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
Hey Tony, thanks for all of the great articles. The blog about pests was really helpful as a number of my cats suffered at the hands of Tachinids. This was my first season raising monarchs and so far I’ve released 6 males and 4 females.
Early in the season, I raised a half dozen instar 1-2s (hitchhikers from the nursery). The first two were healthy and released (beginners luck). The rest of them were Tachinid victims (one Sickalise might have been NPV). They were all raised in a tall buttery cage with a tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) host plant.
I washed all the gear and then began extracting instar 1s from the milkweed in the garden. The orange aphids were awful this year – I started using Neem oil but decided on soapy water as it’s less harmful and still effective. I bought a baby cube and switched over to using floral tubes and peg racks. There were ten to start but two fell into a water container I was using before the floral tubes arrived (lesson learned). The remaining eight thrived on orange milkweed cuttings and were all released.
This week I discovered two monarch eggs! A 50x loupe was useful to confirm. The cycle begins again.
One thing I’ve become aware of recently is the environmental impact of purchasing non-native milkweed. In Southern California, some have discouraged use of the “tropical” milkweed and encouraged gardeners to grow the native orange milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) instead.
Iowa – the few eggs I have found a few days ago are not viable (deflated/not formed correctly). I do have 7 cats and 12 chrysalis at this time. I tag monarchs in Sept. and all these will be tagged if they eclose successfully. I was disappointed a huge section where I had planted milkweed did not come up this summer. I only had about 10 plants in one other garden area. When I’d find eggs there I would “convert” them to common mw after a few days and “ditch dive” for common to feed all summer. I knew my supply wouldn’t last all summer. I made sure no crop fields were in the area where I “ditch dived”. These last 7 cats that I have will be fed my garden swamp mw as the season is almost to an end and I know this will be a good supply to feed these munching monsters.
Monarch female arrived in June this year and spent several days laying eggs on swamp and common milkweed. About 10 days later we began finding caterpillars and we immediately gathered them up and put them in cages (thanks Tony) in our garage. Last year we made a mistake by not collecting the first cats ASAP and they suffered heavy predation. We determined not to repeat that mistake this season. In our garage, the cats fed on a steady diet of milkweed cuttings in wine bottles full of clean water. Both swamp and common milkweed leaves were popular, but the thicker common leaves were preferable for fattening up the hungry cats. By mid July we had chrysalises in the cages and right on schedule the monarchs eclosed. Our first batch of 25 was healthy and seemed to be mostly females. One chrysalis failed, turning black, and was disposed of after two days. Also, one cat died on the bottom of the cage. More females arrived in our garden and a rather daunting wave of cats began appearing in the garden in late July/early August. We diligently found the outdoor cats, bringing them into our 4 cleaned cages. We ended up with about 80 cats in the cages and it was obvious that we needed to carefully maintain really clean cages. It was a daily job for 1-2 hours each day. But, it was a success and we are presently watching the final few monarchs spread their wings and fly toward the Sun (mostly). It’s now late August in Maine and the journey south has begun. We figure we raised about 110 monarchs with the male/female ratio tilted slightly in favor of females. But this was not a scientific count. Also, during all of our operations, we attempted to keep the cages oriented in the same compass direction, just in case the cats and metamorphosing monarchs are gathering north-south data for their onboard navigational apparatus. We noted that most (but not all) of the monarchs would first fly toward the Sun before settling on a tree leaf. Finally, on a somewhat overcast day, the monarchs would fly in circles around our yard before settling on a perch. Total fun.
I live in Saint Lazare, Quebec and this year I have raised and released 22 (one was from my moms place) I let them go to 4 and 5 instar and made a habitat for them in my sun room. I cleaned the bottom of the cages twice a day and made sure they had fresh milkweed (I have lots in my garden) I released the last 4 today. This was a wonderful experience for me and I do hope most of what I released will make it. I am looking in to getting tags for next year.
I live in the SF Bay Area. Last year I raised 77 healthy butterflies. This year I haven’t seen one caterpillar on the milkweed at home or our community garden. Its pretty scary.