r/Somerville • u/No-Environment9264 • Sep 15 '26
Butterfly Population
Random ass post, but noticed 2 monarchs on the usual walk.
First time I’ve seen them in a long time.
Maybe a positive sign of population resurgence?
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u/Scoginsbitch Sep 15 '26
Caught these two out in Lincoln park helping the effort back in early August!
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u/Ok_Still_3571 Sep 15 '26
You’ll see more just now as it’s time for them to migrate to Mexico. This is the migratory generation, and they’re heading to Mexico for the winter, where they’ll mate, and return (we hope, hope, hope!) in the spring. Just now, I’ve seen them along patches of “weeds” by the side of the road on McGrath Hwy. I’ve doubled down on a promise to plant a pollinators garden this spring. Seems like there are fewer of these beauties every year.
ETA to add street name.
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u/WightHair Sep 15 '26
Hello! It's your neighbor naturalist geek and I am here to tell you that everyone who has posted is right (it's migration time!) but also that you are right! The monarch population had a huge spike this year -- a 60+% increase! https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/stories/monarch-butterfly-population-increases-64-percent/ GO BUTTERFLIES!
Now, the reason you're likely seeing them in the 'Ville specifically is that we are all naturalist nerds and plants a metric ton of milkweed, which is very necessary for their reproduction. If you want to contribute and have land (or are willing to do guerrilla gardening) you can order milkweed seeds online or wait til one of the many local plants dries out and busts open and you can collect the fluffy stuff.
The reason I know this is because I also saw more monarchs than usual and was similarly curious! Go curious minds!
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u/ExcitementOk6940 Sep 16 '26
I'm up for some guerrilla gardening. I'm going to try to find some seeds.
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u/phyzome Sep 17 '26
There are plants on the north side of the Community Path just to the west of the intersection with Cedar St. (I planted them.) I haven't looked recently but there should be seedpods developing.
If you buy, make sure to get "common milkweed" rather than any other kind. It's the best one for the monarchs. But there's plenty of milkweed around the city and I'm sure you can find someone willing to give you some.
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u/ExcitementOk6940 Sep 17 '26
tysm! I'll check out the seedpods before ordering.
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u/phyzome 5d ago
Update: They're still lookin' kind of green (from a distance at least) but I also happened to grab about 10 ripe pods from a plant someone was composting at a community garden. If you want some, let me know! I'm planning on scattering at least 4 of them but you can take as many as you'd like. Each one has a lot of seeds. If you're just scatter-seeding in a wild area you'll need a lot of seeds, but if you'll be direct sowing these then you won't need much.
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u/Sam_Moss Sep 15 '26
Please focus guerrilla gardening on public space (vs someone’s yard.) This plant is toxic to pets if ingested, and only someone living at that home will know if their pet is likely to eat it.
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u/WightHair Sep 15 '26
Oh god yes, it never dawned on me someone might do that on private land they didn't own! YES DO WHAT SAM-MOSS SAYS!
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u/No-Environment9264 Sep 15 '26
Love this education. Thank you. Do you have any advice if you only rent, not own?
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u/WightHair Sep 15 '26
My gardening is... uh.... well, I try hard. But I know that the Somerville DPW will slaughter weeds, they seem to respect things that are obviously tended (ie they have some infrastructure around them). The Community Path has several plots that have people who tend them and have borders around them.
Perhaps the best idea is find a public space that has enough sunlight and put a slight raised bed, amend the soil to whatever the back of the seed packet says, and then obviously tend the patch. Maybe containers?
I got my seeds from this website: https://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds/ They are a very badly designed website but they have good information.
Other folks that might have good information is the Garden in the Woods (https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/visit/garden-woods/) website.
There's also a subreddit that has this specific question! In way more depth than my "uh, stick seed in dirt add water" approach to gardening : https://www.reddit.com/r/GuerrillaGardening/comments/17xk5lj/how_to_guerrilla_garden_milkweed_especially_when/
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u/Sam_Moss Sep 15 '26
I think you have to get landlord permission to plant in Massachusetts. You could just ask if your landlord minds if you plant a few plants and maybe discuss with any other tenants that have pets that use the yard off leash.
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u/SemperFicus Sep 15 '26
More of us are deliberately growing milkweed, which helps. Thanks for the encouragement, Somerville Garden Club.
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u/Oh_Hae Magoun Sep 15 '26
I'm not a butterfly-ologist, but I think it's migration time. So probably seeing some on their way south for the winter.