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Monarch WaystaTion
Monarch WaystaTion
Monarch populations have recently been in decline due to lack of habitat. The Spartan Prairie provides vital habitat to support population growth. In 2020, the Spartan Prairie became an officially certified Monarch Waystation. This means that the prairie provides milkweed, nectar sources, and shelter for our lovely monarchs!
Butterfly Nursery
Butterfly Nursery
In addition to simply providing habitat, we also protect the monarchs during their most vulnerable life stages (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis) in our butterfly nursery. The nursery was built by our talented Wood Shop students in the winter of 2020! We are so proud of them and grateful for the beautiful work they did for the monarchs!
Protection and Tagging Process:
Protection and Tagging Process:
Through the Monarch Watch Tagging Program, monarchs can be captured outside or reared from eggs to be tagged and released as part of a citizen science project. By documenting the location of their capture, the research can help to pinpoint monarch migration and lifespan across country borders.
https://monarchwatch.org/tagging/
Finding the Eggs
Eggs are found by scanning the underside of Milkweed leaves for eggs, looking for small white bulbs stuck underneath the leaves; although sometimes eggs can be found on the tops of leaves, this is less common. We check all four species of Milkweed that we have on the prairie:
Common Milkweed
Swamp Milkweed
Butterfly Milkweed
Whorled Milkweed
Caterpillar Care
As most of the eggs are found toward the tops of the plants, the portion of the plant that contains the leaf with the egg can be clipped off completely. The clipped portion is transferred to our butterfly nursery. Eggs typically take about 3-5 days to hatch.
After the eggs hatch and have had a few days to feed and grow, they are transferred a larger, potted milkweed plant within the nursery.
Caterpillars continue to feed and grow for a total of 10-14 days in the caterpillar stage.
Caterpillars will become pupa (the chrysalis stage) and remain in that stage for another 10-14 days.
Butterfly Tagging and Release
After the metamorphosis is complete, the butterflies are provided with nectar sources within the nursery to allow them to gain their strength before release.
For Monarchs that will migrate (those in our area during the end of August and early September), the individual butterflies will be tagged with a small sticker that will allow scientists to track the migration path if they are captured along the way or at the end of their migration journey. Check out MonarchWatch.org or our Monarch Tagging page for more information on this incredible citizen science project!
How to tag monarch butterflies:
Hold monarch gently between your middle and pointer finger
Locate the discal cell (it looks like a mitten in the center of the bottom wing)
Take the sticker but be careful to NOT touch the actual sticky part (you can use a toothpick if needed)
Place the sticker onto the discal cell and press both sides of the wing for five seconds to keep the tag on
Check out this timelapse video of one of our Spartan Prairie Monarch caterpillars pupating into a chrysalis!
The whole process took 22 minutes!
Check out this timelapse video of one of our Spartan Prairie Monarch caterpillars pupating into a chrysalis!
The whole process took 22 minutes!
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