Sept. 9, 2026
I had no idea what I was getting involved with last November 17th when I planted "The Monarch Highway Seed Mix" from American Meadows in seven large pots behind my Mom's garage. I covered the pots with their upside-down saucers to keep the squirrels out. The previous year, we had eight baby cottontail bunnies born in one of my Mom's large pots of thyme and other herbs on our deck. I have learned to cover the pots to over-winter the seeds so they are not eaten, or so the squirrels don't use them for hiding their acorns. Yet none of this prepared me for what has felt very much like a "Monarch Montessori Summer School" educational camp– three months of everything milkweed, caterpillars and butterflies. The Swamp milkweed I'd planted in that Monarch Highway mix last November came up in the pots, surrounded by other perennials. When it was about two feet tall in late May, I took those clumps in the pots and moved them, transplanted them just as they were, into my Mom's perennial pollinator gardens, which never before had any milkweed in them, but were established, beautiful nectar gardens for bees, butterflies and birds.
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| Swamp Milkweed (Ascelpias incarnata) |
My six patches of Swamp milkweed grew tall. They were three feet tall and climbing on July 16th, 2026, when the first Monarch Butterfly was spotted flying though our backyard. It was a female, and she landed on the patch in the backyard that was the least protected– a patch of 4 stalks up against the fence, just past the hostas and lilac tree. A sort of "no one goes here" spot, where the AC compressors push hot air towards the fence, but it was still tranquil and almost like a little secret path that led to the Connecticut origami flower tree (I call it) and ended with a tall plum tree. I eventually became so invested in this project to save the Monarchs, that I purchased an AC fencing piece to divert the airflow away from the caterpillars so it would not blow on their chrysalises. I was surprised how well it works.
Before I could blink an eye, we suddenly had big, beautiful Monarch caterpillars on this hidden patch by the fence in the backyard. I marveled at the tiny ones, with the cutest little 2mm bodies and stripes, and the gorgeous, bold stripes of the fat, happy, vegetarian 3rd to 4th instar caterpillars. Their designs are so vivid and fun. I even made a visual infographic to help teach about the caterpillars instars, or periods between molts.
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| Monarch Caterpillar Instars: Infographic by CPROPPE.com |
But then, a natural disaster of intense predation struck- paper wasps and yellow jackets were patrolling all the Swamp milkweed patches and eating the caterpillars. I saw two get murdered in front of my very eyes on that backyard patch that had been a last minute place to transplant the 6th pot of milkweed. It was horrible to see, and worse to learn that this was not going to stop. All Summer long, the wasps patrolled our plants for caterpillars. I put up two traps; a Rescue! Trapstix one, and a homemade one with Apple Cider vinegar and beer, and neither one worked. They both trapped lots of flies and maybe just one wasp. From all that I've read and researched online, it was probably too late in the season for me to catch the wasps. Everyone seems to explain that you have to catch the wasps with the traps in the Spring to reduce their presence in pollinator gardens later in the Summer.
Watch my video recap of my "Monarch Sanctuary Project" here and
a full list of my Monarch videos, here.
Waiting for it to drop into the 60s, when the wasps disappear into the ground is not really an option anymore, because we have high temperatures into October now. Today is September 8th and it's in the 80's today. Even if it is getting cooler some evenings, the change in climate causes the wasps to have a longer lifecycle and remain active through the Fall. In other words, many people are now protecting Monarch eggs in their yards because of the wasps. I had no idea this was a major issue, or a gardening "thing" that many people in America actually do regularly- they "raise Monarchs" outside in their yards.
