Rose Franklin's Perennial & Butterfly Farm

Monarchs-And-Milkweed.com

Have you heard that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to add the monarch butterfly to the Endangered Species List as a threatened species? They do, and they are now proposing that these rules will apply: (1) no more than 250 monarchs could be reared per year by any individual or by any facility, (2) that no more than 250 monarchs per year could be sold from any facility (like a butterfly farm), and (3) monarchs would not be permitted to be shipped across any state line.  

Since we often ship more than 250 monarch larvae per week (and sometimes as many as 250 per day during our busy season), we'd be able to ship monarchs one or two days per year. We’d only be able to fill 25 orders of 10 caterpillars, and all of those orders would have to ship to Pennsylvania addresses (since that’s the state we reside in and shipping to other states would be illegal). Upon receipt of the first 25 Pennsylvania orders, our shopping cart button would have to be removed from the web site and all our other monarch customers turned away.  

If the U.S. F&W Service prohibits butterfly farmers from shipping more than 250 monarchs per year and also deems it illegal to ship monarchs across the state line, hundreds of teachers will likely be unable to obtain monarch larvae for their classrooms. Many home hobbyists will also have no access to monarch larvae.

The reason the U.S. F&W Service doesn't want the monarch to be reared in large numbers is due to the fear of having diseased butterflies introduced into the wild. I understand that concern but wonder if putting butterfly farmers out of business wouldn’t have a negative impact on the monarch population.

There are only a few dozen commercial butterfly farmers (also known as butterfly breeders) in the entire United States. As is the case with any profession, there might likely be a few, very few, butterfly farmers who lack the knowledge, skill, integrity, and/or ethics to produce high quality butterflies. Most, however, adhere to stringent standard operating procedures which facilitate in producing a high-quality product.  

At a butterfly farm, adult butterflies are protected from predators and monitored to assure their environmental and nutritional needs are being met. Larvae are protected from predators like ants, wasps, and Tachinid flies. The butterfly pupae are protected from Chalcid wasps whose larvae will parasitize the developing butterflies and kill them. Most commercial butterfly farmers sanitize everything that comes into contact with the butterfly eggs, larvae, and pupae. Even the milkweed being fed to the larvae is sanitized prior to use.  

Professional butterfly farmers are generally better butterfly caretakers than Mother Nature herself. And all this extra care is highly appreciated by the retail customers who purchase their eggs, larvae, pupae, and/or adults.

Most school teachers know that not only are monarch eggs and larvae difficult to find in the wild but also often infected with disease. When attempting to teach the miraculous life cycle of a monarch, it’s disheartening for both the teacher and his or her students to see white fly maggots dropping from their freshly-pupated monarch caterpillars, caterpillars which will now die and decay inside the pupae and thus, produce no majestic monarch adults. And from mid-August thru early September (when most teachers raise monarchs in the classroom) a lot of the wild larvae are tainted with Tachinid flies.

If butterfly farmers are only permitted to sell 250 monarchs per year, there will be hundreds of teachers unable to obtain caterpillars for their classrooms. And from what I’ve been told by the teachers who have been raising monarchs in the classroom for a number of years, many of their students become adults who protect and/or grow milkweed on their properties, this a direct result of raising monarchs in the class room when they were young.

I am rallying teachers and hobbyists alike to add a comment to the US F&W website during the comment period which ends on March 12. These comments, of course, would be to ask that the F&W to allow butterfly farmers to sell more than 250 monarchs per year and also allow for the interstate shipping of monarchs so teachers will have caterpillars for their classrooms.  

Here's my issue with adding the monarch to the Threatened List. The monarch is by far not the only butterfly species that is losing ground in its fight to survive. Most butterfly species, in fact, have dramatically declined in number over the past 40 years. From my observation the monarch is no worse off than many other butterfly species.  

