Provision Living Monarch Butterfly Therapy

Tagged Monarch Feeding on Mexican Sunflower

Everyone seems to like butterflies. They make people happy. Residents associate them with the bright sunny days in which they were found as kids.

Monarch butterflies have very durable wings. They can be tagged in late summer and early fall with a resident’s ID. Then wait until spring to see if the tag has been found over a 1,000 miles away in Mexico.

The plan was simple: raise milkweeds, collect eggs, raise caterpillars, and release butterflies; as my wife and I had done for many years. Let each interested resident have a rearing container to watch the show. ["The Community reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of your pet." Page 4 of 13]

That did not happened. Instead a program evolved in which caregivers and memory care residents took part followed by assisted living residents as spectators (“I don’t want those ugly worms!”).

The area is no longer several half-gallon butter pecan ice cream containers with five caterpillars in each, and 300 milkweed plants in our back yard. It now includes 1.5 acres of Ozark mountain terrain that is being naturalized with milkweeds and nectar sources for monarch caterpillars and adult butterflies.

Provision Living Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary

Memory care residents spent an afternoon, May 17, on the patio repotting 50 milkweed plants provided by the city of Columbia from Monarch Watch. They helped water them in the memory care patio garden. About two months (July 14) later they helped repot the plants into root bags.

The plants attracted monarchs. One afternoon we had a good 1/2 hour egg laying show with over a dozen eggs found. Daily collections were made by residents, relatives, and caregivers. In total, these potted plants attracted over 120 eggs.

Leafless Common Milkweed in Root Bag

The caterpillars would have eaten these small plants into the ground if we had not removed them.

My wife had a three-day period in which she did not talk. A caregiver accompanied her to look for eggs. By the time she had found a dozen eggs and two caterpillars she was smiling and talking.

The dormant common milkweed roots were moved to the south end of the 1.5 acre sanctuary this fall by a crew of 30 from the Legion of Black Collegians. This species of milkweed will next grow tap roots over six feet down, instead of six inches down in the root bags. I wind-sowed over a thousand seeds on a barren area to the north. Both areas are visible from the resident areas.

Tropical Milkweed from Seed

Tropical milkweed, seeded in a large “self-watering” pot, attracted both monarchs and humming birds. The pot was moved on and off “stage” as needed. [These seeds were, by luck, in a package of butterfly milkweed seed from Walmart.]

Our assisted living spectators saw very little of this as they lacked an area like the large memory care patio or our little apartment garden with common milkweed, french marigold, and later, Mexican sunflower.

September 12

May 26

Their primary interest was in large caterpillars, the beautiful chrysalides, and releasing the adult butterflies. Many were fascinated by the rate of growth, the metamorphosis, and the behavior of the caterpillars (feeding, and head bobbing in response to the voice of some residents).

This lead to a display in the lobby that visiting children and adults, and residents found fascinating. My activities in tidying up the display each morning (fresh leaves and a new diaper for caterpillar poo) attracted attention at breakfast.

August 7

September 7

Inspired visitors commented on the amount their caterpillars ate and the amount of poo. (They did not see me change the paper towel in the bottom of the display boxes each morning before 8:00.) One lady reported she had to take her untidy rearing box off her dinning room table.

September 29, Boarding Last Flight to Mexico

We now had too many chrysalides for the rearing boxes, holding 10 caterpillars each, in memory care. This lead to the addition of an emergence flight cage in the lobby for all residents and visitors.

Several of the caregivers recorded a pupating caterpillar and an emerging adult butterfly. A very supporting article was in “Inside Columbia’s Prime Magazine”, August, 2017, pages 26-30, by Jack Wax and photos by LG Patterson, “Richard & Margaret Hart Create Sanctuaries”.

The entire memory care community parked itself on the patio to observe the release of the first two monarchs. (See Provision Living at Columbia on Facebook.)  Each butterfly climbed high into a bright blue sky and then headed into the top of trees, accompanied with cheers and applause. It was a perfect show.

Our memory care poet in residence, Sylvia, handed me this note:

August 15

The Halloween contest produced this:

October 15

As time passed I learned the thing that most residents liked to do was to hold the butterfly before it flew away. Feeling a butterfly walk on their hand, feeling the little claws grasp their skin, was a memorable experience.

October 6

September 28

I also learned how to make it happen: Release the butterfly about five hours after emerging from the chrysalis. Too soon and they will not fly; too late (next day) they fly on release. We scheduled departure time each day as about 3:00 pm, weather permitting.

September 28

We learned to release the butterflies on the south side of the building near the entrance flagpole. We could watch them fly back up along side of the building.  When reaching the roof above the three-story building, they then took a southwesterly course: On to Mexico for the winter; about a month and over 1,500 flight (or bicycle) miles away. (See Memory Care Butterfly Rearing Box for details)

What has happened this year was a bit of a surprise. It was a preview of what we expected to experience next year. The durable rearing box (previous post) should make it easy for anyone to provide monarch butterfly therapy for individuals and for groups. But first get a good source of common milkweed leaves and a refrigerator (Do not serve as salad). Several of the caregivers can repeat the therapy given a supply of milkweed leaves.

Residents like to see things that grow and that change. They like to take part. Thank you to all who assisted me to manage the display and to make the releases possible. And thank you to Provision Living for letting us have all this fun.

Residents, monarch butterflies, and humming birds liked the flowers on the tropical milkweed and the Mexican sunflower. They put on good 2-30 minute shows several times a daily on the memory care patio. We will grow these plants from seed next year again. They are durable and an easy way to move the show about. We look forward to feeding caterpillars from our own milkweed next year.

Common Milkweed with Big Leaves
to Feed Caterpillars

Tropical Milkweed with Ornamental Flowers
and Very Attractive to Monarch Butterflies