Monarch Butterflies will soon be migrating to Mexico. The event happens each year around mid-September. This year you have a chance to become a citizen scientist by tagging monarchs before their migration.

The organization, Monarch Watch, based  at Kansas University in Lawrence, has established the tagging program. Citizens who want to participate in this program can obtain the instructions for tagging, along with the tags from them.   

Louisa County Conservation Naturalist Lana Artz-McComb explains the process of tagging monarchs, “The process of monarch tagging is going out and catching butterflies and then very carefully following the procedures that Monarch Watch sends out. You are catching the butterflies and you are giving them a tiny little sticker on their wing. You’re recording some information about the butterfly along with that number and then you’re releasing them. And so, what we’ve done, is we’ve given that one monarch a unique number. And so, hopefully, it makes it on the migration all the way down to Mexico and that number can get recorded. Or, it might not make it all the way down to Mexico, it might die during migration, which happens, but that number can still be recorded if that butterfly is found and then it’s that process of data collection that helps scientists learn a little bit more about these monarch butterflies.      

To obtain your tagging kit click here.