I recently learned this at our last fall garden show down here, looking for more native milkweeds to add to my garden. Only to be told, hey you probably shouldn’t be planting that anymore. Queue the context of the article. Essentially pathogen infects monarchs..makes them hatch as goo or have failing wings, etc. it can build up in milkweeds and can be passed on from mother.
The discussion part:
I’m of the opinion after learning this recently and seeing them come out deformed from native milkweeds. That it is not worth it to plant any milkweed in New Orleans, especially NOT tropical, but even aquatic milkweed that is naturally here, will need to either be consistently chopped down in winter to hopefully…reduce OE or just not planted at all other than naturally occurring.
Also interesting note in the article regarding the non-migratory population we have here, that formed due to the tropical milkweed not dying in our mild winters, which is what seemed to really make the OE pop.
Curious of this group’s opinions, how aware you were of this, if this is occuring in your areas (more than likely only in zone 9+), or any other experience with it that’d you’d like to share!
The_Poster_Nutbag
The takeaway I see here is that the non-native tropical milkweed is the primary vector due to its ability to persist through winter and it shouldn’t be planted in the US anyways.
I would definitely not read this as “remove all your milkweed” because that isn’t a recommendation by any experts as far as I’m aware.
Solidago312
My takeaway: if we all used the scientific names of plants, we could have avoided much of the problem. The author of the article is perpetuating the problem of using common names, which cause confusion because they’re not specific enough.
[deleted]
[removed]
Amorpha_fruticosa
If megacorporations sold the native plants there wouldn’t be an issue. I wouldn’t have removed all milkweed, just the tropical.
Comfortable_Lab650
I agree with the article and that the milkweed needs to be culled. Since the Gulf Coast states have a near 100% infection rate, it seems to me that in these places of the country that do not experience a freeze, they need to eliminate their milkweed plants, **even native milkweed** plants from their gardens, until the OE infection rate is under control. For these locations, plant more nectar plants, but not milkweed, and cull whatever milkweed is in one’s garden.
The reason is because the infected non-migratory, resident Monarchs will then infect the arriving migratory Monarchs until it’s worst case scenario, 100% of the Monarchs are infected and cannot make their natural migratory trips, both north and south. In year 2018, there was a 25% infection rate among migratory Monarchs that encountered the overwintering/resident sites, compared to 9% of the general eastern population. And it is because in these resident populations, they spread the OE also on the native milkweeds.
It will be like what happens in California and Florida, with mating, dieing, mating, dieing, and becoming either residents or unable to make their migratory trips, dieing in transit. California populations have an upwards of **99% probability of extinction** in the lifetimes of our children, within 55 years, and they are ‘only’ at a 30% infection rate. Florida’s infection rate is over 70% and has a resident population now, non-migratory. The eastern migratory population is facing **56-74% probability of extinction** in the same lifetimes of our children and it’s this population that passes through those 100% infected Gulf Coast states on their way northward and again on their way southward.
So let me ask you, does it need to get to a 99% probability of extinction, like California, or only having 70% sick resident populations, that never migrate but birth and die, over and over, like Florida, to get to the point of action, or is the time of action now? Because the Gulf Coast states are at 100% infection rate.
Asclepias curassavica is native only to central Mexico and southward. It shouldn’t be grown north of Aguascalientes, Mexico but increasingly northward, both in Mexico and the USA, it’s being grown, giving a ‘OE highway’ for the disease to spread and that has contributed to the situation that the Monarchs are in. These infected Monarchs then travel to the native milkweed, and infect that plant too, thus it’s a never ending cycle. The cycle needs to stop and the Monarchs need a ‘buffer area’ and not a ‘milkweed highway’ and not a ‘resident OE reproduction’ area. See the map of where I drew the ‘red line’ where there used to be a buffer zone north and southward, but this area has increasingly become blurred to non-existent. Any area north of that line, that does not experience a freeze in the winter, needs to cull their milkweed plants in their garden, all of them. That would be places in California, the Southwest, the Gulf Coast states, Florida, and the Eastern seaboard, anyplace that does not experience a freeze. Because the Monarchs do not live in any form, as pupates or adults, through a freeze. But in the areas that do not freeze, the diseased Monarchs will live and so will the milkweed, continuing this cycle.
**Drastic? Yes. But so is an extinction. A short term drastic attempt to save this Monarch, or a permanent extinction, you decide.**
6 Comments
Context:
I recently learned this at our last fall garden show down here, looking for more native milkweeds to add to my garden. Only to be told, hey you probably shouldn’t be planting that anymore. Queue the context of the article. Essentially pathogen infects monarchs..makes them hatch as goo or have failing wings, etc. it can build up in milkweeds and can be passed on from mother.
