The interesting thing is in Southern California there is a huge bloom in the growth of the Monarch population. We’re part of a group of people in SoCal on a message board who have butterfly gardens, and everyone is seeing crazy numbers of Monarchs this season. We only have a small butterfly garden and in past years only birthed around 20 per season. The season is only half done, and we lost count how many have emerged from our yard. I used to be happy to see one butterfly per day, but this year I can stand in my yard every afternoon and have 3 or 4 flying around my head. I’ve watched 6-way butterfly orgies. We counted 20 caterpillars on just one of our plants one day.
The caterpillars this year are also morons. I lost count how many times I’ve watched them fall off a plant or eat the root of the leaf they are standing on (also causing them to fall off). There is a whole thread on the boards with pics of really stupid places they’ve seen chrysalises. One common spot this year is on car rims. The best are multiple people have pics of a chrysalis hanging from the bottom of another chrysalis. That is guaranteed to go poorly for the bottom one.
Same here, I’m in the Southeastern USA. Monarchs are one of those species I pay attention to, and this spring we had a bumper crop around here. I’ve never seen so many of the caterpillars and adults in the past 10 years or so I’ve made an effort to look.
Granted, that’s also true for the handful of other butterfly and moth species I keep tabs on, they’re all having a really good year this year it seems. Luna moths, several different swallowtail species, Gulf fritillary, regal moths, hummingbird butterflies. About the only thing that I’ve seen less of this year are the giant hummingbird hawk moths.
But these things do tend to ebb and flow. One year certain “bugs” are everywhere, the next year they’re hardly seen. And with the monarch lifecycle being what it is, one good year like this one, even if it’s good in more than one region, isn’t a guarantee of long term success.
The interesting thing is in Southern California there is a huge bloom in the growth of the Monarch population. We’re part of a group of people in SoCal on a message board who have butterfly gardens, and everyone is seeing crazy numbers of Monarchs this season. We only have a small butterfly garden and in past years only birthed around 20 per season. The season is only half done, and we lost count how many have emerged from our yard. I used to be happy to see one butterfly per day, but this year I can stand in my yard every afternoon and have 3 or 4 flying around my head. I’ve watched 6-way butterfly orgies. We counted 20 caterpillars on just one of our plants one day.
The caterpillars this year are also morons. I lost count how many times I’ve watched them fall off a plant or eat the root of the leaf they are standing on (also causing them to fall off). There is a whole thread on the boards with pics of really stupid places they’ve seen chrysalises. One common spot this year is on car rims. The best are multiple people have pics of a chrysalis hanging from the bottom of another chrysalis. That is guaranteed to go poorly for the bottom one.
Same here, I’m in the Southeastern USA. Monarchs are one of those species I pay attention to, and this spring we had a bumper crop around here. I’ve never seen so many of the caterpillars and adults in the past 10 years or so I’ve made an effort to look.
Granted, that’s also true for the handful of other butterfly and moth species I keep tabs on, they’re all having a really good year this year it seems. Luna moths, several different swallowtail species, Gulf fritillary, regal moths, hummingbird butterflies. About the only thing that I’ve seen less of this year are the giant hummingbird hawk moths.
But these things do tend to ebb and flow. One year certain “bugs” are everywhere, the next year they’re hardly seen. And with the monarch lifecycle being what it is, one good year like this one, even if it’s good in more than one region, isn’t a guarantee of long term success.
Can confirm, have seen more than usual the last few weeks in Socal (anecdotal and non-quantitative).