Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Please Don't Squish Me !! Monarch Watch 2013, 0 by coleup

coleup wrote:
Many of us love butterflies and plant things in our yards and gardens to attract and encourage them, flowers for nectar and host plants for the eggs and cats (catterpillars sp which is why we say cats!).

One of the most loved is the Monarch, whose beauty and amazing migrations astound us and children every where. Last year their overwintering site on the mountain side in Mexico saw an unusual heavy frost and much of that population was wiped out. Couple that with loss of milkweed and milkweed habitat and this natural yearly phenomena may cease to exist.

It is very important that the generation now growing fat on milkweed throughout our area, successfully pupate and hatch and make its way back to Mexico or over winter in situ.

I'm sure that many of you have more info and I will be listing some I have found, too. But I wanted to get some sense of Monarch sightings in our area. I have seen two this summer. Way down. The good news is that in the passed week I have counted 18 cats, 12 on my newspaper route and 6 on some 'restored natural habitat' on the Naval Academy grounds.