Raising Book Resources
Raising Hope for the 2023 Monarch Migration- Share Your 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 2023 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 2023 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 how to raise monarchs book (choose paperback or PDF download) 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:
2022- 100% Survival Rate
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 2023 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 a few years back when I forgot to close a cage door and found a caterpillar crawling on top of the cage. 🐛 😱
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths
None
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites?
None
Accidental Deaths?
I carelessly removed a small caterpillar that was getting ready to molt inside the plastic food container. It was not able to fully shed its skin and did not survive.
Chrysalis Problems
None
Butterfly Eclosure Issues
None
Final Results
Our totals will be taken from all eggs that have successfully hatched in our care. We don't count eggs that were parasitized outside or monarchs brought in as caterpillars because they could have parasites too.
This year, we ended up with 9 migration generation monarchs...all have been 'unintentional' after pulling wayward egg-upied common milkweed coming up in the lawn.
So how many survived to reach butterhood?
1 accidental death
0 disease or parasite issues
0 unexplained deaths
3 healthy males
5 healthy females
89% survival rate
Lessons Learned
There have been a few lessons learned throughout this season and it's the result of having a new outdoor raising setup.
In past seasons, we raised in a 3-season porch with the windows open, which protected growing monarchs from extreme weather, while still exposing them to environmental cues telling them to migrate. This year, we raised outdoors and barely avoided a couple catastrophes:
- Protect the cage from heavy rains above- we did this by placing the cage on a bench under an evergreen. On the other side of the deck, we place cages under the awning (prevents drownings and falling chrysalides)
- If heavy rain is forecast, consider removing the poo poo platter so rain doesn't pool on the cage floor (prevents drownings)
- Protect monarchs from strong winds- we ended up using two paver bricks in each cage (prevents cages from falling or blowing away)
- Crowded Caterpillars often Pupate on Milkweed Leaves- We used smaller cages this season and having to use two pavers inside each minimized space which made plant leaves too enticing to form chrysalides
- If a caterpillar pupates on a leaf that's OK, but separate it from feeding caterpillars (prevents chrysalis from falling to floor if leaf gets eaten)
- Use your magnifier- our lone accidental death of '23 could have been prevented if I used it to see that a small caterpillar I moved was actually molting. (When you see better, you do better!)
- Keep Cages away from Predators- we have been lucky with insects and larger predators chewing through the cage to this point, but there is always a greater chance you will have issues with an outdoor raising setup
We were very lucky this season was a success. On a windy night, the cage nearly blew off the table it was on becuase I was using rocks instead of the heavier paver bricks to secure the stage. This could have severely injured or killed most of our brood
I much prefer the indoor setup with exposure to natural outdoor conditions. We will be investing in a greenhouse or arboretum for raising purposes next season and will keep you posted.
Migration Memories 2023
Our Mexican sunflowers were a big hit with migrating monarchs, swallowtails, hummingbirds, and bees this season. Here's a Minnesota Migration Moment from early September:
...and here's our final release monarch female stocking up on nectar September 20th:
I hope you enjoyed reading about my Raise The Migration '23 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 at the bottom of this page and let 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 2023
189 comments
My name is Bonnie Robertson. I live in Lafayette, Indiana. This is the fourth year that I brought in little monarch eggs. We brought in 111 eggs and there were five that didn’t make it. I had not planned on doing so many but we did have enough milkweed to sustain what we brought in and some wild ones after the heat. Evaded did well on the outside except I don’t know where their chrysalises are with the outside ones. . . We had three that seem to start having green liquid poops and took them out. Clean the cage and thankfully nobody else got into trouble. I don’t know. I don’t know what it was but it was there. For the first time we were gone in May and we came back and I made a round of my milkweed and there was probably too instar caterpillars on plants that were nine of them and I normally don’t but I brought them in because they were so little and they raised fine and no problems with them. In the middle of the hot hot humid summer, we were seeing evidence of little babies on the milkweed outside but you couldn’t see the caterpillars. If you saw one alive one, he wouldn’t see it for more than a couple days. So we started bringing them in and we did 54 and then the worst of the heat hit and I brought 30 in and there was still some out there and I knew I had the milkweed so I brought the rest of them in which gave us a total of 111.
Pick up me busy and I had plenty of milkweight so that wasn’t an issue. It took a lot of time because they pretty much came in within a over a week at the last batch and I said I wouldn’t bring any more. I think I did learn that one. When you make the extra effort, make sure you have food and make sure you have time because it takes time to get the stems with the leaves and get them in a test tubes. Keep them clean. I would take them all out. Vacuum is a cloth to clean the bottom of the cage and usually change out the peg the test tube holder for a clean one and keep it as clean as possible. Every time I let one go I know why I do this and even though it was tough for about 3 weeks, 4 weeks having so many at the same time it was worth doing. But I think it’s important to know how many you can take care of.
