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 fall’s annual monarch migration. The time has come to share your 2021 experience and raise it forward…
The raising season is coming to an end, so we’d love to hear how many butterflies you released for fall’s annual 2021 monarch migration…and more importantly, what lessons you’ve learned through this amazing raising experience?
If you’ve still got some raising to do, raise on! But please post in the comment box at the bottom of this page after you’ve released your last butterfly.
Every year, I start Raise The Migration in July, but monarchs raised at that time aren’t actually migration generation butterflies…they’re the parents to that amazing generation of travelers.
There’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 region…
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 companionship…migratory 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 you’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:
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 past 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 butterflies were parents to the migration generation.
The seven monarchs we raised after that, 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.
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. 🐛 😱
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, and we discarded those eggs when they darkened and never hatched.
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.
Butterfly Eclosures
We had one eclosure disaster this year. An early morning butterfly (emerged from chrysalis before 7am) fell from our kitchen overhang on to the floor.
She lost a lot of fluids from her abdomen when this happened. Her 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.
Starting in 2022, we will no longer rehang chrysalides on our overhang. It's much safer to rehang them inside the cage where they can crawl up a mesh wall after falling a much shorter distance.
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 caterpillars because they could have parasites too.
Seven monarch butterflies emerged from their chrysalides between August 29th and October 5th:
1 accidental death (butterfly fall)
0 disease or parasite issues
0 unexplained deaths
4 healthy males
2 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.
Migration Memory 2021
I came across these mating monarchs in our Minnesota garden on September 19th when it was an unseasonable 90°:
Before 2021, I had never seen mating past the first week of September in our region.
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...
Share Your Results?! ✍️
Please share your results below by letting us know how many monarchs you released to help boost the struggling monarch population…remember 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 Western New York and this year I collected 8 eggs and lost one newly hatched caterpillar in an unnoticed drop of water in its enclosure. 🥺 1 escaped and I found it 3 days later, still alive and hungry. It was much smaller than it’s sibling but caught up incredibly fast. The last 5 eclosed this week, 4 were released on September 8 and the last on was just released. I had 4 males and 3 females. Two things I learned are: 1) Make sure there is NO water anywhere in their enclosure, they will find it. And 2) They are very resilient. Looking forward to next summer already!
I raised Monarch butterflies for the first time in NW Pennsylvania. I let my last butterfly go on September 7. In all, I had 6 butterflies, 3 males and 3 females. One of the females must have been infected with a parasite, as it could not hang from its crysalis and had a crumpled wing. I euthanized it, disposed if it in the garbage, and worried for 3 days if that might be the fate of the 3 remaining to emerge. The remaining 2 males and 1 female were all healthy and flew up to the sky when released.
I was fearful when it came time to release the first two butterflies that I would injure them taking them out of their popup cage, so a friend who had released 40 in 2019 came to my house with two other friends in tow, opened the door of the butterfly cage, taught us how to handle the very active butterflies, and sent them soaring into the sun. One friend videoed the entire release, and I suspect they will release their own Monarchs next summer. I have enough milkweed for them all.
I had raised all but one of the cats from eggs I found on milkweed in my yard. I washed the leaves before I put the eggs into their butterfly cage and thoroughly washed all the milkweed leaves before introducing them into the case as well. I suspect the infected monarch may have been a large instar I had found while searching for eggs and placed her in the butterfly cagewith other cats of the same size.
We will be leaving for Florida shortly, and I’ll try raising monarchs there if I can find milkweed that hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides.
Kansas City, MO. This was my 4th year of monarch raising. Raised and released 11 Males and 10 females this year. I am very diligent about washing of milkweed leaves and the pics). Some of those monarchs released were really large. My last one released today (9/10) was quite small and has an injured wing. Not optimistic about him. I have had 4 die from tachinid egg laying. (Cleaned up eggs well so others would not be affected. ) One death from a silly caterpillar that sawed himself off of his food source and dried up over night. I have two types milkweed at my home in a small plot (swamp and narrowleaf). Our very large Monarch Waystation at my church has only common milkweed. I am going to plant swamp milkweed seeds and a whorled variety that I have found in town. That large area will also become a fine pollinator garden with Fall planting going on right now. I got three other people started on raising the migration and one sweet friend from Iowa cried as she released her first butterfly. Observations: caterpillars go to the NW corner of my cubes to J shape and make their chrysalises.
I live in Central Iowa and this was my 3rd summer raising omnarchs. I released 189 total (92 males, 97 females) and had a success rate of 98% (1 death due to human error, 1 due to illness, 2 of unknown cause). The most valuable lessons I learned were to raise outdoors and to not overwhelm myself. I set limits for how many eggs I would bring in, refused to bring in cats of any size (I plenty of eggs to choose from anyhow!), and let many eggs and cats remain a part of the eco system. I also learned that Mexican sunflowers are pollinator magnets and will be a regular part of my pollinator garden from now on, despite the fact that they look like a huge weed until they start blooming! One other fun thing I did this summer was to plant hosts for eastern black swallowtails. As a result, I started noticing many other kinds of butterflies and moths visiting my garden that I hadn’t noticed previously!
I live in Saint Lazare,Quebec,Canada. I released my last 4 of 22 on August 28. It was an incredible journey for me as this is the first year for me. I have many milkweeds and kind of made a milkweed garden. Looking forward to next year :)
Kristina