Ga. Monarch Butterflies Struggle With Climate Change

A monarch butterfly rests during the journey back to its overwintering grounds in Central Mexico.

Aaron Tremper / WABE

Georgia residents can expect to see monarch butterflies two times during the year: in the spring, when the orange and black insects lay their eggs all over the state, and in the fall, when adult butterflies make a pitstop during their 3,000-mile journey back to their overwintering grounds in Mexico. 

But starting in the mid-’90s, researchers noticed that monarchs were struggling. Elise Zipkin, a quantitative ecologist at Michigan State University, says glyphosate weed killers like Roundup were killing the milkweed plants the butterflies needed to lay their eggs. 

“But since the mid-2000s, the amount of glyphosate application rate has stayed pretty steady,” she says. “And the monarchs have still declined.”