Lesson from the schoolyard - habitat

Environment-based Education at K-12 Schools

It’s the little things that count, and if you listen, they will tell you what they need. What do the little things say in our area? They’re saying, “We need habitat!”

How have I heard that habitat loss is a problem? All the milkweed I harvested last fall had multiple monarch butterfly eggs or caterpillars on it. Monarch larvae require milkweed to grow. Each female monarch will instinctively move to a different milkweed plant after laying a single egg at a time. Ideally eggs are spread across many individual plants and patches, but when stalks are limited, existing plants routinely end up with multiple munching monarchs.

This past September, I rescued 38 monarch caterpillars from Yorktown Elementary School’s native plant habitat. They’d eaten through all the milkweed leaves in that habitat and were gnawing on the stalks, their least favorite food. I have seen lots of monarch chrysalises (a butterfly’s pupal stage) hanging along the front of Grafton Bethel Elementary School. Usually, you cannot find chrysalises in the wild because they blend in with their natural surroundings. Those caterpillars knew they had to climb up and out but there wasn’t anywhere else to go. They’re quite vulnerable in this exposed location, and many were parasitized by opportunistic wasps and tachinid flies.

Specifically, I’ve heard the monarch caterpillars say, “We are hungry.” How have I heard them say that? We fulfilled a request for milkweed in mid-September 2025 from York HS when their milkweed supply ran low...and rescued caterpillars from Yorktown ES two days later for the same reason. Milkweed stalks in the YLG’s 4-H Garden and Waste Management’s Milkweed Meadow were stripped clean by hungry monarchs by mid-September. Requests for milkweed were posted in the York/Poquoson Gardening group on Facebook three times this year. These are all indications that there’s not enough Milkweed in York County or Poquoson. Now that a problem has been identified, we need to seek a solution.

Where can someone purchase milkweed?

At MG plant sales, Virginia Native Plant Society’s plant sale, VLM plant sales, or a native plant nursery or check withyour local garden center for pesticide free plants.

Where do the MG plant sale plants come from?

Primarily our home gardens with some from local schools

Where should we plant Common Milkweed?

In our wild spaces or forest edges

How about Tropical Milkweed?

Tropical Milkweed is suitable for container gardening in our area. It is not a native milkweed and planting it in the ground may cause unintended consequences by giving a particular monarch parasite the opportunity to overwinter.

What if Common Milkweed is not tidy enough for my garden areas?

Plant Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa. For areas with consistent moisture, Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, is another good choice. All three milkweeds are native to the Virginia Peninsula and generally available for sale locally.

It is really that simple to help support one of Earth’s longest recorded animal migrations.

Plant more Milkweed!