.
“… In December, the butterflies covered 10 acres, compared to 2.8 acres in 2014 and a record low of 1.66 acres in 2013. That is still well below the 44 acres they covered 20 years ago,” the AP report said in the Daily Herald story.
Continue to plant and respect milkweed. Spread the word to help attract monarchs.
