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AT HOME
Play in
the sun
Planting a tray of milkweed is a fun activity to do with the kids, and is guaranteed to attract monarchs to
your garden. Here are some suggestions for year-round fun.Weekend project - plant milkweed in a sunny and moist spot.
You may want to read the How to grow milkweed at home tips below.Start a ritual
- water milkweed regularly.Always wonder - watch the gluttony of colorful caterpillars – they eat nothing but milkweed.Search
for the invisible pupa - the art of finding pupas is better mastered by children. Butterfly spotting - they are territorial
and will patrol you garden if nectar flowers are around. Butterfly houses are also great to protect them from hurricanes
or cool winter temperatures.
Be smart and show you care
Enjoy nature outdoors! Remember to avoid feeding
caterpillars indoors to prevent infections spreading to our small resident population.
How to grow milkweed at home
You
can find milkweed seeds, seedlings, or plants at various nurseries across the island. Milkweed is perennial and blooms several
times a year. The flower needs direct sun and moisture. You'll want to cut down your leafless stems about 6 inches from
the ground after caterpillars have feasted on them. Note that monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed, i.e., not your roses
or anything else. You may also plant lantanas or pentas, so that your home-grown monarchs don't make a bee line to nectar
in your neighbor's flower garden. Also, be smart and don't use pesticides on your milkweed aphids - if and when they show
up. You'd kill your monarch eggs, caterpillars, and butterflies more surely than your little pests.
Go for a walk
Bermuda
is bigger than you'd think when you explore it by foot. There's plenty to see, and lots of monarchs to spot. Take Hiking Bermuda - 20 Nature Walks and Day Hikes with you and go explore! We're tooting our own horn here
but we hope you'll enjoy the book!
Join MonarchTalk
Ask questions, share your stories, experiences, and
tips, or give feedback to the forum's participants via email at MonarchTalk@bermudamonarch.org.
You can also send emails on your milkweed, caterpillars, or monarch sightings from your garden or elsewhere on the island.
We'll post your notes on MonarchTalk and log them in our records. You'll see your plantings and sightings dot the Bermuda
monarch distribution map and seasonal health chart.
IN THE CLASSROOM
Become
a BMC School Affiliate
Are you a parent or a teacher at one of Bermuda's schools? Let us know about your school garden
and how we may help. Contact us at butterfly@bermudamonarch.org so we can coordinate with you and allot some seeds and seedlings
for your school from our current (or next) batch.
Try our monarch curriculum materials
Teachers at Affiliate
Schools, we have monarch curriculum materials for grades K-2 and 3-6. They are fun and choc-a-block full of ideas. Check
them out and see how they fit with your curriculum.
Win BMC's Monarch Awareness Award and movie tickets
Your
school garden is essential in raising children's awareness of Bermuda's natural heritage and in engaging them to protect their
surroundings. Your garden also plays an important role in conserving and expanding the range of our monarch population.
Your school involvement will help build an island-wide Monarch Map and Health Chart that you can use in your teaching.
Here's
how you can put your school on the Bermuda monarch map, and engage your students to participate in our award competition and
win movie tickets.Contact us at butterfly@bermudamonarch.org to get
some milkweed seeds or seedlings.Each of your classes involved in the caring of the garden develops its own logbook where
they report on the number and growth of milkweed, caterpillars and monarchs.In the spring or fall/winter time - once the
class logbook is full - email it to us at butterfly@bermudamonarch.org. We'll post each class report online so the class
can read their log online and see their school garden dot Bermuda's monarch map and health chart.In addition, we encourage
each class to create original paper reports that we'll arrange with each participating Affiliate School teacher to receive
and review for our award nominations.BMC's Award Committee will reward the Best Class of the Year for overall quality
of gardening and reporting, originality, and acuity of observation in relation to class grade. The Committee will give out
the Monarch Awareness Award annually. The winning class will receive free movie tickets!
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