KAWARTHA LAKES-If you have travelled along the trail system recently in Kawartha Lakes you may have noticed that City staff have been leaving patches of ground vegetation untouched, in particular patches around milkweed plants. Officials say this is no coincidence, staff are doing this in order to sustain and support monarch butterfly and caterpillar habitat.
Female monarchs primarily lay eggs on milkweed plants as it is the only host plant that supports a monarch’s full life cycle.
Monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on the leaves of milkweed. Milkweed is critical for the survival of monarchs. Without it, they cannot complete their life cycle and their populations decline. The monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed and, like other butterflies and moths, undergo complete metamorphosis on the plant. The egg and caterpillar stages survive solely on milkweed species, whereas adults can survive on nectar from various flowering plants, including but not limited to milkweed.
The milkweed plant provides both food and shelter for the caterpillar. It lives on the plant for approximately two weeks (dependent on temperature) while it eats almost constantly, pausing only to shed its skin.
This monarch-friendly initiative will take place during the summer months and will see staff re-visit the patches in the fall months to complete mowing once the butterflies have migrated south. To learn more about monarchs and milkweed visit the Nature Conservancy of Canada website.
