You can help with the effort to increase the population of monarch butterflies by planting some of the things they like this spring.
Mykayla Hagaman is with the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium at Iowa State University. “Monarchs require, two specific groups of floral resources. They require native milkweed for their caterpillars to feed on. And then the adults require native nectar plants,” she says.
Hagaman says the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium can help you with the milkweed. “We have a really nice milkweed 101 website that lists a variety of native milkweed species to Iowa and kind of suggests which ones are better for pollinator gardens, which ones are better for large habitat restoration efforts,” Hagaman says.
There’s also online help for the nectar plants that monarchs like. “ISU Extension has a really nice monarch seed mix, which has a long list of nectar plants that are native to Iowa and that bloom from early spring when monarchs begin to arrive, throughout the summer when they’re breeding, and through their fall migration as well. So making sure we have continual blooms from spring through fall is really important,” she says.
Hagaman says the Tall Grass Prairie Center is another resource. “Their website has a list of native seed and plant vendors throughout Iowa. So if you use that resource on their website, you can hopefully find somebody in your area who can provide either native seeds or native plants,” Hagaman says.
Hagaman says any extra habitat you provide will help the monarch population when they move from their winter sites in Mexico back into Iowa.