How to help Monarch Butterflies - build a pen for monarch caterpillars and milkweed plants

Monarch butterfly (Photo by Steve Andrews)

 

 Monarch butterflies have been facing big problems in America and their numbers have been declining fast. This has been mostly caused by lack of the milkweed (Asclepias) food-plant needed for the caterpillars. Modern farming using Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide has eradicated the plant from fields where it was once common. 

Tropical Milkweed (In Public Domain)

The good news is that a growing number of people have been helping the monarchs increase their numbers again by simply planting more milkweed. Milkweed seeds are easy to buy on the Internet and you can find them by searching on Amazon and eBay as well. Fortunately too, there are species of milkweed that are suited for growing in the different climatic zones of America too.

One big problem that those people who help monarch conservation by cultivating milkweed for the hungry caterpillars face though, is that the larvae will completely defoliate the plants and will eat the leaves, flowers and even the seed-pods. 

Monarch caterpillar (Photo by Steve Andrews)

If not enough milkweed is grown to feed the ravenous caterpillars then many of them will starve or wander away and meet the same fate.

So as much milkweed as possible should be grown and you need a way of helping the plants to regenerate after they have fed the caterpillars. The plants will recover in a surprisingly short space of time if not subjected to more monarch larvae eating them.

Lawrence Chapman, who lives in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, came up with a brilliant solution to this problem. He built easy-to-make pens that can be put on a garden plot where you are growing milkweed.

Monarch butterfly caterpillar pen. (Photo by Lawrence Chapman, used with permission.)

The pens prevent female butterflies from getting to the plants to lay eggs. This means that milkweed plants that have already lost all their foliage to monarch caterpillars can be covered by one of these pens and allowed to regenerate. The pens are simply made using a wooden frame that is covered with gauze mesh.  The finished item is lightweight so is easy to move about in your garden.

Monarch butterfly caterpillar pens. (Photo by Lawrence Chapman, used with permission.)

To build a pen you need: straight strips of wood 2 cm by 1 and half cm, small brackets available from hardware stores (about 1 inch size), a packet of plastic netting, and a staple gun. 

Pen corner showing bracket (Photo by Lawrence Chapman - used with permission).

A recommended size of pen to construct that is suitable for use in the average garden is 1 m long 80 cm high and 90 cm wide.

After the monarch caterpillars you are helping have finished eating enough milkweed, they spin a small silken pad either on stalks of the food-plant or possibly somewhere on a fence, a wall or underneath some item of garden furniture. The caterpillars hang head downwards like inverted question-marks and transform into a pale-green chrysalis after their finals skin change in the larval stage of the monarch’s life cycle.

The adult monarch butterflies will emerge about 10-days to a fortnight later depending on the air temperature where you are.

Jessica Schab releases a Monarch Butterfly

It is a fantastic experience to be able to see the transformation from egg to adult monarch butterfly, and a very rewarding one too because you can take pride in knowing you have played a role in helping the survival of this beautiful winged wonder.

Outdoor life and recreation in London - parks, lakes and city farms

More to London than just its famous buildings

London is the cosmopolitan capital of the UK, and apart from famous buildings, such as Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, as well as places of interest like Trafalgar Square, the city has plenty of parkland offering inner city recreational areas.

Primrose Hill, London (Photo: yaili)

Hyde Park

One of London’s largest and most well-known parks is Hyde Park.  It is one of the eight Royal Parks of London and is famous for its Speakers’ Corner where lively outdoor public speaking and debate can take place.

Speakers’ Corner (Photo: Wally Gobetz)

Visitors to London often choose hotel accommodation for the length of their stay and there are plenty of hotels to choose from near Hyde Park.

Hyde Park has a large lake known as the Serpentine. It is often used for sporting activities including swimming. In 2012 it was the venue for marathon swimming events in the Olympics.

Ducks, geese and a heron on the Serpentine (Photo: Christine Rondeau)

The western half of this lake is called the Long Water. It is divided from Hyde Park by a bridge and is in Kensington Gardens.

The Long Water (Photo: Jon Colverson)

Regent’s Park

Regent’s Park is a very large park situated in the heart of London’s north-west.

Regent’s Park Lake (Photo: S Pakhrin)

Its 395 acres contain many attractions and amenities, including London Zoo, Queen Mary’s Gardens, Primrose Hill, Regent’s Park Lake, and the largest outdoor sports area in London.

