Hi friend,

We've all heard that monarch butterfly populations are declining. But what should we do (and not do) to help them?

The way we protect monarch butterflies is by restoring their wild habitat, avoiding insecticides, and planting native.

When humans try to further interfere with nature by captive rearing monarchs or keeping caterpillars away from predators, it does more harm than good to the overall population.

It’s easy to think, “Well, monarch populations are decreasing, so the answer must be to make sure as many survive as possible!”

This seems logical, and it mostly comes from a place of compassion, but it’s not the reality.

From a recently updated article by The Xerces Society (a global leader in invertebrate conservation):

“Raising monarchs in captivity is a good tool for education and research — but not conservation….

Monarchs evolved to have very high rates of predation and parasitism, so stepping in in the hope that a higher proportion of eggs make it to adulthood is not necessarily the best thing for the population as a whole….

A study of recoveries of tagged monarchs suggested that captive-bred monarchs have lower migration success compared to wild monarchs (Morris et al. 2015).

This research suggests that captive-bred monarchs are less able to survive — and thus don’t help the population as much as wild monarchs. There is broad agreement among the monarch scientific community that captive breeding and mass releases can introduce unnecessary risks to wild monarch populations.”

A big reason that butterfly/moth conservation is so important is that caterpillars are at the foundation of the food web.

They’re SUPPOSED to get eaten by predators. It takes over 6000 caterpillars to feed one single brood of chickadees.

Nature can be brutal, but it’s not our job to interfere with the circle of life.

“This can be a little counter-intuitive, but it’s really about valuing the entire population of wild, beautiful monarchs instead of focusing on individual butterflies.

For example, hypothetically, let’s say you wild-collect 100 eggs and 90 of them make it to adulthood instead of the 10 that would have survived on their own in the wild.

Maybe some of those 90 eggs wouldn’t have survived on their own because they’re not as “fit” (in the biological sense) and now their less-fit genes are out there in a population that’s already in trouble.” - The Xerces Society, 2025​

When humans arbitrarily choose which caterpillars survive to adulthood, it hinders natural selection and weakens the gene pool, which will ultimately reduce the overall population.

In nature, caterpillars with weaker genes get eaten, parasitized, or succumb to pathogens.

Ones with stronger genes are more resistant to disease, better at hiding, healthier overall, and more likely to survive into adulthood and reproduce.

The ones who reproduce pass on their genes to the next generation, so it’s important that the genes passed on are ones that help the species population thrive.

Captive rearing monarchs in large numbers creates even more problems, such as increased pathogens like Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (also known as “OE”) due to too many caterpillars sharing a small space, and not having sufficient numbers of milkweed plants to support so many hungry caterpillars all at once.

So what do we do to protect the beautiful and declining monarch butterflies?

We need to protect their habitat.

They rely on the native plant species that they co-evolved with, and on having the right plants in the right places.

Make sure whichever milkweed species you’re planting is native to your area.

And they need safe plants that haven’t been treated with pesticides that kill them. Avoid insecticides, even if they’re labeled as “organic” or “natural”.

If you’d like to help more caterpillars survive, it’s also important to note that they have higher survival rates on milkweed that’s hosting a diversity of other insects and bugs!

So let those aphids be (they will not kill a healthy plant!), and share your milkweed with the other insects that co-evolved to eat it.

When predators come looking for a meal, having more to choose from means they’re less likely to eat every monarch caterpillar.

🦋 How to Help Save Monarchs 🦋

DO:

• Plant milkweed native to your region
• Plant nectar plants native to your region
• Encourage biodiversity in your yard
• Spread awareness
• Remove invasive plants
• Share your milkweed with other insects

DON’T:

• Use insecticides
• Captive rear caterpillars
• Protect caterpillars from predators
• Kill other bugs on milkweed plants
• Plant invasive species
• Plant milkweed that isn’t native to your region

Need to spruce up your eco-gardening skills or plant more native plants?

I'm having a flash sale in my online shop right now as summer is coming to a close!

Get 20% off US native seeds, digital guides and workbooks, consultations, and more with code SUMMEREND at checkout. Now through August 26th.

Tory is an ecologist and landscape consultant. He helps North American gardeners transition from using outdated and harmful but status-quo techniques to using their yards to improve the health of our planet. Along with being a gardener for over 10 years, Tory has a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Design and is certified in Regenerative Soil Science.​

​