The main threat to monarchs is the eradication of milkweed plants throughout the monarchs migratory path, especially the U.S. Midwest. Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs (mothers lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves) and the monarch caterpillars main source of food is milkweed. Soaring prices for corn due to federal ethanol requirements in the U.S. have resulted in farmers converting millions of hectares of grasslands and conservation lands — fields that were once blanketed with milkweed — to corn. A dramatic increase in the use of Roundup, a herbicide that kills all plants except crops that are genetically modified to be resistant has also contributed to a loss of milkweed.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 04:23:23 +0000
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