A woman from Minneapolis has been taking care of monarch butterflies and as per estimates, her home is about to be filled with about 400 flying beauties.
Fiona Lennox roams around to collect eggs, protect them in her house, feed them with an elusive type of weed and finally releases them as they transform into butterflies. According to Lennox, 49, housing up hundreds of butterflies was not actually intended; however, she kept on finding more and more eggs, making it hard for her to stop.
Taking care of the butterflies as they go through metamorphosis is not an easy task. At first, she only had a couple of caterpillars in plastic containers then little by little, screened boxes, Petri dishes and even an outdoor habitat made with tulle have been spread all over Lennox's house. "It's turned into quite a production," she said. "It has become all-consuming."
Because of the massive amount of time and demands required of raising monarch butterflies, Lennox has decided to take a sabbatical from work. She has since stayed at home and focused on rearing her winged "children."
One of the most challenging tasks in raising the monarchs is searching for their food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA), monarch butterflies are able to migrate to long distances. As they travel from one place to another, they settle on areas where there are milkweed species, which is the only plant where they lay eggs on. Milkweed is the only food of the monarch butterflies. These plants contain chemicals that when fed to the butterflies, turn them into poisonous preys.
Lennox feeds the caterpillars with fresh milkweed everyday, as it is what they need to survive. However, milkweed are not very vast in supply hence, Lennox tend to hunt down for such in alleys, house gardens and other areas where it grow. To add to the challenge of finding it, milkweed preparation also entails a tedious process. Milkweed must be washed thoroughly, rinsed twice and refrigerated in high-quality plastic containers.
As she looks for milkweed in the neighborhood, she also takes time to educate other people regarding her project. She tells them about the role of pollinators in the environment as well as the need for more milkweed supplies.
Lennox is about to approach her first year into the project, and without a paycheck. Leaving her job opened an opportunity for her to raise the little creatures everyday. "Damn the salary, I just gotta do what I love," she said.
Photo: Jocelyn Kinghorn | Flickr
