Raising Book Resources
Raising Hope for the 2024 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 2024 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 2024 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 milkweed 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:
2023- 89% Survival Rate
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 2024 Results
This seems to be a year of few monarchs for many, after a promising early start in May. Based on reports from the community, I have a couple of ideas on what has been negatively impacting the eastern population migration numbers in 2024:
- City mosquito spraying- these harmful chemicals pretty much destroy your entire garden ecosystem, including monarchs in all stages
- Excessive rains- paired with cooler temps this combo slows down metamorphosis and can also drown caterpillars that fall off plants.
- Late Migration?
On September 17th, 2024 there's more than a dozen migrators fluttering around our Minnesota garden. This is the most we've seen all season, so I'm hopeful this late summer weather, allows more butterflies to finish the life cycle and migrate.
For our lucky 7 this season...
Caterpillar Escapes
none 🥳
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths
none 🥳
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites?
none 🥳 We were lucky because we brought in two caterpillars this year and neither was parasitized by flies.
Accidental Deaths?
none 🥳
Chrysalis Problems
none 🥳
Butterfly Eclosure Issues
none 🥳
Final Results
Our totals are 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 7 monarchs...4 were unintentionally brought in after a wind storm knocked down a large stock of common milkweed. The other egg was accidentally brought in getting milkweed for the other 4. The final monarch caterpillars were brought in from our water feature swamp milkweed and a common milkweed growing through a crack in our deck.
So how many survived to reach butterhood?
The first female eclosed on Labor Day, the last male eclosed on a very sultry September 17th...87°F
0 accidental deaths
0 disease or parasite issues
0 unexplained deaths
6 healthy males
1 healthy female
100% survival rate (5 from egg, 2 from caterpillar)
Lessons Learned
We raised outdoors on our uncovered porch again, which I do not recommend because it adds dangerous factors that are out of your control including:
- extreme wind
- soaking rains
- cool night time temps (in northern regions this slows down metamorphosis)
- predator issues (some insects and animals can chew through cages, and stink bugs can harpoon caterpillars through mesh)
- pesticide drift (especially if neighbors or the city spray for mosquitoes)
To protect them from outdoors condition we:
- put the cage under pine tree branches to block rain
- put a clear tarp over the cage to bock rain, but let in more light (as opposed to a solid color tarp)
- put two pavers inside the cage so it wouldn't blow away
- put a flat rock on floral tube rack so it wouldn't blow over
You can easily expose monarchs to natural heat, light, and humidity (without extreme conditions) by raising them on a screened-in (or at least covered) porch and then you don't have to worry about taking extra precautions.
Migration Memories 2024
Two memories stand out during the 2024 migration season
1. Dueling hummingbirds (the OTHER migrators)- we typically have one hummingbird that claims our garden plants and feeder and challengers are chased off quickly.
This year's challenger would not be denied, so I've actually seen them feeding together in between car chase scenes...perhaps the garden is big enough for BOTH of them? 😅 Of course, getting them both on camera/video has proven more difficult.
2. Milkweed IN Water- last fall we left a milkweed container submerged in our water feature and this season, it came back, flowered, and was the milkweed plant I retrieved our final caterpillar from.
I typically don't bring in caterpillars but there were strong storms coming and our resident leopard frog was lurking below, which put our last caterpillar in double jeopardy...
Thankfully, we found the caterpillar before the frog did.
Unfortunately, Mr. (or Ms.?) frog did snatch a giant swallowtail butterfly from the lantana on the ledge of the water feature. To keep the feature from becoming a butterfly death trap, we moved a large mum to that ledge, and moved the butterfly-attracting lantana to our deck. Live and Learn 🦋🐸😱
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I hope you enjoyed reading about my Raise The Migration '24 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 2024
115 comments
I’m in Woodbury, MN, where we had a mostly mild, rainy summer. This is the first year I have raised Monarchs. My initial goal was to release 40 – I ended up with 51. I lost 5; 3 as tiny instars, one that was born deformed and one who make it halfway then stopped eating. I released the last two on 9/15. I walk daily in a wooded area and started looking for eggs on milkweed in July. There was a good supply, but last year, when I wasn’t raising, there were often 10-12 butterflies on my nectar plants. This year, before my group started to hatch, there were only two Monarchs on my plants. I saw one today on my late blooming Mexican Sunflowers that was being harassed by my hummingbirds. Didn’t know that was a thing. It stood its ground, so it’s a pretty tough one. One thing I will do differently next year is to place lots of paper towels in the cages. That meconium is hard to remove. I’m also planting more swamp milkweed for next year. I was so sad to hear a report that the population declined by 60% between last year and this – how can these lovely, delicate beings survive? At least I hope of few of my 51 make it to Mexico.
I am in WNY and ended up raising 72 healthy monarchs (37 females, 30 males and 5 more that I wasn’t able to identify because I was out of town when they eclosed) I lost 1 chrysallis and 1 cat trying to J. There were also 5 larvae that my surrogate neglected to care for properly while I was out of town. Part of my last batch of chrysalli took longer to eclose thanks to a week of cooler weather. Overall all a fairly decent season.
This season I raised and released 17 Monarchs: 9 females and 8 males. The last 7, released this week, did seem to be larger.
When they were still feeding, I noticed that the caterpillars ate the new, tender, leaves from the top of the common milkweed plant more readily than the larger, tougher leaves from lower on the stalk. I will keep this in mind for next season and maybe pick off the flowers after they have bloomed to encourage more new growth.
A new friend, who actually taught me how to raise Monarchs, came over recently with six more milkweed plants. She helped me plant them in clumps, away from other tall plants, so that they might be more accessible to the female Monarch. Maybe next year I will have a larger number to raise!
I live in Davenport, Iowa: part of the Qjuad Cities right on the Mississippi River.
Released 53 healthy monarchs. Success rate 86%. Issues this year: Heavy rains in spring and mid summer resulted in heavy infestations of oleander aphids and spiders. Found fewer eggs and baby cats compared to previous years. Also, our town sprays almost weekly for mosquitoes.
2023.., 34 released ( 2 diseased and put to sleep) 6 from caterpillars, the rest from found eggs,
2024..’ 12 monarchs released. No losses. 11 started from eggs found on local milkweed. I half inch caterpillar brought in. Used cage in a screened in and covered porch for fresh air , sun and no predators. Need a cage because I have cats. All healthy, mostly males. One last crysalis left. Probably opening today. This on hung for only a day in “j” formation. It was behind the rest by a couple of weeks. Very few monarch sightings near home in Door County, Wisconsin. Most friends have commented that they have seen very few.