Grafton resident Debra Westbrook said she got started raising monarch butterflies in 2019 when her daughter Jennifer, who lives in Pembroke said she was collecting them.
Since then, it’s been become a passion.
Westbrook said the first year she raised 14 and released them.
“Then we got wound up for 2020.”
Her husband Larry helped out by building a cage for use to raise the butterflies.
The initiative was a success with Westbrook releasing 200 in 2020.
“This year we got even more momentum and raised more.
Westbrook said she fosters ones from her daughter in Pembroke to release.
With more butterflies, Larry was put to work again to re-purpose a bird cage.
Between Westbrook and her daughter, she estimates she will be releasing 1,000 butterflies this year.
The reason Westbrook does it is two-fold.
Firstly she’s retired, but the main reason is because monarch butterflies are endangered.
“Loss of habitat, pesticides, loss of habitat in Mexico. Something as simple as cutting along the roadside, cuts all the milkweed.”
“Every little bit helps.”
“And when you’re retired, you need to do things like this when you’re retired.”
From start to finish it takes about four weeks for the egg to become a monarch butterfly.
In two years the couple have learned a lot about raising monarch butterflies
Westbrook definitely wouldn’t say they are her pets, but does say she has a vest interest.
“Sometimes we get angry with them, they fall in the wrong place, but we stop at naming them.”
With the number of monarch’s Westbrook is raising she posted on a local Facebook site that her yard is getting saturated and if anyone wanted she would travel to their property locally and release them.
On Monday, August 23, 2021 Westbound and her husband travelled to a home in Colborne to release a dozen monarch butterflies.
Along with adults a number of children were present taking a keen interest in the butterflies.
“We want to educate more and more people because this is how you actually affect change over the long term.”
A lot of the butterflies that are released after August 15 has a good chance of going to Mexico because they are bigger and stronger.
“These guys will go to Mexico and when it starts to get warm they take about three or four generations to travel from Mexico back to Canada.”
“Then they’ll have three or four generations here, then go back to Mexico.”
The butterflies don’t travel much further north then Pembroke because of the temperature.
A monarch butterfly can live up to four or five weeks and you can tell when it is nearing the end as the wings are transparent.
For anyone who wishes to be put on the list to have monarch butterflies released in their area contact Debra Westbrook through Facebook.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
