San Antonio Current – Blogs / Sat Apr 03 2010 06:15:14 GMT-0400 (EST)
The spring monarch migration has been a bust. Only a lucky few have caught sight of more than a couple of the iconic insects currently on their northward jaunt through Texas.
Mainstream news reports have cited key culprits of the population collapse of this most recognizable of the flitter-bys. Soggy weather and illegal logging have both indisputably blitzed the butterflies at their Mexican over-wintering grounds. Less widely reported is the on-going loss of habitat in the United States, as well as our widespread use of toxic herbicides, pesticides, and use of genetically modified corn, many varieties of which are known to be damaging to the insects.
“Their breeding ground is being ‘cleansed,’ as it were, of milkweed. People are using Roundup Ready crops, herbicide-ready crops,” said Mike Quinn, a former Texas Parks & Wildlife entomologist and current president of the Austin Butterfly Forum. Read More….