Where are they? I am missing my Red Admirals, White Admirals, Painted Ladies, Swallowtails - yellow and black - and the occasional Fritillary that usually flits by in June. I didn’t see one Spring Azure in my yard this year.
Instead of several Monarchs fluttering about my butterfly-friendly garden, I am seeing one, and some days none. This is not a promising scenario for progeny.
I have found few Monarch eggs placed on the underside of milkweed leaves in my yard. So many predators, including wasps and beetles, comb milkweed leaves in search of a meal. I hope for a new Monarch generation to emerge, but fear the worst.
One scenario reported by Robert Alison recently in his column was that rainy days and the storms have inhibited Monarch life cycles. The weather is one challenge.
From observing Monarchs in my back garden, when temperatures cool, when it rains, or as sundown approaches, Monarchs head for large trees, in particular, spruce.
Monarchs need trees for shelter. They need nectaring plants. They need milkweed to lay eggs on, the only survival diet for Monarch caterpillars when they emerge. They don’t need pesticides of any kind and will not survive if exposed. Each butterfly and creature has its own habitat needs. We are not good at seeing the big picture of this truism.
In 2009, cosmetic lawn pesticides will be banned in Ontario. Good. I still wonder why Orillia did not develop the political fortitude to enact a ban before now.
All around us, pesticides are in use, and will continue to be used even after the provincial ban on lawn pesticides.
In the late spring, in the countryside, over culverts, ditches and water sheds, pesticide warning signs are posted.
Could this be a contributing factor in the demise of species? Of course it could.
Pretend for a moment that you have food poisoning. Then you are exposed to another bacterium or virus. Would you be less resistant to the second viral or bacterial organism than if you were not suffering from food poisoning?
Could pesticides applied each spring to culverts, ditches and water collecting areas leading to the lakes contribute to the death of, say, fish?
A few weeks ago, rotting suckers washed up around Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. Fifteen dead, stinking suckers turned up at one cottage on Couch I visited. Perhaps a virus or bacterium finished them off. But was there a tipping point?
Those suckers may well have been traversing ditches and wetlands draining to lakes around the time when pesticide applications occurred.
Last year, Colony Collapse Disorder was the name applied to whatever was killing bees in commercial bee-keeping operations in North America. A virus was identified as responsible for the deaths.
While watching a TV interview with an American entomologist, I learned that same virus exists in Australian bees, who survive it.
One hypothesis the entomologist advanced was that North American bees are living under a burden of toxic effects from pesticides. In this weakened state, the bees are susceptible to predatory organisms. Hmm.
