Widespread use of glyphosate is devastating the monarch butterfly population, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council in the United States.
The council says the current use of the herbicide is causing the insect’s population to decline throughout Canada, United States and Mexico.
The report said recent information indicates the number of monarchs wintering in Mexico has dropped to 10 percent of the annual average as a result of “the pervasive use of glyphosate.”
Beginning life as eggs and hatching as larvae, monarchs depend on milkweed plants. The NRDC states the use of the broad spectrum weed-killer is wiping out milkweed, which is the only source of food for the larvae. They spend about three weeks eating the leaves.
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Monarchs only live a few weeks in the summer and it takes them generations to make the round trip to Mexico.
The report says the amount of glyphosate has increased 10-fold, which coincides with the decline of milkweed and the monarch.
In a petition filed with the Environmental Protection Agency, the NRDC is asking that new safeguards be put in place to allow milkweed to grow. It wants the EPA to fast track a scheduled review of glyphosate in 2015.
The petition suggests preventing the use of glyphosate and other herbicides along roads and power line rights of way. It also asks that farmers create herbicide-free zones in and around their fields, as well as in gardens and landscaped areas.
