Hasta Luego Monarchs

Invitation to Hasta Luego Monarchs

Saturday, September 24 FREE and family-friendly event

Hasta Luego Monarchs! What does this phrase mean to you? For the Johnson County Extension Master Naturalists, this celebration represents one of our last chances this fall to bid the beautiful monarch butterflies farewell with our best wishes for their upcoming journey to their overwintering site in Mexico.

There is nothing like a beautiful orange monarch butterfly to lift your spirits in the heat of the summer or in the early weeks of fall. These butterflies are beginning their migration south, and their numbers are increasing in our area as the fall season progresses. The monarch butterflies have spent the summer reproducing. It all starts when a monarch butterfly lays an egg on a milkweed plant. Their selection of milkweed is not random. Milkweed is the only food a monarch caterpillar can eat. Unlike other butterfly caterpillars that make a chrysalis to overwinter in our area, the monarch caterpillar will emerge from its chrysalis and die within a few short weeks, unless it is part of the current fourth generation of monarchs that are destined to carry their legacy to Mexico to overwinter. Yes, monarch butterflies have an annual four generation migration that takes them from Mexico in the spring north to Canada and beyond, and then back to Mexico in the fall. It is an amazing journey in such a short time, and it requires four generations of monarchs to complete the journey.

The Johnson County Master Naturalists have held the annual Hasta Luego Monarchs event for eight years to celebrate this fantastic journey. Our celebration this year will be at the Pollinator Prairie near downtown Olathe at 320 S. Blake Street on Saturday, September 24, 2022, between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The family-friendly Hasta Luego Monarchs event is free to the public. We will have educational booths of interest for everyone, plus a fun activity for the kids, where each child will have the opportunity to take home a small prize from the event. The group “Monarch Watch” will be at Hasta Luego Monarchs to share their knowledge about the monarch butterfly and to update us on how we can best help this struggling species. Representatives from Monarch Watch will be tagging monarch butterflies for release in the Pollinator Prairie gardens. This is so exciting! One never knows if your tagged monarch butterfly will be rediscovered in Texas, Mexico, or beyond.

Wherever their journeys take them, monarch butterflies are always welcome at the Pollinator Prairie. Since it opened in 2012, this native habitat has provided food, shelter, and water for butterflies, moths, birds, and more. Pollinator Prairie’s seasonal gardens provide plants for different species of insects and wildlife to meet their unique needs throughout the year. The Pollinator Prairie Garden is free and open to the public from sunrise to sunset every day of the year. The gardens of the Pollinator Prairie are linked by an accessible trail that winds around four gardens, including one dedicated to monarch butterflies. The Monarch Garden is labeled as “Nature’s Great Migratory Wonder” and describes how monarch butterflies migrate to central Mexico where they overwinter in large clusters on trees in the mountains. The monarch butterflies return in the spring when the females lay eggs on milkweed. While the monarch caterpillars need milkweed to feed, the adult butterflies need nectar for water and energy. In addition to milkweed, you can find other nectar plants in the Monarch Garden such as asters, coneflowers, and Joe Pye.

In short, Hasta Luego can be translated to mean “Until Later”. Please join us in this celebration to bid the monarch butterflies farewell prior to their annual pilgrimage to Mexico.

For more information on the Hasta Luego Monarchs event or the Pollinator Prairie, you can check out the Pollinator Prairie page on Facebook or call 913-715-7000.

Monarch on Swamp Milkweed

Photo by Ann Tanner.

Join this annual celebration at the Pollinator Prairie in Olathe, on Saturday, September 24, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. to learn more about Monarch life and the journey facing these butterflies as they migrate south.

ANN TANNER Master Naturalist

Ann Tanner is a K-State Research and Extension Master Naturalists of Johnson County, a group that is an educational, non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to providing education, outreach, and service of natural resources.