Monarch butterfly have arrived in Oklahoma – the first stop for the famous orange and black beauty migrating from Mexico, where they lay their eggs on the bottom of milkweed leaves.
The monarch is the only butterfly that migrates, said Toni Bailey, a local resident who has created a garden for butterflies and teaches an educational program on them at local schools.
In its first stopover, the monarch lays its eggs and dies. The offspring head north to the next stop, and one is in Virginia where Bailey’s daughter lives. Those offspring head to Canada.
The last migration back into Oklahoma before the butterflies head to Mexico features the largest of the insects, Bailey said.
“The insect lays her egg and then dies, but she’s lived for nine months,” Bailey said.
If the monarchs go extinct, the world loses a lot of beauty, Bailey said. Last year, the number of monarchs in her garden was down.
“I had a few in the spring and was thrilled to see my numbers go up in the fall,” Bailey said. “Farmers don’t plant milkweed – they hate it and will spray herbicides. In Mexico, where they fly to, they are clearcutting the forest.”
Bailey said the loss of habitat is causing issues with many species, such as foxes and coyotes, because people want to make things look “civilized.”
“We quit spraying our yards about four years ago – first of all, because of the expense,” Bailey said. “It was great having a lush all bermudagrass yard, but I had no earthworms, no honeybees.”
Bailey has spent the past several years creating an environment favorable to all butterflies in decorative and creative gardens around her home.
“[When I go to schools] I take my caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies, and sometimes we have a chrysalis that’s ready to go, and sometimes I delay releasing a butterfly so they can release it,” Bailey said.
Monarchs are the “divas,” Bailey said. The milkweed they love starts growing when the weather is warm enough. They lay one egg per leaf on the underside, but sometimes in the early spring when there is little milkweed, they will lay several underneath one leaf.
“They have to have all this care and then they take off to Mexico, but what about all of the other butterflies? How do they survive the winter?” Bailey said. “God put a little bit of antifreeze in their chrysalis so they don’t freeze.”
Black swallowtails stay in Oklahoma, and the giant swallowtail is the largest butterfly in North America. Their chrysalis looks like a snake, or “bird poop,” depending on the stage, Bailey said.
Monarchs favor milkweed, but Bailey said what attracts the butterflies to eat nectar is flowering plants, Bailey said.
In Oklahoma, the monarchs come twice – April or May and August, Bailey said.
“I try to have things blooming in May, and that includes woodland phlox, yellow yarrow, forsythia, bee balm, and asters in the fall,” Bailey said.
Katie Hawk, with the Oklahoma Monarch Society, said the organization began in 2016 and formed as a nonprofit in 2024.
“We are most known for our education and outreach campaign, which is ‘Okies for Monarchs,’” Hawk said.
In 2016, OMS hosted a statewide summit to discuss putting together a Monarch Conservation Statewide Action Plan to help keep the monarchs off of the endangered list.
This year, OMS is creating more habitat throughout Oklahoma for monarchs and pollinators.
“The statewide plan is a collaborative effort with more than 60 partners involved, from the Department of Transportation to local tribes,” Hawk said.
She said it will take three to five years to implement the plan, Hawk said.
“We are working on the goals, objectives and strategies to achieve them,” Hawk said.
The website okiesformonarchs.org has information on the insect’s inclusion on the endangered species list.
“North America’s eastern and western migratory monarch populations have faced significant threats from habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and climate change, sparking debates and actions around their conservation status,” states the site.
Listing the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act entailed a long and complex process driven by “growing concerns over the species’ decline,” and not in response to short-term trends or immediate concerns, states the site.
“The first monarchs arrived in Oklahoma last Thursday [March 20],” Hawk said. “Each year, there are a number of entities that survey the numbers in Mexico while overwintering; they do aerial surveys by helicopters, and this year the population doubled in comparison to what it was the last year; however last year was the worst year on record.”
Learn more
To learn more about monarchs and how populations are determined, and how to help conserve the insect, go to okiesformonarchs.org.
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