Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Monarch Migration, 0 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Way to go Donna! We need to get as many folks as possible on board! Seems that only organic nurseries sell host plants, and most people shop at big chain nurseries like HD or Lowes. Often times the staff do not even know what a "host plant" is at all. They know more about selling chemicals to kill anything that feed on plants. We can change this if we keep working at it like you are!

Someone way up the thread, (Martha I believe), was asking how Monarchs know to migrate. I read Mellie's link and agree with the climate change and length of days as a major influence. I also believe that Monarchs follow the sun, and that's how so many wind up in the same roosting spots every year as if someone etched out a map for them....
You see as the winter approaches the suns trajectory in the sky moves south, and when they wake up to begin traveling again the sun is in a certain spot at the warmest time of the day. Each day they set out again the same, following the sun as something within them seems magnetized to the placement of the sun... Until finally they converge at their perfect and various roosting spots and remain until the following spring.

Being a butterfly person all these years has me beginning to think like a butterfly...lol. :-)

Hope everyone here has been collecting their Milkweed and other host plant seeds. Give them out to as many as will grow them. I sure hope the numbers are much better next year.

Debnes