The official blog of Grow Milkweed Plants. Current milkweed information. Monarch study and rearing from first hand experiences.

Milkweed is going to seed in the West

8/15/2014

I walked a trail lined with milkweed and shadowed by monarchs.

Down by the Truckee River just East of Reno NV is a great area for walking. It is an unimproved dirt path on the banks of the river. On the high side is desert plants like sagebrush. Between the trail and the water is great diversity including Mexican whorled milkweed, Showy milkweed and other pollinating plants.

Monarch Caterpillar

There were four monarchs on this early August walk. There was also one monarch caterpillar. In mid July I was seeing no more that one to two monarch and no caterpillars. So it is very nice to see them doubling. The doubling is a trend. I saw increased monarch numbers in two other locations that I visit.

Showy milkweed seed pod

I have high hopes that this trend is happening all over the West. I would like to see the monarchs return to their overwintering sites in California in the hundreds of thousands. That may be a few years away, but I'm doing my part.

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Superior monarch watching day.

8/8/2014

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Monarch butterfly egg under a showy milkweed leaf. Asclepias.

Monarchs have been rare in Nevada this year. Just as they have been rare the last decade. But this year is different. This year I have taken action to promote monarch habitat by growing milkweed. In addition I am taking notice of habitat loss. Furthermore I am counteracting habitat loss by planning Fall planting in addition to growing my own butterfly garden. Today my wife said she saw a monarch fly thru our yard yesterday. I know I can make a difference.

The photo above shows a monarch egg that I found on a milkweed leaf in August 2014. From the egg I can see that monarchs are trying to survive. But thru have it hard in the wild. Rarely do more then 5-10% of eggs become butterflies. Often they get devoured as tiny caterpillars. Sad as it may be, it's true.

Monarch butterfly taking flight. It was resting on a long grass shoot that was blowing in the wind.

It's not to difficult to locate the monarch butterflies. For me, I just head to the area that has the highest density of milkweed. Either East or West of Reno I can find sprawling milkweed patches and monarch. The monarchs are not abundant like I would prefer. There are often only one to five that I can identify on any given day. The photo above is the second monarch I saw on August 8th 2014 by Mayberry Park.

Monarch caterpillar. Instar four or five if I had to guess. Eating Showy milkweed. A Nevada native species of Asclepias.

On this walk I was poking around every milkweed plant I saw. I was looking to see the progress of the seed pods. I was also inspecting leaves for monarch eggs. Not getting any results for quite a while and nearly running out of fresh water. I was about to call it quits.

I'm glad I persisted. Because seemingly out of nowhere I saw the beautiful monarch caterpillar eating away under a leaf. Careful not to disrupt its appitite I was able to capture the photo above and even a short video that I shared on twitter. See my twitter profile @growmilkweed

It really made my day great seeing that a tiny monarch egg can become a healthy hungry caterpillar. I hope you enjoyed my experience. I look forward to sharing encounters like this with many people as I dpread the word about milkweed and it's popularity among the monarch population.

Here is a second photo of the caterpillar eating the milkweed leaf as it grows toward becoming a monarch buttery.

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Milkweed is going to seed in the West

I walked a trail lined with milkweed and shadowed by monarchs.

Superior monarch watching day.

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Milkweed is going to seed in the West

I walked a trail lined with milkweed and shadowed by monarchs.

Superior monarch watching day.

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