One little trick. I found that when you’re moving caterpillars from the stems that are left in the morning to a fresh leaf. If you dip your finger in water and run it on the leaf they seem to almost jump to the next one and it doesn’t take any problems to get them transferred. Although I wash every leaf and stem that comes in so it’s not like they’re totally dry, but little caterpillars must be thirsty because it it worked every time. Also learning to leave caterpillars that are molting. It seems to take them 3 days stuck to the test tube of the leaf or whatever they’re molting on and just let them be and make sure there’s fresh leaves above them. My husband watches and helps when I get stuck but I did this by myself and thankfully I have the time and was able to put the effort in. Once you start it you have to do it or I say you get to do it. Next year I’ll be back. We’ll try not to take in as many as a time, but if I think they’re going to die I probably will. I’m grateful for Tony’s guide. It has helped me and having the blog come out weekly. Reminds me again some things that you may forget and I am really happy to be involved in this.Just a trick that helped save 2 that couldn’t seem to hold on and fell. I quickly got a thin stick and in both cases the scrunched up butterfly held on and since they were still hanging upside down their wings were able to fill with liquid and they turned out just fine!
This year started out slow here in Urbana, IL. I didn’t see any eggs until mid July. Then we had 3 waves of eggs over the next 6 weeks which led to successfully releasing 94 monarchs. I raise every one indoors and we only lost 6 to mishaps, no diseases this year. I grew over 40 Tithonia plants from seeds ( as well as tall Zinnias) and the Monarchs love the bright orange flowers. I find that in our area most of the eggs are on the swamp milkweed even though there are lots of common milkweed in the parks and along side the road. I use the big common milkweed leaves for the last couple of feeding days when the cats are very hungry. I’m pleased we had a good year and continue to appreciate all the insights this website offers.
Hi from mid-western MN near the I-94 corridor. I don’t have my own plot yet as we have lots of shade. So I rely on road ditches and neighbors’ plants. Hate to see the spray trucks that came through one year and farmers who mow ditches deep to the tree line in August every year. Think of all the hundreds of plants and wildlife destroyed! I had a neighbor spray for mosquitoes this year – our huge Blue Spruce got sprayed all around only feet away from some nectar plants I had planted. Speaking of nectar plants, I sure like Mexican sunflowers and zinnias.
I raised a few monarchs from eggs as well as a few cats. Every year I have the problem of what to do when we take 3-1 week vacations. I had chrysalises hanging on the porch line and a few in an enclosure which I left open. Coming home I found 4 had opened fine but two did not and died. Also had one chrysalis accidentally fall when I used tape to hang it up. Lesson learned: back to using clips. A neighbor brought over her microscope one day and we had twenty minutes to watch and take pictures of an egg hatching – pretty neat! I agree with those that said it was a slow to start season. It was cold early on, then suddenly hot and very dry. Also I think the fire smoke from Canada may have affected things. I have finally learned that washing leaves is a smart idea. And I will have some milkweed plants of my own to utilize next year. Thanks for all the interesting comments from others and Tony, special thanks for all your expertise in helping us “Raise the Migration”!
I live in Georgetown Delaware. This was my 1st time raising Monarchs. I was not successful finding eggs but did find 5 cats on my butterfly weed. The caterpillars were feeding on stems full of leaves that I cut from the plant and placed in a food storage container with holes in the top and water in the bottom. The stems were replaced as needed. When two of the cats started wandering around the cage, I realized how little I knew about what I was doing. Luckily, I found this site and soaked up enough info to enjoy them forming Js, molting, pupating and becoming beautiful, bejeweled chrysalides. Number 1 and 2 attached one at a time on Aug 25 and pupated by late afternoon. Number 3 formed her J after dark and pupated through the night. Number 4 and 5 pupated on August 26. On the evening of September 5, I noticed Chrysalides #1, 2, and 4 turning dark. On September 6 evening I called the neighbors to watch the release of two beautiful females – #1 & #4. I couldn’t determine the sex of #2 because of deformed wings and had to euthanize. On September 8, from the smallest chrysalis, Miss #3 was released. Unfortunately, #5 was also deformed and euthanized.
My cage was black mesh and staked into the ground in a sunny garden. I found the black mesh difficult to see and take pictures through and would recommend white mesh instead. After learning chrysalides should be protected from the rain, I moved the cage onto our screened porch. We were having pretty severe heat, so I moved them into the house during the heat of the day. I also did not know to test for OD before releasing them.