Grayslake residents share passion for monarch butterflies; ‘It's like this whole other world that you come into'
'Here's an egg,' she says, prompting a gleeful cheer from Bauer.
In a few days, that egg will hatch a caterpillar barely a few millimeters long, which will binge itself on milkweed leaves for another two weeks. After that, it'll form a chrysalis, a small protective shell, inside which it will be radically transformed. From that shell will emerge a monarch butterfly, an iconic North American butterfly that has faced catastrophic population decline in recent decades.
Both Lawson and Bauer have small signs designating their homes as monarch waystations, meaning they provide proper milkweed plants, nectar and shelter for monarch butterflies. Bauer, who began raising butterflies about five years ago, was the one who drew Lawson into the hobby.
Today, they admit it's something of an obsession, with the egg hunt becoming a daily ritual during the hatching season. Bauer has her 'monarch mansion,' as the neighborhood children call it — a birdcage where she protects the caterpillars and butterflies before releasing them when they're ready. And Lawson showed, somewhat sheepishly, her photo diary of her first few years releasing butterflies, where she photographed, named and recorded each one.
For both women, their efforts are a small way to combat the devastation human activity has brought to monarch butterfly populations, including climate change, deforestation and heavy pesticide use.
The monarch butterfly is most renowned for its yearly odyssey. Some will travel up to 3,000 miles during their two-way winter journey, according to Monarch Watch, which provides the waystation signs sitting in Bauer and Lawson's yards. They travel in giant butterfly masses across the continent to either the coast of California or the mountains of Mexico.
But since the 1980s and '90s, monarch populations have seen staggering declines. According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, populations in central Mexico and coastal California have decreased by more than 80% and 95% respectively in recent decades. It's a drop Bauer and Lawson have had to see in their own lifetimes.
'It's really sad,' Lawson said. 'It kind of lit this sense of responsibility in me. How hard is it to plant milkweed?'
Bauer and Lawson explained that native milkweed is critical to the monarch's lifecycle, acting as the butterfly's host plant. It's where they lay their eggs and it feeds them as caterpillars.
'If you don't have milkweed, you don't have monarchs,' Lawson said.
Both heavily encourage everyone to plant milkweed and get involved in raising monarch butterflies. Neither claims to be a bug expert, but they argue their lack of expertise actually shows how easy it could be to learn.
'You can go online and read about it and get yourself started,' Bauer said. 'As you keep doing it, it gets better and easier.'
It's also drawn in their neighbors and community, and the two are discussing plans for creating a summer program to get school children involved.
'It's like this whole other world that you come into,' Bauer said. 'When you find an egg, you get excited, it's like a new baby. Watching them grow is crazy.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
a day ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Annuals are the forgotten native plants. Here are 7 worth adding to the garden
As home gardeners become more educated about the benefits of native plants (supporting native insects, birds and wildlife, and the environment as a whole), the focus has mainly been on trees, shrubs and perennials. Native annuals have somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, likely because most of them aren't readily available at the garden center. And most of the annuals (and tender perennials treated as annuals) that ARE sold in local nurseries are introduced species from faraway places. As such, they don't provide much benefit to the local ecosystem. Native insects have evolved along with native plants, so they recognize them as food. Filling a garden with exotic plants essentially creates a food desert, which can have dire consequences that range from fewer insect pollinators and birds to diminishing food crops and, eventually, livestock. We know that using native plants of all types can help prevent a plethora of environmental problems. They're also easier to care for because they're naturally adapted to local conditions and are generally drought-tolerant. Unfortunately, most home gardeners don't know about or have access to native annuals. I hope that changes. The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, based in Austin, Texas, has a wonderful online plant database that allows users to search native plants by state, lifecycle, bloom time and other criteria. (It's at .) Consider asking your local nursery to stock them. Here are some favorite native annuals. 7 Native annuals worth adding to the garden Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), which is native from Massachusetts south to northern Florida and west to Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma and eastern Texas, is sadly underused. The lovely 1-to-3-foot-tall plant, which produces clusters of 1-inch-wide yellow flowers on tall, slender stems, thrives in both sun and part shade. A member of the legume family, it also releases nitrogen into the soil, which provides a natural and free fertilizer for itself and the other plants in the bed. American basket flower (Plectocephalus americanus) has a native range that spans west from Missouri to Kansas, then south to Louisiana, Texas and into Mexico. The plant, which boasts 4-inch, honey-scented, lavender-to-pinkish-purple flowers with creamy centers, thrives in full sun to part shade. Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum) are delicate flowers that remind me a bit of Dutch irises. Growing to just over 2 feet tall, the late-summer bloomer is native to Michigan, Missouri and Texas east to the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Florida. A better-known U.S. native is the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), which, as its name implies, is native to California and Baja California. It grows up to 2 feet tall, sending up thin stems that each hold a single yellow-orange flower. Many sunflowers are North American natives, and some of those are perennials. But the Helianthus annus species, known as common or annual sunflower, is a native annual. Originating in Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota, south to Texas and west from Oregon to Baja California, Mexico, the multi-branched, bushy plant becomes covered in yellow flowers with maroon centers in summer. Indian blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella) is another U.S. native annual that I've seen at the nursery. They're not native to my home state of New York, however, but rather native from western South Dakota to Kansas and Louisiana and west to Colorado and Arizona. The 2-foot-tall plants put forth daisy-like, red-petaled flowers with yellow tips. Impatiens capensis (Orange jewelweed) should not be confused with the widely available Impatiens walleriana, which comes to us from eastern Africa, or Impatiens hawkeri (New Guinea Impatiens), which is native to the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Instead, this North American beauty has a native range that covers Saskatchewan to Newfoundland, Canada, then extends south to Georgia, west to Oklahoma and northward to Missouri. Great for shady spots, its speckled orange flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. ___ Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice. ___ For more AP gardening stories, go to .
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Newsweek
Map Shows Reach of US Air Force's Pacific War Games
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A Newsweek map shows where the United States has mobilized military aircraft across the Western Pacific during two large-scale Air Force exercises this month amid China's growing threat. Exercise Resolute Force Pacific 2025 (REFORPAC 2025), which is taking place from July 10 to August 8, is part of the first-in-a-generation Department-Level Exercise series, according to the U.S. Air Force. The series aims to conduct large-scale operations in "contested, dynamic environments." Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment via email. Why It Matters Amid China's military buildup, the Pentagon has deployed some of its most capable units to the Indo-Pacific—its priority theater—including an aircraft carrier equipped with stealth fighter jets, submarines armed with long-range missiles, and a land-based anti-ship missile system. The Department-Level Exercise series coincides with Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, a multinational drill held across Australia and Papua New Guinea, involving over 35,000 personnel from the U.S. and 18 other Indo-Pacific, North American, and European countries. What To Know According to the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, the Department-Level Exercise series involves about 400 aircraft and over 12,000 personnel across more than 50 locations spanning 3,000 miles. United States military aircraft stand by for mission operations in support of the Department-Level Exercise series at Yokota Air Base in Japan on July 14, 2025. United States military aircraft stand by for mission operations in support of the Department-Level Exercise series at Yokota Air Base in Japan on July 14, 2025. Airman Kayla Karelas/U.S. Air Force REFORPAC 2025, which features more than 300 aircraft, has been described as Pacific Air Forces' "most comprehensive contingency-response exercise," designed to train military personnel to maintain readiness and execute missions under stress. According to photos released by the U.S. military, aircraft deployed at three bases in Japan—Misawa Air Base, Yokota Air Base, and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni—are taking part in REFORPAC 2025 and Exercise Resolute Force Pacific 2025. South of Japan, Andersen Air Force Base in Guam—the westernmost U.S. territory and a major military hub—and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands are also supporting the exercises. The U.S. military is reviving a World War II-era airfield on Tinian for future use. Located east of Guam and Tinian, the U.S. Air National Guard deployed fighter jets to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Meanwhile, in the South Pacific, Australia—a key U.S. ally—has hosted U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tankers in its Northern Territory. United States Air Force F-22 fighter jets taxi on the flight line during Exercise Resolute Force Pacific 2025 in Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands, on July 17, 2025. United States Air Force F-22 fighter jets taxi on the flight line during Exercise Resolute Force Pacific 2025 in Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands, on July 17, 2025. Airman 1st Class Tala Hunt/U.S. Air Force Participating aircraft include fighter jets, aerial refueling tankers and transport planes. The Pacific Air Forces said it executed a rapid, large-scale deployment of aircraft, personnel, and equipment to multiple locations across the Indo-Pacific, where these units will train and integrate with allies and partners in the coming weeks to enhance readiness and cooperation. General Kevin Schneider, commander of the Pacific Air Forces, praised participating airmen for their global teamwork, which he said demonstrated a collective capability to project decisive U.S. air power into and throughout the Indo-Pacific with dramatic speed and scale. What People Are Saying General Kevin Schneider, commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, said in a press release on July 16: "[Pacific Air Forces] continually seeks to improve our readiness to respond to any contingency, defend the interests of the United States, and work closely together with our Allies and partners to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific." Brigadier General Mike Zuhlsdorf, U.S. Pacific Air Forces director of logistics, engineering, and force protection, said in a press release on July 16: "This is a logistical movement at an unprecedented scale—an explosive surge into the theater driven by precision and a resilient joint network." What Happens Next It remains to be seen whether the U.S. Air Force will deploy additional aircraft to American allies across the Western Pacific, including Japan, the Philippines and Australia.
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Grayslake residents share passion for monarch butterflies; ‘It's like this whole other world that you come into'
It's a sunny July afternoon, and Grayslake neighbors Annie Lawson and Heather Bauer are standing at the side of Lawson's home, carefully going through her garden of milkweed plants. Lawson points at what looks like nothing more than a pale speck on the underside of a leaf. 'Here's an egg,' she says, prompting a gleeful cheer from Bauer. In a few days, that egg will hatch a caterpillar barely a few millimeters long, which will binge itself on milkweed leaves for another two weeks. After that, it'll form a chrysalis, a small protective shell, inside which it will be radically transformed. From that shell will emerge a monarch butterfly, an iconic North American butterfly that has faced catastrophic population decline in recent decades. Both Lawson and Bauer have small signs designating their homes as monarch waystations, meaning they provide proper milkweed plants, nectar and shelter for monarch butterflies. Bauer, who began raising butterflies about five years ago, was the one who drew Lawson into the hobby. Today, they admit it's something of an obsession, with the egg hunt becoming a daily ritual during the hatching season. Bauer has her 'monarch mansion,' as the neighborhood children call it — a birdcage where she protects the caterpillars and butterflies before releasing them when they're ready. And Lawson showed, somewhat sheepishly, her photo diary of her first few years releasing butterflies, where she photographed, named and recorded each one. For both women, their efforts are a small way to combat the devastation human activity has brought to monarch butterfly populations, including climate change, deforestation and heavy pesticide use. The monarch butterfly is most renowned for its yearly odyssey. Some will travel up to 3,000 miles during their two-way winter journey, according to Monarch Watch, which provides the waystation signs sitting in Bauer and Lawson's yards. They travel in giant butterfly masses across the continent to either the coast of California or the mountains of Mexico. But since the 1980s and '90s, monarch populations have seen staggering declines. According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, populations in central Mexico and coastal California have decreased by more than 80% and 95% respectively in recent decades. It's a drop Bauer and Lawson have had to see in their own lifetimes. 'It's really sad,' Lawson said. 'It kind of lit this sense of responsibility in me. How hard is it to plant milkweed?' Bauer and Lawson explained that native milkweed is critical to the monarch's lifecycle, acting as the butterfly's host plant. It's where they lay their eggs and it feeds them as caterpillars. 'If you don't have milkweed, you don't have monarchs,' Lawson said. Both heavily encourage everyone to plant milkweed and get involved in raising monarch butterflies. Neither claims to be a bug expert, but they argue their lack of expertise actually shows how easy it could be to learn. 'You can go online and read about it and get yourself started,' Bauer said. 'As you keep doing it, it gets better and easier.' It's also drawn in their neighbors and community, and the two are discussing plans for creating a summer program to get school children involved. 'It's like this whole other world that you come into,' Bauer said. 'When you find an egg, you get excited, it's like a new baby. Watching them grow is crazy.'
