My Front Yard, Their Highway: Hosting Monarchs On Their Journey Down South
Elizabeth Fisher is a new addition to our customer service team this year. After discovering her years of experience attracting and raising butterflies I asked her to share her information with us.
When my daughter was in Elementary School we planted milkweed for the Monarch’s. They usually came through our garden in the Spring and then again in the Fall. Tropical milkweed is not up in the garden at that time here so they usually just nectar on any of the perennials I had blooming at the time.
Later I started overwintering my milkweed in pots in the garage so I could put it out for them in the spring when they would come through. It was such a fun activity and we loved seeing the monarch’s come and lay eggs on the milkweed.
We anxiously waited for the eggs to hatch and enjoyed watching them grow and turn into beautiful butterflies. Sometimes we would put the caterpillars in a laundry pop up basket that had a zipper on it and put the plant with caterpillar in it and would bring it inside to watch it grow. You can also purchase butterfly habitats from places on line like insectlore.
Not all caterpillars turned into monarchs… some died in the process while others were parasitized by tachinid flies or parasitic wasps. But of course that’s nature just being nature.
I ended up making our yard a Monarch Waystation to help monarchs on their journey. I am passionate about butterflies and Monarchs are my absolute favorite. What great memories my daughter and I made!
Milkweed… plant it… and they will come!