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
This is my first time as a Monarch Mamma. It happend by accident with a swallowtail cat on a parsley plant! We fostered it until eclosure. Started looking at milkweed to attract monarchs, and got connected with multiple organizations here in Northern IL and southern WI. Found multiple eggs and different instars and released 23 this year. Lost 2 at early instars, 1 black chrysalis (likely punctured by the rush of others to J-hook), 1 with a back quarter missing that I chose to release. I have learned a lot in a short time this year, thankful for others and this newsletter with the passion to “Raise the Migration”! BTW: planted rooted milkweed this year, had shoots right away. Never thought I would have anything this year, but discovered a lone cat on my very own milkweed that is now growing fat in my care! Hopefully, he will be on the long journey south soon!
Hi! I am in the middle Georgia area south of Atlanta and just had my first monarch come to lay eggs August 26. It has been a slow year for all butterflies here. Not many visiting for some reason. I have worked hard to keep my milkweed healthy. Had to fight rust and cut back the swamp milkweed twice. Planted 3 other kinds of milkweed in various places in my yard. The common milkweed is suffering from rust, too so my goal is to study how to keep that at bay next season! Any suggestions will be appreciated! Have ordered more milkweed plants from Joyful Butterfly to help make it through. Also have a butternut squash ready if I have to supplement. (Last year I had 50 cats eating and ran out of milkweed. Read on this site that the butternut squash may work as a sub and it did!) Have 20 plus cats to feed. (Keep finding them!). Usually every year I have tons of black-swallowtails visit but only had one cat in July to raise and release. I found 5 cats on my fennel last week after returning from a trip. They are read to form chrysalids. Will report my totals in a few weeks! 🤞 Appreciate all the info I receive on this site!!!!
I live in mid-Michigan, (Attica) I saw my first monarch eggs on July 4th. I thought that was a little late from the year before. I started collecting eggs and continued through August 5th. I ended up raising 334 monarchs, Females, 185 and Males, 149. I use common milkweed I grow in my field and put the eggs in containers and then netted cages once they are a couple days old after hatching. I tagged the last 44 for the migration, even though I really should have tagged at least 50 (I only had 50 tags to use). But I started releasing a lot of them two days before I started tagging them and let too many go without tags. So, 6 didn’t get tagged. I did have 3 chrysalis that didn’t make it in which one of the caterpillar went into chrysalis on the holder of the tubes, so it had a slight dent to it. The monarch had bent wings when it came out so I had to euthanise it. The other 2 had something wrong with them as they never eclosed. So out of the 337 chrysalis, only 3 did not survive.
I’ve read all the reports from other monarch raisers, and found many interesting details. Because I live in Sault Sault Ste Marie, Canada, I was unable to purchase any of the cages, etc. Our Sault Naturalist Club had a group cage building bee but out of wood and screening. The 1st 2 years I had 100% survival rate and raised over 30 healthy adults. This year not so good. One chrysalis turned black and never eclosed, and 2 adults had misshapen wings. So heartbreaking after watching their whole life cycle. Definitely need to replace the wooden cages with mesh cages that can be sterilized. The milkweed plants in my garden were covered with eggs in the early summer but the wasps and whatever else killed all , other than the few I rescued into my cages. Only raised 12 healthy adults, 2 males, 10 females.this year. Still one chrysalis now (day 3) and I worry that our nights are 10 – 15’C ( (50-59’F) and too cold . Will the adult even survive the cold weather when it ecloses? Is it too late for the migration?
I live outside Atlanta, Georgia. I am able to collect around 35 of “instar 1” cats sine September 1 this year which was two weeks later than 2020. I depend more on Tropical milkweed this time of the year. My Purple milkweed and Swamp milkweed are not in their best this season. We have a wet summer. I used castile soap mixed in water to control aphids to keep them from destroying the Tropical milkweed. I have 30 Tropical milkweed and will continue searching eggs and cats throughout this migrate season!