I’m in Central North Carolina, and work as a horticulturist at a nursery that caters to butterflies with native plants. The past few years, we’ve definitely noticed a reduction in butterflies, but this year has been the worst. We have plants and gardens that are usually so packed with butterflies that you can’t see the flowers. This year, less than 10 at a time on butterfly magnet plants.
And, for the first time ever, absolutely no Monarch caterpillars on our large Asclepias tuberosa crop (they usually eat it all up) Last year they showed up a bit late, but then came and did their thing before flying back to Mexico. I’m so saddened by this, as a lifelong observer of butterflies, I’ve never seen this dearth.
Perhaps it’s just here, this area has grown in population tremedously in the past decade, with all the drawbacks to wildlife. I’d like to know if all y’all have noticed a difference in butterfly populations in your area; US and other countries.
Up here in Maine, I haven’t seen a single Monarch caterpillar in over three years, and our field has lots of milkweed plants, which they love, we have 50 acres of land, and that land has been undeveloped for as long as I’ve been alive (39 years)
this summer, I’ve seen one lonely Monarch butterfly, as far as I can tell, up here they’re essentially extinct sad, as they were my favorite butterflies
From what I’ve read online, conspiracy-theorywise, the pollen from genetically modified “RoundUp Ready**” Monsanto corn seeds cause high mortality amongst all kinds of caterpillars, monarchs included
**according to the info available online, Roundup Ready GMO seeds have been engineered to not only withstand/ignore RoundUp herbicide, the modified plants actually produce the RoundUp toxins themselves, so when a Corn Borer caterpillar eats the corn, they die
Maybe they’re confused. We’ve had several here, including one that seemed to have taken up residence in our carport. This is the first time I’ve seen any in years.
I spent the last 5 weeks in San Diego and the surrounding county, and saw more butterflies than I have ever seen before there. We didn’t see millions of them or anything that exciting, but we did see lots, of varying species. We also saw lots of moths.
As to Calgary, I can’t speak for August, but in June and July, I saw quite a few, as well.
MacTech Sad to hear that. Maine was really my butterfly wakening: as a kid there, I had the time to watch a Monarch chrysalis open, flex and dry it’s wings, and fly so wonderfully born into the world. It took some hours, but, an 11 year old has that sort of lovely schedule. It was one of the most graceful acts I’ve ever seen.
That lesson of metamorph is why I’m so sad not to see what should be the norm now.
Our butterfly population this year isn’t as large as it has been in the past few years. However, the Luna moth population has exploded, much to my happiness. I LOVE Luna moths.
My uncle collects and raises butterflies here in NE Ohio. I haven’t heard him say much about a dearth of butterflies.
He raised enough to get a dozen to be let go at my cousin’s wedding. I’ve seen at least one hanging out on my butterfly bush, along with a hummingbird moth.
But, since he does raise butterflies, and his wife has moved out on a temporary work assignment, most of the butterflies I’ve seen are in my uncle’s house, just hanging out (really! Ick!)
Now that you mention it, somewhat fewer than usual here in my small city garden. I never get a huge number, though, so that’s probably not statistically significant. The hummingbird moths are doing fine, judging by the number the mighty feline huntress Jezebel has brought home.
What I’ve noticed this year is fewer hummingbirds, but that’s mostly because the trumpet vine didn’t bloom particularly well – not sure if it’s the insane amount of rain we’ve had this summer or because it’s getting choked out by the other vines (Virgina creeper, etc.) it’s intermixed with.
One Cabbage moth
One Tiger Swallowtail - I saw it 3 times.
One Monarch - It was around about two weeks before it got hit on the road.
The flood last year majorly disrupted butterflies, and the cold weather all summer probably didn’t help. I know the cold summer messed up plant maturity and the plants are a month behind. We had no birds last year after the flood and this year only a small percentage returned.
A few years ago there was a major freezing and die off of the Monarch caterpillars in there winter resting spot. I haven’t seen the numbers increase to a large population since then.
Seems like a normal butterfly distribution this year in Northern Virginia, although I accidentally reduced it by one yesterday when I wasted a cabbage butterfly with the car.
Also, fireflies/lightning bugs were back in modest numbers this year after a several-year absence.
The cicada-killer wasps are booming, but the crickets-coming-in-the-house problem seems minimal, and the invasive Asian tiger mosquitoes are biting but not in very great quantities. It’s been a pretty good year bugwise (more cute bugs, fewer unpleasant ones).
Which reminds me – good year for praying mantises here. I had to release at least three out the window of my second-floor bathroom (still haven’t figured out exactly how they got in). There’s a crape myrtle right outside that window, so I’d place them on that.
I’ve had a pretty good year for butterflies. I often have tons of them, because of the wildflowers in my pastures. It’s been a relatively cool wet summer in Tennessee.
I poster in my area on Garden Web posted pics of several varieties of butterflies that visited her garden. The last butterfly I saw was some variety of zebra butterfly and the poor thing was lopsided and couldn’t fly well. I have plans to landscape my yard to include lots of plants attractive to butterflies but I wonder if I will see many if I’m the only one in the neighborhood catering to the butterflies.
We’ve got plenty of butterflies in south Alabama this year. A couple of weeks ago there were lots of Tiger Swallowtails. I only saw three of those on my walk today. However there are plenty others and quite a variety. I haven’t seen a Monarch though. It’s mostly these small (2-2.5"), yellow butterflies and some orange ones that abound right now.
Here in central NY state, nothing. And I have butterfly bushes and all kinds of flowers in the yard. Same goes for bees, though one hot sunny day I did see quite a diverse group of bees and things that looked like bees all over the bee balm. This saddens me more than you can possibly know.:(:(
We did have a lot of hummingbirds, though, and they nested and we saw babies! They hang out in the tall shrubbery and attack the dahlias and fuschias. This is usually the last week of the year we see them before they migrate, though.
Aren’t butterflies on not-strictly-annual migratory patterns?
I know there’s one species that starts in Canada and Michigan, flies down to a city in Mexico, has a butterfly orgy, and then the kids hatch and do the whole process in reverse. This whole process can span generations of butterfly; one generation might only make it as far as Tennessee, but its offspring will continue the journey. In such a case, you wouldn’t expect to see them in one specific place at one specific time every year.
Well, I saw here in central NY once, and only once, a late summer migration of monarchs. Not a solid stream, but quite a few at a time, and for a couple of hours, floating like orange and black potato chips across the highways. Awesome sight. That was about two years ago.
We’ve seen a few Monarchs, mostly on Saturna Island, and other random butterflies in my back yard. Lots of hummingbirds, as well, but I’ve really good about keeping the feeder clean and freshly filled. And dragonflies, yep, those, too. So pretty!
I don’t think I spotted (heh) a single ladybug this summer, though. I love them.
I’ve also tried to get some butterfly-friendly plants, but I never saw a butterfly on the “butterfly bush” plant!
Now that it’s September, I’m running into lots of spider webs, which will soon multiply, complete with very large brown spiders, if the usual autumn trend continues.
I have plenty of spare slugs if anyone’s missing those.
sad, as they were my favorite butterflies