Florida Monarch Research and Educational Project 501c3

I'd like to thank everyone who has reached out to donate. We only accept checks by mail. Thank you 🦋

A big THANK YOU to Sue Achey for the generous contribution to our research on behalf of her friend Leanna Achranz.🦋

TAP ON POST BELOW THIS EXPLANATION.......
This was posted but unable to comment. I just wanted to clear up one very important statement made in this post.
Migratory monarchs are not able to lay eggs. They may migrate through Florida but this particular generation are sexually immature and in a state of Diapause and can not mate "unless" due to high temperatures in our state, they break Diapause and then and only then can they mate. If this happens they will not continue the journey but become Florida residents.
The reason for cutting back your milkweed prior to the arrival of the migratory monarch was to deter them from breaking Diapause but that theory is being challenged.
TAP below here to read referenced post.

It is said, the Florida Monarch is smaller in comparison to the Eastern migratory monarch. This is the largest of 16 that emerged yesterday. Total wingspan of 4.18 or 106.172 mm, larger than the average size of the migratory monarch. All raised on Giant milkweed. Only 2 measured under 2".

ATTENTION:
We are sad to report someone else has jumped on the OE ban wagon!! Someone from "Butterfly Habitat Restoration" out of Pinellas County has posted: is now making it their mission to euthanized - in their words "freezer nap" any monarchs they net and test that have the OE spore. This is absolutely appalling!! This company (that sells native plants) boasts a picture of monarchs as their Cover Photo, REALLY?
We also have a participant who does not raise monarchs, only nets, tests and tags them within 3 miles of this place and stated there is a noticeable decline in the monarch population. Now, this may or may not have a direct connection but is very suspect.
We are working on getting our data to date together. We are going to still continue with collecting data for the next few years but since we have great data from the past 5 years we see the need to get it out there to be published. Be patient as this will take time as well.
Mean while, continue to plant milkweed! PLEASE do not euthanize just because they are carriers of the spore. Be humane though and euthanize if they are unable to fly off and live a normal life to avoid the spread of disease.

We will address the blog circulating by a professor from the University of Georgia.
We have been doing research on the effects of the OE spore since 2019 and it is still ongoing.
Research takes years to come to any conclusions.
Understanding the impact of weather on the wildlife and insect health takes time, especially in a volatile environment like Florida.
Respectfully, collectively we have to disagree with the blog. While the professor has done some assistant research on monarchs, none of it was on the effects of OE, the Florida resident monarch or the tropical milkweed. Our position is no one should be ripping out the milkweeds because of someone's "opinion". There needs to be research and a clear cut plan to minimize the ripple effect.
Take a step back, a deep breath and think about cause and effect.
If we rip out all cultivated milkweed what will be affected?
The land development in Florida is not slowing so just where does that leave the native milkweeds?
What little of the wild native milkweeds that do exist will need to be able to sustain the Monarch, Queen and Soldier butterflies. Are you willing to lose 3 species of butterflies over someone's opinion?
Now, here's a thought. Let's say we all rip out all cultivated milkweed, what will happen? Logic tells us the butterfly will go north where it can find it. So now we WILL be responsible for our OE carriers infecting the migratory monarchs.
So here's what you can do.... if you believe that what you are doing by rearing monarchs is causing the problem, just supply the habitats. Let nature take its course, predators will keep the numbers in check. About 1-3 eggs out of 100 make it to be productive adults in nature. This is a much better solution to a theory or opinion that suggests the destruction of all cultivated milkweed that may end up doing more harm than good.

https://www.facebook.com/100039882316787/posts/1158013418871391/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Thousands of butterflies are starting their migration from the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacan, Mexico. It's a breathtaking sight to see them all take flight!

📸 Pepe Soho
Shared by True Bliss Nature

Please share. We are a non profit research project run completely by volunteers.

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PLEASE SHARE! SHARE! SHARE!
We are reaching out to our monarch butterfly family in hopes of recruiting participants for 2024! This is for all residents (snow birds included) of Florida.
You can either be raising the larvae or just providing a habitat where you can net the butterfly.
We provide all supplies needed by the research free of charge including postage. Contact us at:
[email protected]

We are reaching out to you to help us continue our research on our beloved Resident Monarch. We are a non profit and are solely run by volunteers.
Please check out our Amazon wish list.
An important item not carried on Amazon is postage stamps. If you would like to assist with that, they can be mailed to our mailing address: P.O. box 174 Fort Ogden, FL. 34267 or Our Shipping address is: 29435 Pine Villa Circle Punta Gorda, FL. 33982.
Our participants do not pay any costs to participate in the research; tags, test tabs, index cards, data sheets, calipers(new to the research this year) clips and all postage is supplied by the research. The gift cards for Amazon will be used to purchase nets for the few participants who go out and net wild monarchs for testing and tagging. We'd like to thank you in advance for all your help and please feel free to share this post.

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Another year has come and gone. Hurricane Ian has wreaked havoc on the butterfly population in southwest Florida. The loss of the state butterfly post Ian was wide spread. It has only just been seen by natural means in the past two months returning to the area.
The monarch has also had some problems (not OE related). Just after Ian there was a great explosion of monarch caterpillars. Without their natural predators to keep the numbers in check we were flooded with monarchs. Was this a good thing? NO! We need our checks and balances. Come late spring and early summer caterpillars and chrysalis were dying. Unfortunately there are not enough resources to scientifically identify the exact cause but as in nature, a sudden over population of any species is bound to have negative consequences.
Let's hope for cooler temperatures to regulate bacteria and disease. Hopefully 2024 will be a stellar year for our butterflies and all pollinators.

Something we often see on butterfly pages is the assumption that if a monarch butterfly emerges with deformed or underdeveloped wings it must be due to the OE spore. Here are some pictures of other species of butterflies that are not affected by the OE spore and yet emerged with deformed or underdeveloped wings.