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
Here are my results for the 2022 Raising season. We are located in Waterloo, Iowa.
I have a small cube cage and a large cube cage. I watched a handful of eggs hatch and teeny-tiny caterpillars emerge using covered plastic containers, paper towel under the leaves and leaving the lid a little open for ventilation. As soon as the caterpillar emerged I immediately transferred it to a leaf in the small cage. I use Perrier empty water bottles to hold cuttings from my milkweed. Try to get the freshest cuttings possible. As soon as the caterpillars reach the 2 or 3rd instar, I transferred them to the large cage until they transformed into a chrysalis. If they made their chrysalis under a leaf, I carefully cut a fairly large portion of the leaf and attached it to the ceiling of the cage or a horizontal stick (that I have in a weighted flower pot for climbing etc.), using masking tape (be careful not to touch the chrysalis with the tape) and straight pins from the outside of the mesh. I number them with a sticker, note the date, and location in the cage on a record sheet. (then I know about what date they might emerge.) When they emerged I note the date, time and sex. I successfully raised 100% of my 31 caterpillars this year! 19 females, 12 males. From July 28-to Oct. 4. I made sure to mist them 2 or 3 times a day, kept them out of direct sunlight, had good ventilation on a southern exposure 3 season porch and always had fresh milkweed cuttings, in fresh water and clean cages. I believe that next year I will cut the milkweed back earlier and on a rotating basis. We have a large milkweed garden with a few varieties, but mostly the regular swamp, ditch variety. I have been raising Monarchs for decades and used to tag them, but now I just enjoy my process and still find it a very miraculous bit of nature and a wonderful seasonal hobby. Hope to continue for many more years. Just for fun this year, I named each butterfly for a family member, and I take a picture of each when released. Silly isn’t it? :-)
This was our 3rd year doing this wonderful raising. Last 2 years we had 17, this year we did 48. 13 at 1 time. It was so hot and dry here in Lafayette, IN, that there was no evidence of the baby cats on the leafs. So , I brought the eggs in every day. We had 2 die..o ne I accidently squished with my finger on the test tube. The other I don’t know. We had an outbreak of spider mites and had to cut down one entire bush. That was lmid Aug. The cool thing was it grew back and gave us a lot more leaves and the first 3 wild cats we saw. We got to go one a trip to colorado to see our grandbaby and I had 5 ,about instar3 to 4 so I put them on a bush and we left for a week. When we got back they were looking great. In 2 days I decided to bring them in as they looked like they were ready to form the J. They did. And were sucessfully released Sept 29. I brought in the 3 wild ones when they looked like they were looking for a place to turn into a crysalysis. We let them out yesterday Oct 2. Mostly females, a few males. It was wonderful and we will do it again. Each year I plant more milkweed and space them out in the yard. Most important lesson is making sure you can feed what you bring in AND be very careful aboutwhere your fingers are on test tubes!!..
My sister and I are in Perry County Indiana located on the Ohio river. This is our 3rd year raising Monarchs. This year we had 3 separate waves of Monarchs.
First wave:
Eggs gathered from May 1 and last release on June 2 resulted in release of 98 healthy Monarchs.
Wave 2:
Eggs gathered from July 1 and last release on August 21 resulted in release of 31 healthy. Onarchs.
Wave3:
Eggs gathered from August 25 and last release September 29 resulted in release of 170 healthy Monarchs.
This resulted in release of 299 Monarchs with losses of 14 due to various mostly undefined issues.
We gathered eggs through August 31 for raising in habitats. After August 31 we continued o gather eggs and raised to approximately 3rd instar. At that point we released them back onto the milkweed in our yards. This seemed to work very well since the eggs and tiny hatchlings tend to disappear very quickly in the wild. This definitely raised the survival rate in the wild.
Sarajane Damin 10-2-2022
4 years ago I had 33 eclosures outdoors in and around my large milkweed garden in front yard. The following 2 years, none! I’d see cats, then gone and surmised they were being eaten by wasps, stink bugs et al.
So I said “enough” and bought your mesh cage. 2 yellow holders and tubes for milkweed and kept in mainly on screened-in porch. I got better at finding eggs,cats! I live in Syracuse which does not get a lot of monarchs; the Journey North maps show that. I have detailed records beginning with 1st sighting on June 24, then almost nothing for another month. Most activity in August! I had 19 successful eclosures and releases; my last chrysalis had tfly and 2 cats died also. I currently have a “pet” monarch; been about 6 days. It had fallen after eclosure and severely crinkled its wings, so I’m feeding it honey water and trying to give it a nice lil life.
I’ve also another small milkweed garden in backyard and have spread hundreds of Serbs for a third among my many flower gardens. Just wish my season were longer:)
Thanks for all you knowledge and helpful videos. Barb
This is my first time raising monarchs. I was able to raise and release (7) out of (12) back before we had temperatures of 100 degrees for a few weeks in Southern California. I still have (2) monarchs around the milkweed plants in my back yard. I was successful using the baby pop-up cage and right now I have the common narrow leaf milkweed plants growing in my backyard. I’m hoping for better weather this spring.