Oakland woman helps butterflies
In a house along Chicora Road in Oakland Township, a woman is doing her part to reverse the decline of the monarch butterfly population.
Actually, said Kim Vensel, her effort began as a hobby, turned into an obsession and now takes over her dining room every summer.
The raising, feeding, and eventual release of the monarchs is something that occupies Vensel and her sons, Alex, 9; and Nick, 12; and her daughter, Keira, 16, all summer from July through September.
“Nick and Alex like to go hunting caterpillars. Nick is a real good hunter. He turns it into a competition to see who can find the most,” she said.
The hobby began in 2007 when “my friend gave me two caterpillars,” said Vensel.
There was a hiatus, she said, but then in 2010 “Nick found two caterpillars.”
Now Vensel and her children seek out patches of milkweed to hunt for eggs and replenish the food supplies of the caterpillars already in residence.
The eggs, attached to the underside of milkweed leaves, are hard-to-spot tiny black balls, and the just-hatched caterpillars aren't much bigger.
Still the Vensels comb through milkweed plants looking for eggs and caterpillars to bring back home and nurture into adulthood.
Vensel said in 2010, they raised 34 monarchs; in 2011, 12; in 2012, only two because the caterpillars were attacked by a parasite known as a tachinid fly that burrows into the caterpillar and eats it from the inside out; in 2013, cold, wet weather made monarch raising difficult; in 2014, 172; and this year, Vensel said her dining room is filled with plastic boxes and mesh containers containing 792 eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies.
“I've given away 65 because I was overwhelmed. It was too many,” Vensel said.
She said it takes her two to three hours a day to replenish the caterpillars' containers with fresh milkweed leaves and clean them.
“As a caterpillar, all they do is eat, poop and shed their skin,” said Vensel. She released her first three butterflies on July 22 this year.
“But it is a short season,” Vensel said. “July to the end of September.”
“It's not hard. It's work, but it's not difficult at all,” she said about raising monarchs.
“The reason I bring them in is they have less than a 10 percent chance of surviving in nature. Inside, they have a 90 percent chance,” she said.
And improving the odds is important because, she said, the monarch population is down 90 percent in the last 20 years.
Vensel said eggs develop and hatch in three to five days.
Caterpillars eat and grow another 10 to 14 days before they find a suitable spot on a plant where they prepare an anchor hold and assume a “J-form” and begin forming a chrysalis. After 10 to 14 days, the chrysalis opens to release an adult monarch butterfly.
“To me it is like watching a miracle in my house,” she said.She transfers the butterflies from her home to a tent in the backyard where Vensel, a professional photographer, takes pictures of the butterflies and releases them.She said a monarch will live for four to six weeks, except for the generation that migrates to Mexico. They can live for up to nine months.It's possible the long migration the orange and black insects make every year is behind their dwindling numbers.Jack Layne, a biologist at Slippery Rock University, said “The monarchs migrate to Mexico to winter. There are eco-tours to where they migrate. They number in the millions and nest on the sides of trees.”Vensel said the migration usually starts in mid-August.“Right now we are coming to the end of the season,” she said. “We are finding less eggs and caterpillars.”“When it starts to get chilly out at night, there's something in them that tells them it's time to go,” she said.Layne said to reach Mexico, some butterflies might travel 1,500 miles or more.Some monarchs breed in Mexico.“What happens in the spring is the butterflies will start their northern migration,” said Layne. “They reach Texas, Oklahoma, and they lay eggs.”He said this occurs in mid-March. When this generation of butterflies matures, it continues north. “It might take them three generations to get back to the Northeast,” Layne said.Layne said the fact that the caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed helps its survival odds.“Milkweed contains a substance noxious to cattle. This toxic compound gathers in the insect's exoskeleton. When birds eat the caterpillars, they get sick. Eventually, the birds learn to leave the caterpillars alone,” said Layne.Layne said monarch populations have gone through cycles of increasing and decreasing. Right now, he said, the butterfly population is on a downswing.“Areas where they overwinter are close to areas where there is logging,” said Layne. “So, some of the trees the monarchs nest in may be cut down.”Vensel also blames the use of pesticides and weedkillers for both decreasing the monarchs' food supply and population.“They come up through the Midwest, through Kansas, Arkansas. These are Corn Belt areas, they use a lot of pesticides,” Vensel said.
“I don't make any money off it, so it would qualify as a hobby,” Vensel said of her butterfly raising. “People have asked me to bring butterflies to weddings for wedding releases, and that is something I would consider,” Vensel said.Although she is completely self-taught in the field of caterpillar wrangling and butterfly raising, Vensel said she has been asked to give presentations at schools, garden clubs and for scout troops.“I don't charge, but I wouldn't turn down a donation,” she said.“My husband (Doug, a supervisor with Air Products and Chemicals in Creighton) has bought me eggs. He's very patient. He understands my obsessions.”Vensel said people can help increase the monarch population even without turning their homes into insect hatcheries.“Plant milkweed. If you already have milkweed growing on your property, don't mow it down until after butterfly season is over,” Vensel said. “Don't use pesticides or weed killers.”“The more people are aware of their situation, the better off the Monarch population,” she said.To contact Vensel, e-mail butlerbutterflylady@gmail.com