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| @The_Monarch_Movement on Instagram |
One of the most unbelievably beautiful conservationists in this area is a woman in Michigan, Jennifer Baker. Her work involves protecting the Monarchs at a large scale were she has released over one thousand butterflies in a Season. She designed industrial grade "Monarch and Milkweed Houses" that she plans to sell on Etsy. You can see them on her Instagram account @The_Monarch_Movement . Jennifer tags her butterflies with the tracking stickers from Monarch Watch. Monarch Watch is a non-profit that was started in 1992 and continues to this day. They also work with a newer tagging program that adds GPS tracking to the Monarchs called Project Monarch. This group even has an app where you can see where the tracked butterflies are. They claim these trackers do not harm the butterflies, but I don't like the idea of adding anything like this to these beautiful creatures of nature. The main point of the tracking is to get an idea of the routes the butterflies take to their overwintering sites in Mexico, Florida and California. The majority migrate to Mexico where they overwinter and begin their flights back in the Spring. The entire migration cycle takes 4 generations of Monarchs. There has been a huge reduction in the number of Monarch Butterflies over the years, and all this tracking and research is supposed to help them survive as we learn more about them. However, my basic take on this is that we can protect them simply by doing just a few things better.
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| Don't spray the Trees! Save the Monarchs |
Here is my list of how to save the Monarchs, learned from my own backyard research as I have protected 30 caterpillars this Summer and released 19 so far....
1. Plant milkweed in your yards. I planted the Swamp milkweed and the Monarchs came and laid hundreds of eggs in our yards. Milkweed is a perennial that will come back next Spring. Swamp milkweed is not aggressive and grows in small clumps, while Common Milkweed is very aggressive and will spread by runners, taking over a perennial garden. This was why I chose the Swamp milkweed to add to our smaller, already well established perennial gardens. If you have a lot of space, you can plant all three kinds that are recommended: Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed and Butterfly Weed.
2. Protect the caterpillars from wasps. I was so excited when we got eggs in every single one of the six patches of Swamp milkweed I planted, but I suddenly felt responsible when the wasps started eating them. Oh no, I thought... this is my fault! I made the butterflies think this was a safe place, but it's not! Well, it's safe if you can protect some of them and begin a plan to eradicate more wasps in the Spring in the coming years. So, I decided to protect some of the eggs and caterpillars. I put a square tomato cage over the patch by the fence, and bought black tulle netting at Michael's Art Supply. Then I constructed a 2 foot deep, by 1 foot wide, by 4 feet tall structure that is entirely outside and open to the air on 3 sides. I buried the tulle netting with large gravel at the bottom and used additional sod staples to keep the netting down in the ground and anything from crawling underneath. The plants were able to continue growing and are still alive, though they have been through several months of caterpillars. My original patch had about 15 eggs on the plants. 9 of those had made their chrysalises by August 9th, 2026, and there were 6 more the next day. That first batch of 15 butterflies was beautiful to release and watch. Now, I am getting about one a day, and this is allowing me to release a single butterfly and follow it in the yard to make sure it makes it to flight and safety.
3. Monarchs need pesticide free TREES and nectar flowers. This is a big one. In the first day of a Monarch Butterfly's life, it ecloses from the chrysalis, dries and hardens its wings, and begins flapping around in an outdoor enclosure in 1-3 hours. However, it is not ready to safely fly until about 3 hours after hatching, and this varies depending on the temperature and if it's sunny or not. For example, I released a Monarch yesterday that was placed on Bidens aritosa in the sun to dry, and it was attacked by a wasp. I rescued it, and put it up in a burning bush tree about 12 feet up. It was able to rest there for an hour, practice using it's wings and jump around to different leaves before it finally took a long, graceful flight into the sun, or slightly South West of the sun. The Monarchs use the trees to sleep and rest. While they are in the trees, they fold their wings flat so they look like a leaf. It is almost impossible to see a monarch in a lush canopy of a tree, unless it opens its wings to show its gold and orange color against the green foliage. Most of the time, the Monarchs I have released have flown up into trees about 20 feet up, upon release. They do not go to flowers to eat nectar in the first 24 hours. I have never seen this happen. They are doing something else, whether that is preparing their new bodies for eating, flight, vision, etc... the Monarchs go high up into the trees and stay there for a good long time before flying again. I have even seen them fly from tree to tree on the first day, but never have I seen them go directly to a pollinator garden of flowers on the first day. So, please, do not spray your trees with pesticides or your yards. They are deadly to Monarchs and there is proof of this in many similar studies (usgs.gov link to study of 15 pesticides).
