The Monarch Migration Festival
By - Emma Rauschert, University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and Master Naturalist
Monarch butterfly caterpillar chomping on a Milkweed leaf. Photo courtesy of Emma Rauschert
Coming to Galesburg, Illinois, on September 6th is the 11th Annual Monarch Migration Festival. The festival will be at the Lakeside Nature Center in Galesburg, IL, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The festival is free, family-friendly, and open to the public. At the festival, you can find educational booths that detail and show the monarch butterfly's life cycle, live monarch butterflies, hands-on activities, a live butterfly release, several vendors, and educational booths. They will also be selling t-shirts. Rhonda Brady, also known as "Miss Mariposa," is the face behind the event. Rhonda has loved butterflies her entire life, but is especially passionate about the Monarch butterfly. Rhonda will have her butterfly bus at the festival, loaded with books on butterflies, creative artwork, and all things butterfly.
The festival celebrates the great migration of the delicate, dainty, but persevering Monarch butterfly, which flies up to 3,000 miles to its overwintering grounds in Mexico. There used to be billions of monarch butterflies on Earth; now, they number in the millions, and their population continues to plummet drastically. Unfortunately, the Monarch butterfly faces many threats to its way of life. Mowing milkweed, spraying pesticides, overwintering habitat loss, and extreme weather events all play a role in the decline of the beloved Monarch.
How can you help the Monarch butterflies thrive so future generations can admire and cherish this fantastic creature?
1. Be careful what you mow- milkweed (not a weed)- is a native plant to Illinois and is the only plant on which Monarch butterflies lay their eggs. The young caterpillars eat the leaves for a few weeks before turning into a chrysalis, then a butterfly!
2. Let flowers grow! Plant native flowers in your landscape and, most importantly, native varieties of milkweed! Monarch butterflies need milkweed to lay eggs on, but they also need nectar-producing flowers to feed on during their migratory journey.
3. Don't spray pesticides. Pesticides harm butterflies in various ways. Pesticides can kill butterflies, cause deformities or weakness, kill their host plants, and disrupt their migration abilities.
For more information on the festival, go to www.go.illinois.edu/MMF2025.