I saw a single monarch 2 days ago. There have been less and less every year. I keep a fairly large area of a slope on the side of my house pretty wild and lots of milkweed in there. But we just haven't been seeing the monarchs, unfortunately. I'll be curious to see if they come through later in the summer.

Just saw this news article published today. My experience mirrors theirs.

I saw one yesterday. Last year I had quite a few but I think it was later in the season.

The past few years, I see ONE single Monarch. I used to see more and the Black Swallowtail too and the little orange skippers, but not any more. I'm lucky if I see bees. My neighborhood has had a lot of families spraying for mosquitoes. I have no idea if that is the reason, but, there are probably multiple reasons we are all seeing a decline everywhere.

I've assumed it was spraying for ticks, but I didn't realize people still spray for mosquitos. Makes me said for you, PM, that you don't see them anywhere. I had many swallowtails this year, which was a treat (standard mostly, only a few black). I agree there are multiple reasons.

Thanks Deanna, it is sad. The diminishing of insects in my garden has been very noticeable. I did however see a lot of bumble bees in the spring. I grow organically, so it really upsets me for there to be spraying in my neighborhood, but there's nothing I can do about it. Even the town sprays for mosquitoes, but you can opt out by letting them know and they will stop spraying as they pass your property, but with individuals hiring companies to spray in addition to the town, it's a losing proposition.

We haven't seen any loss of insects in our garden. I would say we have an abundance this year. Every year we have tons of honeybees and all sorts of bumblebees. Some are huge! All kinds of other insects as well. We have a company come in and spray for mosquitoes. We don't really have a choice in the matter. My son has a genetic disorder and can run into health issues, so we have to be sure he won't be dealing with west nile or EEE (which a child had in my town). We had more butterflies this season than most as well. Monarchs have been scarce for years before we started spraying. The company we use does not spray anything in bloom, so for instance there is no spraying at the moment in the cottage garden. They'll spray under the front porch. Honestly, I wish at times it would kill the black flies we get here. They are miserable. I was very worried when we started spraying probably about 5 years ago about how it would affect the insect population, but so far we haven't seen any ill effects. That's not to say there couldn't be longer lasting effects that we're not seeing yet. I wish we didn't have to do it at all, but we really can't risk mosquito diseases here.

We have seen few, but, two days ago I saw something I have never seen before: one Monarch on top of another. When I got too close, the one on top flew off with the one on bottom like it was carrying it.

Addison, that is indeed something I've never seen before, either! Twice this week I saw a single butterfly, but now I have at least five caterpillars of various larger sizes on the milkweed. Yesterday I saw for the first time a monarch depositing her eggs on the leaves, as well. I am still a far far cry from the abundance I saw last year, but I'm happy for any sign that they are here.

T2D, I understand your need to spray. I was thinking this week about the decrease in insect population, but Murphy's Law says the mosquitos are always able to find me, and even find a way to sneak into my bedroom at night. They always seem happy, unfortunately! I don't blame you for spraying. I'm just glad slugs don't fly and bite, because I wouldn't be able to venture outside here if they did!

I saw my first Monarch since April yesterday. Only one solitary one unfortunately. I also saw a pair of those little orange butterflies. I forget the name.

Today was beautiful in my garden! Butterflies everywhere! Monarchs and black swallowtails, many of them dancing through the air in pairs. They particularly were enjoying my phlox, zinnias, and the agastache that I let reseed everywhere just for this purpose (well, actually it's for the bees, but the butterflies are welcome too!)

I've been seeing butterflies in general and Monarchs in particular over the last week or so, but I don't know why today they were suddenly everywhere. But I'm not complaining!

:)
Dee

Dee, I did see a Swallowtail the other day. One. [g]. But I did remember that I had multiple Monarchs on the Aster out front in the fall last year, so I hope that will be the case this year too. No photos?! Which agastache do you grow that reseeds there for you?

PM2 I can't easily get photos from my phone to my computer (my email on my phone doesn't work) so it's hard to post photos. And actually, I think it might have been you, lol, that jogged my memory on what agastache I grow! I have Honey Bee Blue, which I wintersowed YEARS ago (probably 20 years ago) and I just let it reseed at will. If it gets somewhere I don't want it I pull it out, but I leave most of it. I used to use it as a lovely filler in bouquets when I was selling, and also love it because the bees do. Apparently so do the butterflies, which is wonderful. It's one of the easiest plants I grow. Not only is it a bee magnet, but it never needs staking, hardly ever needs water, nothing seems to bother it or want to eat it lol, and it blooms prolifically. What's not to like, lol?

My parsley is starting to get decimated from the Black Swallowtail caterpillars, but that's okay. I enjoy seeing the cats out there and I'm willing to share!

:)
Dee

Dee, I remember the conversation about the Honey Bee Blue. Okay so that makes sense. I've never had another Agastache reseed here. [g]. My parsley is not looking so good. A little yellowed from too dry. And that is not easy to do with parsley, it usually always remains green. I did have a photo of a cat on my Parsley one year...

I've been pinching back my Agastache HBB this year. I've never done that and I'm getting a little bushier plant, but I'm also delaying the bloom.

I hope you get your photo ability worked out, we all would enjoy seeing photos of your garden. :-). I understand though the technical difficulties. I'd still like to go back to an earlier time when we had never heard of technology. [g]

Those five caterpillars are hard to find now. Hoping they didn't get eaten and found a chrysalis hangout. I see a couple more now, but no more butterflies. This is a HUGE (and I mean YOOOOOGE) difference compared to last year. My milkweed looks far too pristine. Waiting to see if I can tell when the eggs the lady laid will hatch.

We had gusts over 30 mph when the remnants of the hurricane came through, but no rain. The next day I went out to check on a couple of chrysali. They were gone, and I mean gone. No trace even of the webbing that would’ve held them to the iris leaves. One was clear and ripe for the monarch emerge. I looked around and saw a new monarch on a blade of grass and a green chrysalis on the ground. The wind actually blew them completely off the iris leaf. The butterfly clearly hatched and crawled up on a plate of grass to dry. I’ve got the chrysalis inside now hanging.

In the past few days, I've had more Monarchs in the garden than I've seen all season but still a lot less than last year. I captured this shot yesterday.