Steinbach couple passionate about taking care of the butterflies in their garden

A couple from Steinbach, Marcie and Doug Rempel, have been taking care of monarch butterflies each year for the last five years. 

Marcie Rempel estimates that she has 150 eggs, caterpillars, and butterflies currently living in her yard. 

“I've probably released about 35 butterflies, but I have lots of caterpillars and eggs yet, so it's a good year, and that's just ones that have been laid right in my yard.” 

She typically lets the monarchs come to her instead of going out to find them. 

“I tend not to collect, I know some people go in ditches and they collect eggs, I for the most part don't,” she says. “If I know there's an area where the city is going to be mowing down the milkweed, I'll try and rescue them, but I just collect them from my own plants in my yard.” 

Rempel says the butterflies visited her earlier than usual this year. 

“They came really early, sometime towards the end of May, and then they stay all summer. There are several generations of butterflies, and towards the beginning of September, that generation, those are the lucky ones, they get to fly to Mexico.” 

She’s glad that the monarch population has improved a lot since last year. 

“Last year, I'm not sure what happened, but there were very few monarchs,” she says. “So I was a little fearful this spring that there wouldn't be any, but there are lots.” 

She notes it takes approximately 30 days for a monarch to go from an egg to a butterfly, and says it’s a really neat cycle to watch. 

“Even my mom, she's 95 and she has her big plastic jars and she raises one or two at a time.” 

Rempel explains monarchs are attracted to milkweed, so you’ll see monarchs if you plant it in your garden or your yard.

“A number of years ago, I planted some milkweed in my flower bed because it's a very attractive flower, and some monarchs came, laid their eggs, and there were some caterpillars,” she says. “I brought them in, at first just for the grandkids because I thought, ‘oh, they would enjoy this’ and had two beautiful butterflies. And then I thought, ‘oh, this is a lot of fun.’ So yeah, I kind of got addicted to that.” 

Since then, she has committed to growing plenty of milkweed in her flower beds.  

“The monarchs come and they lay their eggs and I collect them and raise them as caterpillars and then they turn into beautiful chrysalises and then butterflies.” 

She notes there are several different kinds of milkweed that grow in Manitoba. 

“Most of it grows in the wild, but some of it is also very attractive in your flower bed. So I always encourage people to plant a few plants and you might attract some monarchs.” 

She notes that monarchs aren’t the only butterflies that come to her garden, she also sees black swallowtails. 

“If anybody sees a big green and black caterpillar in their dill, parsley, carrot tops, that's the black swallowtail. But those aren't the lucky ones, they stick around for the winter in their chrysalises,” she says. “So don't kill the little caterpillars that are on your dill or parsley, because those will turn into beautiful butterflies as well.” 

Rempel says if there is one piece of advice she could give to people who love monarchs, it would be to plant milkweed. 

She notes you don't have to worry that the monarch caterpillars are going to eat the plants in your garden. 

“Some caterpillars pretty much eat anything, but these just stick to the milkweeds.” 

She’s hoping to give out milkweed seeds later this summer or early this fall so that people can plant them. If you are interested, you can call her at 204 392 4655. 

She gives tips for those interested in raising butterflies: 

“It's somewhat of a controversial subject because a lot of environmentalists would prefer people not to raise monarchs, but if you do, to prevent disease it's good to collect them right from the get-go when they're little eggs. 

Rempel says to make sure you keep them clean, make sure they're fed, and raise them mimicking the outside as much as possible.