Last Friday, Ms. Danelle at our Livonia- West location put together an awesome event for all of our families. Ms. Danelle set up a table in our lobby with monarch caterpillars, a milkweed plant, and some chrysalids for our families to explore and learn. She also handed out milkweed seeds to our families to take home and plant together!
Here are some fun facts that Ms. Danelle shared with our families:
- Monarchs were declared an endangered species on July 25th of this year, and there is a 57% chance of going extinct by 2035.
- Their decline began in 1970s, due to loss of habitat and an increase in the use of pesticides.
- Pesticides are the leading cause in the declined butterfly population across all species.
- The monarchs only food source is milkweed. There are 12 types of milkweed, all of which are acceptable host plants for monarchs, and are toxic to consume (unless you’re a monarch!)
- As caterpillars they have bright yellow, white and black stripes and eat almost constantly, doubling in size nearly everyday.
- When they’re ready to form their chrysalis, they hang upside down and are completely vulnerable or up to 2 days.
- Once formed, their green chrysalis has beautiful gold studs on it. 10-14 days later, the iconic black, orange, and white butterfly emerges.
- Monarchs travel up to 3,000 miles in their migration to south west Mexico, flying as long as 10 hours a day.
- In the 1990’s an estimated one billion monarchs made it to Mexico.
- In 2021, the count was fewer than 2,000
We are so grateful for Ms. Danelle and for her putting together such a fun and educational event for our families.
