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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


  • Because of a late vacation, we got started later this year than usual with raising the Butters. The Milkweed was beautiful in the garden, because of all the early spring rain in our area of Wisconsin. But, the predators were unbelievably bad this year. As I have milkweed in 3 different locations, I was still able to bring in both eggs and babies, but most of them came from the gardens that had the lesser amounts of milkweed. With help from Tony and his great suggestions, I became quite good at hatching eggs. Something that I had only attempted in previous years a few times. It became necessary this year. I believe the lack of rain in our area, for most of the summer was the reason the predators were so abundant. I was able to release 128 monarchs,
    65 females, and 63 males. In addition there were 3 that died before hatching into butterflies. My very last butterfly born was a male, who just couldnโ€™t fly. He would flutter up and then fall back to the bottom of the cage. I realized that one wing was slightly folded on the very tip, and his thorax was bent slightly to one side. If he did manage to fly up, he was not able to hold his landing. The second day after he had hatched from the cocoon, I decided to try some physical therapy on him. I took him out of the cage and would make him walk up sticks, up my finger, up anything I could come up with. Then I would gently push him off the top of my finger to get him to flutter, hoping all the while to strengthen his legs and wings. After 3 days of โ€œphysical therapyโ€, my boy was able to flutter across the living room and โ€œstickโ€ his landings on the curtains! Time for release. I carried him outside, and he took off from my finger. He flew straight up into the air, and then suddenly, after reaching a good height he was confused. With a moment of hesitation he headed for a tree and landed very high up on the outer leaves. Success! I hope my boy makes it to Mexico, its all up to him now. What a great year for us, raising the monarchs. It is such a honor and joy to be involved with them.!

    Tricia Pares on

  • I live in Southern California and this is my second year of raising Monarchs. Both years the butterflies that hatched earlier in the summer were stronger and healthier. The health of the caterpillars declined as the summer went on. Last year I released 53 Monarch butterfliesโ€”-this year, only 15. The last one flew free on August 25th. The season started later (in late May) and ended a whole lot sooner, in spite of the fact that I have 34 milkweed plants in my back yard, some of them quite large and thriving. If this trend continues, I will be looking for someone to whom I can give some of these milkweed plants.

    Judith A. Heffron on

  • As of today, Sept.28, in southwestern, Ohio we have released 138 healthy adults, and 3 more emerged so far today. There are 15 chrysalides and one remaining cat, now hanging in a J, so we should release over 150 this year. (Our record year was 2019 when we released 273.
    In late May we found one egg and raised it to an adult. During the month of June we found over 40 eggs and tiny caterpillars. Every single one of them died. They would grow to about 1/8" in length, stop eating, then die. This happened if we grew them on tubes or in plastic totes. We fed them common, swamp, and tropical milkweed with the same results. Some were in our screened-in porch; some were indoors. During the same time period we had a heavy infestation of 17-year cicadas. Some of our milkweed plants had dozens of cicada shells on them, but we donโ€™t know if this was related. Any ideas on what went wrong?

    Jack Milliff on

  • This is my second year releasing 27 last year and 77 this year, 44 females and 33 males. July 6th was the first caterpillar brought inside and released the last two butterflies today at the elementary school where I work. I struggled the past few years trying to grow milkweed and this year had over 50 including common, swamp, and butterfly milkweed plants. I check leaves daily for caterpillars and bring them inside when found. I felt a little guilty at first removing them from nature until I saw bees eating them and remember I want them to survive and grow in numbers. I had a few in the chrysalis stage turn brown I believe from disease even though I wash milkweed throughly. My plants are now covered in aphids. I look forward to next year

    Sandy Marsh, Panama NY September 27th on

  • Raised and released 35 monarchs (17 female; 18 male) this season. Gathered first eggs on July 10 , and released last monarch on September 15. Several eggs failed to eclose, and one cat died.

    Lisa Farrell, Burlington, VT on

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