St James’s Park

St James’s Park is another of the Royal Parks of London with its own lake.

Pelicans in St James’s Park (Photo: Garry Knight)

Here you can expect to see ducks, geese and even a resident colony of pelicans.

Richmond Park

Richmond Park is the largest of all the London parks and is situated in the south-west of the city.

Deer in Richmond Park (Photo: Sam Greenhaigh)

It is important for nature conservation and has hundreds of deer living in it, as well as a number of ponds and streams that attract wildlife.

Green Park

Green Park lives up to its name because this park in central London has no buildings and no lake, but plenty of grass, flowers, bushes and trees.

Baseball in Green Park (Photo: nikoretro)

Its peaceful atmosphere make it a great place to relax and very popular with sunbathers.

London’s Commons and Heaths

London also has a lot of commons and heaths that make great places for walking, having picnics, relaxing and enjoying nature.

Hampstead Heath (Photo: Francisco Antunes)

Clapham Common and Hampstead Heath are two of the most well-known.

London’s City Farms

London has many city farms that offer a slice of rural life without leaving the city.

Hackney City Farm  (Photo: Rosa G.)

These farms often offer volunteer programmes as well as catering for children.

The River Thames

A view of the River Thames (Photo: Berit Watkin)

Besides the parks, commons and city farms, London’s River Thames offers all sorts of outdoor activities, including boating, water sports, wildlife spotting or simply strolling on the riverbanks.

Fly Agaric Magic Mushroom linked with Father Christmas

Fly Agarics. Photo in Public Domain

The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a brightly coloured hallucinogenic mushroom that is often used in illustrations for fairy stories, and perhaps with very good reason. The substances muscimol and ibotenic acid it contains produce intoxication and altered reality and consumption of this toadstool has been used to produce visionary states. Because of this it is included in my book Herbs of the Northern Shaman.

Because of this, and its known use by shamans of Lapland, Siberia and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, the fungus has been linked with the myth of Santa Claus. The Fly Agaric is coloured red and white just like the traditional costume that Father Christmas wears.

The Fly Agaric is sometimes eaten by reindeer and Santa Claus travels in a sleigh drawn by these animals. They fly through the sky and it has been suggested that hallucinations brought about by the ingestion of this fungus might have something to do with this fanciful idea.

The author and ethnobotanist R. Gordon Wasson suggested that the Fly Agaric was the mystical soma mentioned in the Rig Veda, sacred book of the Hindus. John Marco Allegro in his 1970 book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross went as far as suggesting that the Christian religion was founded by practitioners of an ancient fertility cult who were ritual users of this fungus and Biblical texts were inspired by visions they experienced. 

It has been suggested that part of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland was inspired by the Fly Agaric because it is known to cause hallucinations in which size becomes distorted. 

Hookah Smoking Caterpillar and Alice - Illustration by Sir John Tenniel (Public Domain)

Fly Agarics grow in groups under pine and birch, as well as under other trees.  They can be found in autumn and are common in some places. They grow in the UK, many parts of Europe, and across Asia, as well as in Canada and North America. 

Fly Agarics are reported to be edible after parboiling and the fungus has been eaten in some places. Recreational drug users and modern neo-shamans use the fungus as an entheogen, especially after the psilocybin magic mushrooms became an illegal drug in many countries such as the UK. 

The Fly Agaric is a fungus we all know about, if only from having seen it in fairy tales and in artwork.

Fly agarics in Rubezahl by Moritz von Schwind (Public Domain)

The Common Chameleon lives in the Algarve

Common Chameleon. Photo in Public Domain

One of the most interesting reptiles found in Portugal is the Common Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon).

It is green, yellowish-green or brown and lives mainly in bushes in scrubland. It can be found in the Algarve area in the south of Portugal and also lives in southern Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Morocco.

In Portugal the Common Chameleon is under threat due mainly to habitat loss from the continuing building projects that serve the tourist trade.  It is also caught for the pet trade but sadly captive specimens often do not live long.

The Common Chameleon feeds mainly on insects and spiders but is reported to also turn cannibal and eat smaller individuals of its own species.

Common Chameleons hibernate in the winter months when food is scarce. They dig themselves small burrows in the ground.

Common chameleons are usually solitary animals that establish territories but they come together for mating. The females lay clutches of eggs that they bury in the ground.  The eggs can take as much as a year to incubate.