LET'S SAVE THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY!
YOU CAN HELP BRING THEM BACK IN BIG NUMBERS
 AROUND WINDSOR, ESSEX AND CHATHAM-KENT COUNTY.

                           

                                  

 

My name is Leo Silvestri and I live at 1158 Erie St. E. Windsor, ON. Canada 
Let me ask you a question if I may: When was last time you saw a Monarch butterfly around your neighborhood? I don’t know about you, but for most people living in Windsor and surrounding area the answer has always been the same…“When I was a kid I used to see them in big numbers, now I don’t see them anymore. I wonder what happen to the Monarch butterflies?”  

The monarch butterfly is in trouble. Their numbers are down 90% from what they were in 1992.
And Milkweed plants, which are indispensable to the Monarch, is also down 90%.
Milkweed plants are the only source of food for the Monarch caterpillar. But these plants are rapidly disappearing, due to the loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of
pesticides on the fields where they live. 

                                                                 ABOUT US

We are a group of Windsor, Essex and Chatham-Kent County residents whose goal is to provide information, knowledge and resources to our friends and neighbors who would like to help bring Monarch butterflies back in big numbers into our neighborhoods. You know by now through the media and web sites the Monarch butterfly is in BIG trouble. Our three North America country’s leaders had all promised back in 2014, to help the migration cycle of these creatures to continue for years to come. Unfortunately like all good politicians very little has been done financially to protect the Monarch habitat. 
Let’s face it, the US
and Canadian government will never stop farmers from spraying the huge amount of pesticides that automatically kills Milkweed plants in the fields every year. Too many big companies and millions of dollars in profits are at stake in the agriculture world and therefore the majority of these people most likely will never do anything about the Monarch butterfly’s future. So in order to help the Monarch butterfly survive, we’ve decided to take action into our own hands, like hundreds of thousands folks like you and me throughout Canada and US by planting Milkweed on our properties, and by encouraging others to do the same. We hope you will too. :-)

Providing food for the Monarch caterpillars, and nectar flowers for the adult butterflies is the best way to help these delicate creatures survive with or without any help from our busy politicians.

If you’re interested in planting Milkweed flowers in your garden contact us at anytime and we would love to provide you FREE seeds and or small plants at a reasonable cost. (When available)

                                                          ONTARIO NATIVE MILKWEED 
                      
The three most popular perennial Milkweed species native to Ontario are easy to find and excellent choices to plant in your flower garden or backyard. These three species offer food for the Monarch caterpillar as well as nectar to all butterflies, bees and humming birds.
Swamp Milkweed  (Asclepias Incarnata) is usually found growing near ponds and streams in the wild, but this species grows just as well in average garden soil that is watered regularly during dry spells. Its pinkish-red blossoms have a sweet, vanilla-like scent, and its smooth green seedpods can provide a nice addition to floral arrangements.
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias Tuberosa) is a very drought-tolerant species that prefers areas with drier soils that also receive full sun.
This species typically displays brilliant reddish-orange flowers.
Common Milkweed (Asclepias Syriaca), which is best suited for containers and very large landscapes due to its aggressive spreading habit.
Most people are probably already familiar with the tall and statuesque

All three of these aforementioned native species of Milkweed plants only require about 2 square feet of your garden’s space to grow, and they also perform very well in containers. By planting a native Milkweed, you will be doing your part to help conserve the Monarch butterfly as well as providing yourself and others with the opportunity to witness the fascinating metamorphosis of the beautiful insect. It doesn't take much to contribute to the conservation of the threatened Monarch butterfly species, and each contribution to this broad effort is of great value and vital importance to its prospects for success.
Every person can do their part, however great or small, to ensure that the Monarch butterfly continues to be around to delight and fascinate onlookers for generations to come.

