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Milkweed Matters' efforts may not save monarch butterflies in Iowa
Sorry, Iowa, but you might not have monarch butterflies for much longer. While riding on RAGBRAI last month, I experienced a huge disappointment when I was handed a milkweed seed (ball) from the campaign of the Milkweed Matters organization. The monarch butterfly is disappearing from Iowa and it’s not simply a matter of growing more milkweed in ditches.
While I applaud the efforts of Milkweed Matters to create more roadside milkweed plants as a food source, all of this will not fix the greater issue of pesticide use. The plant may grow successfully, but this milkweed (food for the monarch larva) is covered with insecticides from the adjacent corn and soybean fields less than 10 feet away.
The crops are loaded with neonicotinoids, which are specifically designed to kill insects, including butterflies. The "food" is covered in poison.
Do Iowans notice there are few tiger swallowtail or orange sulphur butterflies or other native bee pollinators? Do you notice that all those once abundant beautiful creatures no longer fly along your roads, gardens and ditches?
Please wake up, Iowa, and save what you can. Your fields of crops might be perfect, but at what cost?
— Bette VenHorst-Lombardi, Mill Valley, Calif., Iowa native