Raising Book Resources
Raising Hope for the 2021 Monarch Migration- Raise The Migration Results
Raise The Migration is an annual North American challenge to raise monarch butterflies to release for fallโs annual monarch migration. The time has come to share your 2021 experience and raise it forwardโฆ
The raising season is coming to an end, so weโd love to hear how many butterflies you released for fallโs annual 2021 monarch migrationโฆand more importantly, what lessons youโve learned through this amazing raising experience?
If youโve still got some raising to do, raise on! But please post in the comment box at the bottom of this page after youโve released your last butterfly.
Every year, I start Raise The Migration in July, but monarchs raised at that time arenโt actually migration generation butterfliesโฆtheyโre the parents to that amazing generation of travelers.
Thereโs no way to tell whether butterflies will mate or migrate, but one telltale sign of a migration generation butterfly is its size, which is dependent on how much the caterpillar eats. The first super-sized caterpillars start to form chrysalides around the first week of September in our northern regionโฆ
In the garden, you can tell non-migratory butterflies by their worn out wings. Non-migratory males are also more aggressive, chasing off potential competition while seeking out female companionshipโฆmigratory monarchs are in sexual diapause and only interested in stocking up on nectar for the long journey ahead.
So how did our Raise The Migration Monarchs fare this season and what lessons did we learn raising forward?
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If youโre interested in a step-by-step guide digital guide with free updates (before each monarch season begins in spring) please check out the monarch raising guide by clicking this butterfly photo:
For anyone who purchases the guide (or any other item) from Monarch Butterfly Life, you will be invited to our closed facebook group where you can discuss raising monarchs with other raisers and post your photos.
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Here are Raise the Migration results from the pastย eight seasons:
2020- 82% survival rate
2019- 81% survival rate
2018- 93% survival rate
2017- 100% survival rate
2016- 96% survial rate
2015- 96% survival rate
2014- 90% survival rate
2013- 100% survival rate
As you can see from the results, this raising system is consistently producing healthy monarchs to help support the struggling monarch population.
Raise The Migration 2021 Results
I released 15 healthy monarchs (14 females and 1 male) from July 29th to August 16th with a 100% survival rate. I am fairly certain all of these butterfliesย wereย parents to the migration generation.ย
The seven monarchs we raised after that,ย were counted as our official Raise The Migration monarchs for 2021...
Caterpillar Escapes
By keeping monarch eggs and baby caterpillars in sealed food containers, and raising larger caterpillars in the mesh cages, we never lose caterpillars.ย
I think the closest we have come was two years ago when I forgot to close a cage door and found a caterpillar crawling on top of the cage. ๐ ๐ฑ
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths
We didn't have any unexplained monarch deaths in 2021.
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites?
I'm happy to report no disease issues in 2021. All of our raise the migration participants were brought in as eggs so no issues with tachinid flies...a couple eggs were parasitized by trichogramma wasps,ย and we discarded those eggs when they darkened and never hatched.ย
Accidental Deaths?
We experienced one accidental (and completely preventable) accidental death. See the Butterfly Eclosure section below for more details...
Chrysalis Problems
No chrysalis issues to report in 2021...
Community member Jude R. recently used the microfiber method to rehang one of her fallen chrysalides:
Jude reports: There was zero silk and I wasn't sure what to do. Your tip worked and just in time. I was a little worried the bfly's feet would get stuck in the microfiber, but it had zero problems.ย
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Butterfly Eclosures
We had oneย eclosure disaster this year. An early morning butterfly (emerged from chrysalis before 7am) fell from our kitchen overhang on to the floor.
Sheย lost a lot of fluids from her abdomen when this happened.ย Herย wings recovered 'somewhat' when I hung her from inside a mesh cage, but she was injured badly from the fall on to the wood floor, which is about a 7 foot drop.ย
Starting in 2022, we will no longer rehang chrysalides on our overhang. It's much safer to rehang them inside the cageย where they can crawl up a mesh wall after falling a much shorter distance.ย
Final Results
Our totals are from all eggs that have successfully hatched. We don't count eggs that were parasitized outside or monarchs brought in as caterpillarsย because they could have parasites too.
Sevenย monarch butterflies emerged from their chrysalides between August 29th and October 5th:ย
1ย accidental death (butterfly fall)
0ย disease or parasite issues
0ย unexplained deaths
4ย healthy males
2ย healthy females
86% survival rate
Lessons Learned?
