MONARCH TAGGING

I am loving having a Monarch tagging kit. I think that the best part of it is holding these amazing insects.

                                 Click here to purchase a Monarch Tagging Kit. 

Monarch tagging is just one of the ways that we can help this amazing butterfly. Each tag has its own unique number and letter code that you write down on your data sheet, along with gender, date, and place of capture. 

 By placing this tiny tag on the Monarchs wing, we can figure out what route they are taking, how many stops they make on the way and how long they stay there. By "on the way",  I am talking about their  amazing migration from Canada to central Mexico and back.

Image Source

The Monarch pictured above is a male, and the way you can tell is, on both hind wings there is a little sack and his veins are thinner then a females.

                                                     This is how you hold a monarch.

                                                           This is a Monarch that we tagged.

                                                                  Moses released it.

They are one beautiful butterfly that I would like to  try to help keep alive. 

Tagging is one of the ways that we can help, but another is planting butterfly gardens. For this specific species you only need to plant milkweed which serves as a dual-purpose plant, being food for both adult and larvae. By doing these two little things, we might be able to save these beautiful butterfly.

This is a Monarch Caterpillar on a Milkweed plant.