The monarch though, is the butterfly used in classrooms for rearing projects and if teachers won't be allowed to have monarchs, they will most likely have no butterflies for their unit on butterfly life cycles (metamorphosis). Swallowtails won't work for fall rearing projects because they overwinter as pupae---and the pupae can't be overwintered in a classroom because classrooms are much too warm. Many butterflies use trees as hosts and trees can't easily be taken into classrooms either. 

I'm nearing retirement age (well actually, past it already) so it's not just that I am upset about losing the income from monarch sales. I am worried that if teachers can't have monarchs in the classroom, kids won't have that exposure to nature----and sadly, kids (except for Amish kids) are becoming less absorbed in nature with every decade that passes.

If you, like me, would like the assurance of having monarch caterpillars for your classroom, I ask that you please submit a comment to the US Fish & Wildlife Service before March 12, the last day to submit a comment. I suggest you state how important the monarch is to your teaching, how much the children enjoy rearing monarchs, and what the children learn from raising them.

If we do nothing, neither teachers nor hobbyists will likely have monarch caterpillars available to them next year.

Here’s what I suggest you include in your comment to the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service:

1.      Who you are:  I am a (teacher or hobbyist) who has been raising monarchs for about ___ years.

2.      Explain the reason(s) you raise monarchs and what benefit or reward you, your children, grandchildren, or students get from raising them.

3.      If you get your monarch caterpillars from a butterfly farm, state that (but I suggest you not list the names of the farms you purchase from). If you are generally unable to find caterpillars in the wild, state that.

4.      If you plant milkweed and/or monarch nectar sources on your property, state that.

5.     Request that the the U.S. Fish & Wildlife (1) not list the monarch as a threatened species and instead appropriate land and funds for the planting of milkweed (2) not limit the number of monarchs that can be reared by a butterfly farm and (3) not prohibit butterfly farms from shipping interstate because in doing so you would likely have no source for obtaining monarch caterpillars.

Here’s a link to the page where comments can be submitted:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/12/2024-28855/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-threatened-species-status-with-section-4d-rule-for#p-211

I'll have memories of when my husband and I took monarch eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults into preschools and elementary schools and taught about the butterfly life cycle as hundreds of children listened attentively to our words. We even did this in a few Amish schools and always, in every school, did it free of charge. I'll have memories of when we voluntarily took adult monarchs to nursing facilities and allowed each residents to hold a monarch and then release it. 

Monarch Numbers Plummet—Again    by Rose Franklin, February 15, 2024

Since the winter of 1993-1994, scientists have been traveling to Michoacan, Mexico (west of Mexico City), every winter to monitor the size of the area that is occupied by over-wintering Monarch butterflies. This information is used to provide data on the status of the butterfly population, and might even be an indicator of the status of pollinator insects in general.

    The size of the area is measured in hectares. One hectare equals approximately 2.47 acres. Looking at the graph above, you will see that during the winter of 1996-1997, the year the population was at its highest, Monarchs covered 20.97 hectares of mountainside. That’s almost 52 acres.

    During the winter of 2013-2014, there was only .67 hectare of Mexican forest blanketed by the orange and black wings of Monarchs. That’s approximately 1.65 acres, an area smaller than the average-sized Walmart!--and that's not very big compared to 52 acres.

During the winter of 2015-2016, the Monarch population was believed to be the largest in five years but then, in early March, when the butterflies were in the process of leaving their over-wintering grounds in Mexico, an unusual and very severe winter storm brought rain, snow, ice, wind, and cold temperatures to the Sierra Madre Mountains where the Monarchs reside from late November thru mid March. That storm blew over hundreds of tall trees and killed an estimated 6.2 million Monarchs, dramatically reducing the population.

During the winter of 2018-2019, the population rebounded again, covering 6.05 hectares. From then until now, the population has been down but not nearly as low as it was from 2012 thru 2014.

This winter, the winter of 2023-2024, the Monarch population has plummeted to an alarmingly low number again, just .90 hectares (2.2 acres). There is reason for concern.

