Milkweed and Monarch Butterfly Mania

Monarch Butterfly caterpillars are very picky eaters.

They only eat milkweed plants.

They won't eat broccoli, green beans or even corn!

orange bullet If you could eat only one thing all your life,
what would you pick?

 

The tricky thing is: if there are no milkweed plants, then the female (mother) butterfly has no place to lay her eggs. If she lays her eggs on lettuce leaves, the monarch caterpillar has no food. It may hatch from the egg. But it never develops and dies.

In one or two years of no milkweed plants, there would be no monarch butterflies!

That is why I grow many milkweed plants in my yard and gardens.

I even planted a bunch in the habitat garden at a school.

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Resources / Milkweed & Monarch Butterfly main page

 

close up of a monarch caterpillar

QT movie iconWatch this movie of a caterpillar moving

To view the movie you must have the QuickTime Player installed. It is available from Apple for free at http://www.apple.com/QuickTime/download/ both Mac and PC versions.

One Christmas, I gave our young nieces & nephews the book Monarch Butterfly of Aster Way and a package of milkweed seeds to plant at their home.

ivy rule

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