Most nurseries in our area unfortunately do not sell Milkweed plants (although I did see a few Butterfly weed at Fred’s Market ) in July 2017.
To start with well established plants you can visit this Amherstburg site
: www.nativetreesandplants.com  (this is where I got my first milkweed plants ) or look elsewhere online for more vendors. If you would like to start from seeds, we always have a good supply in our fridge that you can have for FREE   Call or email anytime you need some.
If you would like to buy some inexpensive milkweed plant ($ 2-3.00 each) in spring - summer visit these local nurseries:
 http://www.savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/Windsor-Essex-County-Milkweed-Growers.pdf   

                                                           THE MONARCH MIGRATION

The Monarch butterfly is one of the most iconic and wondrous insects that are native to North America. Every year, tens of millions of Monarchs take flight in an incredible transcontinental migratory journey, between Mexico, USA, Canada and back.
In the fall, a single generation of Monarchs complete the entire long journey from southern Canada to the mountainous conifer forests of central Mexico despite never having seen their ultimate destination. With spring’s arrival a few months later, the Monarch butterflies depart from their overwintering sites in Mexico and begin the journey north back to USA and Canada. 
Along the way, they lay eggs on Milkweed plants, the sole species of plants that Monarch caterpillars will eat, and soon after die, leaving their offspring to continue the flight north.
Weather permitting, we usually see the Monarchs in our area early June, it takes three to four generations of Monarchs to be born before the species as a whole starts the new fall migration back to Central Mexico. 

There is a tremendous effort going on throughout North America involving hundreds of thousands of people in saving the Monarch butterfly.
You can Google it yourself, check You Tube, or just visit some of these sites below involved in Monarch conservation for more info:

To save these beautiful creatures from extinction many of us are doing something about it all over North America. Here are some of their web pages:

      http://www.monarchwatch.org -   https://journeynorth.org/sightings   -   https://craigthebutterflyman.com  -  https://monarchbutterflygarden.net

      
 www.saveourmonarchs.org    -     http://www.inthezonegardens.ca   -   
https://monarchjointventure.org  -

https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/ 
 

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

We need your help to promote the recovery of the Monarch population and bring them back to Windsor and Essex County in BIG numbers. 
We re looking for CORPORATE AND
PRIVATE LANDOWNERS who are passionate about saving the Monarch butterfly to consider utilizing any available parcels of land to plant Milkweed seeds and native flowers for our pollinators.  
Whether your flower garden is big or small it could always accommodate a few milkweed plants, if you don’t have a garden, these native plants will do just as good in a medium- large pots.  
Milkweed flowers smell and look good, it will attract Monarchs as well as other butterflies and bees in your yard. If you or anyone you know are interested in planting Milkweed seeds don’t hesitate to contact us at anytime. 

We can offer you milkweed seeds for FREE if you live in Windsor and surrounding areas.  Let’s bring the Monarch butterflies back to our city so that future generations will enjoy seeing these beautiful creatures flying around our streets as they did in the past. 
Most Experts and Biologist are worried about the monarch butterfly future due to the shortage of native Milkweed plants in the wild; it’s up to us to help them survive by planting Milkweed.  As they say… If You Plant It, They Will Come!  
We did launch this campaign locally in spring 2018 and we're happy to report that close to half million new milkweed plants have been planted in our city-county area as of 2020. We are working toward the ONE MILLION by 2022-2023, we need help from gardening experts who are willing to get involved by teaching others on how to germinate seeds, plant and care for Milkweed and other native flowers in order to attract more Monarch butterflies in our neighborhoods.  Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon. Leo Silvestri  519.977.3639  (Anytime)  EMAIL US HERE    

Please check out the pictures of butterflies and pollinators in our cemented backyard during the summer: 
Monarchs-in-our-backyard-summer-2018  -   Monarchs-in-our-backyard-summer-2019 
Monarchs-in-our-backyard-summer-2020     Backyard-Memories-2021       Short movie of the whole Collection from 2018-2023

Many short videos are uploaded daily to our NEW YouTube channel, it shows some of the hundreds of Monarch butterflies and many other pollinators visiting our garden on a regular base every summer.
Our new YouTube channel has not been designed to earn money, it's only for pure love of the Monarch butterfly well being.
Here's my personal explanation message through a video:  Click Here  
   https://www.youtube.com/@leosilvestri5440/videos 
      

In case you're wondering how can a cemented garden gets so many Monarch butterflies coming back each year, that has puzzled many experts, and most people involved in Monarch conservation efforts with much bigger and nicer gardens.
We don't have a scientific or specific answer to this phenomenon going on since 2018, the only theory we could come up has to do with the fact that between ourselves and three hundred of our neighbors we've been raising and releasing thousands of them for the last six years. We also believe that because of these collective activities we will always have plenty of Monarchs visiting our gardens in our city-county in the future. :-)     
                      

