We’re beginning to notice that there arefewerbutterflies around this year. People who monitor Monarchbutterflies in Minnesota blame it on less milkweed, which isthe butterflies’ favorite food and the only place they laytheir eggs, but they don’t know why there’s less of itaround than there used to be.
Butterfly expert Karen Oberhauser says, “There’s adisturbing indication that [the population] is going down,because we’ve had three low years [of milkweed growth] in arow. It’s kind of a complicated problem because there’s notone smoking gun.”
Chao Xiong writes in the Minnesota Star Tribune that one ofthe problems is a large number of storms in the Monarchs’wintering grounds in Mexico, which killed millions ofbutterflies in 2002 and again this year. Another cause couldbe genetically-modified soybeans, which aren’t destroyed byweed-killers?thus more chemicals are sprayed on fields.These pesticides do kill milkweed.
A reader named Garth writes: “All the butterflies are in Canada.In response to your story about fewer butterflies inMinnisota, there are increased numbers in Ontario Canada. In my town of Dundalk about one hour and half north ofToronto, I have seen increased activity of butterflies thisyear along with frogs, toads and snakes. I believe changesin the weather here have returned much of the naturalinhabitants to the area. The weather this year has beenmuch colder, more rain and less sunshine and hot weather than previous years.”
One way to understand what’s happening in life is torecognize thesynchronicityall around us. This week onDreamland,find out about Ray Fowler’s amazing experiences in thisarea. And subscribers learn about Nick Pope?s extraordinaryUFO research in the U.K.
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