Who doesn’t love Monarch Butterflies! They monarchs are loving the pollen from my colorful profusion zinnas this year!
Features: Monarchs have bright orange wings with black lines or veins. The wings are outlined with white dots.
Eggs:  Monarch butterflies lay their eggs under milkweed leaves. Milkweed is the host plant for Monarchs. According to National Geographic, each female monarch will lay around 500 eggs in the wild. That is a lot of eggs! If you really want to help monarchs survive, you need to plant some milkweed plants.
Caterpillar:  The caterpillars emerge after a few days and only eat milkweed! At first the caterpillars are a light green or gray and then become striped with white, black and yellow. These caterpillars have black tentacles on both ends. While don’t have a picture yet, I do have some milkweed plants. Next the caterpillar enters the pupae stage before it becomes a beautiful butterfly.
Migration:Â Â While monarchs usually live 2 to 6 weeks, the last generation will live up to 9 months. Typically, monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains will migrate to California and monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains will migrate to Mexico for the winter. That is a lot of wing flapping.
Beneficial:  Monarchs are beneficial since they are pollinators! They will help pollinate any flower in your garden. In my garden they love the butterfly bushes and the zinnias!