OUR PAST YEARS ACCOMPLISHMENTS 
http://www.savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/past-presentations.pdf 
http://savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/2023-presentations.pdf
 
 

Create Your Own Group to Help the Monarch Butterfly 
http://savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/create-local-groups.pdf

 
2024 Milkweed Plants Sale (Coming Soon) 
 
                                           The Milkweed and Native Plants Section 

How to Become a Milkweed Expert        Find out Which Native Plants Grows in Your Area 
How to Avoid Common Milkweed from taking over Your Backyard.
Did You Know that by Raising ONLY One Monarch Caterpillar
 to Adulthood Butterfly You Could Increase their Fall Population      
by the Thousands? Click Here for More Details.
 

 Leo's Love for the Monarch Butterfly - Early Beginning.
Read about the "green worm" story and please don't laugh too hard. :-)  CLICK HERE 

 

                                     Tips on Raising Monarch Butterflies indoor - outdoor.
How to Raise Monarch Butterflies by Carol Pasternak -  Latest from Mr. Lund Science on Rearing Monarchs
How to Raise Monarch Butterflies by Craig Oveson     -  Visit Donna's Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary

 
                                                  Butterfly Garden Flowers and Ideas

http://savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/Point-Pelee-Butterfly-Garden.pdf
http://savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/Waystation_Requirements.pdf 
http://savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/Butterflyway-Project.pdf   ( List of Flowers Recommended )
https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway   ( For Canadian Residents to Join for Free ) 
How to Build the Perfect Butterfly Garden
To find out how many milkweed plants are needed to start a monarch butterfly garden. 
Click Here

NEW for 2024        Butterflies and Pollinators Flowers List in Full Color        ( Thanks to Janet Arseneault
                                 

NEW for 2024        Monarch Butterfly Nature's Gift Through Janet Lenses     ( Thanks to Janet Arseneault


 
 
 Leo's Newest Power Point Presentations: 
Shown here in pdf format for easier viewing.

       How to Attract Monarch Butterflies to Your Garden       -     How to Bring One Egg to Adult Butterfly        
               Why We Raise Monarch Butterflies                     -                How You can Become a Milkweed Expert    

 


For Canadian Residents Only - Join The David Suzuki Foundation
 BUTTERFLYWAY PROJECT

NEW and FREE Program For All Windsor, Essex and Chatham-Kent County Residents 
WE CAN HELP YOU TO FILL YOUR GARDEN WITH MONARCH BUTTERFLIES THIS SUMMER 

 

CRAIG OVESON IS HELPING INCREASING THE MONARCH MIGRATION.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

 
QUESTIONS ASKED TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
REGARDING THE MONARCH FALL MIGRATION.
 
       RECENTLY ASKED TO TWENTY + SCIENTISTS WITH SIX  REPLYS                                             
NEXT QUESTION TO BE ASKED, HOW CAN WE HELP
THE MONARCH MIGRATION NUMBERS TO INCREASE. 

 
 
SPECIAL MESSAGES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
ALL MONARCH BUTTERFLY LOVERS.
 
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Monarch Conservation            Finding Real Diamonds in Your Backyard
  The Evil of Captive Rearing Monarchs                                               How To Avoid Social Media Controversy 
   When Monarch Science Fails to Take Flight
      

 

The Successful Monarch Butterfly Story of a Retired House Painter  

 http://savethemonarchbutterfly.ca/leo-story-2024.pdf   -  https://www.youtube.com/@leosilvestri5440/videos - 
Hundreds of Monarch Butterflies have Visited our Cemented Garden in the Last Six Years

Here is Our Secret for Having Hundreds of Monarch Butterflies Visiting Our Garden Every Year  ​​​​

 
                                 The Voice of the Experts and Citizen Scientists - Articles and Comments 
 

        Janet Aseneault Message of Hope    -     Donna Thompson Views    -     Kenneth Abernathy Article    -    Why Raising Monarchs   
        
        The Butterflyman Message to Top Scientists   -  Tony Gomez Views     -  The Monarch Research Project Success

