Monarch Caterpillar
Pesticide manufacturer Ortho is using photos of Monarch caterpillars to promote the purchase of their insect killing toxic chemicals and poisons.
And this is a very sorry state of affairs indeed!
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on plants in the milkweed family, so showing this caterpillar on Ortho’s Flower, Fruit, and Vegetable Insect Killer is misleading at best, because monarch caterpillars pose no danger to your tomato plants, your fruit trees, or any other plant in your garden.
Ortho is also using the Monarch caterpillar on their Bug Be Gon products.
Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
The amazing migration of the Monarch butterfly has been called an “endangered phenomenon” and one of our primary goals as wildlife gardeners is to create welcoming habitat in our gardens to assist these beautiful butterflies on this incredible journey.
Many wildlife gardeners have certified their gardens as Monarch Way Stations, and work diligently to provide lots of milkweed in their gardens to feed these hungry caterpillars. For many, the arrival of the first Monarchs in spring is a cause for celebration.
And yet Ortho is using photos of this beautiful butterfly’s caterpillar to sell their poisons. This is completely unacceptable!
Wildlife gardeners avoid toxic, poisonous chemicals by Ortho, Scotts Miracle Gro, and Monsanto
It should come as no surprise that Ortho is owned by the Scotts Miracle Gro company, who recently got fined millions of dollars for knowingly selling pesticide tainted birdseed.
Scotts Miracle Gro is also the US distributor for Monsanto’s Roundup, a toxic chemical that is causing birth defects in frogs and other amphibians, and is killing soil organisms and wreaking havoc for all kinds of wildlife.
Please tell Ortho that continuing to use the Monarch caterpillar as a symbol of a “bad” bug to be poisoned with their toxic chemicals is unacceptable. Please sign the petition to get Ortho to stop this irresponsible practice immediately.
Carole Sevilla Brown lives in Philadelphia, PA, and she travels the country speaking about Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife. Check out her new free online course Ecosystem Gardening Essentials, 15 free lessons delivered to your inbox every week.
© 2012, Carole Sevilla Brown. All rights reserved. This article is the property of BeautifulWildlifeGarden.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Carole Sevilla Brown
First there was Scotts and their dalling with the Wildlife honchos. Now it’s Ortho. Will there be a short end for wildlife and human beings?
Kelvin, it seems with these chemical companies that wildlife and human beings are always at the short end of the stick.
Carole Sevilla Brown recently posted..The 5 Pillars of Ecosystem Gardening
I was pretty shocked on reading your post, and so… I went back and checked your sources.
According to the LA Times article that you linked to, David Snow has been dogging Ortho about this for 6 months. At the end of the article, we’re told that Ortho is changing the labels.
So… Good that you’re paying attention, but apparently the time for a call to action seems to have expired… unless you can discover a way to convince a chemical company that their products should not be manufactured… like that’s gonna happen…
stone recently posted..Recording the seasons
Stone, yes Ortho told David yesterday that they would change the label, but saying something doesn’t mean they will really DO something. So continuing to hold them accountable and letting them know that lots of people are paying attention is a good thing. The more they know that we are watching what they’re doing, hopefully the more healthier (if that’s even possible with these chemical companies) decisions they will make.
Carole Sevilla Brown recently posted..The 5 Pillars of Ecosystem Gardening
Good to hear they might make the change…what a terrible thing that they even considered these caterpillars to be pests. I am not seeing many this year but hope they will appear although this weather has had the effect of plants blooming too early…still holding out hope
Donna@Gardens Eye View recently posted..Grocery Gardening
At least they are honest…our product WILL KILL ALL FUTURE BUTTERFLIES!!
sigh.
Thanks Carole, I signed the petition. Outrageous that they are depicting these beautiful butterfly caterpillars as a pest “2 b gon”. I think probably their label designer was a kid who just looked through his clipart to find a suitable caterpillar to use. No further comment or else this could turn into a rant
Ellen Sousa recently posted..Mulch – Use What You’ve Got!