Todays Monarch Butterfly tagging

[VanGone]

A very nice day in Iowa,and a good one to be out in the wilds,well as wild as it gets in Iowa. Sara77 ask about what might be destroying her Monarch caterpillars in her area. The wildlife Naturalist at this event said that it sounds like a parasite that is doing this from the inside out. They also said that the Asian Beetle that was introduced in agriculture to fight aphids on Soybeans might be harming them. Here's a few shots from today. Hope I'm not boring everyone! Im not sure how to caption each picture,so about all I can say is that the boy in the pictures is my Grandson.This event is held at an outdoor learning center,a really neat place!
VanGone

 

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[VanGone]

I might add that these Butterfly's go to the Mountains of Mexico and spend the winter there. The people in the area where they go are very poor and they are given five dollars for turning in these Butterfly's that they find that are dead.I want to believe that she said the area that they go to is only about a 20 acre piece of forest land.
Van

 

[wesfrye53]

Van...just curious but $5 is a lot to those people. How do they keep them from just killing the Monarchs to collect the cash?

 

[VanGone]

Van...just curious but $5 is a lot to those people. How do they keep them from just killing the Monarchs to collect the cash?

I was wondering the same thing,and someone ask the Naturalist that question and she just kind of blew it off. I guess that the amount that would make it down there that are tagged would be a very small number so just killing any of them would serve no purpose. She did say that the Monarchs are needed for the area also as a tourist guide service that generates income also.She said they are cutting alot of the timber down for income and this is one of the problems also.
Van