America’s Butterfly the Monarch

Monarch butterflies may be found throughout North America feeding on milkweed, their toxic host plant. Monarch butterflies live mainly in prairies, meadows, grasslands and along roadsides, across most of North America. Migrating monarchs can fly at speeds up to 50km/hr. Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed. Eating milkweed makes monarch caterpillars and butterflies poisonous. Wild monarchs lay 300-400 eggs in their lifetime. You can see large clusters of monarchs at Ellwood Main each winter from November to February. Migrating monarchs live up to 9 months. Monarchs that don’t migrate live two to five weeks. Monarchs know the correct direction to migrate even though the individuals that migrate have never made the journey before. They follow an internal “compass" that points them in the right direction each spring and fall. A single monarch can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles.