Michigan Garden Guide To Attracting Monarch Butterflies

Each spring, majestic monarch butterflies travel nearly 3,000 miles from their wintering grounds in Mexico to places like Michigan and Canada, where they spend the warmer summer months.

The butterflies make a pit stop each season in Michigan, allowing them to rest before their long journey over the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. In fact, the Peninsula Point Lighthouse and the cedar trees in the Stonington Peninsula area have a reputation for offering some of the best monarch butterfly viewing in the state!

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However, if you can't make it all the way up to the Upper Peninsula, here are some tips for attracting these beautiful butterflies to your own backyard.

While the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation says it's difficult to accurately determine monarch numbers, one thing is certain: the monarch butterfly population is threatened. Habitat loss due to pesticide use, land development, and climate change are to blame for dwindling monarch numbers.

That's why it's imperative we neighbors do our part to support these and other important pollinators by planting plants and flowers native to Michigan, avoiding the use of pesticides, and more. Adds the Michigan DNR,

Despite the small size of monarch butterflies and other insects, they play a very large role in human's lives. Insects travel to flowering plants, drinking nectar and transporting pollen. This results in a pollination service that is responsible for 1/3 of the world's food source...Join us in celebrating monarchs, bees, and all other pollinators by becoming aware and participating in the tremendous ongoing conservation efforts!

Monarch butterflies can typically be found in Michigan anytime from late spring through early fall. They say the best times of the day to spot monarchs is at dawn or just before sunset.