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 released a total of 220 butterflies. I released my last butterfly on September 10. July was the month that I released the most…89. Most of my milkweed is in grow bags and the majority are tropical and the common milkweed. At the end of th e season, i prune and clean them. I’ve bought the native milkweed for a couple of years. I live in Pico Rivera, California 90660. I am not sure if this has helped with not having so many diseased caterpillars/butterflies. I also put the eggs/caterpillars in nurseries (cages) to keep them safe. Oncethey are ready to fly, I release them to beautify our world.
This season of Monarch’s raising went fast. Monarch’s traditionally arrive here in Fort Wayne, IN around Memorial Day. I was very surprised to find a 1/2 grown caterpillar! That meant they arrived early this year, by 2 weeks! I didn’t find many eggs till July. I found many, but they didn’t all hatch. I guessed I may release about 90 this year. However, the total was 55. I was disappointed that the mortality rate was higher this year. Problems that I encountered this year: Eggs that never hatched. A couple chrysalis fell because they didn’t have a strong button to J hang from. Several fat cats formed their button on the water viles, or on the yellow vile holder pegs. I had to interrupt several of their J hanging attempts by moving them physically off and to the habitat ceiling. There were 3 chrysalis that didn’t form correctly because they hung touching a surface. The butterflies body or wings were deformed, which of course rendered them flightless when they emerged. The first week of September we had an early cool down. There were 3 butterflies ready to eclose that day. They held off, but emerged at 4 & 7:45 pm! The latest ever. I held them overnight. This is the 8th year to raise Monarch’s. I love to share this process with children and adults. Especially their release. There is nothing like it. I hope the children will remember the experience as they grow up. They will be the caretakers of future generations of all species on earth. They will need to fight for their survival. They need to experience the beauty and magic first hand.
Hi. Thank you for all the insight you provide. Well, monarchs finally arrived in Louisville,KY 3rd part of August. The common MW had bloomed in May due to mild winter. Last year monarchs were laying eggs on it in July. The tropical MW and MW vine was their go to source. I have found few eggs this year, but evidence of them. Brought in 4 young cats that escaped the flys, spiders and wasps. One died of unknown causes. I continue to see “fresh” good size monarchs nectaring on various plants, but not laying eggs, so I assume they are migrators. Not sure if the season is at an end in my region. Last year I found monarchs emerging late in November. I believe they feed on wild milkweed vine (are they migrating to E. coast??). Note: I let the MW vine grow now, not having known for years it was a native MW.
PS. I have immature spicebush on which I find swallowtail eggs. Few aren’t lunch for the wasp group.
Love your newsletters.
Janice, raise on!
September 30, 2024: Quaker Hill, Connecticut. Raising Monarchs since 2018.
I have milkweed plants in my gardens that have been poor at enticing female Monarch to lay eggs. The biggest lesson I learned this year came from successfully sowing seeds in Milk Jugs in February. I planted the Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, and Common Milkweed seedlings in pots and kept them on and around my deck. On June 25th, I was elated to see a female Monarch laying eggs on these plants! This allowed me to collect eggs something I haven’t done since 2021. I enthusiastically raised my monarchs from eggs. Along the way I picked up a few small instars and raised them. My total this year is 52 (26 males & 26 females) which is a lot since last year I released nine. I experienced two J-cats that did not complete their chrysalises, two chrysalises that turned black, two newly enclosed Monarchs had deformed wings (euthanized), one accident, I bumped a J-cat that fell and had an anal prolapse (my heart felt sick).
I am so excited and inspired to see what the 2025 Monarch raising season brings!
Surprisingly, I released the first 2 monarchs in early June. I didn’t see any other eggs until early July. Total release as of end of August was 15. However, I found 4 more eggs early September. The last monarch was released 9/27.
I have them in a cage on my deck. Some cover from an umbrella but I think they are stronger if subjected to normal weather conditions like they would be in the wild. All eggs harvested from my milkweed hatched, grew into caterpillars, chrysalis and released as monarchs. Total for year is 19!