September 22, 2010
Like many gardeners, I gain a certain satisfaction from providing a good stopover spot for migrating monarchs. We let milkweed grow where it will, knowing early migrants will make use of it in August as they stop to lay a few eggs. Vigorous young monarchs emerge in September, and join other migrants on their way South. During the second half of September monarchs are everywhere, spending nights hung from tree branches or goldenrod boughs, and then flying and feeding all day.
The monarchs are my friends, and so I was not happy to discover a fat and happy mantis living in our big butterfly bush. I had noticed swallowtail wings on the ground when I trimmed the bush a few weeks ago, but I didn’t think to look for a mantis. Last evening while I was out with my camera, there she was, munching on a monarch.
It took me a while to decide to intervene. Both the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) and the mantis are aliens, whereas the monarchs are native, so I felt like I had set up what an attorney might call an attractive nuisance. I couldn’t stop the innocent monarchs from feeding on the butterfly bush, so I grabbed my pruning shears and a big pot, cut the mantis-bearing branch and caught the mantis in the pot. She did not like this! I made it as far as the grapes before tossing her in the weeds.
I immediately felt better, and was able to go back to my monarch gazing with a clear conscience.
