Raising Book Resources
Raising Hope for the 2022 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 2022 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 2022 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:
2021- 86% Survival Rate
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 2022 Results
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
None in 2022
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites?
None in 2022
Accidental Deaths?
None in 2022
Chrysalis Problems
None in 2022
Butterfly Eclosure Issues
None in 2022
Final Results
As you may know, we moved to a new location and we're starting to plant our perennial butterfly garden this fall 2022, so we raised very few monarchs this summer. However, we did have some wayward common milkweed plants, so we raised just a couple, but we raised them well. 😊
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.
2 monarch butterflies emerged from their chrysalides between August 28th and August 31:
0 accidental death (butterfly fall)
0 disease or parasite issues
0 unexplained deaths
0 healthy males
2 healthy females
100% survival rate
Lessons Learned?
I think the biggest lesson I learned this year had nothing to do with raising monarchs. 2022 was a year of extreme change for my family and raising butterflies was put on hold so we could focus on more important things, but that's life! I'm hoping to have more time for gardening and raising monarchs again next year.
My biggest raising lesson this season was that placing cages under the protection of trees works well in rain storms...the chrysalides went though a couple heavy rainstorms and didn't even start to come loose inside the cage. Still, I prefer raising in a porch that's 100% free of extreme weather. We are planning to raise monarchs in a new gazebo next season...
Migration Memory 2022
This is our first year with a new garden, and we have yet to make it our own. However, there have been a few highlights to the season:
- an abundance of phlox in shades of pink/white attracted many giant and tiger swallowtails, and hummingbird moths
- One night at dusk we went out and saw about a dozen large white-lined sphinx moths nectaring on the phlox...it was magical, and one night only
- Large flowered zinnias were the monarch favorites with a limited menu
- 6 Mexican Sunflowers (tithonia rotundifolia) purchased from a nursery, seem to have hybridized with (tithonia diversifolia) which was a POOR substitute for attracting monarchs and the first flower is yet to bloom ⌛️🦋🇲🇽
I hope you enjoyed reading about my Raise The Migration '22 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 2022
204 comments
I am sorry to add more woes. Northern NJ on the NY boarder was way too hot and dry this summer. I never saw a Monarch all during breeding season. I fear the heat and lack of rain just dried out the eggs. It was not for a lack of milkweed either. I had Common in the front garden bed and many huge pots of Swamp weed on my deck. Also Tropical on the deck. All grown by me, so no pesticides. The deck weed was babied, watered, sheltered, it was beautiful! That is where I found the few caterpillars that turned up. I was so delighted.
I collected only 14 wee tiny pillars. 12 survived. 9 females, 3 males. Last summer 2020, I raised and released 102, and 100 survived. I had one chrysalis stop morphing half way. Bizarre!! It was half caterpillar and half green shell. My other failure was a baby butterfly with wings too small and ruffled. I euthanized her. It broke my heart to do that. (put her in a baggie, then into the freezer, painless I hope). I am keeping my fingers crossed that 2021 won’t happen again. I am doing my best to spread those essential milkweed seeds this fall into new areas and into new friends hands who are willing to help our beautiful Monarchs. Keep up the good work Monarch Community! We must try.
I am in Chesterton, Indiana( a suburb of Chicago). I have followed Monarch Butterfly Life for 6 successful seasons.
This year, I had far fewer Monarchs visit my garden. My garden has 50 species of plants including 300 milkweed plants. I tried adding Polk Milkweed to my Common and Swamp this year but it did not thrive.
I got my first Monarch sighted in the third week of June…which is earlier than some years but there were very few until mid July. This year I collected 80 eggs vs 200+ last year.
I lost a substantial amount of Milkweed to Milkweed Weevils….and nothing seemed to work against them until I applied nematodes. By mid August, many of the damaged plants began to sprout again.
I released 77 healthy Monarchs of my 80 eggs collected. …. vs 193 released last year.
This year I bleached every egg, I tested every Monarch for OE and tagged the last 53.
I reported to MLMP, Monarch Watch and attended classes with the Monarch Joint Venture.
I highly recommend BRING HOME THE BUTTERFLIES……I still refer to it often
This year I learned how to test and to tag. I learned how to handle Monarchs without injuring them.
I learned all about weevils and nematodes.
I cannot wait for next year when I hope more Monarchs visit my garden
Not a great year. I found 45 caterpillars compared to 203 caterpillars in 2021. I released 30 monarchs compared to 100 in 2021.
I did not see as much disease this year. Hope 2023 is better.
I have been raising monarchs and other butterflies for 12 years, last year during the primary season my wife and I had covid and I was in the hospital 10 days, my wife didn’t go but she was very sick and was able to take care of our catapillars we ended up releasing over 150 regardless of our health. This year has been an extremely disappointing year no monarchs even showed until last of July first of Sept. We managed to raise and release 25 monarchs and 50 black swallowtail I only hope next year will be better. I live 50 miles due north of Indianapolis in a city of kokomo in. We did have an extremely dry year with little rain.