The discussion part:
I’m of the opinion after learning this recently and seeing them come out deformed from native milkweeds. That it is not worth it to plant any milkweed in New Orleans, especially NOT tropical, but even aquatic milkweed that is naturally here, will need to either be consistently chopped down in winter to hopefully…reduce OE or just not planted at all other than naturally occurring.
Also interesting note in the article regarding the non-migratory population we have here, that formed due to the tropical milkweed not dying in our mild winters, which is what seemed to really make the OE pop.
Curious of this group’s opinions, how aware you were of this, if this is occuring in your areas (more than likely only in zone 9+), or any other experience with it that’d you’d like to share!
The takeaway I see here is that the non-native tropical milkweed is the primary vector due to its ability to persist through winter and it shouldn’t be planted in the US anyways.
I would definitely not read this as “remove all your milkweed” because that isn’t a recommendation by any experts as far as I’m aware.
My takeaway: if we all used the scientific names of plants, we could have avoided much of the problem. The author of the article is perpetuating the problem of using common names, which cause confusion because they’re not specific enough.
[removed]
If megacorporations sold the native plants there wouldn’t be an issue. I wouldn’t have removed all milkweed, just the tropical.
I agree with the article and that the milkweed needs to be culled. Since the Gulf Coast states have a near 100% infection rate, it seems to me that in these places of the country that do not experience a freeze, they need to eliminate their milkweed plants, **even native milkweed** plants from their gardens, until the OE infection rate is under control. For these locations, plant more nectar plants, but not milkweed, and cull whatever milkweed is in one’s garden.
The reason is because the infected non-migratory, resident Monarchs will then infect the arriving migratory Monarchs until it’s worst case scenario, 100% of the Monarchs are infected and cannot make their natural migratory trips, both north and south. In year 2018, there was a 25% infection rate among migratory Monarchs that encountered the overwintering/resident sites, compared to 9% of the general eastern population. And it is because in these resident populations, they spread the OE also on the native milkweeds.
It will be like what happens in California and Florida, with mating, dieing, mating, dieing, and becoming either residents or unable to make their migratory trips, dieing in transit. California populations have an upwards of **99% probability of extinction** in the lifetimes of our children, within 55 years, and they are ‘only’ at a 30% infection rate. Florida’s infection rate is over 70% and has a resident population now, non-migratory. The eastern migratory population is facing **56-74% probability of extinction** in the same lifetimes of our children and it’s this population that passes through those 100% infected Gulf Coast states on their way northward and again on their way southward.
So let me ask you, does it need to get to a 99% probability of extinction, like California, or only having 70% sick resident populations, that never migrate but birth and die, over and over, like Florida, to get to the point of action, or is the time of action now? Because the Gulf Coast states are at 100% infection rate.
Asclepias curassavica is native only to central Mexico and southward. It shouldn’t be grown north of Aguascalientes, Mexico but increasingly northward, both in Mexico and the USA, it’s being grown, giving a ‘OE highway’ for the disease to spread and that has contributed to the situation that the Monarchs are in. These infected Monarchs then travel to the native milkweed, and infect that plant too, thus it’s a never ending cycle. The cycle needs to stop and the Monarchs need a ‘buffer area’ and not a ‘milkweed highway’ and not a ‘resident OE reproduction’ area. See the map of where I drew the ‘red line’ where there used to be a buffer zone north and southward, but this area has increasingly become blurred to non-existent. Any area north of that line, that does not experience a freeze in the winter, needs to cull their milkweed plants in their garden, all of them. That would be places in California, the Southwest, the Gulf Coast states, Florida, and the Eastern seaboard, anyplace that does not experience a freeze. Because the Monarchs do not live in any form, as pupates or adults, through a freeze. But in the areas that do not freeze, the diseased Monarchs will live and so will the milkweed, continuing this cycle.
**Drastic? Yes. But so is an extinction. A short term drastic attempt to save this Monarch, or a permanent extinction, you decide.**
[What is OE? | monarchhealth](https://www.monarchparasites.org/oe)
Threatened/Endangered: [Monarch Watch](https://monarchwatch.org/listing/)
[Migrating monarchs that mix with year-round residents have higher rates of parasite infection | University of Michigan News](https://news.umich.edu/migrating-monarchs-that-mix-with-year-round-residents-have-higher-rates-of-parasite-infection/)
https://preview.redd.it/5c3twrde14yf1.jpeg?width=713&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56e00b0a08a2ef36379b544aa20079fb4a2869be