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Re: Monarch butterflies, are they more uncommon?

Sandy,
We also have noticed that there are very few monarchs this year in our
area-the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio. We have had a very wet spring and because
of this we have tons of earwigs living in the tops of our milkweeds.
According to our local monarch expert Doris Stifel, earwigs eat monarch eggs
and tiny larvae. We are blaming this for the absence of our monarchs but its
just a guess. Any thoughts?
Heather Carter

At 08:02 PM 7/4/00 -0500, you wrote:
>In 2000 we first saw a monarch butterfly almost a couple of months ago at
our 640 acre
>prairie restoration / reconstruction project in Iowa County, Iowa.  Since
then, during 6
>to 12 hour visits, 2 to 3 times a week, we have never seen more than 3 in a
day.  Most
>often we spot only 1 individual; sometimes none are seen.  If memory serves
(we did not
>keep records last year and haven't really this year), we saw *many* more
monarchs at all
>times in the summer of 1999.  I of course am not counting the migration
when large numbers
>were seen in fall 1999.
>
>Is this anyone else's experience?
>
>We wonder if the increased planting of GMO crops (esp. Bt corn, etc) may be
contributing
>to this seeming decline of monarchs?  Corn is not yet pollinating in our
area, so its
>pollen, if Bt added, can't yet be effecting this year's cohort of larvae.
Was there some
>other disaster to the south of us which has reduced the numbers of
returning adults?
>
>Sandy Rhodes
>
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