Avon on the Lake Garden Club: Monarch Butterflies

Tagging done by Diana Wyrock

The Avon on the Lake Garden Club has been very busy this year helping to preserve the monarch population by rescuing the butterfly eggs that are found on plants such as milkweed. Once the eggs are found, the club members set up a monarch sanctuary in their homes to watch the stages occur. The monarch butterfly life cycle includes four distinct phases: egg, larva (growing through five changes of skin, or instars), pupa, and adult. Once the butterflies become adults and “hatch” they are released back into nature within a few hours of hatching.

So far the club has released over 253 monarchs this year and a total of 493 over the past two years since starting this Presidents Project led by Elaine George.

Another member of the group took this project to the next level by tagging her butterflies before releasing them. Diana Wyrock commented on her project of tagging,

“Going beyond the magic of raising the Monarch Butterflies. Any year that you can raise, tag and release 49 monarchs is a good year. Even though it had a late start with challenges. This was my first year tagging them. I found it very rewarding. With some of our club members enjoying this process too. Go to: MonarchWatch.org next spring. For $15. They will send you tags and easy instructions. Also the following spring you can possibly see if any of your little ones survived the trip. We can and do make a difference by providing important information to environmental science. The tagging is an easy process of placing a tiny label sticker onto the wing of the butterfly. This process does not harm the butterfly in any way.”