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 live in Mililani Town in Oahu, Hawaii. I released my first monarch on July 7, 2020. That year I released a total of 359. Despite reading advise against using wooden cages, I built about 20 of them out of redwood and nylon window screen which I sanitize with 10% bleach after each batch of monarchs (15-30). I keep the cages outside on my partially covered deck. My butterfly garden has 2 giant milkweed trees (crownflower) from which I daily harvest as many Instar 1s and 2s as I can find, pretty much solving the tachinid fly problem I used to have. I suspect my success rate is only about 60-70%, much of this due to cats going AWOL and a few incidences of black death. Haven’t solved these problems yet. In 2021, I released 1616 monarchs, and this year I’ve released 1702 as of 9/11, for a total of 3677 since I started in 2020. We see the most monarchs during January through March. In midsummer, we see none! Where do they go during this time, and what are they doing?
I forgot to post that I do wash, weakly bleach & well rinse my milkweed before feeding and had more success this 2nd year than last year.
Plainfield,IL about 35 miles southwest of Chicago – Definitely more success raising from eggs than caterpillars. Between 6/1-6/3, found 7 small cats. Out of 7, 5 died- 3 from tachnid maggots & 2 while hanging in j hooks. Only 2 healthy females enclosed on 6/20. I started finding eggs on 7/13. Had only 2 casualties- one due to unsuccessful attempt to move chrysalis, (the silk detached & I couldn’t get cremaster to attach with string, dental floss nor glue. It enclosed with wrinkled wings. One other chrysalis fell on its own overnight. As of today, 9/12, I have raised 10 female & 16 male viable monarchs & one viable male black swallowtail. I have 4 chrysalides waiting to enclose between 9/15-9/21. I do not think that I will attempt to move chrysalides that are close to the cage corner since I found more success with tilting the cage the day before eclosing to make sure there is enough room for wing expansion. Luckily most of my cats pupate on leaves which I then tape over & pin to the top of the cage.
I live in East Bethel, MN, and this is my first experience raising Monarchs. On August 21, I started with 2 caterpillars (1/2" long) and 5 eggs. One of the eggs failed and one baby cat vanished, leaving me with 3 baby cats and the two larger cats. The three babies flourished in a sealed plastic container.
The other two caterpillars lived on milkweed clippings in my kitchen window. Eventually, one formed a chrysalis at the top of the window frame. When the other one started to wander, I put it into a bird cage covered with window screen and took it outside. Unfortunately, he found a gap in the screen and escaped….. A few days later, I removed the first chrysalis from the window and hung it inside my new butterfly cube. A week later, he eclosed, and I released him.
Then the three babies were released from their plastic prison, and installed in the kitchen window. All three formed chrysalises at the top of the window. It was super easy to remove them using scotch tape (thanks for the tip, Jim L.), and I re-hung them inside the cube.
All in all, I released 4 beautiful monarch butterflies – two males and two females.
Found 10 more baby cats on potted tropical milkweed outside. These plants were grown from seed in the spring, but plants have not bloomed and are on the smaller side. My monarchs prefer laying eggs on small plants. Brought 6 pots in, as nights are cool mid 50s and placed them in the Big mesh cage (worked out great, I usually prefer the smaller cages). Lessons Learned – flooded outside pots with water and 5 giant crickets came out of the dirt!
I am now currently at 15 cats. Last year, the last monarch hatched Oct 5, northern Illinois. This year could be much later. Might have to put the cages outside so they feel the temperature if they lag behind, find a few that just want to eat and eat instead of going into chrysalis.
Monarchs are still flying around fueling up on Seedum (new one for me, I was going to rip it out), Liatris, Anise Hyssop, Lantana (in pots), Monch Frikarts Aster, Blanket Flower, Button Bush, Dotted Mint and Tall Garden Phlox (small amount still in bloom). They don’t seem picky this year, like other years.
Another Lessons Learned – buy more poo poo platters. I only bought one and started using it late and found out how much Easier it is to clean the cages, I go through so many paper towels!