NE Illinois - No Sightings

[schaumburg]

I live in Schaumburg a western suburb of Chicago. As of today June 20, 2011 we haven't had any Monarch sightings this year. Last year we had already reared over 30 Monarchs and had many other eggs and cats. Why no sightings this year? Is it just the cold wet weather? We have over 30 milkweed plants and search for eggs every day.

[Mona Miller]

They are doing very well. I went to a field of milkweed today and didn't find a single caterpillar or egg and I didn't see any Monarchs. At home, I've finally found one. I took it inside to raise since there are so many predators.

Cold wet spring, pesticides/herbicides, and loss of hababitat.

[Paul Cherubini]

Try driving along gravel roads that are surrounded by vast fields of GMO corn and soybeans. Look for monarchs hanging around patches of common milkweed that are in in bloom like this: http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/trumd.jpg

Sometimes you'll also see another type of milkweed with needle like leaves, but it probably won't be in bloom until mid-July:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/truma.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/trumb.jpg

[Mona Miller]

Why in the world would someone want to expose themselves to all those pesticides/herbicides? You can't see them, but they are there in and near those fields.

[Paul Cherubini]

People live extra long in certain upper Midwestern States that have the most concentrated acreages of GMO corn and soybeans:

Here's a ranking of U.S. States by life expectancy:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnf ... 099763.htm

As you can see, two upper midwestern states (Minnesota and Iowa) are in the top ten. Yet a whopping 69% percent of Iowa's entire landmass is covered with monocultures of herbicide tolerant (GMO) corn and soybeans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CornBelt.jpg

And nearly all of that corn and soybeans get sprayed with glyphosate (e.g. Roundup) or glufosinate (e.g. LibertyLink) herbicides. Here are real life videos of the spraying:

CORN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwiE5BRh9EM
CORN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6-H6WwXf0
SOYBEANS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZYdLcq8l4

Illinois doesn't rank as high in life expectancy as Iowa because it has huge urban centers like Chicago where life expectancy is "about five years less than the national average"
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstr ... 06616.html

[schaumburg]

I have been raising Monarchs for 5 years and this is the first year that we haven't had any eggs by this date. I usually have over 40 by this date. I have plenty of milkweed growing in my garden ( swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, and some tropical milkweed but no eggs. I check everyday to protect the eggs from the spiders and wasps. Are the Monarchs late arriving in Northern Illinois because of the cold wet spring or is there some other reason?

[Paul Cherubini]

There have been plenty of monarch sightings in NE Illinois this spring:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/mona ... g2011.html
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/DataReported.html

[blazing star]

Hi Schaumburg,

Did you locate any eggs yet? I am located right near you and had the same slow season but I just located a bunch of eggs. I have 9 cats, three chyrsalis and just found 2 more eggs. The earlier season I only found about 6 eggs total. Yes, very disheartening. Good luck!

[Paul Cherubini]

blazingstar, how many miles to the West or Southwest would you have to drive to get into the massive GMO corn and soybean monocultures? That's where the monarchs are abundant. That's where roosts like this one were sighted last year: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/reco ... 1284511393

[Mona Miller]

I just saw a female laying about 4 days ago. When I went to check for eggs, many had been emptied. The assassin bugs are out in full force. I had one tiny assassin suck the life out of one of my caterpillars as it was hanging out on the netting of my tent. Just a tiny, bad bug.

[blazing star]

Paul,

I drove by a GM Cropland to collect eggs but all the monarchs that tried to lay eggs were dead from the toxic BT pollen. I tried, though.

[blazing star]

I see empty eggs, too. Must be a lot of insects that like them.