It is going to be a treat to the eyes as 50 million Monarch butterflies are currently migrating to Mexico from their summer residences in Canada and the northern US. They will stop in Colorado to rest and feed on for the rest of their journey.

October is the month for North Florida residents to spot these iconic orange insects fluttering around beaches and in backyard gardens as these small beautiful orange and black butterflies can be easily spotted in this area in the next few weeks. Wildlife experts are largely concerned about the decreasing number of these butterflies as back in the 1990s over 2 billion butterflies used to migrate but this number has now reduced to 50 million.

Considering this alarming decrease in their population, butterfly experts have recommended the residents in Northeast Florida to plant native milkweed to give monarchs refueling stations to help these tiny creatures in their annual migration to Mexico for the winter.

Thomas Emmel, founding director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's center, stated that Florida is an important staging area for the monarchs before they cross the Gulf, so an initiative taken by people residing in the area can go a long way.

Jaret Daniels, Director of the Florida Museum of National History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity in Gainesville, also raised concerns over the dramatic dip in the Monarch population in the past decade.

Daniels stated that this is primarily due to loss of habitat and food resources. This is so as increased pressure to grow soybeans in the central US has largely depleted milkweed plants where monarchs lay their eggs. Milkweed plants typically grew on the fringes of unused land.

Further, proliferation of herbicide-resistant plants and the resulting increased spraying of weed killer have drastically killed milkweed.