After reading about the plight of the monarch population I decided to intervene.
I read, when left in the natural world, only one in ten monarchs reach adulthood.
However, in captivity you can achieve 95%-100% success, so this summer I raised and released 41 monarchs.
I only had one casualty–possibly because the butterflies are susceptible to viruses and fungus.
Also: Huge Victory for Bees: US Court Bans Insecticide Linked to Deaths
I have been growing a patch of milkweed plants in my garden for many years in support of Monarchs because this is their only food supply.
I also like photography. Here is one of my monarchs that I posed on a cone flower in my garden shortly before it took its first flight.
[Editor’s Note: If you want to learn how to raise Monarchs yourself, here are a few internet references)
Thank you for this article! We have butterfly bushes for them but rarely see them & now we know why. Just ordered 4 packs of organic milkweed seeds for our garden.