Weedkiller Could Spell Big Trouble For Monarch Butterflies: Report

"Environmental group reports over the next year more than 60 million acres of the monarch's US migratory habitat will be sprayed with dicamba"

"By 2019, a weed killing chemical—designed to be used in tandem with genetically modified cotton and soybean seeds—is projected to be sprayed on more than 60 million acres of monarch butterfly U.S. migratory habitat, according to a report released today by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Citing this potential devastation to monarch populations, which have already decreased an estimated 80 percent over the past two decades, the report calls on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to renew the registration of the weed killer, called dicamba, when it expires at the end of this year.

The concern is the chemical could cause more habitat loss and decreased milkweed, which is the only food plant used by monarch caterpillars. Monarchs winter in Mexico and some warm areas of Southern California and they return to areas throughout the U.S. in the spring. "

Brian Bienkowski reports for Environmental Health News March 1, 2018.