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?
===========================================================================================
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.
===========================================================================================
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 🦋🐸😱
==============================================
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
116 comments
Like many others I had very few monarchs this year. I have been raising since 2007 and have never had anything like this. Found 12 eggs in mid May and only 7 hatched. But I found only 3 eggs in August. Last year I had 52 in August. Several years I raised over 200. In 2022 I only had 40 but this is much worse. A total of 10- absolutely unbelievable. It has been terribly hot this summer, maybe that is part of the reason. I didn’t see one single monarch in June or July, which has never happened before either. I live in central Indiana
.
I too have had no success with Monarchs this year and am very concerned. In the beginning of spring there were a few monarchs but then nothing. I cut down all my milkweed in summer because I had so many milkweed leaf beetles decimating my plants and since I had no monarchs, it didn’t make a difference. I am hoping to start from the very beginning next year and maybe have a few successes but I am very worried. I live in Houston, Texas
I am most disappointed this year raising the monarch catepillars more than any year since I began in 2015. In April of this year, I moved some cages into another room, due to visitors staying for awhile. I don’t know if those catepillars and chrysalis were affected by being close to a smart meter on other side of wall, but once they came out of chrysalis, they had deformed wings or bloated bodies disabling them from flying. One appeared perfect but kept flapping his wings upside down and couldn’t take flight. After I moved the cages back into my kitchen everything went well until mid July. Suddenly the catepillars stopped eating. Some turned black, the black death I presume but not majority. I removed them, sterilized the cages,or used new cages but it continued. Most of catepillars reach final instar then stop eating. But some were small also, maybe 3rd instar. They hold onto the milkweed branch and literally deflate. I’m not sure if it’s because I had to move them back into the other room because I had to treat my cat for fleas and I must keep her away from them entirely because of the treatment. And since she also goes outside, I didn’t want her near them with cages outside either. I am depressed and have given up raising anymore for this year. I also raise yellow Sulphur catepillars to butterflies in same room with monarchs, but in their own cage and they are doing very well. There’s something going on here I can’t figure out. I grow my own milkweed and rinse it off vigorously. I check for predators, aphids and monarch eggs to raise new ones before rinsing off. I am so disappointed. Discouraged. I have never had such a bad outcome in previous years as now. Has anyone else experienced this? I’m in Southern California area.
I too like so many others posting have found a drastic decline of Monarchs this year. I am used to raising 85 – 100+ a year and this year we have only had 12. It is very disheartening. But those 12 that we raised were healthy. They won’t be the traveler’s but we were happy to have 12. Hoping for better luck next year. We did have a terrible time with aphids this year too.
Urban, IL
This year has been so disappointing – very few Monarchs in our area. Over the last 4 years I’ve released hundreds of Monarchs, so to not have one egg or caterpillar or even see any flying around my garden is very concerning. Now my hope is that since the tithonia & zinnias are in full bloom we will have hungry migration generation coming through the garden looking for food. I sincerely hope this lack of Monarchs is a fluke and not a permanent shift in Monarch flight path or other serious issues. I am moving to Idaho next year and plan to keep raising out there.