Who doesn’t love Monarch Butterflies! Well I have noticed two flying around this year. Hopefully there are more of them!
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. According to National Geographic, a female monarch will lay up to 500 eggs over about a 5 week period. 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. I don’t have a picture yet because I don’t have any milkweed plants. I have to put that on my list for next year! Next the caterpillar enters the pupae stage before it becomes a beautiful butterfly.
Migration:  While monarchs can live up to 8 months, they come up north to the US and Canada to reproduce and migrate south to Central Mexico. Some will travel up to 3,000 miles – that is a lot of wing flapping.
Beneficial:  Monarchs are beneficial since they are pollinators! They will help pollinate any flower in your garden.
