Monarch butterflies becoming scarcer, residents learn at Butterfly Festival

Inside the butterfly tent at the Butterfly Festival Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Several butterflies were tagged and released Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library as part of the University of Kansas Monarch Watch project.

The monarch tagging demonstration was led by Hailey Moss, education specialist at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library at Wyandotte County Lake Park in Kansas City, Kan. The monarchs were tagged with a sticker on their wings.

The butterflies will start their migration to Mexico, but not all of them will make it, Moss told a group of adults and children today at Wyandotte County Lake Park.

They face many hazards on their trip, including weather, animals, and pesticides, she said. There are less monarchs every year because of pesticides in the environment, she added.

It will take a couple of months for the butterflies to fly to Mexico, with the butterflies flying 50 to 100 miles a day, she said.

Today’s 10th annual Lawson Roberts Butterfly Festival at Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library at Wyandotte County Lake Park included photo contest award winners, monarch tagging demonstrations, a lecture by a Kansas naturalist about restoring native species, a monarch migration challenge game, an insect scavenger hunt, butterfly walk, a live insect display, bee hive display, crafts and face painting.

“It takes four generations of the butterfly to migrate from Mexico to here,” Moss said. “They fly as far as they can, they live for about a month, and then they die. This is the migratory generation, they live for about nine months. They don’t reproduce until they get down to Mexico.”

The 10th annual Lawson Roberts Butterfly Festival Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library at Wyandotte County Lake Park saw area residents take to butterfly nets on a butterfly walk. This photo was near a butterfly garden and monarch waystation on the library grounds. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

A path was marked out on a butterfly walk for residents to follow and play a monarch migration challenge game on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Rules of the monarch migration challenge game were explained outdoors at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Hailey Moss, education specialist with the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library, led monarch tagging demonstrations on Saturday, Sept. 26. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Children participated in the monarch tagging demonstrations on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

People walked the butterfly path at the Butterfly Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

People went inside a butterfly tent to view butterflies at the Butterfly Festival Saturday. The butterfly tent held several butterflies until they were released at the end of the Butterfly Festival at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Enjoying the Butterfly Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Sheryl Nance-Durst, left, of The Embellished Body, painted butterfly designs on faces at the Butterfly Festival Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library, Kaelyn Coffman, 8, of the Piper area of Kansas City, Kan., was at the right. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

Several butterfly crafts were offered for children at the Butterfly Festival Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlalge Library. (Photo by Mary Rupert)

A wall of crafted butterflies decorated the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Library for the Butterfly Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26. (Photo by Mary Rupert)