These true bugs feed on plant juices through a straw-like mouthpart. They cluster around seed pods and feed on the developing ...

CHICAGO (WCIA) — A new study finds anyone with a green thumb, urban or rural, can help save the population of a beloved insect. Scientists are worried for monarch butterflies, the orange and black ...

If you are planting milkweed to attract monarch butterflies, you are already ahead of the game. But even the most well-meaning gardeners can make critical mistakes when planting milkweed that may send ...

When artist Shawn Hall took a close look at the flowering plants in Crescent Park, she noticed something that made her curious. “I was looking at the milkweed and there was a monarch caterpillar on it ...

The orange and black Monarch butterfly is a well known and recognizable species. But in 2022, it was listed as endangered. As a group, these spectacular migratory creatures move about 2,485 miles ...

Kaylee Timm's yard is West Allis is a monarch waystation and certified hummingbird, firefly and wildlife habitat.

Tropical milkweed is a beautiful annual plant in Illinois that can serve as a larval host for the monarch butterfly, although recent research has identified it as an ‘ecological trap.’ Tropical ...

Ready to explore more options for monarch butterflies beyond common milkweed? Whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) is a ...

What’s special about milkweed? Milkweed (genus Asclepias) is the host plant, the only source of food, for the monarch caterpillar. If the monarch butterfly does not find milkweed, it will not lay any ...

Q: My milkweed seed pods have clusters of bugs on them that are orange and black. What are they, and what should I do about ...

What exactly is a “weed?” From a gardener’s point of view, a weed is simply a plant growing where you don’t want it. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet and philosopher who lived from 1803-82, said ...

When Lorraine Kells first came upon two sprawling Chicago Park District flower beds near Diversey Harbor, she saw weeds and cigarette butts. But eight years later, a dazzling array of wildflowers ...