Migration of the monarchs

*To watch the interview with a butterfly expert, click the link.

Monarch and painted lady butterfly populations have been soaring through Arizona.

The colorful insects begin their yearly migration early February and continue their flight until they reach Mexico.

Residents within their path have been witnessing one of the highest numbers in years.

In fact, scientists from Mexico say this year’s cluster of butterflies covers 14.9 acres of forest.

A record that is the highest since 2006 and an increase of 144% from last winter.

Gail Morris, is a coordinates the Southwest Monarch study, is vice president for the Central Arizona Butterfly Association and is on the board of the Monarch Butterfly Fund.

“In the fall they go down to either Mexico or off the coast of California and Mexico had a really big increase in population in the monarchs there got back up to what they should be as an average number we finally saw that big increase,” said Morris.

As for California, the population has crashed to the lowest levels ever seen.

Fewer than 30,000 in fact.

“The California population plummeted and so it’s still really impressive when you go to see these large numbers,” said Morris.

Those butterflies though, have been more active this season due to warmer temperatures.

“They don’t like to stay in a place that’s constantly freezing so they’ll tend to retreat monarchs retreat further into Mexico or the California coast but painted ladies they’ll stay in the south they’ll stay in the Phoenix area there’s probably some that will spend the summer in the Yuma area,” said Morris.

Warmer weather and rainfall, both reasons as to why the butterflies make this journey.

“With the winter rain being so huge after not having any for so long all their houseplants just are everywhere so they’ve been able to reproduce real rapidly and they all matured at the same time,” said Morris. “If you look at the weather maps of the amount of rain we’ve had this year even in the lower deserts it’s huge amounts over normal and that’s what’s contributing to it,” she added.

Both monarch butterflies and painted lady butterflies look similar but are very different.

Painted lady butterflies, for example, are smaller in size and have erratic flight patterns.

Monarch butterflies like gliding and have a similar orange, black and white coloring.

The rainfall has played a big role in the growth of their host plants, milkweed.

For monarch butterflies, milkweed is an essential plant for their lifespan.

Johnny Sullivan, a sales representative at Yuma Nursery Supply is an expert when it comes to milkweed and their alluring effect on butterflies.

“It flowers all year long, it’s full sun so it’s very hearty, but the most interesting thing about it is that it affects the tracks the monarch butterfly,” he said.

If you have seen these insects, whether on your home plants or on your windshield, it’s most likely they are monarchs or painted ladies.

“We usually see them during the winter time, they start to cocoon and it takes around about two weeks for them to break out of their cocoon most of the time when people come in specifically to buy some milkweed, it’s because they want the butterfly,” said Sullivan.

“Painted ladies, in particular, have a lot of what we call host plants and a host plant is where a butterfly will leave your eggs monarch will only lay their eggs on milkweed,” said Morris.

Groups or broods of butterflies can travel up to thousands of miles, beginning along the coast.

“They headed along the California coast first and then they started moving through and now it’s towards Yuma and Blithe and that area coming through people are talking about butterflies on their car you know it’s like trying to dodge them,” said Morris.

Morris encourages people to not only enjoy, but preserve beauties of nature such as our butterfly population.

“I think the thing we would all like to do is to keep this happening for generations to come that this isn’t something that only you and I are seeing we want people in the future to be able to see the same thing,” said Morris.

“It’s really nice to see that people care about those sorts of things, we need more of that, when they come in and even if they’re not looking for the milkweed in particular and they see butterflies flying around the nursery, they say ‘oh where that is coming from’ and we’ll point them to the milkweed and all the sudden they want one,” said Sullivan.

To learn more about how you can preserve the butterfly population for the future, visit swmonarchs.org.

There are currently butterflies traveling through Yuma, and you can help them to flourish here.

Morris suggests residents to resist picking weeds in your garden.

You may not see them now, but those weeds may someday be home to a butterfly.