Monarchs having a strong year in Midwest, but that could change
Does it seem that more monarch butterflies have been landing on your flowers this summer? Numbers of the flashy orange insect, known for its 3,000-mile migration to Mexico in late summer, are having an “extremely strong year,” said Doug Taron, who for 30 years has coordinated a survey of monarchs in Illinois and northwest Indiana.
That’s just based on initial reports from surveyors. The full data from the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network, which reaches as far east as Porter County, hasn’t been collated, said Taron, chief curator of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.
Still, he said, “It’s a great year to get out and see monarchs.”
Several factors could be playing in their favor.
Good rainfall in and around Texas this spring helped to grow plenty of nectar-producing flowers, which gave the monarchs lots of food to launch and migrate here, Taron said. They typically start to arrive in our part of the Midwest in May and then lay eggs. When they arrived, it helped that ample rainfall here also boosted the growth of flowers.
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