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
This year I had only 10 caterpillars. Last year I had over 100. Of my 10, 2 died in chrysalis stage. The chrysalis appeared normal, turned black. After a week of being black, I noticed the orange was gone. I removed it from the netting and the entire inside of the chrysalis was hollow. Of the 8 remaining, I had 3 females and 5 males. The last of the group flew away yesterday (9/17).
Cicadas population was incredible this year. My thinking is that this contributed to the lower Monarch population in my area. I also had to battle milkweed beetle this year. The infestation was unbelievable. I used an organic dish soap to remove the beetle. I also used Neem oil. I found the dish soap worked much better than the oil. The plants with Neem oil worked, but the beetles returned after a couple of weeks. No beetles returned to the plants that were washed with the soap. I spoke with someone in my garden center and they told me the milkweed beetle can overwinter and I should treat the soil over the winter to make sure to get the beetle and any eggs. I’m thinking of just using the dish soap when I prepare the beds for winter, and maybe again in the spring.
My milkweed did thrive this year. I have been collecting the pods. I have over 4 cups of seeds.
No Monarchs this year. I only saw one all summer, not on my property, and did not have a single egg. I will keep planting milkweed and hope this was just a bad year due to the early rain and late cool temperatures.
My municipality does not spray for mosquitoes. The mosquito population was also very low this year.
Also, I only saw two milkweed tussock caterpillars all summer — normally we have dozens.
Southern Tier NY
I released 38 monarchs this summer, 2024.
21 males and 17 females.
I’m in Erin, Ontario, Canada.
The thing I learned this year was to REALLY look at your milkweed before bringing inside to feed caterpillars. Aphids, spiders or other predators can hitch a ride inside and harm those precious eggs or caterpillars.
I posted earlier but am adding an addendum after reading Leona’s message from 9/16, as I had a very similar experience north of NYC. I have raised for 8 years, but there was much more variation in speed of development and enclosure this year, and I had similar panicky moments—especially with my last group in August—with the black chrysalises behaving as they did. I prior years this had signaled black death but this year all the butterflies were fine. They were smaller than in past years, however.
2024 Ocean County NJ, 10 miles from Long Beach Island on the mainland.
Monarchs released 66
Eastern Black Swallowtails 10
4 Euthanized (freezer)
16 dead, infected black crysalises.
Second Year Raising.
First Year Reporting.
They were raised in our screened patio in 5 butterfly cages of various sizes.
First lesson from last year was I bought more cages.
Secondly, clean all the silk from each chrysalis after they emerge.
Last year one was caught in all the silk on the cage ceiling and the wings were deformed. I carefully unwrapped and cleaned off the silk without any damage to its wings. It was late in the season and the weather was changing with cold wind and rain. I made the decision to hold on to it over night. I gave it what I called PT (physical therapy) to flatten out its wings. (I never have kept emerged butterflies to release more than 24 hours (weather) and my standard was 2+ hours), but the weather was not on its side. I continued for days with its PT hopeful where it might be able to fly. Several times on sunny days, I took it out to my garden for a test. When weather got colder or rained, I brought it back in. It wouldn’t nectar off the garden flowers I sat it on. It wouldn’t eat anything I tried to give it in the cage: sugar water, flowers, anything I found in my researched. Once as I held it by its wings, as my research showed I think I saw it take sugar water for a brief moment. It knew me and bonded. It would willingly come to me. After 2 weeks, one day, I released it on the same flowers in the garden and it flew 30’ into a nearby tree! We watched it as it hoped to another branch. Then after 30 minutes it flew away! Deformed wings and all! I doubt that would survive very long, but it was able to fly and feel free.
I released 90 last year and was new at this. First, I didn’t clean the ceiling of silk. It was my fault. They had experienced over crowding and tangled silk from so many crysalis hanging in two cages. I have always cleaned the cages everyday and as needed twice a day, but didn’t think to take down the silk. No bacteria in silk, right? I didn’t think past it would be harmful.
This year I had brought in small cats that had hatched outside. I didn’t know not to do this. I ended up euthanizing 4 monarch butterflies from deformed wings burying 16 y crysalises.
Although 66 is not 90 from last year, but at least there are 66 more monarchs in the world if it where not for my efforts.