Natural History

Posted in wildlife | Tagged monarch butterfly | 9 Comments

9 Responses

1. on June 29, 2014 at 6:27 pm Clondaw

   From what I read online it seems, sadly, America will exterminate the monarch butterfly through the poisoning of milkweed courtesy of Genetic modification of food crops.

   
   
   • on June 29, 2014 at 6:57 pm retrieverman

     No.

     Just the general extermination of milkmeed.

     GMOs are not the enemy of man or biodiversity, regardless of what the internet says.

     
     
2. on June 29, 2014 at 7:36 pm Clondaw

   But isn’t it specifically the case here that the aim is to breed crops resistant to herbicides so that they can be bombarded with even more of these toxic substances thereby killing the wild plants we all too casually call “weeds” on which insect life – and ultimately humanity – depends. It would’ve naive to suggest otherwise. For example, consider what has happened to bees just to mention just one irreplaceable pollinator? How stupid are we!

   
   
   • on July 1, 2014 at 7:34 am retrieverman

     No.

     Bees are having trouble largely because of a genus of mites, not GMOs or neonics. Those are things that are on the internet and therefore true but actually are utterly false.

     If you boil milkweeds, you can eat them like spinach. I have.

     
     
     • on July 8, 2014 at 6:11 pm Clondaw

       The bees that are left will certainly suffer from increased use of poisons. It ain’t just the mites mate.

       
       
       • on July 9, 2014 at 7:14 am retrieverman

         Wrong.

         The science that said it was poison has been discredited:

         http://scientificbeekeeping.com/the-harvard-study-on-neonicotinoids-and-ccd/

         https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221052/pb13937-neonicotinoid-bees-20130326.pdf

         
         
3. on June 30, 2014 at 10:33 am M.R.S.

   Just a few days ago, saw on TV a short piece about decline of the monarchs, and suggesting that people plant milkweed in order to help the butterflies. I wonder, where does one go, to buy milkweed seed? Perhaps harvest seed from wild-growing plants?

   
   
   • on June 30, 2014 at 8:24 pm fryefly

     http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm

     Send a self addressed, stamped envelope for Milkweed or mixed seeds appropriate for your area to:

     Live Monarch – Seed Campaign 2014

     
     
4. on July 1, 2014 at 12:53 am Suhail

   Love those Monarchs and Milkweeds. Both would appear in my alphabetical list (against letter ‘M’) of things to do with nature.

   
   

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