Hurricanes

[Teresa]

I was just wondering what kind of impact hurricanes/tornadoes have on the monarch population. With a Cat 5 hurricane about to hit what will this do to the butterflys? Can they hang on and continue?

[Pat]

When hurricane Floyd came through here in early September a few years ago, it broke off big pieces of my buddleias and flattened most of the other flowers I had planted around the yard for nectar. The weather was rotten, windy, wet and cold for several days while the bands of the hurricane passed over. That brought my season to an abrupt end as far as the wild butterflies were concerned. I had a few that were still safely indoors in their rearing containers, but that was it.

[Teresa]

Katrina is here We are having very heavy rains and will most the night. I'm just glad I only had one emerge today because he has to spend the night. hehehe. He doesn't understand but i'm sure he'll be glad tomorrow. I put some butterfly bush flower in there and he gobbled up. It's supposed to be gone by noon tomorrow so i'm sure he can be released then. I went ahead and tagged him so my hubby can release him. He's so afraid of hurting them but i'm sure he'll do fine. So on my log to turn in do I enter the date that he was born or do I enter the date he was actually released. All of mine have been released on the day they were born.

[Mona Miller]

I was just wondering what kind of impact hurricanes/tornadoes have on the monarch population. With a Cat 5 hurricane about to hit what will this do to the butterflys? Can they hang on and continue?

It is amazing how a tiny butterfly can withstand high winds. I have a friend who tags on the east coast and she had a situation where a person from England contacted her. Her tagged Monarchs had been blown all the way to the coast of England. It took them 5 days.

Now how did they survive those winds. I think some of them were smart enough to stay in the eye of the hurricane.

But, many, many lose their lives. Thousands are lost to high winds. The ones that do make it to Mexico and that is millions and the ones that make it back to the USA, do a great job of repopulating. And, lots of us are help them by creating gardens. Do you know about the Monarch Waystation program?

http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/
Monarch Watch Waystation Program