Environment Report: How to Prevent Monarchs from Going Extinct
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Environment Report: How to Prevent Monarchs from Going Extinct
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants the monarch listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Western population reached its second lowest level this year since tracking began in 1997. Loss of habitat to development, increasingly severe weather and increased use of pesticides and herbicides all contribute to the monarch’s doom. The iconic yellow, black and white-striped caterpillar fatten themselves on native milkweed and San Diegans are planting more of it.. Spray pesticides or herbicides on your garden (Round-Up, etc.) and, like a disease, those flowers are now “infected.” A monarch feeding at a sprayed flower can pick up these harmful chemicals and spread them to other non-sprayed flowers. (Try boiling water on weeds instead.). Plant narrow-leaf milkweed, woollypod milkweed (while the red and orange flowers may be tempting, avoid the tropical milkweed).
It seemed I couldn’t escape pairs of twitterpated wings flitting across my path this summer. I thought they were supposed to be going extinct or something?
Researchers estimate monarchs declined by more than 95 percent in coastal California since the 1980s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants the monarch listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. (Threatened means it’s one step away from becoming endangered. Endangered means it’s one step away from going extinct. Caput. Wiped from the face of the Earth.)
If you too noticed a lot more monarchs lately, what we’re witnessing is traffic from two monarch populations that traverse the county, said Eva Sofia Horna Lowell, San Diego Natural History Museum entomologist.
Thanks to its mild, comfortable climate, a population of monarchs call San Diego their permanent, year-round home, Horna Lowell said. That’s rare because it’s in most monarchs’ DNA to migrate. The other resident population lives in southern Florida.
Monarchs head north to breed in springtime. Come autumn in the West, they bop back toward coastal California and Mexico to stay warm during winter. But monarchs that decide to stay put in California year-round are on the rise, according to a 2021 paper by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Beyond the weather, humans may be to thank for the happy news. Monarch babies (the iconic yellow, black and white-striped caterpillar) fatten themselves on native milkweed. And San Diegans are planting more of it. (I visited City Farmer’s Nursery over the weekend and they were plum out of the plant.) Once those caterpillars transform into butterflies, they emerge with a plethora of flowering plants to choose from thanks again to San Diego’s ability to support year-round blooms.
A monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant outside of the Natural History Museum in San Diego. / MacKenzie Elmer
Here’s the catch – while there’s reason to celebrate our homebody monarchs, the migrating population is still deeply at risk of failing. The Western population reached its second lowest level this year since tracking began in 1997. Loss of habitat to development, increasingly severe weather exacerbated by human-caused climate change and increased use of pesticides and herbicides all contribute to the monarch’s doom.
An extra scary but important thing I learned from Horna Lowell: Spray pesticides or herbicides on your garden (Round-Up, etc.) and, like a disease, those flowers are now “infected.” A monarch feeding at a sprayed flower can pick up these harmful chemicals and actually spread them to other non-sprayed flowers thereby putting other monarchs (and other pollinators) at risk of being exposed.
“There’s research showing pesticide and herbicide exposure puts pollinators more at risk for parasitic, fungal or other diseases,” Horna Lowell said.
So, a note to all the landlords, homeowners and homeowner’s associations out there – ditch your weed killer. You’re killing all the butterflies, too. (Try boiling water on weeds instead.)
One more call to action: Plant native milkweed! That’s narrow-leaf milkweed, woollypod milkweed, skeleton and desert milkweed (while the red and orange flowers may be tempting, avoid the tropical milkweed). When the San Diego Natural History Museum noticed an influx of monarchs this spring and summer, its staff made a mad dash to add milkweed plants to the gardens that surround its building in Balboa Park. The plants didn’t survive long, because those hungry caterpillars munched the leaves away. But that’s precisely why we should all be planting more of it.
Plant it throughout the spring and summer. If you’re starting from seedlings, start a handful of them outside at different times. The migration period is long and multiple, hungry generations will be looking for plants for many months.
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