    What has caused the Monarch population to decline? The consensus among scientists is that there may many factors at play. Among them are (1) the destruction of natural habitat, (2) the increased use of insecticides, (3) the increased use of herbicides, and (4) climate change.

    Approximately 6,000 acres per day, 2.2 million acres per year, of farmland and natural habitat is being converted to housing developments, resorts, shopping centers, gulf courses, and highways. Natural prairies and grasslands are being plowed under to grow more corn and soybeans, two agricultural crops that have increased in price over the last decade or so.

    Almost all of the corn and soybeans being planted today are herbicide-resistant varieties. Farmers can plant the seed without having to till the soil, and then spray the fields with herbicides to control the weeds. The herbicides kill the weeds (including milkweed, which Monarchs must have to lay their eggs on) but do not harm the corn and soybean plants. No one knows how many milkweed plants have been killed by the application of herbicides, but likely, millions have been poisoned in the past 20 years or so. Many entomologists who focus their study on the Monarch feel certain the disappearance of milkweed from U.S. agricultural grounds, where it once grew in abundance, is the number one reason for the dwindling number of Monarchs.

    The widespread use of insecticides to control mosquito and gypsy moth populations might likely be contributing to the disappearance of butterflies too.  Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is often aerial-sprayed over forests, wetlands, and near housing developments to kill the insect pests that must be kept under control. But Bt is a notorious caterpillar killer! And while butterflies were not the intended target of the spraying, I am pretty sure that millions of butterfly larvae have been wiped out by Bt.

    Climate change is another factor that scientists often note as having an impact on the butterfly population. The average temperature is increasing, droughts are becoming more common, and storms are growing stronger. These weather events are causing stress for humans and they are hard on the butterfly population too.

    Are insecticides killing the butterflies? Are herbicides being overused and poisoning too much of the milkweed that Monarchs must have in order for reproduction to occur? Are warmer summers, heavy rains, violent wind storms, and/or droughts taking their toll? No one knows for sure which of these factors has had the most devastating consequences for the Monarch population, but one or more of these is assuredly causing the Monarch populace to plummet.

    The honey bee population appears to be in serious trouble too. I wonder if it’s not the same variables causing both the Monarch and honey bee populations to sharply drop in number. And if, by chance, that is the case, we’d better wake up. Without pollinators, the human race could not exist. We need these insects to pollinate our food crops.

Plant milkweed for them to lay eggs on. One of the milkweeds they highly favor for egg-laying  is Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), a South American native that must be treated as an annual in most of the U.S. In September and October, Tropical Milkweed provides nectar for the Monarchs that are migrating to Mexico.

Plant nectar plants for the adult Monarchs to feed on. Butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis), Milkweed (Asclepias), and Zinnia are among their favorite nectar sources.

Refrain from using insecticides and herbicides on your property.  Remember, butterflies are insects that might be harmed by the insecticides you use, and herbicides might kill plants that are vital to butterfly  survival and reproduction.

Work to protect natural Monarch habitats (areas containing milkweed and wildflowers that can be utilized for nectaring) from being disturbed or forever destroyed.

Donate to Monarch Watch or another organization dedicated to the conservation, education, and research of Monarch butterflies.

The Monarch Migration

I, Rose Franklin, created the 'Save the Monarch' brochure to educate the public on the obstacles facing the Monarch and urge readers to assist the Monarch in its struggle to multiply.

The brochures were printed by a commercial printer on high-quality, heavy weight, semi-gloss paper and thus, are attractive and professional in appearance. They were printed on 8 1/2" X 11" stock, were pre-folded, and ready to hand out.

We are now sold out of the brochures and have no intention of getting more printed. I will send the PDF to any organization that would like to print the brochure for distribution. I highly suggest you print the brochures on 24#, simi-gloss paper. Just send me an email and MilkweedLady@aol.com and ask for PDF.

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Rose Franklin's Perennials
107 Butterfly Lane      Spring Mills, PA 16875