How you can help increase Arizona's monarch butterfly population
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - There are a lot fewer monarch butterflies in Arizona than there used to be a few decades ago.
FOX 10's Steve Nielsen is learning about how Scottsdale is trying to change that, and how you can help.
What we know:
The city of Scottsdale is becoming essentially a monarch city. The mayor signed the Monarch Pledge.
That means it promises to build butterfly gardens and educate people, so, in the fall, the sky is filled with the beautiful winged insects.
So let’s check out some of these butterfly gardens.
All around the city of Scottsdale, they have all the good stuff the butterflies love, especially the milkweed. They’re obsessed with milkweed.
Butterfly gardens full of flowers are all over Pima and Rotary parks.
What they're saying:
We headed over to Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, the largest butterfly conservancy in America.
Adriane Hopkins of Butterfly Wonderland says the monarch population has dwindled a lot in the last twenty years.
"It has about 90%. 90% over 20 years, so it’s a big decline. The city of Scottsdale is planting more gardens all over the city, planting milkweed. That’s the key for this butterfly right here. The only plant it lays eggs on is milkweed. We have a brand-new butterfly. It was born today. It is a monarch," Hopkins said.
So if milkweed is so important to butterflies, let’s learn a little more about growing it.
Toni Cruse at Moon Valley Nurseries is an absolute expert at this.
"I mean, it’s easy. Butterflies will probably munch on it faster than you can grow it, but you can grow milkweed by seed and propagate by cuttings as well. Butterflies do like other things. They like wildflowers, they’re attracted to lantana, which grows everywhere, but milkweed is what they love the most," Cruse explained.
The best time of year to see monarchs is in September, so you’re running out of time to plant milkweed to attract them.
So do your part, plant some milkweed and enjoy the butterflies.