VAN WERT – Seventy Painted Lady butterflies were released into the
Children’s Garden at Smiley Park Friday morning as part of the Van Wert
County Master Gardener Butterfly Release Party.
The butterflies
made a trip from California to be at the party where 75 kids registered
to learn about butterflies, the Children’s Garden, and why it’s
important to take care of the garden.
Master Gardener Ruth Ann
Covey presented a program on the life-cycle of butterflies to teach the
children the process in which a butterfly becomes.
This is the
fourth year that the Master Gardeners have had a Butterfly Release
Party. The aim is to allow children to see the butterflies up close and
to learn more about them.
“We decided that we couldn’t catch them
in the garden fast enough,” said Covey. “We ordered some Monarchs and
put them all in the Butterfly House the first year.”
The first
year, 300 Monarchs were released which turned out to be too many for the
Butterfly House. Now, the Master Gardeners release the butterflies into
the open at the garden, where they can fly free and enjoy the many
flowers.
This year, in addition to the Painted Ladies, two Monarch
butterflies were released into the Butterfly House, as well as a
chrysalis and some caterpillars.
Monarch butterflies are on the
Endangered Species list, and every year it appears there are less and
less in the area to be spotted. Covey noted that this is because the
Monarch habitat is being destroyed.
“A lot of it has to do with
the fact that people like to have clean ditch banks and clean rows by
their farms,” observed Covey. “This takes away the swamp milkweed, which
is what the Monarchs lay their eggs on, and the caterpillars eat. A lot
of the spraying we do in our yards has also diminished the Monarchs.”
Monarchs
migrate and each winter they travel to Mexico. Covey said that due to
deforestation in Mexico, Monarchs have lost their winter homes.
Program
coordinator Rachel Hoverman explained that the Monarchs’ life cycle is
around 2 months. Each migration period the Monarchs will travel from
Mexico up into the United States where they breed and lay eggs. The eggs
hatch and the new butterflies travel further up. The process continues
until the Monarchs reach Canada. Then, when it is time to migrate back
to Mexico for the winter, the Monarchs mimic the same process on their
way back down. The last generation, which is born around Texas, lives
longer – about 6-8 months in order to live through winter.
The
Master Gardeners encourage children to plant flowers, especially
milkweeds, at home so that the butterflies have food. During the release
party they handed out free seeds to children.
The children were also able to do crafts and inspect the Children’s Garden for the butterflies that they released.