An Ithaca, NY hair stylist has made it her mission to save and rescue the monarch butterfly population of New York State. Rose Cochran-Teeter, a professional hairdresser who’s been working in Ithaca for over a decade, has been taking care of hundreds of butterflies in a series of four tanks.
“My customers know me as the butterfly lady,” said Cochran-Teeter to USA Today. “I am keeping the butterflies in captivity. It sounds mean, but no, they are all dying [in the wild].”
The monarch butterfly population has been on a severe decline over the past few decades. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the number of monarch butterflies migrating from Mexico just this year has decreased to 109 million from 150 million. The Center for Biological Diversity reports that the reason behind the drastic decrease in the butterfly population is the use of herbicides such as Roundup. These products, which contain glyphosate, destroy the milkweed in the environment which monarch caterpillars require for food.
Taughannock Falls State Park has since stopped cutting milkweed after receiving a call last year from Cochran-Teeter about the disastrous effects of the plant’s removal.
“Rose is a passionate rescuer of monarch butterflies, doing all that she can to help a population that is struggling because of pesticides,” said Cochran-Teeter’s client, Kathleen Mulligan.
Cochran-Teeter cares for the butterflies year round, receiving over 75 caterpillars from her brother and 100 caterpillars from friend Sandy Simkin. She intends to release over 300 butterflies this year once they’ve matured. She hopes they’ll make the migration to El Rosario, Mexico.
In the United States, there are up to 210,000 beauty salons. Cochran-Teeter’s offers guests the unusual entertainment of watching the monarchs as hairdressers trim and color their hair.
“I was able to watch [a butterfly] come out of its chrysalis — my first time at 57 — and release three of them while color was processing on my head,” said Mulligan. “What makes it amazing is the sheer number of them she has.”
Yet taking care of the monarchs isn’t an easy job. Most days, Cochran-Teeter spends up to two and a half hours cleaning the tanks and feeding the butterflies with sugar water. Once the butterflies have matured, Cochran-Teeter tags them as a member of the Monarch Watch before releasing them.
“Monarch populations are declining due to a loss of habitat,” said the director of the Monarch Watch Chip Taylor. “To assure a future for monarchs, conservation and restoration of milkweeds needs to become a national priority.”
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