first monarch in SE WI

[stacey16]

Haven't seen any butterflies but we found three eggs and raised them. (some kids pulled out some milkweed and hastily threw it down on the ground while we were at a tennis tournament. I should have reprimanded them but I snatched up the milkweed as they ran away!) The first monarch hatched today! We were so excited! Two more will hatch in a day or two. Why are we seeing so few butterflies in this area?

[Robin L.]

It's apparently not just your area where they are scarce. I live in western Pennsylvania, and I have found just a total of 9 so far this season (8 eggs and one 1'st instar). I've essentially found just one every several days over the course of the past six weeks, the first one being on June 4'th. I have yet to even see an adult monarch, other than the three healthy males that I have released to date. I do believe this is the slowest it has been since I started raising them about ten years ago.

[Mona Miller]

I netted a female and collected about 100 eggs. I raised 71 of those. I gave a teacher the rest of the eggs. So far, two have emerged from their chrysalis. I will breed the adults, distribute eggs to people who want to raise them, and release more butterflies. Hopefully, if enough people do this, the population will rebound a little bit.