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Spring also brings speculation. What will we encounter this growing
season? What do the climatologists predict? Are all the Japanese
beetles dead?
However, the news that I wait for every spring are updates on the
status of the monarch butterfly. In year's past, the news and
speculation have been dire, with a few rays of hope. So far this
year, the news coming out of Mexico, where the monarchs overwinter,
has been mostly good.
Where do I go for these updates? Dr. Chip Taylor, with Monarch
Watch, a program out of the University of Kansas. Dr. Taylor runs a
blog https://monarch
watch.org/blog/ where he posts status updates from Journey
North, a citizen science project aimed at reporting monarch
butterfly sightings as they make their way from Mexico to Canada.
You can go to journeynorth.org and report your first sightings of
monarchs or milkweed, frogs, hummingbirds, and many more signs of
spring.
In the fall, monarch butterflies migrate south to the Sierre Madre
Mountains of Mexico. Here they roost on branches of oyamel fir
trees, clustered together in colonies to keep warm. Tens of
thousands of monarchs will cluster together on one tree. Once the
weather begins to warm and spring returns, monarch butterflies begin
their journey north back into the US and Canada.
This past season the population of monarchs increased from 6.1 acres
to 14.9 acres of overwintering area. To put give these numbers some
perspective the largest overwintering area was recorded was during
the 1996-1997 winter at 44 acres, the lowest was during the
2013-2014 winter at 1.5 acres. Keep in mind scientists have only
been monitoring these numbers since 1994.
This past winter, it is believed monarch butterflies did well, with
normal mortality and disease rates. The potential is there that we
may see higher than average returning butterflies. The major factor
will be what happens in the southern states of Texas and Oklahoma.
Timing is critical as the monarchs begin their journey north. As a
cold snap or severe storm can decimate the migrating butterflies.
For instance, in 2017, a strong front coming out of the southwest
propelled the migrating butterflies farther north than normal. While
one may think the butterflies appreciated the extra help, they
arrived in our area before the milkweed had emerged. Without enough
milkweed to lay their eggs, much of the first generation for our
region was lost.
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The good news is that some monarchs have already arrived in Texas, and they have
been met with weather that is favorable to feeding, mating, egg laying, and
caterpillar feeding. Our cool spring weather in the Midwest has restricted the
migration of monarchs into our area, which is a good thing. Typically, we need
daytime highs in the 70s to facilitate the northward progression of the spring
migration. Therefore, monarchs are more likely to stay in the Southern US,
laying their first generation. By the time this newest generation of monarchs
reach us, milkweed should have emerged and put on enough growth to support them.
Dr. Chip Taylor says he is "cautiously optimistic" that monarchs will get off to
a good start this season. His mentions a slight foreboding that our current
weather conditions and the migration habits are similar to 2012, the same year
we had a terrible drought and a decline in population.
Want to help scientists studying monarch butterflies and other pollinators? Join
University of Illinois Extension as we launch I-Pollinate
https://publish.
illinois.edu/ pollinatorproject/ – a citizen science research
initiative to collect statewide pollinator data. There is a live webinar on
April 3 where scientists will present their projects and what data they need
citizen scientists to collect. Register for the live webinar
https://web.extension. illinois. edu/registration/?Registration ID=20006 .
Can't make it to the live session? That's okay. The webinar will also be
recorded for later viewing.
More details on I-Pollinate Webinar
U of I Extension hosts I-Pollinate Citizen Scientist Webinar April 3rd in
Lincoln
[Chris Enroth, Extension Educator,
Horticulture] |
