Monarch Butterflies Could Disappear In Next 20 Years: Help Save Michigan's Breeding Habitat

EAST LANSING (WWJ) - Monarch butterflies are in danger of becoming extinct in the next 20 years, according to a new scientific study, due partly to the loss of breeding habitat to human development and weather.

Michigan State Entomologist David Mota-Sanchez says the monarchs migrate up to 4,000 miles between the Midwest and Mexico in the fall, but their numbers have been rapidly decreasing. From the winter of 1996-1997 to the winter of 2014-2015, the monarch population declined 84 percent.

"We think it's about 60 percent mortality related to weather," Mota-Sanchez told WWJ's Beth Fisher. "It's difficult to change the weather, you know, you would need to change the global weather. But one of the things that are quite important is the monarchs that come from Mexico, is they find these hosts (milkweed) in the Midwest. Then there are going to be more numbers."

The milkweed plant is vital to the monarch's survival. The butterflies will only lay eggs on the wild milkweed plant, which is also an important source of food for butterfly larvae.

"The milkweed, there's a reduction in Michigan and all the Midwest," said Mota-Sanchez. "Michigan is a very important visiting site for the monarchs. This is the place where monarchs come to lay eggs, and these are the monarchs that are going to Mexico over the winter. So yes, there's a decline of the numbers here because of the reduction of milkweed."

Mota-Sanchez says everybody in the U.S., Canada and Mexico needs to do their part to save the monarchs.

"The way to help in the U.S. is to plant the Milkweed in the fields and other agricultural areas," he said. "It's important to have available food so the adults can lay more eggs and we can have more butterflies. ... I'm optimistic that the decline of the monarch butterflies can be reversed if we work on this."

Mota-Sanchez said by now, most of the monarch populations initiated their migration from Mexico to the southern states of the U.S. The butterflies should start appearing in Michigan in May and June.