Monarchs have the longest migration of any insect species.
“Ever since I was a kid, I have just loved butterflies,” Eileen Griffith said. “It’s amazing to me. I love nature. I was raised on a farm out here, just two miles down the road. Nature, to me, is such an amazing thing. You can watch it, and that is the cycle of life; from an egg to a caterpillar, to a cocoon, then to a butterfly. That is an amazing miracle of God. That’s another one of God’s creations.” Griffith grew up in Plant City as Eileen McLin and graduated from Plant City High School in 1957. She worked in real estate for 25 years
Millions of monarch butterflies undertake the longest migration of any insect species. They spend the winter in the mountains of central Mexico. In the spring, they migrate as far north as southern Canada, laying eggs along the way. At the end of summer, the butterflies begin the trip back to Mexico. Many of these migrators fly completely across the Gulf.
“The top thing on my bucket list was to go to Mexico to see migration of the monarchs,” Griffith said. “But I am unable to go because they say it is so hard to get to. They say you have to ride four hours on a flatbed truck that has benches on it, then you have to ride a horse for two hours, then you have to walk the rest of the way.”
In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the monarch butterfly to its list of threatened species because of its dwindling numbers. In 2022, Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University, estimated the population of monarch butterflies in the eastern United States had declined 85 percent since the 1990s. One commonly identified culprit is the loss of habitat. Milkweed is the only plant on which monarchs will lay eggs. The hatched caterpillars need the leaves and stems for food. Agricultural use of pesticides and herbicides is also taking a toll on the species.
The Fish and Wildlife Service website indicates the department is fully committed to monarch conservation. It encourages individuals, municipalities, state and federal agencies, and tribes to increase monarch habitat by finding land and spaces to plant milkweed and allow it to grow.
Griffith is one of these helpers. Three years ago, a friend in Colorado told her he was raising monarchs, so she asked the details of how he did it. “I thought, ‘Now that sounds interesting,’” she said. “‘Now that I am retired, I don’t have that much to do, and I will start raising butterflies.’ I have been called butterfly lady my whole life. But I never raised them until last year.”
In 2024, Griffith bought a 14’ x 14’ x 24’ net butterfly cage that sits on the ground. She got a few milkweed plants from the Lowe’s in Plant City. She set one of these plants in a pot inside the cage outside of her home, and the rest in open air. Beginning in May, female monarchs found the plants and laid eggs. Eggs take from three to seven days to hatch. When Eileen saw the next stage, the tiny caterpillers, she delicately picked them off the milkweed and put them on the plant in the cage. It takes about two weeks for the caterpillar to grow, then change into a chrysalis. By the time a caterpillar gets to full size, it can eat a milkweed leaf in 10 minutes, so the plants get chewed up. When each butterfly emerged from its chrysalis, Griffith let it dry its wings for four to five hours. Then she gently removed it from the cage by holding its wings between her fingers and turned it loose outside. In 2024, she stopped counting at 200 monarchs. This year so far, she has set loose 114 of them.
“It is time consuming to really take care of them,” Griffith said. “I get up in the morning and look to see if any have hatched, and then I keep an eye on them on and off during the day. When I see they can fly, I turn them loose. I call them God’s flying jewels, or flying flowers.” Griffith’s neighbors know she raises the monarchs, and when walking by several will ask to see them.
I heard about a lady who had live butterflies released at her funeral, and I asked my kids to do that for me,” Griffith said.
