Monarch Butterflies: Latest Victims of Monsanto

I recall whenever monsanto started aggressively marketing their round-up ready products, the monarch butterfly's survival was a concern.

That was, what, over a decade ago now?

reply to post by EyeHeartBigfoot


Thank you for those videos, they were amazing. It does seem like something is being stolen from us. If anyone reading this is ever near Santa Cruz, CA in the fall or winter, be sure to check out Natural Bridges State Beach, as they have a Monarch Butterfly Preserve. Sometimes there can be thousands of Monarchs in the eucalyptus trees. The good news is that they are still returning every year, and hopefully this will continue. There is also a really pretty beach.

Monarch Butterfly Natural Preserve The park's Monarch Grove provides a temporary home for up to 100,000 Monarchs each winter. From roughly mid-October through mid-February, the Monarchs form a "city in the trees." The area's mild ocean air and eucalyptus grove provide a safe roost until spring. In the spring and summer, the butterflies live in the valley regions west of the Rocky Mountains where milkweed, the only plant a Monarch caterpillar eats, is plentiful. Monarch migration is variable, and numbers vary each year.

Natural Bridges State Beach

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


I remember the concern from GreenPeace back in 99'
Monsanto

now that you mention it, I haven't seen any kind of butterfly this year. I know monarchs don't spend much time where I live cause they are migrating north, but still. in vegas we have these big bushes that bloom completely purple (don't know what they are called), and usually I would see butterflies and bees pitstopping near them. this year haven't seen one.

also was wondering where the hell all the morning doves went. as long as I lived here, we had hundreds on property, past year and a half not a single one. at night on the wall in the summer theres tons of desert lizards, but this year I noticed not very many and some are deformed and extra skiddish.

our city went from a pro-grass town to a pro-desert landscape city, and with the influx of all the special plants they brought in, our landscappers seem to be spraying more and more stuff. in hindsight I miss the bugs, but in present that spray prolly took a toll on the other life forms as well.

animals and plants now, humans later.... thanks monsanto!!

I remember monarch butterflies filling the air as they headed south, never see them now. Horned toads were caught by myself and friends as were garter snakes, box turtles, green racer lizards, frogs, crayfish, lightening bugs, tree frogs, tarantulas and dragonflies. Coyotes were commonly seen and heard as were foxes opossum, raccoon and bobcats and that was in the city limits of Dallas... I live in the woods of East Texas now and every year I see less animal life except for one species and that is wild hogs.. I still see tracks in the sandy soil but not nearly as many and not as often.. It is the same on the High Plains of West Texas where GMO corn and other grains are grown and Ranch Hand as well as Roundup is mixed fifty fifty and sprayed on weeds in cotton fields that yield a fraction of what they once did when when the plants could be closer together because people would chop out the weeds with hoes... There were people that still did things the old fashioned way and that is where you would see dove, pheasant an occasional badger or jack rabbit but they were scarce... My wife did come in from her morning walk in the woods with the dog awhile back and was excited about seeing a monarch butterfly but just one.... I wish I could of seen it.

I saw a monarch butterfly here in mid-winter, and I thought - oh, you are a bit too late.


And I thought it was a sad fact.

I saw a monarch butterfly here in mid-winter, and I thought - oh, you are a bit too late.


And I thought it was a sad fact.

Just a reminder that even as evil, greedy and corrupt Monsanto may be, they are not the only culprits destroying the Butterfly populations.

Logging drops further in Mexico butterfly reserve

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Deforestation in the wintering grounds of the Monarch butterfly in central Mexico has dropped to just over one acre's worth of trees, compared to the hundreds of acres lost annually in the past, experts said Thursday.

And fewer of the pine and fir trees that shelter the butterflies have been lost to bad weather this year, according to a report by researchers from Mexico's National Autonomous University and the Monarch Fund.

Illegal logging in the protected butterfly reserve dropped from 1.56 hectares in the 2009 winter season to just under a half hectare (about one acre) in the reserve's core zone during this year's winter.

"This is what happens when you have enforcement of the law, and economic alternatives for the inhabitants," said Omar Vidal, whose environmental group, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, has contributed along with cellphone company Telcel to economic development projects like tree nurseries in the reserve.

Logging drops further in Mexico butterfly reserve

^ looks like the Mexicans have reduced logging. meanwhile, MONsanto pumps out more and more pesticides & GMO soy, corn pollen, all of which various studies have proven continue to reduce and threaten the MONarch butterfly population drastically:

www.startribune.com...
Study ties GMO corn, soybeans to butterfly losses

- milkweed, monarch's preferred northamerican pollen source, is disappearing due to widespread use of Monsanto Roundup herbicides & others

- GMO Corn & Soy pollens contain engineered insecticidal toxin(s) including BT which when dusted on milkweed, killed 50% butterflies and the surviving half were weakened & stunted, growing only to 50% average size.

- number of monarch butterflies reaching Mexico migration dropped 28% in just one year alone

- number of monarch eggs declined by a whooping estimated 81 percent!

other source:
www.globalchange.com...