Summer Stewardship Series Video 10

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by Dru Mark-Wilson9 views·Updated Aug 31, 2021
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Monarch Butterflies & Milkweed

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  1. Hi there, this is Miss Drew with defiant soil and
  2. water conservation district.
  3. If you don't know who I am, I'm the education
  4. and outreach coordinator here and this is our summer stewardship
  5. series. Video 10.
  6. So like every video before we get started on this
  7. week's topic, let's just review the word stewardship stewardship is
  8. the act of good consciousness of the environment.
  9. So it's making a conscious choice is to benefit and
  10. preserve our natural world sold.
  11. And going right along with this is our topic of
  12. the week monarchs and milkweed.
  13. So first I'll start off with the monarch butterfly.
  14. I hope everyone has seen one of these.
  15. Otherwise you'll see them here soon.
  16. Uh Their peak time for hatching is uh this mid
  17. september, so keep an eye out.
  18. But uh the monarch butterfly has a very distinct life
  19. cycle, that's different from others.
  20. Um It starts off as an A and then it
  21. um grows into its larval form.
  22. Then uh it wraps itself um in its puppet state.
  23. So it becomes a Pupi just like what we see,
  24. that little chrysalis as um it then grows into its
  25. adult form with wings and that is what we, I'll
  26. call our monarch butterfly.
  27. So um I don't know if many people know this,
  28. but there is a male and female monarch butterfly and
  29. there is a way to tell the difference.
  30. So if you were to look down at a butterfly
  31. with its wings open to you um you would see
  32. at the bottom Uh two parts of their wings, there
  33. is a small dot on the wings right on the
  34. line. Um And I'll show you the female because you'll
  35. see the difference.
  36. So be sure to look at the bottom two wings.
  37. So this is the female does not have that and
  38. the male does keep that in mind when you are
  39. looking for butterflies on the monarch butterfly specifically.
  40. And even if you're involved in tagging them, we'll talk
  41. a little bit about that coming up.
  42. So something about monarch butterflies um They are very picky
  43. eaters and that just means that in their larval state
  44. they only survive on the common milkweed.
  45. Milkweed used to be a way more abundant here in
  46. the midwest.
  47. Um You would see more common than you do today.
  48. But it's a very important plant for these pollinators.
  49. What's a pollinator?
  50. A pollinator is uh a a form of pollination.
  51. Either by an insect or living being or even by
  52. wind as well.
  53. It's the movement of one grain of pollen into another
  54. plant to create that new life cycle of creating seats.
  55. So um pollination is super, super important.
  56. And if we didn't have pollinators are grocery stores would
  57. be extremely empty and a lot of you I have
  58. heard say well we would at least have meat in
  59. the store.
  60. Well think about this are meet even the animals that
  61. produce our meat actually eat plants as well mostly.
  62. And so think about that.
  63. We probably wouldn't have as much meat as well.
  64. So pollinators are extremely important to the health and well
  65. being of us and all other living beings.
  66. So this pollinator in particular, the monarch butterfly only feeds
  67. at this stage in its life on milkweed.
  68. So another key thing about monarch butterflies is that they
  69. migrate migrate is uh a way of describing the movement
  70. of their seasons.
  71. So they move from one place to another to a
  72. warmer place where they will have more food availability um
  73. and be able to survive if they make the journey
  74. which can be very long and very hard.
  75. I know the writing here is a little bit small
  76. but I'll just walk you through this, you can see
  77. the yellow areas and that's where um these monarch butterflies
  78. are breeding during the summertime.
  79. And then the green area is the breeding area that
  80. um the monarch butterflies are in the springtime.
  81. So this is a map of the United States and
  82. you can also see Canada and Mexico in it as
  83. well. Um The green arrows are indicating the spring migration,
  84. so if they were born where they over wintered and
  85. it became spring, that means that they need to migrate
  86. up to their breed wherever they're going to breed in
  87. the spring or summer.
  88. But then when it comes around to fall time, this
  89. orange, this large orange arrow and there's a few other
  90. orange arrows in there that's showing where they are going
  91. to be in the winter.
  92. And there are very small areas that these monarch butterflies
  93. are going to um to overwinter.
  94. So you can see uh the pacific ocean shoreline, southern
  95. florida and then in Mexico as well.
  96. So these are very long journeys, especially from our monarch
  97. butterflies here in Ohio, all the way to southern florida,
  98. California or even Mexico.
  99. Pretty pretty crazy.
  100. So when we are thinking about this long journey that
  101. they're going through, it's important that they are fed and
  102. they also have habitat or sheltered.
  103. Um and usually that's found with the milkweed, milkweed produces
  104. these pods and their seed pods, although these are annual
  105. plants meaning that they come back every spring once they're
  106. planted. Um um the population is diminishing unfortunately due to
  107. habitat loss and habits that we have as humans to
  108. get rid of them.
  109. Um It's good to plant these, especially in your pollinator
  110. gardens or big swaths of fields.
  111. Um Like I said, it's important to provide that habitat,
  112. but the pot um have the seeds and they break
  113. open once they have dried and the fluff you've probably
  114. seen the fluff come out and it allows the seed
  115. to travel.
  116. But um what we're doing here actually is we're collecting
  117. those seeds in order for the seeds to be cleaned,
  118. germinated and then replanted to help those monarch butterflies.
  119. So if you see uh any of these pods that
  120. are got, they have gotten to the stage where they
  121. are round on the outside and dry.
  122. Um you can bring them to our office here where
  123. we have this little been that has a bunch of
  124. butterflies on it and it's important that you put them
  125. in a paper bag so they don't mold or rot.
  126. Um plastic won't help with that to make sure they're
  127. in a paper bag but you can place them in
  128. this bin and we will get them where they need
  129. to go.
  130. So we will be collecting those pods through the end
  131. of october Yeah, so thank you guys so much for
  132. watching all these videos all summer long.
  133. I really, really appreciate it.
  134. And if you really enjoyed this series, please like and
  135. share and if you have any ideas of things you'd
  136. like to see, I'd love to hear about it.
  137. Um Thank you guys so much and I will see
  138. you soon.