YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District is once again collecting milkweed seed pods beginning Sept. 1 and continuing through November as part of a statewide effort to reverse the decline in monarch butterflies.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources attributes the rapid decline of the butterflies to the disappearance of milkweed, the only host plant for monarch caterpillars.
“Milkweed is required for the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed because monarch larvae and monarch caterpillars’ sole food source is the milkweed leaf,” said Kathleen Vrable-Bryan, district administrator at the Mahoning SWCD.
“So these milkweed seed collections could be crucial in the success of the monarchs and, by extension, agriculture in the Mahoning Valley.”
Seed pods collected by the SWCD and others will assist in the planting of milkweed throughout Ohio to support the monarchs.
Pods need to be dry, gray or brown (not green) in color to be picked and should be stored in a cool, dry area until they can be delivered to the SWCD office, located at 850 Industrial Road in Youngstown. Visitors are asked to place milkweed in the bucket provided by the building’s entrance.
Pods can be dropped off Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. They should be stored in a paper bag and labeled with the date of collection and the county in which they were collected.
The Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative encourage people to assist in replenishing milkweed throughout Ohio.
For more information, contact the SWCD office at 330-740-7995.
