Pat Haynes releases a
Monarch for its first flight
September 2005
Monarch Midwife
Nurturing Monarchs from
Egg to First Flight
Photos by Lloyd DeGrane
Text by Susan DeGrane
For more than a dozen years, Pat Haynes has scoured alleys, roadsides, parking lots and areas near railroad tracks. She’s not looking for other people’s castoffs. She is searching for milkweed plants and Monarch butterfly eggs. With its dramatic orange and black markings, the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) lives wherever milkweed grows, and then migrates to warmer regions in the winter.
This summer’s drought compromised some milkweed plants, causing their leaves to turn prematurely yellow and dry, making them less supportive of Monarch caterpillars. However, this fall as many as 300 Monarchs are winging their way toward Mexico, having survived the rough summer, thanks in part to Haynes’ efforts. Haynes’ summer vocation gains additional importance in light of a report by Mexico’s Environmental Department showing that Monarch populations suffered a 75 percent decline in 2004.
Known as “Monarch midwife” at the elementary school where she works as a social worker, Haynes is fond of wearing silver butterfly rings and colorful Monarch T-shirts. From May through August, Haynes places the egg-bearing leaves in empty pickle and mayonnaise jars throughout her home in the Beverly neighborhood on the city’s South Side. There are jars on top of the aquarium in the basement, on top of the refrigerator, and even on the dining room table.
For about five to six weeks, the glass containers provide refuge from numerous predators, including a variety of aphids, spiders, wasps and birds. Haynes feeds the Monarch caterpillars milkweed and removes their droppings.
“The Monarch’s chances of survival in the wild to adulthood are only about 10 percent,” said Haynes, who claims a 90 percent survival rate.
In July, when Haynes visited friends in Wisconsin, 100 Monarch caterpillars and six chrysalides traveled home with her in jars.
“She kept telling me to ‘Stop the car!’ every time we happened upon some milkweed at the side of the road,” said her husband, Bob Morrow.
Haynes and Morrow, a retired high school science teacher and now a docent at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, share a passion for nature and ecology. It was a Wisconsin friend who enlisted Haynes to help the Monarchs, who are suffering from a loss of habitat due to development and herbicides. She started by raising two. Each year, the number grew, so that in the last 16 years she estimates she has helped nearly 3,000.
Most are tiny, golden egg-shaped bumps when Haynes finds them. After three or more days, tiny larva or caterpillars emerge and eat voraciously for two weeks. They become fleshy, wildly striped wormlike creatures, then suddenly opalescent green chrysalides dotted with gold. After another two weeks, they emerge as orange and black butterflies, with a 3 1/2-inch wingspan.
Haynes has shared the miracle of the Monarch metamorphosis with numerous community groups and individuals, including Ellie Nelson, 11, who during the past five years has chalked up 40 Monarch saves and has instructed others in nurturing the “beautiful creatures.”
“I like watching them drying their wings when they come out,” said Ellie.
Once they start the journey south, the Monarchs face various threats. While some blame extensive logging and climate change for dwindling butterfly counts, the Mexican government report blamed the loss of northern habitats and genetically modified crops in the U.S. and Canada. Haynes insists that pollen from genetically engineered Bt corn, which produces its own insecticide, kills Monarch caterpillars in addition to its intended target, the corner borer moth. This corn is commonly found in the Midwest, including Illinois, according to Dan McGuire, CEO of the American Corn Growers Foundation.
Land development continues to reduce areas that support milkweed and Monarch reproduction. “A lot of people plow milkweed under because they figure it’s a weed,” Haynes said. “It’s an unfortunate name. It really is a beautiful plant. A lot of people like to grow butterfly gardens that contain … plants that attract butterflies with their pollen, but these don’t support the whole cycle,” she said.
Adult female Monarch will only lay eggs on milkweed. “Plant the milkweed and they will come, sort of like with the ball field.” said Haynes.
Visit www.monarchwatch.org.
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