Everything is really late this year--so don't give up hope.

Thanks butterflymomok.

The milkweed is sooooo healthy this year. I just don't want them to miss out. :)

I haven't seen a single Monarch yet here, but plenty of other butterflies. To my surprise, after yesterday's flash flood, I found a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar on my Rue. I take it as a sign :-).

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Brad,
It might be a sign that you have a confused caterpillar but I'm betting you just need to do a better job IDing the cat. :-D

KC

I think It's going to be a late season. Just had the second gulf frit of the year show up this weekend and it was a she! Also still have monarchs in the area which is unusal for me. The sightings picked up in my yard this past weekend as we witnessed a Red admiral, Southern white, Giant ST, Female Monarch, Gulf Frit, and an unidentified skipper. But Where are the Sulphurs?

It is a late season. I'm just now seeing BSTs, RAs and RSPs as well as one or two Monarchs, including the ones I released. I see tons of Cabbage Whites and the occasional AL, and 2 grass skippers. That's about all I can report for the entire season so far...

It's definitely a late season, maybe due to the cool, wet spring, I don't know. I still haven't seen a monarch this year, nor a pipevine swallowtail. My pipevines are huge, are spreading out even more, but they have a lot of old, unused growth. I'm thinking I'm going to trim them back pretty soon to encourage more new growth in case a female pipevine swallowtail shows up.

Butterfly addict, I think you're in Louisiana? I saw lots of sulphurs earlier this spring, but not many lately. There are some cats on my Christmas cassia, but I think they're just sleepy oranges, still sulphurs.

Sherry

There have been only a very few monarch butterflies at our house, here in Madison. We have all sorts of milkweed, and we have plenty of milkweed beetles. I have seen exactly two adult monarchs so far this year.

I have seen an assortment of butterflies this season, including a sulphur, a black swallowtail, and a small dark butterfly today. No great numbers, but there rarely is around here. Maybe because this neighborhood has some farmland and a few woodlands, but it is mostly suburban yards that were developed on former farmland, and people grow few native plants and butterfly host plants.

No Monarchs yet! There are some decent patches of milkweed growing around here and generally the A. syriaca is in full bloom. Hoping to see them soon.

I saw my first monarch of the season today here in Oklahoma nectaring on my buddleia. Its been dismal here so far and I planted lots more wildflowers after seeing the numbers of them last year anticipating them.

I checked out this forum to see what the problem was a while back and wanted to write in to report the one monarch siting. Sounds like we aren't the only ones not seeing them.

Although I occasionally read this forum, this is my first posting here. I read this thread because I have been concerned about the absence of monarchs here in southwest Michigan. Several times a week, a friend and I walk through a natural area which has thousands of blooming milkweed plants. We haven't seen a single monarch yet and only a handful of swallowtails. I really hope they're still on the way.

Diane & I were at Blue Mound State Park for 3 hours on July 4th. We walked all around the top, climbed the observation towers, and walked for another hour along a wide trail that runs west of the swimming pool. I saw lots of milkweed, but no monarchs. There were no eggs on the milkweed, and no evidence of monarch cats. I did see several black swallowtail butterflies and also a patch of prairie with maybe 6 aphrodite fritillary butterflies.

Hopefully, even if not many show up, its just part of the normal variation of things..........and not something man has caused......like growing GMO stuff.

The combination of destruction of wintering habitat in Mexico, the severe drought in much of the Midwest last summer, and the near eradication of milkweed from the farming lands throughout the Monarch's normal migratory path, among other things, has created this drop in population. There may also be effects from the cool rainy spring many of us have had. I just hope anyone who is fortunate enough to have Monarchs visiting this year can provide some protection from predators to give the Monarchs a little boost to help their numbers recover. Good luck to everyone in all of their efforts to maintain natural habitats of all sorts.

Martha

Gardeningmusician, I too have not seen any monarch this year. I have seen tons of Cabbage whites, I see a few skipper cats on my wisteria, some Mourning Cloaks and a Giant swallowtail.. I think the Monarch have forgotten us in SW MI this year.