Our Stafford County Pit Stop for Nature’s Travelers Heading South

THE FXBG ADVANCE FRIDAY 10/09/26 MIDMORNING READ

By Jeff Eastland, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

Photos by Jeff Eastland

A marvelous thing is transpiring right now on our seven-acre farm in Stafford, Virginia: The remarkable transformation of one of North America’s most fascinating and beautiful creatures—the Monarch butterfly.

Each year the Monarchs make a migration of thousands of miles, moving from breeding grounds in the United States and Canada to their wintering grounds in Mexico. While no single butterfly survives the whole way, the last generation flies 3,000 miles south to central Mexico making their journey an amazing wonder of nature.

Monarchs depend on milkweed plants to survive. It is the only plant they eat. They lay their eggs on the leaves of the plant. (The leaves they haven’t eaten, that is to say!) The eggs become caterpillars that fatten up on the milkweed, and then form a hard, smooth outer shell known as a pupa, or chrysalis.

After one to three weeks, the shell splits, the adult Monarch emerges, pumps hemolymph (insect blood) into its wings, and flies away. The adult butterflies also rely on a variety of flowering plants to get nectar for energy for their long trip south.

Monarch populations have long been in decline due to habitat loss, pesticide and herbicide application, and the destruction of native plants, making their food source—milkweed—more difficult to find.

To that end, we have planted milkweed on our certified wildlife habitat here to help them out.

Monarch caterpillars feeding on Milkweed in our patch. Note the dark caterpillar poop on the leaves.

Right now, we’re seeing Monarchs and their caterpillars on our milkweed patch as they perform their evolution and work their way south. It is a wonderful sight to behold.

And it certainly makes one feel good to have given them as assist in their difficult journey, and to feel that all that work has been worthwhile.

A Monarch Caterpillar in the distinctive “J” form as it prepares to form a pupa, or chrysalis

The finished chrysalis, awaiting the emergence of the Monarch Butterfly

The Monarch emerges from its chrysalis and hangs on a fence board.

Native Aster we planted along a fence row as a fall flowering plant to provide nectar on the Monarch’s long trip south

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Jeff Eastland is a retired antique dealer, lifetime activist and writer, and one-time Environmental Studies major. He lives on a seven-acre farm in farm that is a certified Wildlife Habitat in Stafford, Virginia. You can find an earlier version of this essay on his substack HERE. You can find an earlier draft of this post HERE.