Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThe Year the Monarch Didn’t Appear
This year, for or the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didnt come, at least not on the Day of the Dead. They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers. Last years low of 60 million now seems great compared with the fewer than three million that have shown up so far this year. Some experts fear that the spectacular migration could be near collapse.
It does not look good, said Lincoln P. Brower, a monarch expert at Sweet Briar College.
It is only the latest bad news about the dramatic decline of insect populations.
Another insect in serious trouble is the wild bee, which has thousands of species. Nicotine-based pesticides called neonicotinoids are implicated in their decline, but even if they were no longer used, experts say, bees, monarchs and many other species of insect would still be in serious trouble.
Thats because of another major factor that has not been widely recognized: the precipitous loss of native vegetation across the United States.
Theres no question that the loss of habitat is huge, said Douglas Tallamy, a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware, who has long warned of the perils of disappearing insects. We notice the monarch and bees because they are iconic insects, he said. But what do you think is happening to everything else?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/sunday-review/the-year-the-monarch-didnt-appear.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131122&tntemail0=y&_r=0
madokie
(51,076 posts)too much reliance on pesticides. I fear that humans won't be too far behind the insects.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Hence the EU's fully justified moratorium on their use here.
The outcome of which was :
Bayer sues EU for trying to save the bees.
European moves to temporarily ban the use of three insecticides linked to declines in bee populations have been met with legal action from two of the worlds biggest agricultural companies.
Syngenta, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, said yesterday that it was challenging the European Commissions ban on the controversial neonicotinoid pesticides. The ban, which comes into force on 1 December, will last two years and cover three neonicotinoids: clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2013/09/bayer-sues-eu-for-trying-to-save-the-bees/
****s
stuntcat
(12,022 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)which didn't seem to come from a Micky Mouse site. There are many others. Guess what shows may depend on word order of search.
Appalling isn't it and the shape of things to come with the proposed trans Pacific and Atlantic trade agreements.
PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)Plant it everywhere you can!
Screw the sterile green lawn.
stuntcat
(12,022 posts)write here - http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm
PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)We've got alt. names in the UK - silk weed , swallow wort etc.
I'm going to get some next spring to attractsome Monarchs. Largely at present I only get Red Admirals and Cabbage Whites on the Buddleias.
Greybnk48
(10,168 posts)We were reported to the city by a "concerned neighbor" and someone came to cite us for weeds. When he saw they were milkweeds he asked my husband why he planted them. My husband said for the butterflies. He told us to make it look more like a garden, and kept referring to it as "your butterfly garden." He said he'd check back in a few.
We put bullet bricks around it and all is well. It's about 20' round and we'll just keep it looking nice and move the bricks as it spreads. One less place to mow.
Off topic, but we have not put chemicals on our lawn in 27 or 28 years. This year we had a lot of bees including green sweat bees in our front lawn near the milkweed.
hatrack
(59,587 posts)Used to see them everywhere, all the damned time in season.
stuntcat
(12,022 posts)I took their pictures. But I'd have found more if I was better at watching, I'm sure!
I only had 2 milkflower plants this year but hopefully next year I'll have a whole lot, I'm going to try.
hue
(4,949 posts)Our children & I have raised & supported Monarchs for 30 yrs. I have--what I call MILKFLOWER (Milkweed is, IMHO, a misnomer as Milkflower is a wild flower)--growing in our yard and I take the eggs in to aquariums guarding them from predators; ants, wasps & spiders etc.
To everyone, pls don't pull, mow or poison the Milkflower as it is the home of the Monarchs! It is the only food for Monarch caterpillars/larva & the place upon which the females deposit their eggs! Milkflower also has a beautiful cluster or head of nectar laden flowers that all Butterflies and Bees are attracted to!
Here is the link to Monarch Watch for more info: http://www.monarchwatch.org/
I'll start calling it that!
I'm so glad you can help the monarch cats, you have to have made a difference for soooo many of them over the years! My aunt helps them too. She used to raise all kinds of butterflies but now she focuses just on monarchs, and a few very rare species.
Black swallowtails are the only kind I raise. If I had a private sunporch I'd dedicate it to the butterflies though.
Brainstormy
(2,380 posts)is the name of the book by Barbara Kingsolver that addresses climate change through a fictionalized version of the last monarch butterfly migration. It's a powerful, finally a very sad, work.