THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY,
soon to be a memory.

When the children were young, my wife and I decided to spend a week at Red Bay Lodge with them. Roy and Shirley Bullen owned Red Bay Lodge, up on the Bruce Peninsula, at that time. (Great people) This vacation was the children's introduction to many things, including the Monarch butterfly. Personally I hadn't given them much thought since I was obliged to stick a pin in one for my bug collection in grade nine, back in 1951. (They were Lepidoptera, weren't they?)

Mr. Bullen took the kids on a little nature excursion in the fields behind the lodge. He identified the milkweed for them, turned the leaves and pointed out the green caterpillars, the tiny eggs, etc. No one was more interested than I was, and I was about 35 years old at the time.

Back then, we had our own milkweed plants growing by the backyard fence here in town. So-- I thought it would be a good idea to take some caterpillars home with us and start our own butterfly garden. When it was time for the vacation to end, we gathered a few milkweed plants complete with the eggs and small resident caterpillars, to take with us.

Upon arriving home, we tied the uprooted plants to the healthy ones that thrived in the back by my fence. The caterpillars made the migration to the live milkweed and they too flourished.

The kids were encouraged to watch the growth daily and to make sketches of the changes. (Their fridge art has long gone astray, but I still have mine.)

In the following years we allowed the milkweed to exist and never failed to see the Monarchs visit and lay their eggs under the leaves of this little patch of weeds. We would watch the progression of events and search for the chrysalis in the bushes, under the fence rails and even under the window sills. Once or twice we found the caterpillar in their hiding place. Snug in the chrysalis, we found them and brought them into the house. There, secure on a twig, supported in a can of pebbles on the mantel, we would await the transformation. It was indeed fascinating to have a new beautiful butterfly emerge right before our eyes, right there in the living room. When the process was complete we opened the doors and allowed them to fly out without their ever being handled.

Now we come to the sad part of the story. A few years after our discovery of the Monarch, we had another discovery that was not quite as pleasant. The European earwig made its first appearance in my backyard. When I saw the first ones, I knew them. We had met when I was stationed with NATO in Zwiebrucken Germany. I did not like this new uninvited immigrant to North America.

One day, not many years later, I discovered a Monarch chrysalis on the underside of the top rail of my fence. This location was great as I could watch the transformation from 'creepy-crawler' to 'winged-majesty' from the steps of my side porch. Unfortunately one day I was alarmed to find that an earwig was inside the chrysalis shell membrane, and the life that 'was to be' was 'no more'. It was obvious to me, that if the earwig was using the defenseless chrysalis as a food source then the poor Monarch was probably doomed to extinction.

Although we still have the occasional monarch visit the yard, I have never seen a mature caterpillar in the last twenty years. I've seen the eggs lain, the odd small caterpillar, but none reach maturity. These life forms simply disappear without a trace of evidence to tell of their plight.

Another story!

One day I found a large cocoon in our lilac bushes. I cut the supporting branch off, and as was my custom I supported it in a can of pebbles. This time I simply put the container on the outside window sill. Here, just outside our kitchen window, I hoped to find out what had taken residence in my garden.

One morning my daughter Hali, came running for me. "It's hatched, it's hatched!" she shrieked. Sure enough, there was a moth with a wing span of at least five inches with big owl eye markings on the wings, sitting on the twig that I had stuck in the can. Upon closer observation however, we found that the cocoon was still there. The new moth was there, apparently, to greet the emergence of the other moth still in the cocoon. As I recall after all of the passing years, it waited two days. One morning we were greeted by the spectacular sight of two giant moths locked in a mating embrace. Inches from our curious eyes, we were witness to one of Natures wonders.

This 'embrace' lasted for a long time as I recall. Even without Viagra it lasted about 24 hours; and then they were gone.

My reason for mentioning these two events has an environmental connection, as I'm sure you were expecting.

The Monarch found my patch of milkweed in the city and the moth found it's mate before it was 'born'. There are some clues here that are obvious.

1.< Insects control the population of other insects by eating them at some stage of development.

2. Insects are attracted to plants by phenomenally keen senses.

3. Insects are attracted to one another by the releasing, and detection of, infinitesimally small amounts of pheromones .

Now the above clues, and the sciences of such as a means of controlling crop damage has not gone unnoticed and unresearched. Unfortunately it is a much more profitable venture to make, and sell, and spray death-inducing chemicals than to make use of Nature's natural processes which I have eluded to.

This is where laws, incentives and research comes into play. If everyone has to stop the polluting methods, then the playing field is level. Entrepreneurial drive will put new processes on the market in short order.

Trust me. There are natural weed inhibitors that can be planted. Sorghum, rye, alfalfa, and cucumbers all reduce the growth of weeds. Some crops leave weed inhibitors in the soil for next year. Sterilized insects produce no offspring and are great predators, as are praying mantis and parasitic wasps. Artificial pheromones have been synthesized to lure insects into traps. Ducks and geese are even used as weed eaters in many parts of the world. Crushed oyster shell can be used as a pesticide. Natural bacteria are available as pesticides as well when cultured. I'm not making this all up. Check the library. It's in the books.

One billion pounds of pesticides are applied in the US alone in one year. Of this one billion pounds, about 99.9% never kills its intended prey. Any guesses as to what it does kill?

Have a nice day.