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
We moved to TN a year ago and we had an early butterfly in late April and none after that. Apparently the season here is mid-late August.
But we had 25 perfect butterflies from that early butterfly. This is our 7th year raising them and we’ve raised close to a 1,000 in 7 years.
What I learned this year – a big surprise is a new way newborn caterpillars get lost. I pick leaves with eggs on them and put them into floral tubes and inside a mesh cage.
2 days after the caterpillars were born a few were missing and for the life of me, I couldn’t find them. Finally, my little daughter discovered that they were stuck under the cap of the floral tube – it didn’t go into the water but there is a part where the sides of the cap meet the inside part of the tube and there’s a gap there. It’s about a millimeter but the cats are so tiny that the can crawl under! You can find them if you hold the tube against the light. Also, be careful picking the tubes up- they are so sneaky and can be right under your finger
last year I raised more than 99 cats. I lost one (literally) and one died. This year, I have a female laying eggs in July and August but not one hatched. I’m afraid she never found a mate in this area. I have more milkweed this year than last and it’s all very healthy. This has never happened before. I live in Naperville IL next to a 100 acres of open naturalized fields and oak woods.
We just released our 1st Monarch Butterfly & have several more soon to break out & take flight.
I’ve been a Monarch Mama for 6 years. I started out raising them outside on our patio inside an enclosure. 2 years ago I decided to take a natural approach and raise them in nature. What I do twice a day is check on the inhabitants, plants and area to clear away any spider webs, aphids or other predators. Living in So. Cal we have a problem with wasps picking off the baby caterpillars. Yesterday I went to Home Depot looking for milkweed plants. I shared my concerns with the Gardner and he suggested using garlic spray to keep the wasps away. Wasps don’t like it. I’ve had 4 successful births this season that I know of. So proud and honored that Mother Nature has trusted me with their own. Currently I’m working on a dociseries about my journey with the Monarch Butterfly. To be released on YouTube at the end of 2022. Thank you.
I have been raising Monarchs for over 40 years. Have tons of plants and seeds, AND give them to friends and neighbors. This past spring was the worse I had ever seen for Monarchs and for all my plants. I keep most of them in pots so I can move them around for freezes and extreme heat events like we have had for the past several years. I was able to bring in about 10 mature plants for the hard freezes. I put another 30 plants on the back porch and covered them. This last freeze, rats ate my outdoor plants to the ground! Amazed me also. Usual springs, my plants get stripped by the cats and I have to trade with other folks for plants for the cats to eat. This has not happened in the past two years. Had only about a dozen females and only a few cats. Most of them died. I only had one cat mature and fly away. Usually, I have dozens. So something is very wrong and it worries me deeply. Will keep doing what I can to help them out. Need a lot more folks to kick in and lend a hand. Stop using pesticides, herbicides, and stop pulling up plants with flowers. Sorry for sounding so disheartening. Hate to see them go.