Chrysalides should always be kept in a cage or somewhere where the butterfly has a chance to climb to safety if it falls after it emerges. In my experience butterflies rarely fall, but it can happen.ย
Migration Memory 2021
I came across these mating monarchs in our Minnesota garden on September 19th when it was an unseasonable 90ยฐ:
Before 2021, I had never seenย mating past the first week of September in our region.ย
I hope you enjoyed reading about my Raise The Migration '21 results and lessons learned raising monarchs through the butterfly life cycle .
And now, I'd love to hear about your experience...
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Share Your Results?! โ๏ธ
Please share your results below by letting us know how many monarchs you released to help boost the struggling monarch populationโฆremember to include your location.
More importantly, please share the most valuable lesson(s) you learned about raising monarch butterflies, that you believe can help others raising forward.
Thank you for helping to Raise the Migration in 2021
338 comments
Hi
I am in Simcoe, Ontario Canada. We are so fortunate to live on a rural property and also to have so many places where milkweed grows, so my last concern is ever having to find milkweed. Very plentiful. This is my second year of raising monarchs. They literally lay eggs right in front of me in my fenced in garden. At one point this summer, as I went gathering milkweed leaves, I managed to encounter 44 eggs within a half hour of gathering. At this point I already had 55 caterpillars on the go in different stages. I can never say no to an egg, so home they came. Altogether I released 299 this year, and probably a bit less than half of those hopefully being migratory flutterbys. I did start my season off much earlier this year, and I think that is what pumped up my totals. I did find many more males than females this year. Needless to say I had time for not much else this summer but raising the numbers, but it is something I loved doing every minute of the day.
Cheers and hereโs waiting for next summer -
I raised 11 Monarchs in a net cage. All but 2 were female. No casualties. Last year I raised over 70 Monarchs in 3 net cages. The Monarchs arrived later this year and were small in number at all three of my butterfly gardens. Harpers Ferry, WV.
I live in a condo and only have my patio area and outside my fence by the pavement to plant. Three years ago I had a nice number of monarchs but very few plants. All were released from caterpillars except the very first chrysalis that never opened. I also had one sweet girl with an deformed wing who just couldnโt fly as much as she tried. The second year I had a big drop in monarchs but more milkweed. I canโt remember the statistics but all flew away. This past year I had milkweed everywhere. I saw 2-3 monarchs. Thatโs it. I found two caterpillars after digging through the milkweed. Both were smaller but very robust! They both flew away over the roof of my condo. I had found a chrysalis attached to a leave I brought in but it inadvertently got thrown out during some cleanup.
I had put out parsley for the swallowtails and discovered that the caterpillars were disappearing so I started bringing them into the habitat . Inside I also had several early stage caterpillars that appeared on the parsley leaves. I released all the first batch which were black swallowtails, about 6. I have had 4 chrysalis left in the habitat. Iโm thinking they are dead or over winterizing. Does anyone know how you can tell? The first has been up for about a month. They were all large caterpillars. One of the chrysalis is green and the rest light brown. Two of these come from the early stage tiny caterpillars.Iโm sick that I had no more monarchs and donโt get it with all the milkweed available. Any tips, suggestions would be most appreciated. Iโve taken out most of the milkweed now and will not have as much next year. I have NEVER seen an egg.
I live in southern Ontario. This is my third, and most successful year raising Monarchs. I was happy to raise and release 13 butterflies with only one casualty. I was moving the upper screen of my enclosure, that was holding some chrysalis and caterpillars. Sadly, I accidentally knocked a J stage caterpillar off the screen. I tried to find a way to hang him but was not successful. It was devastating to lose my precious little baby.
This was both a good and bad year. The good โ So far this year I raised and released 203 Monarchs with 102 being females so I guess 50/50 is what nature wanted. This now totals 465 since I started in January of 2019. It is in the mid 80โs here in central Florida in October and the Monarchs here mostly donโt migrate, so production continues but at a slower pace. I use 10 large Tupperware containers to hatch the eggs and grow the cats until they are large enough to put in my 8 small cubes which are stacked inside our lanai. The bad โ I got careless mid year and failed to sterilize a few cubes and lost several cats and chrysalis to disease. I was also storing the cubes in the garden and a snake or rat gnawed its way into several cubes and munched on dozens of cats and chrysalis. Now they are protected in the Lanai. I have been going through dozens of milkweed plants due to the yellow leaf disease. I have about 30 plants and am using a new area to escape the disease. I planted a Passion Flower Vine and it has started to produce eggs of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. I am diversifying. At age 83 the garden work keeps me going!