I made my own monarch habitat sign!

[Keith Petrosky]

I put it in the milkweed habitat and I hope people will read it and be aware of the monarch habitat. I also hope the local teens dont trash it like they do with the rest of the stuff around here.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/ ... y/sign.jpg

[Teresa]

Cool, your quite the artist

[Keith Petrosky]

Thank You! I hope it will get peoples attention so they know to help our monarchs.

[Keith Petrosky]

The sign is still up, and when people pass by they look at the sign, and even read it! I hope the monarchs will be helped now!

[Mona Miller]

The sign is still up, and when people pass by they look at the sign, and even read it! I hope the monarchs will be helped now!

They should. Your website address doesn't work anymore. I'd love to see your sign. I help plant gardens at schools and parks. They get trashed sometimes. The best thing to do is put it back together. I never want to let bullies win.

[keithpetrosky]

Sad news. (and by the way this topic was posted with my OLD account which I couldnt log in to for some reason) So i'm posting on my NEW account now.

Nobody cared about the sign or monarchs apparently, it was burned a few days after posting this topic, and the milkweed there, ALL gone. Nothing left meaning no more monarchs in the area. my Town isnt very environmental friendly.

[Mona Miller]

I don't know if you have any place at home to plant milkweed, but even a pot of tropical in the summer will help the Monarchs.

[keithpetrosky]

I'm going to plant some milkweed in my yard and try, but there are yellow jackets everywhere and they pick off the caterpillars quickly i've never had one mature in my yard.

[Paul Cherubini]

I'm going to plant some milkweed in my yard and try, but there are yellow jackets everywhere and they pick off the caterpillars quickly i've never had one mature in my yard.

Yes the yellow jackets and other wasps are more of a problem near buildings and homes as compared to open fields and that's one of the problems with the "Gardener's Can Save The Day" monarch conservation concept:
http://www.xerces.org/2007/02/17/garden ... disappear/

[Mona Miller]

Nature has a balance even if it doesn't seemed balanced. Somehow, some of the larvae make it through and that is why there are millions of them still migrating south.

[Paul Cherubini]

Nature is not in balance when the predators are from overseas and have no natural enemies here in the USA as is commonly the case with wasps in residential yards. Below is what I found on the April 19, 2004 Monarch Watch Update:

Whitney Cranshaw, an economic entomologist and specialist on garden insects at Colorado State University, recently (6 April) made the following observation on ENTOMO-L, a list serve for entomologists:

"I don't think there has been any introduced insect that I have observed in my 20 years here that has so rapidly spread and impacted insect life in Colorado than Polistes dominulus (a.k.a., the European paper wasp). First observed in the state 5 years ago it is now found in every town, on both sides of the Continental Divide, and is extremely abundant. It has extirpated essentially every [butterfly] caterpillar in Ft. Collins by mid-July in the past 2 years and I am sure is having a major ecological impact."

[keithpetrosky]

Nature has a balance even if it doesn't seemed balanced. Somehow, some of the larvae make it through and that is why there are millions of them still migrating south.

Yes, in the fields with hundreds of milkweed plants that are over 5 feet tall the wasps cant possibly find all the caterpillars, and they have other prey to eat. But in a small yard/garden with 1 or 2 or even 10 plants they find them and sometimes by accident like when they drink the nectar from the milkweed flower. My neighborhood has no fields or "natural" areas by it, so the wasps find everything in a yard or someones house. Each yard can have 5-8 small wasp nests, thats a lot of wasps per area!

[Mona Miller]

I have a small net and have learned to identify the non native european wasp. I net and dispose of them whenever can--especially when I find them patrolling my milkweed plants.