Manhattan Beach Butterflies Have A Friend In Michael Krinsky

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Butterflies. Everybody loves them! They flit about and bring joy to our lives. They float through the air, seemingly effortlessly, and maybe, if we're lucky, they come close enough to us to get a good look.

For Manhattan Beach resident Michael Krinsky his "look" was at something, perhaps, a little less magnificent. Caterpillars. And schoolmates were unwittingly stepping on them when the wee critters were crawling on the pavement near the bush they'd been feeding on.

"I couldn't bear to see these helpless creatures be tortured and killed," the soon-to-be senior at Mira Costa High School told Manhattan Beach Patch, "so I decided to do something about it. I went home and began buying the same kind of bushes the caterpillars ate at my school. Once I had planted them, I went back to my school and rescued as many caterpillars as I could. A couple years and loads of milkweed plants later, my garden had become a hotspot for the monarch butterfly."

Michael was a 12-year-old when he began saving the caterpillars that led to his love of butterflies. He estimates he has "raised" some 200 Monarch butterflies in the days and years following his caterpillar rescue. He's also "raised a dozen or two Swallowtails, along with handful of Mourning Cloak and Salt Marsh caterpillars, which are technically moths," he said.

Monarch butterflies have four distinct life stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult. The egg and caterpillar stages occur only on species of milkweed, according to Monarch Joint Venture's website. Female Monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed plants since Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed. The milkweed plant provides both food and shelter for a caterpillar for approximately two weeks, while it eats almost constantly, pausing only to shed its skin. The period between each shedding of the skin, or molt, is called an instar. Monarchs have five larval instars and grow to almost 2,000 times their original mass.

The website also says, "A late fifth instar monarch will generally crawl away from the Milkweed plant it was feeding on to find a secure location where it forms a silk pad and hangs upside down in a J shape before shedding its skin one last time to expose the bright green chrysalis. In 8 to 15 days, an adult emerges, pumps fluid to its wings to give them shape, and spends several hours drying before it is ready to venture off to find nectar or a mate."

So, when you bring home caterpillars you rescue and put them on the plant you think they need, what happens? For Michael, a world of Monarch butterflies and the occasional Swallowtail has brought much joy to his life and the lives of his neighbors who frequently get to see newly hatched Monarchs and Swallowtails flying about.

But, of course, to help butterflies flourish, you need to know a bit about what you're doing. "The two main plants I have in my garden for butterflies are Milkweed and Fennel," said Michael. "The Milkweed is the most common source of food for the Monarch butterflies and is what attracts them in such large numbers. The Fennel is for the Swallowtail butterflies, but they can eat several different plants as well. I also have begun using spearmint in order to ward off the caterpillars' main predators: wasps. For reasons unknown to me, spearmint is a great wasp deterrent and helps protect the caterpillars from being hunted by them."

A neighbor of Michael's, who can attest to his earnestness and zeal for his butterflies, once babysat Michael's Monarch butterfly chrysalises as they hung in a netted "cage." He says it's important to keep the chrysalises indoors where they are safe from predators. Said Michael, "I do have a special chrysalis cage where I can safely store any caterpillars while they are preparing to become butterflies. I keep this inside my house because, like the caterpillars, the chrysalises are known to be a snack to other wildlife."

Michael also knows about the Monarch butterfly's struggle to survive. "With the Monarch butterfly population on the decline, falling over 53% this year, it is extremely important that we take steps to prevent their extinction," said Michael. "Raising Monarch butterflies is an extremely fun and simple hobby to pickup, and it really does help out their population. If you are interested in raising monarchs yourself, be sure to get plenty of milkweed because while they may be small, their appetites are not."

Marina del Rey Garden Center, where a Manhattan Beach neighbor of Michael's is the general manager and a buyer, stocks Milkweed year-round to support the Monarch butterfly. Michael, who cares deeply about his butterflies, has also been known to spoon feed ones that need extra help.