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by Tony Gomez

2 years ago

Raising Book Resources

Raising Hope for the 2021 Monarch Migration- Raise The Migration Results


Share Your Raise The Migration 2021 Experience in a Comment Below

2 years ago

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By Tony Gomez

Raise the Migration 2021- Share Your Experience Raising Monarch Butterflies

by Tony Gomez

2 years ago

Raise The Migration is an annual North American challenge to raise monarch butterflies to release for fallโ€™s annual monarch migration. The time has come to share your 2021 experience and raise it forwardโ€ฆ

Raise the Migration 2021- Share Your Experience Raising Monarch Butterflies

The raising season is coming to an end, so weโ€™d love to hear how many butterflies you released for fallโ€™s annual 2021 monarch migrationโ€ฆand more importantly, what lessons youโ€™ve learned through this amazing raising experience?

If youโ€™ve still got some raising to do, raise on! But please post in the comment box at the bottom of this page after youโ€™ve released your last butterfly.

Every year, I start Raise The Migration in July, but monarchs raised at that time arenโ€™t actually migration generation butterfliesโ€ฆtheyโ€™re the parents to that amazing generation of travelers.

Thereโ€™s 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 regionโ€ฆ

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 companionshipโ€ฆmigratory 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 youโ€™re 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:

Raising Monarch Butterflies Book

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. ๐Ÿ› ๐Ÿ˜ฑ


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:

Rehang Chrysalis on Microfiber- Raise the Migration 21 Results


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 
ย 

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 

safe way to rehang monarch chrysalis


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:

Mating Minnesota Monarchs September


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...
ย 

Share Your Results?! โœ๏ธ

Please share your results below by letting us know how many monarchs you released to help boost the struggling monarch populationโ€ฆremember 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


  • I live in Northeast Tennessee. I never see Monarchs until the last week of August. I had 13 Milkweed plants, several different varieties. None of the plants did well this year, which is quite unusual for our area. This year I brought in 60 caterpillars. 56 butterflies were released, the last 3 today, October 7th. I had two parasitized caterpillars, one chrysalis that was deformed and never opened, and one beautiful little butterfly with OE. I put it outside on some flowers and it was there for several hours. I had roughly 50/50 males and females. The first 18 butterflies I released were in such a hurry to fly away that I was unable to count how many males and females I had. This was true of every group I released. We had a very rainy season and several times I had to delay releases because of bad weather. When I could release them they were more than ready to fly away. I ran out of milkweed with the last cage of caterpillars so fed them organic zucchini. Those 10 butterflies were all smaller than the first ones, so I donโ€™t know if the lack of milkweed affected them, or if they were just all siblings from the same female. They all looked healthy and strong. I think I will remove all my remaining milkweed plants and replace them with new plants next spring.

    Elizabeth Burritt on

  • Monarchs appeared at my place in mid Missouri in late June. My first release was on July 29. By August 17, I had 27 healthy releases. My next release was three Monarchs on August 24. I assume these three began the migrater generation. This continued until the last release on Sept 15 for a total of 84. I tried to limit the babies to eggs or early enstars, but sometimes I had sympathy and put bigger cats into the cages. I had a couple of tachinid fly failures, about 5 chrysalis that went bad, and one that had fallen and was deformed when it hatched. Toward the middle of September I just left the cats on the weed to fend for themselves. I had two of them hatch and I got to see them fly away; the second one on October 3. Weather has been good, so he surely is on his way. I found another chrysalis on my potted balloon milkweed and waited eagerly for him to emerge. But, later I found something had torn a hole in him and a bee was eating what was left. Such is nature. I hope all this is helping this amazing life form. Thanks for your guidance, Tony.
    Myron Kern, Columbia, Missouri on

  • I released 141 Monarchs this year and of those, 48 were the last ones to leave between September 28 and October 5. So hoping some will make it to Mexico. I only had 1 issue with a monarch not able to come out of Chrysalis stage.

    Our family tradition is to get everyone together (20-30 of us) for the last releases. Everyone has to mention a memory of my daughter Kristina who loved the Monarchs and passed away from Cancer 8 years ago. Some of the older kids want to start their own Monarch raising/saving program next year. I look forward to teaching them.
    Iโ€™m so glad so many people are able to help the Monarchs population grow.
    Linda Flanagan, Streamwood IL

    Linda Flanagan on

  • iโ€™m in rocky top tennesee, yesterday Oct.6,2021 a monarch fluttered by my porch hopefully he made it somewhere safe, last night we had a bad storm.iโ€™ve benn raising and releasing monarchs for 5 yrs. ,we now winter in tenn. so i was happy to see monarch. my home is in palmyra new york. happy winter holidays to all.

    anna lilly on

  • Western Chicago suburb
    Accidental deaths: 2 cats, 2 chrysalides
    Disease: 1 cat (5 instar found dead and black on cage bottom)
    Healthy Monarchs: Aug. release 19 males, 22 females, 8 unknown
    Sept. release 7 males, 7 females, 21 unknown
    โ€œUnknownโ€ because grandkids babysat and released eclosed
    chrysalides
    Survival rate: 94%
    Comments: I planted swamp milkweed in 2020 and had a healthy, thick clump of plants. A friend happened to show me how to find monarch eggs and baby cats and got me hooked on trying to raise monarchs. Tonyโ€™s website taught me the fundamentals and I ordered cages, racks, and tubes. Everything worked great and I got started.
    Every morning I threw on clothes and went to our screenhouse to check on eggs, cat, and chrysalis progress. I also checked milkweed several times a day for eggs and cats. I never thought Iโ€™d raise so many monarchs.
    I almost ran out of milkweek so this Nov. Iโ€™ll plant more seeds. Those cats can really eat!
    I learned how to travel with cats and with chrysalides. Chrysalides are easy. Using the dental floss method to rehang them, they could travel with me on camping and fishing trips. Cats were more challenging. If the cats were instar 4 or 5, they went to the grandkidsโ€™ house. Eggs and young cats traveled in plastic containers or a small cage full of milkweed. I also brought more milkweed along in plastic bags in case I couldnโ€™t find local milkweed easily. Fifteen 4-5 instar csat went on a fishing trip to far northern MN for a week in early Sept. While there they became chrysalides, so they eclosed after we returned home, shortening their migratory trip by 600 miles.
    Raising monarchs has been a joyful experience for me, my husband, and my sonโ€™s family. I will be raising more starting next late July. The work involved was a pleasure because I know that Iโ€™ve contributed to the monarch population.
    Thanks, Tony. for the excellent supplies and all the information encouragement youโ€™ve provided.

    Jan Fleming
    Addison, IL

    Janice Fleming on

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