4. Don't put them on flowers or in a pollinator garden with other pollinators only 3 hours after eclosure or on their release day. They could potentially be attacked by wasps and are not yet strong enough to defend themselves. Put them high up in a sunny tree where there are no visible spider webs. If there is no sun, or it is rainy, they will likely go high up into a tree and stay there until the next morning or the first moments of sunshine the next day. I have witnessed two male monarchs fly 20 feet up into a Dogwood tree on their first day, a female spend the entire night 20 feet up in a holly tree and come down to the pollinator garden at noon the next day, and another female spent the entire afternoon until sunset in a sunny Burning Bush tree, eventually flying up higher into a cedar tree, as the sun moved. They are not interested in feeding when they first eclose (hatch). Eclosure is from French, and means "to come into the light". I like to think of every new Monarch Butterfly as a birth. They have just landed in your neighborhood and need to get adjusted. They hang out (literally), eventually open and close their wings to regulate their heat and make sure everything is in working order. They move their heads from left to right. Adjust their antennae and begin sensing millions of different things with the antennae, from chemical pheromones to temperature and direction. They adjust with the sun as the sun moves across the sky. They learn how to hang onto a leaf and flap to jump up on top of that leaf.
The first time they try to go from hanging under a leaf to up on top, they look like they are crawling and are unsure of themselves. Later, they might flap rapidly, like a moth, not knowing what they are doing, also trying to get up on top of that leaf. Finally, they do a perfectly executed move, I have been calling a "jump-flap" where they quickly and beautifully synchronize the wings with the jump and land perfectly on top of the leaf. They do all this on their first day. Their eyesight and muscles are warming, their wings are hardening, and their senses are sensing other insects flying, birds, new scents, new colors and surroundings. They are preparing to be active butterflies as we normally think of a flitting and floating butterfly, very soon. They are not quite ready yet, but tomorrow, you might see them flying gracefully through your flower garden, perfectly soaring over each flower and landing on the one they will very briefly drink nectar from... and then, they are off again, as fast as they landed. Safely protecting themselves from predators on the second day, they now have perfected their speed and flight to avoid most predators in the first place. Their agility and "I can't sit still near a pollinator garden" are what keep them safe by day, and by night, they roost in trees, disguised as a leaf. They are beautiful by nature's design, and should always be protected. We can not let climate change, pesticides or the wasps win. To love and protect a Monarch, we must understand their needs and they need all three things: Milkweed, pesticide free trees and pollinator gardens with limited wasp and spider encounters.
As an artist, I am absolutely in awe of the design of the Monarch, from elegantly sculpted egg that attaches beneath an umbrella like leaf that protects it from rain. The sustainable egg is eaten by the hatching caterpillar, who begins to eat tiny circles in the leaf it hatched on. It develops beautiful, colorful stripes that signal to us, "This is a special looking caterpillar. Wow, look at all those colors!" Then, the chrysalis of green and gold that shines in the dark and light. When it darkens, it signals eclosure is imminent. The chrysalis is used by the newly hatching butterfly to spin and twist its wings straight and dry. The butterfly itself, with dashed and spotted, painted wings of gold and black that shine in the sun and contrast warmly against the blue or grey sky. These are flying jewels of our world, many believe to be spiritual and symbolic of the soul. To see a Monarch in flight in Summer and not stop to marvel at its' beauty and journey to flight seems almost sacrilege– only 1-5 out of every 100 caterpillars survive to become butterflies. In some ideal instances, the percentage can be up to 20 percent, while least favorable scenarios can produce only 1 percent. By protecting the caterpillars, we can at least get them to flight in the world. This still does not save them from spiders, and birds later in life, but what an honor to release a Monarch into the sky and see that design that has been marveled at by the Egyptians and painted in art and fashion throughout time. How lucky we are to witness nature and its pure innocent color and motion, from the swaying meadows to the fluttering butterfly and zooming bees. Nature is movement and timeless creation. To lose any of this completely due to man's ignorance is completely unacceptable. So we work to save and advocate for healthier ways of caring for nature, because we must.
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