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 live in Royal Oak, Michigan I had milkweed explode in my yard this year. It wasn’t until mid July before I even saw one or two monarchs. Due to travel plans every two weeks this summer I didn’t bother collecting eggs as I usually do, but I don’t see any milkweed being eaten, so that tells me there must not be too many eggs out there in that pasture of milkweed. I usually release at least close to 100. So I don’t know what the differences this year…plenty of food and milkweed to choose from. I even had very few pollinating bees it seems.
I live in NW Indiana, raising monarchs for 7 years. I’m Very Sad to report my raise the migration this year is ZERO! So disappointing since last year I raised 67, my best year. In one garden none of the common milkweed, swamp milkweed and butterfly weed came back. We had the 13 year cicadas emerge this year, a lot in this garden. Don’t know if they had anything to do with the milkweed not growing back. My other garden has three large swamp milkweed plants, no cicadas, I’ve taken great care of in hopes of a female monarch to lay her eggs. But sadly, I haven’t seen a single monarch in my yard and I’ve only seen 2 monarch butterflies in my area. I’m heart broken, but I will prepare my gardens for next year. I really hope other people have better news.
I live in southern Maryland and was raising Monarch caterpillars in the big cube cage on my screened in porch. I started
after I saw a female laying eggs on my plants out by the woods. When the caterpillars were a few days old, I brought them
into the cage. Catching them that early prevents dealing with predators. My total for releases were 30 females and 17 males.
No casualties!
This year is still going strong as I’ve raised monarchs in all stages of maturation from egg to adult. Living near London, Ontario our season doesn’t start in earnest until the end of July but so far I estimate 25 for the year. The most important lesson I’ve learned is to leave the babies alone on their laid leaf for at least a week once they hatch as they are extremely delicate. Some are ‘super troopers’ right from the start, others slow and sluggish and yet I’ve encountered only 2 casualties (probably from inferior egg material). They do indeed develop personalities around 2-1/2 weeks after hatching with 5 so far needing to be imprisoned in my smaller cage. They just refused to stay put on juicy milk weed leaves I provided as they insist on roaming and are like rebellious teen-ages. Luckily I have 15 swamp and common plants to appease them once they reach 1 inch in length. Once the cats reach 2 to 2-1/2inches they are no longer interested in eating and I put them in my large cage so they can pupate in safety. Of special note was one character who was so lazy he just formed his ’j’shape on the end of my tallest leaf I had put in the cage in case he still might be hungry. He’s now in the chrysalis stage. Hope to find a few more eggs before the season ends!
Today I’ll release my last monarch for a total of 66. I’m in central Florida so it’s been a long season! I released my first female monarch May 1. I also raised 3 black swallowtails, separate cage. Thanks, Tony, for all your helpful advice! I also learned to purchase swamp milkweed plants from Joyful Butterfly online, raise in a pot indoors near a sunny window. When all my outdoor milkweed was eaten I put cuttings from swamp milkweed into your tubes with water inside. The swamp milkweed grew to 5’ and I finally took the entire pot outdoors. No panicking this year for milkweed!