- A monarch butterfly-tagging event was held Wednesday at Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center
- Four male and two female monarchs were tagged
- Migratory monarch populations are declining
BUSHKILL TWP., Pa. — When the weather in the Lehigh Valley begins to cool and sunlight starts to wane as the region moves into fall, monarch butterflies have one thing on their minds — Mexico.
“It triggers them not to mate,” said Doug Burton, a volunteer with the Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, of the change in season. “Not mating means they’ll stay alive longer, and that combination triggers them to go to Mexico … something in their DNA makes them want to.”
The center on Wednesday morning held its annual “Monarch Madness” event, a conservation research project that includes tagging the butterflies through nonprofit Monarch Watch as they migrate south to overwinter. As monarch populations continue to decline due to increased use of pesticides, development and climate change, researchers said the citizen science project is important to track the status of the insect.
“Monarchs take four generations to make a round trip,” Burton said. “Say one’s born in Jacobsburg — they’ll fly to Mexico, hibernate and then the next spring, they'll come up to the Texas, Oklahoma area, lay eggs and die.
“Then [generation] number two will hatch, [and] come up. They might make it to Pennsylvania or maybe to Tennessee [or] Kentucky. They lay their eggs and die,” he said. “Third generation in Pennsylvania now. In late July and August, they lay their eggs and die. Number four is now.”
In addition to Jacobsburg, Waste Management also held a monarch tagging event Wednesday at WM Grand Central Environmental Education Center in Pen Argyl. It was their second year, said Adrienne Fors, senior community relations specialist for Waste Management’s greater mid-Atlantic region.
"While it is a program that we are just getting started on again, we hope to implement this on an annual basis to support citizen science," she said.
Learning good 'netiquette'
Before heading out into the field, Burton held a short class in the center, 400 Belfast Road, on the basics of butterfly catching, tagging and sexing.
“What we do is we catch the butterflies in the net,” he said. “And we get it out and we put the tag number in [the log book] first, just in case it escapes.”
Good net-etiquette — or “netiquette” as Burton described it – is important, making sure to catch the insect without hitting any of the other volunteers. Patience is also key.
“Butterflies have pretty bad eyesight, but they're excellent motion detectors. So if you see a butterfly or monarch and it’s flying around, just stand still and wait until it settles down.”Doug Burton, a volunteer with the Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center
“Butterflies have pretty bad eyesight, but they're excellent motion detectors,” he said. “So if you see a butterfly or monarch and it’s flying around, just stand still and wait until it settles down.”
Once the monarch is caught, Burton uses a pair of tweezers to delicately release the sticky tag from its backing. The size of a pencil’s eraser, the tags are numbered and stick to the right wing.
“How you sex them is that the female has really dark black lines, and the male has really thin [black lines],” he said. “And they have these two little dots on the bottom here, scent [glands].”
After each tagging event, the data is logged with Monarch Watch, a nonprofit out of the University of Kansas. When researchers in Mexico find a tag, they can look up the number and see how far and from where it traveled.
In the ninth year of tagging at the center, there have been two monarchs tagged in at the center and recovered in Mexico.
“I order 100 tags a year,” he said. “And people say, ‘Well, that's not a really good return on your investment.’ I said, ‘Well, we might have had all 100 down there last year, but they just never found them.’”
‘On the edge of collapse’
Monarch populations are on a rapid decline, and researchers say it’s a three-pronged issue: pesticide usage, development and climate change.
Monarchs have declined 85% in two decades. The western population — which overwinters in California as part of its international migration — has suffered a heartbreaking 99% decline.Center for Biological Diversity
“Monarchs have declined 85% in two decades,” according to the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based nonprofit. “The western population — which overwinters in California as part of its international migration — has suffered a heartbreaking 99% decline.
“Overall, the migrating populations are less than half the size they need to be to avoid extinction.”
The orange and black insects depend on milkweed to survive, but native plants are often shouldered out by invasive species or development.
Plus, increased severe weather events associated with climate change could threaten their migration.
“Strong storm events threaten butterflies,” said Lauren Forster, the center’s education supervisor. “They can throw the butterflies off course.”
In July of 2022, monarchs were added as “endangered” to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List, due to habitat destruction and climate change.
“It is difficult to watch monarch butterflies and their extraordinary migration teeter on the edge of collapse, but there are signs of hope,” said Anna Walker, member of the IUCN SSC Butterfly and Moth Specialist Group and species survival officer at the New Mexico BioPark Society. “So many people and organizations have come together to try and protect this butterfly and its habitats.
“From planting native milkweed and reducing pesticide use to supporting the protection of overwintering sites and contributing to community science, we all have a role to play in making sure this iconic insect makes a full recovery.”
‘Grab all four wings’
The weather was not on the side of the taggers at Jacobsburg — monarchs prefer dry days, but there was a little cloud cover, threatening rain.
“Butterflies hate cloudy days — they think it's gonna rain,” Burton said. “So they’re just hanging out in the plants. It has to warm up for them to fly.
“It’s like throwing dice.”
Three males and two females tagged!
— Molly Bilinski, artisanal sentence crafter (@MollyBilinski) September 13, 2023
(I got to let this one go!!!!) pic.twitter.com/SrWKHuE0Pj
After more than an hour in the fields on the center’s more than 1,000-acre property, four male and two female monarchs were tagged. Other butterflies were out, too, captured and then released — one cabbage white, a couple of pearl crescents and one great spangled fritillary.
After each monarch was tagged and logged, Burton showed volunteers how to gently release them.
“Grab all four wings,” Burton said. “Raise him above your head and drop him.”
After leaving the volunteer’s fingers, the monarch fell slightly, beating its wings erratically before flying away through the fields of sunflowers and goldenrod, continuing on its journey.
