Dave Green wrote: > Butterflies have no legal protection that I know of, though damage > is done to them (as well, along with many other organisms, so the > long term effect of these massive spray programs will have many > repercussions). Many of us know what it's like to see bee kills. > Here is one [southern Minnesota] community's experience with a > [monarch]butterfly kill: > http://www.mankatofreepress.com/archives/2000/000826/story1.html Actually, Dave, it is a banner year for monarch butterflies in southern Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. Below is how Thea Miller Ryan of Sioux Falls, South Dakota described the situation on Aug 31 to a monarch butterfly discussion list: > We are having an incredible year for tagging. We are getting hundreds, yes, > hundreds of phone calls from people, telling us about their yards full > of monarchs. I think this is the heaviest concentration of monarchs we > have seen in the 4 years we have been tagging. >The calls are coming from southeastern Minnesota, including Luvurne, Hills, >and Blue Mound. Iowa calls are from Inwood area. South Dakota calls are >fromSioux Falls (both urban and rural areas), Dell Rapids, Rowena, Lyons, >Renner, Beresford, Canton, Brandon, Lake Vermillion, Colton, Lennox, Tea, >Parker, Humboldt, Hartford, Aberdeen, Alcester, Harrisburg, and Spencer. When outbreaks of monarchs occur like this, monarchs literally fill the trees that line the streets of small farm towns like Gaylord, MN (where the mosquito fogging related butterfly kill occurred) at the end of Aug and first week of Sept. Possibly the reason some monarchs got killed is that the mosquito spray trucks driving through the city streets at night unknowingly blew the permethrin fogging material at close range into some monarch clusters that were formed in trees along the streets. A loss of a few thousand monarchs from the spray incident is trivial in relation to the many millions of monarchs in Minnesota this year. Ironically, the outbreak of monarch butterflies that is occuring in the upper midwest this year also coincides with the area of the USA where a high percentage of genetically modified corn and soybeans are grown. For example, Gaylord, MN is located in Sibley County, MN. Sibley County is 589 square miles in size = 376,960 acres. Of that 376,960 acres, 132,800 acres (35.2%) is planted in corn and 132,000 acres (35.0%) is planted in soybeans. About 30% of this corn crop is Bt corn and about 55% of this soybean crop is genetically modified (herbicide tolerant) soybeans. As everyone knows, the environmental groups have the world believeing monarch butterflies are gravely endangered by Bt corn and Roundup Ready soybeans. How ironic that a major outbreak of monarchs is occuring this year in an area of the country where the greatest concentration of genetically modified corn and soybeans is grown. Paul Cherubini