By Carey King
"It's hatching! I can see it move!" shouted 4-year-old
Adam Kelly.
Peering into the net cage hanging in the corner of his homeschool
classroom, Adam and his twin sister, Mary, watched with baited
breath as orange-and-black wings emerged from an inch-long chrysalis.
"You're seeing a butterfly be born," explained their
mother, Tamara, who has been raising Monarch butterflies with
the children after attending an advanced Project WILD worskhop
at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education.
A veteran teacher who taught on the Cherokee reservation for
seven years before the twins were born, Tamara now has a new
educational mission: She wants Western North Carolina to know
that common milkweed is vital to the Monarch butterfly's survival.
When Tamara and the twins began their project, they fed the
black-, white-, and yellow-striped caterpillars with a bag of
milkweed that Tamara had been given at the workshop. That supply,
however, soon ran out, and none of the area nurseries Tamara
called kept the plant in stock.
"The only food Monarch caterpillars will eat is common
milkweed. It's the only plant the butterflies will lay their
eggs on," she said.
Monarch butterflies hover on the nectar-covered fingertips
of 4-year-old twins Adam and Mary Kelly as the children prepare
to release them near their home, Sunny Brook Farm, in Webster.
Along with parents Tommy and Tamara Kelly, the two raised the
butterflies from caterpillars.
Milkweed is essential to Monarchs, as it contains
a toxin that the butterflies are able to store in their wings
and exoskeletons as a protection against predators. To most
animals except a few species of birds and one mouse, that means
Monarchs taste bad or induce vomiting when ingested.
Common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, has purplish-pink, star-shaped
flowers, milky sap, and warty seed pods. It grows 2 to 6 feet
tall and blooms from June until August.
According to the University of Kansas' Monarch Watch, the 100
million Monarchs that migrate from the northern United States
and Canada to Mexico each fall are having a more difficult time
each year finding milkweed as the plant is destroyed by people
who consider it a poisonous weed. Ozone and garden pesticides
are also working to deplete the milkweed supply.
Stuck without feed before the last three caterpillars entered
the chrysalis stage, Tamara and the twins were forced to supplement
their food with butterfly weed and swamp milkweed. Compared
to common milkweed, orange-flowered butterfly weed, Asclepias
tuberosa, has thinner, more watery sap, and swamp milkweed,
Asclepias incarnata, has smaller flowers and more narrow leaves.
When the butterflies that ate the supplemental feed emerged,
one had severely deformed wings and another was significantly
smaller than the others. The third chrysalis has yet to open,
and Tamara said she wonders if it ever will.
"It would be nice if people in this area would plant common
milkweed," said Tamara, noting that mile marker 415 on
the Blue Ridge Parkway is known as a spectacular spot for viewing
hundreds and sometimes thousands of Monarchs. During September
and October, the butterflies pass through WNC as part of their
3,000-mile journey south.
Minnesota saw an increase in its milkweed population after World
War II, Tamara said. With so many goods in short supply during
the war, people valued the plant because the fluff from the
seed pod was used to make life preservers for soldiers.
As their first butterfly emerged from its chrysalis, Tamara
and the twins planned an afternoon walk to gather flowers for
it to eat. Once in the butterfly stage, Monarchs can be fed
with fresh-cut flowers, a solution of honey and water, or fresh
fruit.
"There's some goldenrod on our road. And Adam had the idea
of feeding them some of the peach nectar we made," Tamara
said.
"We'll put it on the flowers," Adam explained.
The three have been releasing the butterflies after each has
emerged from its chrysalis and its wings have dried. The Monarchs
like to be set free on warm days near fall flowers, Tamara said.
Pointing to Mexico on a map of North America, Mary explained,
"See, they're going to here. They don't like cold."
In Mexico, it is believed that the spirits of children who have
died are carried on the wings of the Monarchs to bring comfort
to grieving families, Tamara said.
"I find it fascinating that in a couple of short months
these butterflies - fed, cared for and even named by children
in an over-privileged country - will be in central Mexico. During
migration, they may fly by a young woman cooking over an open
fire. Just at the time she remembers the goodbyes she said to
her child, one of these very butterflies may stop to rest on
a nearby flower, and instead of another tear of grief, her heart
flutters with just a moment of comfort and hope. Isn't that
beautiful!" Tamara said.
For more information on Monarch butterflies and planting milkweed
to encourage their growth, visit the Monarch Watch Web site
at www.monarchwatch.org.
