By Julie O’Halloran
The annual migration of North America’s monarch butterfly is unique, mysterious and amazing and Kansas City is part of the Mississippi Flyway path that monarch butterflies follow each fall as they migrate from Canada to Mexico. And we can all play a part in protecting these important pollinators.
Unique
The monarch is the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration as birds do.
These regal butterflies are a sight to behold with their vibrant orange wings, laced with black veins and bordered by a black edge dotted with white spots. Their wingspans can reach almost five inches across. This striking coloration isn’t just for show; it serves as a warning to predators that the monarch is unpalatable, thanks to the toxins it accumulates from its host plant, milkweed.
Milkweed is not a weed. According to Anne Wehner, a perennial plant sales associate at Suburban Gardens in Martin City, milkweed is a native plant that grows and reseeds itself. It is not an invasive plant. It provides a place for the mother monarch to lay her eggs, and hatched caterpillars feed on the milkweed. Milkweed does not negatively affect the soil. It is preferable to plant in full sun in the spring or fall. Once established, water as needed.
Protecting monarch butterflies is important because they are vital pollinators that help sustain natural plant ecosystems and human food systems. But they are in serious danger as climate change, pesticides and habitat destruction are reducing monarch numbers at increasing rates.
As of September 2025, the monarch butterfly is not yet listed as endangered, but it has been proposed for listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Western monarchs dropped to just over 9,000 this past winter, the second lowest since monitoring began in 1997. Without action, they face a 98 to 99 percent chance of extinction in the next 60 years.
Georgia Eckett, Conservation Manager at the Kansas City Zoo, said that zoo staff are working to protect and support monarchs and create green space for pollinators of all kinds. “We encourage everyone to make space in your gardens.” Locally, common milkweed, swamp milkweed, butterfly milkweed, poke milkweed are recommended.
Mysterious
According to MonarchWatch.org, one unsolved mystery is how monarchs find the overwintering sites each year. Somehow they know their way, even though the butterflies returning to Mexico each fall are the great-great-grandchildren of the butterflies that left the previous spring. No one knows exactly how their homing system works; it is another of the many unanswered questions in the butterfly world.
Kathy Beijen, a south KC resident in Glen Arbor Estates, dedicates her yard gardens to help native songbirds and monarchs. In addition to zinnia, lantana, blazing star, and other perennial plants, her garden contains four types of milkweeds, which supported over 100 monarch caterpillars last year.
Tracy Svec, an enthusiast who gives presentations on the monarch has these recommendations to help monarchs:
- Avoid using herbicides/pesticides/systemics (even organic neem oil will hurt them)
- Plant native milkweed
- Plant fall-blooming nectar-rich flowers
- Register your monarch-friendly habitat as a monarchwatch.org “Monarch Waystation”
- Be a citizen scientist and report monarch sightings to journeynorth.org
Join the journey to save the monarch!
Amazing facts
1) The adult female monarch butterfly lays tiny eggs covered with a sticky substance on the underside of milkweed leaves, which are extremely toxic. The caterpillar hatches several days later and survives on these milkweed leaves.
2) The monarch caterpillar and adult butterfly retain poison from the milkweed leaves in its body, thus protecting it from being eaten by predators.
3) Every spring, adult monarch butterflies head north from their winter respite in the southern forests of Mexico and return in the fall—a journey some 2,000-3,000-miles each way!
4) The monarch butterfly will continue to feed, fly, and reproduce throughout the U.S. and southern Canada for several generations. It’s the fourth generation that migrates to Mexico in fall.
5) Monarch butterflies travel as much as 100 miles a day during the 3,000-mile migration south.
6) During its migration, each butterfly relies on the huge volume of food it ate when it was a caterpillar for fuel.
7) Monarchs smell with their antennae. Nectar and water are tasted by the sensory hairs on their legs and feet.
8) Monarch butterflies cannot bite, and drink through a long tongue called a proboscis that works like an eyedropper drawing up nectar.
9) Once the monarch butterfly is hatched, it only lives for approximately 2–6 weeks.
10) The monarch butterfly’s bright colors serve as a warning to predators that they are poisonous, and they should attack at their own risk.
Discover more from Martin City Telegraph
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.