Butterflies and Gardens
Fall 2008 Volume IV, Issue 4

Inside this issue

• African Monarch
• Centers for Disease Control Reports Another Food Contamination Outbreak
• FDA Warns the Public That Tomatoes May Be Tainted
• The Garden Patch
• Sustainability News
• eBay Milkweed Buyers Report
• Happy Tonics Members Share Gardening and Butterfly News
• Catch the Reading Bug Summer Reading Program
• Health of the Monarchs
• The Comma Butterfly Is Migrating North

African Monarch
by Chris Waldron

Westport, South Africa - The African monarch (Danaus chrysippus) is similar to the North American monarch (Danaus plexippus) in many ways. One of the major differences between the two butterflies is the outward appearance. The North American monarch is orange and black with wings that look like stained glass. The African monarch is the same color with the exception that its wings do not have the black veins. Also, the white dots on the African monarch’s wings form a different pattern than that of its North American counterpart.
Another major difference between the North American monarch and the African species is migration. Due to the warmer climate of the African continent, the local butterfly does not migrate in the same way as its North American relative. In some areas of Africa, the monarch may migrate, but as a whole, the species stays in one area (unlike in North America where monarchs have migrated from Mexico to Canada).

Centers for Disease Control Reports Another Food Contamination Outbreak

Washington, DC, USA – Once again, the American public and Canada have been susceptible to food safety issues. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), public health officials, Indian Health Service, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have finally found the culprit that has caused 1,284 persons to be become ill in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada since April 2008. Two deaths have also been linked to the food contamination.

As of July 25, the FDA is advising consumers that jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in Mexico are contaminated with Salmonella Saitpaul. The FDA advises the public not to purchase these species of peppers if grown in Mexico. Jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in the United States are not connected with this latest food safety crisis.

Jalapeno Pepper
© Food and Drug Administration

Serrano Pepper
© Food and Drug Administration

FDA Warns the Public That Tomatoes May Be Tainted

Atlanta, Georgia, USA - When the FDA warns the public that a food source may be contaminated with Salmonella, the results can prove devastating to the food industry. Take tomatoes for example. Concerned consumers avoided buying tomatoes and it cost farmers in Georgia an average of $30 million, according to the University of Georgia (UGA). Georgia is the nation’s 3rd largest tomato producer after Florida and California. The state earns an average of $80 million in sales, according to the University of Georgia.

Terry Kelley, UGA extension horticulturist, estimates that the salmonella scare cost farmers about three-fourths of their spring crop. United Fresh Produce Association reported that nationwide, losses might be as high as $200 million. Source: Dan Chapman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Greg Murray, tomato grower, Faceville, South Georgia, with devastated tomato crop
© Dan Chapman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Garden Patch
by Mary Ellen Ryall

Shell Lake, Wisconsin, USA - I learn a lot from other elders around me. Bob Stariha says, “We are planting our own farm right here at Lakeland Manor.” The FDA states there is no risk in consuming home grown tomatoes. Bob is growing several varieties as well as Ray Schultz.

Last year Sister Richelle Ricci and I tended most of the gardens, but this year, we asked for some help, and the boys started to take an interest and kicked in. They love to tend their raised bed plots. Bob even has cucumbers and beans growing up a trellis, which is tied to the clothes line pole.

I planted potatoes, onions, beans, a cherry tomato plant and arugula for tangy salads. The potato plant grew a seedpod on the top of the plant. We also have an herb garden that consists of aromatic, culinary, and medicinal herbs. Ray loves the moss roses that bloom among the herbs. We are joyful today for the gifts that we have in our own little garden patch.

Ray Schultz admiring the herb garden
© Mary Ellen Ryall

Potato seedpod
© Mary Ellen Ryall

Sustainability News

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - Kelley Buckentine and Tony Weslander of Green Solutions North America Inc. are part of a new wave of sustainability. The organization recycles office furniture from companies that donate discarded furniture. Green Solutions in turn donates the disposed furniture to deserving nonprofit organizations such as Happy Tonics, Inc. Happy Tonics is a small grass roots organization in 14 States that promotes Sanctuary for the Monarch Butterfly and teaches about Food Safety Issues and the risks of genetic engineering to the food supply. Without Green Solutions North America Inc., it would have been difficult to furnish the newly donated office headquarters in Shell Lake, Wisconsin.

Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA – We thank Stefanie Penn Spear, Executive Director of Earth Watch Ohio, for sending copies of the June-July newspaper. Happy Tonics distributed copies of the newspaper to Morph Your Mind Environmental Education attendees throughout the weekly summer series. We appreciate learning about environmental steps being taken in Ohio to promote sustainability. Stefanie writes, “Keep up the great work you are doing in Wisconsin.”

