Anderson County Monarch Butterfly Program

04/21/2024

April 20, 2024 - Hiked out looking at native plants and found this beauty. No activity yet, but it sits at the top of a long gentle slope where monarchs fly thru often. Will recheck in another week.

04/10/2024

Lots of native milkweeds and pollinator food source plants growing in abundance here this beautiful Spring. The rain and early warmer temperatures has been a huge part of that.

01/14/2024

08/27/2023

06/01/2023

Thanks again to Monarch Watch and the University of Kansas for their generosity. We have received what was needed this year…. plenty of young native milkweeds to improve upon the existing natural habitat areas we have been working on since 2017. Stay tuned for the next step as we plant these with our volunteer helpers!

05/23/2023

NEW GRANT! We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded another plant grant for our native milkweed and monarch habitat restoration efforts! Plants will arrive shortly so stay tuned to see the continued process! (Photo is a sprouting piece of a large corm of Asclepias Syriaca that was a rescued casualty of roadside mowing).

05/22/2023

Happy ! How do monarchs become toxic to predators?

Monarchs become toxic to predators by sequestering or storing toxins from the milkweed plants that they eat. Milkweed contains toxins called cardenolides, or cardiac glycosides, which are toxic to predators. This makes monarchs very distasteful or unpleasant to predators. Some predators have evolved ways to avoid or tolerate these toxins, such as the bird predators found in Mexican overwintering colonies.

05/19/2023

03/25/2023

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