Monarch Butterflies: On the Edge of Extinction

Due to the use of herbicides, the amount of milkweed available is dwindling. This is causing the population of the Monarch butterflies to shrink along with it. Since 1990, 970 million Monarch butterflies have completely vanished and there are only about 30 million left, with more dying every day. With numbers becoming smaller and smaller, people are fighting for these butterflies to be listed as an endangered species so they can receive special protection. Fish and Wildlife is currently investigating if it’s really necessary, and trying to help restore the population.

Milkweed serves as a Monarch's home, food source, and nursery. During migration season, which has just recently passed over us in New York, the butterflies travel to warmer climates where it’s easier to survive. While on their journey, they stop at milkweed plants to lay up to hundreds of eggs and eat. The larvae then feed off the milkweed to grow. The herbicides that farmers and homeowners have sprayed on milkweed have caused far too many butterflies to die, and they are on the verge of being considered endangered.

What can you do to help? An organization called Save Our Monarchs helps the butterflies “one milkweed at a time.” You can make a plain donation of money, or you can buy milkweed seed packets. Milkweed blooms during late October and into early November and feeds the butterflies as they migrate from late August into late November and December.

There are many reasons why we should all work to save the butterflies. For example, if we lost these butterflies we would also lose their pollination, and therefore we would lose a lot of the plants we grow. Of course there are bees, but without that many butterflies, we could miss out on a lot of our favorite foods including almonds, melons, and cucumbers. An entire village in the Dominican Republic is supported by pollinators. It goes to show that the fight to save the Monarch’s is more than just saving a beautiful animal, but about saving other people as well. The animals of the world affect us just as much as we affect them.