We applaud all those who are helping to make this world a more sustainable environment.

eBay Milkweed Buyers Report

Shell Lake, Wisconsin, USA – Happy Tonics, Inc. has an online store with eBay at http://stores.ebay.com/HAPPY-TONICS
At times, our buyers ask questions and in corresponding with butterfly enthusiasts, we gain more knowledge about butterfly habitat around the country. We are delighted to report the news from a few of our eBay milkweed seed buyers.

Apex, North Carolina - Becky Blair says, “Thanks - I'm using them [milkweed seeds] in a class for kids.  I have about 90 kids that will be planting these and other plants to set up butterfly gardens in their yard.”

Fort Worth, Indiana - Shandra Hathaway, states, “I am a kindergarten teacher and we study the monarch in September. It is amazing and the kids learn so much! I'm always driving everywhere to find milkweed to feed our caterpillars. I have a perfect place to plant some of these seeds, and I will have food in my own backyard.”

So far this year, Happy Tonics has distributed milkweed seed in 24 states and we are hoping to beat last year’s distribution in 25 states. The organization’s goal is to create a floral corridor across the USA.

Happy Tonics Members Share Gardening and Butterfly News

Susan Engebrecht, Wausau, Wisconsin reports, “As for garden news, the flower beds are alive with sounds, movement, and colors. The other day as I sat on the front steps, three small butterflies, those flying flowers, danced from one blossom to the next. Though I have no idea what name we humans have given them, I thanked them for allowing me to bask in the glory of their grace and beauty. The small celebrations of life are what make each day exciting and new.”

Valerie Jean Downes and her husband Joseph J. Lusco, of Sun City, Arizona, recently visited Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida. Valerie says, “What a sensation to walk into the conservatory and have butterflies swirling around us.  Joe attracted an owl butterfly (Caligo idomenius) to his white sock and finally had to ask an attendant to remove it.  This one, when closed, is a dull brown with a huge eye on each wing, which makes it look like an owl when closed. Upon flying, its vivid blue underside is revealed.”

Owl butterfly attached to Joseph J. Lusco
© Joseph J. Lusco

Catch the Reading Bug Summer Reading Program

Shell Lake, Wisconsin, USA - The Public Library offered a summer story hour to children from preschool to sixth grade. Several events took place. Valerie Jean Downes, of Happy Tonics, presented three reading programs on Butterflies and the Environment. Other activities included making butterfly hats and origami butterflies and bugs.

Brook Dahlstrom, Library Student Staff wearing a monarch butterfly hat © Beth Carlson

Courtney and Hannah proudly displaying their butterfly hats © Beth Carlson

Valerie Downes reading “The Prince of Butterflies” to Debra.

Health of the Monarchs
By Eunice Smith

Miami, Florida, USA - For the last three years, I have been documenting the life of the monarch. The first year I planted twenty-five milkweed plants and said this is my butterfly garden. It was very pretty. As the plants thrived, I awaited my first caterpillar. I was so excited; I couldn’t wait to tell my husband Tom. One became two and two became one hundred. I thought I had a wonderful year. A few had deformed wings, and I tried to keep them alive for awhile, so they would know a little of life.

The second year I had one hundred plants and a bumper crop of caterpillars. It was as if I could go to the garden and pick butterflies like I was picking wild blueberries.

This year we planted milkweed around our entire half-acre… I am so happy summer is here and so are the monarchs. I can’t say why each season was different, but I accept what God gives me to help the monarch survive.

Monarch caterpillar on milkweed © Mary Ellen Ryall

The Comma Butterfly Is Migrating North

Cornwall, England - The comma (Polygonia c-album) is a European butterfly. Its American cousins are the eastern comma and the question mark. The English have been watching butterflies for centuries. Some species date back to the 1600s. During the Victorian era, the passion for butterfly observation was so great that every city, and many small towns had their own entomological society. According to Malcolm Lee, The Butterfly Observer, “The first major work on the Cornish butterfly fauna was published in 1906.” Lee goes on to point out that the comma was not recorded in Cornwall in 1906. The butterflies first arrived in Cornwall in 1933 following a well-documented expansion over the previous 20 years.

By the late 1900s, the comma butterfly was frequently seen as far north as the Scottish Highlands. The rate of expansion is some fifty miles per decade. The butterfly is migrating further north. Climate change is impacting many species be it plant or butterfly. The comma is considered a generalist and can adapt more readily because it has more than one host plant for its survival. Chris Thomas, biologist, at the University of York, studies lepidopteria. Thomas says, “Every single one has moved northward since 1982.” Source Field Notes from a Catastrophe.