        Do you have an opinion or comment you would like to share here, or to hundreds of Facebook groups? Email it to me and it will be done. 
          leo6@cogeco.ca ( Please send only your own hand writing articles).    
                                                  
 


We're in the News:

Windsor-Star-September-2018
Windsor Life Magazine Story :  Click Here and go to page 68-70
Windsor-Life-Magazine-October-2021-Article

First-Butterfly-Festival-Windsor-August-29-2021-on-CBC

Windsor- Star-Story  Third Annual Butterfly Festival August 27-2023
Windsorite Coverage of the third annual Butterfly Festival 2023

 
This Section is Dedicated to Our Facebook Group Members that doesn't receive Notifications from Facebook, therefore will miss out our most important posts due to the Facebook Algorithms. 

Summer 2023 Important Posts. 
July 5 -  We share all our Eggs and Caterpillars with our Members.  Click Here
July 14 - More Eggs and Cats to be picked up. Click Here
July 14 - (Post by Janet Arseneault) Eggs and Caterpillars for our Members to picked up. Click Here
July 18 -  More Eggs and Caterpillars collected in our gardens. Click Here
July 19 - Potted Aphids Infested Milkweed Plants have been saved and are on Sale Now. Click Here 
July 26 - Mark Your Calendar for our Third Annual Butterfly Festival. Click Here
July 29 - More Eggs and Caterpillars are available for pick up at our house. Click Here
July 31 - Our Cemented Garden Looks July 31-2023 Click Here
Aug 8 -  This is Why we collect monarch eggs daily  Click Here
August 13 - Migrant monarch eggs and small cats are now available. Click Here
August 23 - Great CTV News story about a London ON Woman raising monarch butterflies. Click Here
August 28 - Windsor Star Interview to Janet Arseneault at our Butterfly Festival  Click Here
August 28 - Windsorite Coverage of our Butterfly Festival  CLICK HERE 
September 8 - How to Safely Release Migratory Monarchs  CLICK HERE

FALL - WINTER POSTS
October 30 - Pre-ordering Milkweed and Flowers for 2024   CLICK HERE  
December 7 - Your Garden Flowers and Host Plants Survey CLICK HERE

 
Our NEWEST  Protect Raise & Release  Program for All Residents of Windsor, Essex and Chatham-Kent County

In an effort to bring more Monarch butterflies and pollinators in your garden and our area during the summer we decided to help you with some fantastic ideas that have been working for many of our friends and members of our local Facebook group in the last seven years. 
Check out this link for more details, and more info to come later: Click Here

Can you imagine having a few "Educational Live Butterfly Exhibits" right in your own neighborhood? Click Here for Details  
(Residents of Branford CT are already enjoying the daily Monarch Butterfly show).  https://youtu.be/4474Tgqy_fU    

                                                                                                 

 
 

                                                              Join Us at our 2024 Spring-Summer Local Events

FREE Milkweed Seeds - Growing Tips - Information - Milkweed Plant Sale -  Raising Butterflies Live Demonstration (when available) 
Saturday April 13 from 10 to 4 -  
Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary 360 Road 3 W, Kingsville ON  
Sunday   April 21 from 10 to 3  -  Malden Park- Earth Day  4200 Malden Rd. Windsor ON
Saturday May 11 from    9 to 1  -  Amherstburg Farmers Market at GL Heritage Brewery   8728 Howard Rd, Amherstburg ON  
Sunday June  16  from 10 to 2 -  
Third Annual Egg to Butterfly Workshop 320 Richmond St. Amherstburg ON   
Hosted by LaSalle & Amherstburg Horticultural Societies - To reserve your seat please email: horticulturalsociety@mdirect.net      

Sunday June 23     from 10 to 4 -  Summer Market Event - Hosted by Janine Jewelry   970 Front Road LaSalle ON  
Sunday August 25 from 12 to 4 -  Our 4th Butterfly Festival  - Via Italia Heritage Garden  Erie St E & Langlois Windsor ON 

 
You're Welcome to Visit our Home Cemented Garden from mid-June to mid-September at: 1158 Erie St. E. Windsor ON Call: 519-977-3639
Come and enjoy our New  Educational Live Butterfly Exhibit. Where you can observe, release a butterfly, and take home a caterpillar to grow into a Monarch butterfly on every visit starting in July.