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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 Southern CA. Laguna Niguel to be exact. I have been raising Monarchs for 5 years now. This year started out wonderful. Lots of large Catepillars and resulting Monarchs. Middle of the summer we were attached by Tachinid flys. The results are devastating. Then I had a run of ALL male monarchs. Now, the cats I have (both in cages and on the plants in my garden) do not seem as healthy. By that I mean they do not grow as large, they are darker (not dark, just darker) in color. Some have simply died. After 5 years I think I can recognize the clear sign of OE, and these seem different. Just not as plump, they eat slowly and grow slowly. The nurseries have been doing great with a steady supply of NATIVE milkweed. I say this because I know we are all trying to figure out if Tropical Milkweed is necessarily a bad thing. The milkweed I have been buying is from the most reputable source I know of in this area, I drive quite a way to get it.
    These are just my observations. We will have Monarchs here into November.

    Kathy Jakary on

  • Have released 23 or 24, have 1 more chrysalis, 1 chrysalis death. The last chrysalis will likely eclose tomorrow. Have not seen any more cats in the yard.

    Phyllis Troia on

  • I feel terrible. I raise my monarchs in a cage on a table on back porch. I had 18 caterpillars happily munching milkweed. I had put topical flea medicine on my cat and I caught her lying near the cage. Within 24 hours all my caterpillars were dead!!!! Apparently one whiff was enough. Please be careful. I am switching to a flea prevention pill like Comfortis for the cat.

    Jane Kattwinkel on

  • I forgot to add my lessons learned. I had two small cages last year and upgraded to the tall cage which allowed me to bring in taller/fuller cuttings in the test tube. Also I read and used this trick when my common milkweed cuttings flopped over after rinsing. Place the cutting in a cup of warm water for five minutes maybe ten after recutting stem at a 45 degree angle and poking a few holes in the stem as you go towards the first sets of leaves. Without this trick the cutting would not take up water or straighten up. Using this trick the plant straightened up and look as if it was still uncut outside. Give it a try next year. When my test tubesโ€™ water levels drop I add more water using another available test tube to fill sometimes from the small opening in the top or just pop off the rubber cover and fill away. I used more paper towel this year to catch the poop and then a fresh towel on top of fallen poop to give then a clean floor when I knew the 5th in stars would be looking to leave their test tube forest.

    Frank McKenna on

  • I raised and released 41 so far this year and only had euthanize 2 that were so black and have five in 3 to 5 in star stage and should be released by the end of the month as they punch their ticket to Mexico. We raised 23 last year and had so many more eggs found on our common milkweed than swamp or butterfly weed. Though we did see and leave three 4 instar stage cats out in the wild and left them alone I can only assume that makes 50 on our property that we know of. At any point in time we would have four monarchs surfing the airways in our front back and side yards enjoying our meadow blazing star, Mexican sunflowers, purple cone flowers, sweet joe pye weed and even our cardinal flowers and common milkweed flowers and butterfly weed, of course. Looking forward to roosting monarchs coming down from Wisconsin soon.

    Frank McKenna Chicago Suburbs on

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