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 May 19. These comments, of course, would be to ask that the F&W to (1) not list the monarch as a threatened species but instead allocate funds for the planting of milkweed and butterfly nectar plants and (2) allow butterfly farmers to sell more than 250 monarchs per year and also allow for the interstate shipping of monarchs so both hobbyists and 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 struggle 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 home rearing project or for your classroom, I ask that you please submit a comment to the US Fish & Wildlife Service before May 19, the last day to submit a comment. If you are a teacher, 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. Example:  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. List what you do in the rearing of your caterpillars to assure your monarchs emerge healthy.

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

4.      If you plant and/or protect existing patches of milkweed on your property because you understand the Monarch-milkweed connection, 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.regulations.gov/docket/FWS-R3-ES-2024-0137  

Once on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife website: (1) click on 'Open for Comments', (2) on next page, scroll down a bit and click on 'Comment' on the right side of the page, (3) click where it states 'Start typing here...' and then insert your comment, (4) scroll down and enter your email address, click on 'An Individual', check the box saying 'I 'm not a robot', and then click on 'Submit Comment'.

Comparing the Monarch population to that of other butterfly species over the past 20 years

                                                                                                                                                                      by Rose Franklin  

Recently the results of the first national analysis of U.S. butterflies concluded that these majestic creatures are disappearing from the national landscape at a ‘catastrophic’ rate. The lead study author was Collin Edwards, an ecologist and data scientist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Nick Haddad, an entomologist at Michigan State University, was a co-author.

A compilation of 76,957 surveys from 35 monitoring programs were blended together for the analysis. The surveys were conducted by scores of volunteers who spent hundreds of thousands of hours over the past several decades of summers counting the various butterfly species in their local areas, this according to Edwards. Then Edwards, Haddad, and a team of over 30 butterfly researchers combined and analyzed all the surveys. The study included over 12.6 million recorded butterfly sightings over the past two decades.

The conclusion of this countrywide systematic analysis was that the number of butterflies in the contiguous U.S. has decreased by 22% between 2000 and 2020. Many of the species included in the study declined by 40% or more. The Red Admiral is down by 44% and the American Lady butterfly decreased by 58%. Even the invasive Cabbage White, a butterfly species whose larvae feed on cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, fell by an astonishing 50%.  

According to Edwards and Haddad, climate change, habitat loss, and insecticides have likely worked together to weaken our butterfly populations. And based on previous research from the Midwest, it appears that insecticides are the biggest culprit.  

Now let’s compare the population decreases from the national analysis of U.S. butterflies to the population decrease of the Monarch butterfly to determine if the Monarch warrants being added to the Endangered Species List as a threatened species.

The Monarch population has been monitored at the Mexican overwintering grounds since the winter of 1994-1995. To measure the population, scientists record the total number of hectares that are occupied by Monarch colonies. For reference, one hectare equals approximately 2.47 acres.

During the winter of 2000-2001 the total area occupied by Monarch colonies at the overwintering sites in Mexico was 2.83 hectares. During the winter of 2020-2021 the total area occupied was exactly the same, 2.83 hectares. But those figures are not the numbers presented in the arguments for adding the Monarch to the Endangered Species List.

Instead the proponents usually compare the winter of 1996-1997, the year the population was at its highest in recorded history, to a more recent year. During the 1996-97 winter, 28 years ago, Monarchs covered 18.19 hectares of Mexican mountainside. Comparing that winter to the winter of 2020-2021 the proponents calculate that the Monarch population has decreased by 88% since 1996-1997. What the proponents fail to publicly recognize is that the population of 1996-1997 was extraordinarily large, far above the average population size over the last 30 years of recorded history.

Even if we don’t compare the Monarch populations of 2000-2001 to 2020-2021 (which were exactly the same at 2.83 hectares) and instead use the 20-year average between 2000 and 2020, which was 4.40 hectares, the Monarch population of 2020-2021 has decreased by 52%, which closely compares to the 20-year decrease in the population size of the Red Admiral, American Lady, and Cabbage White.

I hope the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service decides against adding the Monarch to the Endangered Species List and denying Monarchs to be used for school rearing projects, summer nature programs, festival and fair exhibits, butterfly releases, etc., the Monarch will be removed from the human-to-nature connection and ultimately, people will no longer understand the monarch-milkweed connection. Unless people associate the Monarch with milkweed, few people will aspire to grow and/or protect existing patches of milkweed. So long as there is a human-to Monarch connection, the Monarch will be blessed with stewards who protect its needs.

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 resident to hold a monarch and then release it. 

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