The matron of the Monarch Motel
KRIS DUBE
SPECIAL TO POSTMEDIA NEWS
When Brenda Arndt went on a vacation to Mexico four years ago she came home with a hobby she remains incredibly passionate about today.
She breeds monarch butterflies out of her Crystal Beach home, which she has appropriately given the name the Monarch Motel.
This year, she expects more than 2,000 of the colourful creatures will enter the world after her care.
Arndt developed her love for them when she visited a monarch sanctuary is El Rosario, Mexico, and the rest is history.
“I just fell in love — I never paid much attention to them most of my life,” she said.
This Saturday, as well as on Aug. 19, Arndt will be setting up at Ridgeway Farmers Market with caterpillars, chrysalises, eggs and milkweed — which is the only form of nutrition butterflies will consume.
Monarch recently added to the list of endangered species and part of Arndt’s mission while at public events like the market is to educate and inform.
“That’s a big thing for me — the awareness,” she said.
Every day, Arndt walks the Friendship Trail with her partner Gerry Cumming to search for butterfly eggs.
In the wild, one out of every 100 eggs goes on to become a butterfly, she said.
Arndt also said that number is low because of forest cutting and pesticide use.
Arndt said caterpillars, or butterfly larva, hatch from the eggs. The eggs are usually found under the surface of a leaf, or other parts of the milkweed plant.
An egg has a thin but tough shell with raised ribs and has an oval or pod shape. The eggs are usually white, green or yellow.
Arndt said there are four phases of development for butterflies, which include the ovum (egg), which develops into larva, or a caterpillar, the pupa, which is the stage that the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly and the adult stage, which occurs when the butterfly hatches.
It’s more important than ever that people protect the butterfly and other pollinators such as bees because they are necessary for food production.
“If everyone planted milkweed in their gardens, the population would come back,” she said.
Ridgeway Farmers Market runs along the Friendship Trail near Ridge Road on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
At the market, sales and donations will benefit Wonder Woman’s Warriors, a dragon boat team that consists of breast cancer supporters and survivors, named after her friend Jackie Harper, who died at the age of 35 a few years ago. The team is preparing for a ‘survivor festival’ in Italy next year.
Arndt’s website is bngmonarchmotel.weebly.com.