Raising Book Resources
Raising Hope for the 2020 Migration- 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 2020 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 2020 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 early August, but monarchs raised at that time aren’t actually migration generation butterflies…they’re actually 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 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 guide digital guide with free updates (before each monarch season begins in spring) 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 seven seasons:
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 2020 Results
I am counting our 2020 migration generation as all butterflies that eclosed September 1st and after.
Caterpillar Escapes
Since using food container hatcheries for eggs and baby caterpillars, this has helped us to easily keep track of the wee cats until they can be placed in the larger mesh cages. We have not lost a caterpillar for years...
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths
None to report in 2020
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites?
There were no caterpillar disease issues to report in 2020. Check out a pre and post molt of one caterpillar graduating from instar 3 to instar 4:
Accidental Deaths?
There have been two accidental deaths this year...seems fitting for 2020. 🙃
1. This was an odd fluke that happened in an egg hatchery. There was one container with two eggs that looked like they might have fungus issues from the leaves I found them on.
After monitoring, I thought one of the eggs had succumbed to a rust-like fungus that was growing around it. Little did I know, the caterpillar had hatched and crawled under the paper towel that lined the hatchery....there was even a fresh milkweed leaf under the fungusy leaf piece.
This has never happened before so I was shocked to find the dead baby cat as I cleared out the hatchery.
2. On a cold morning in the 3-season porch (low was 40° F), I picked up the floral tube/racks (with milkweed and caterpillars) and walked it into the kitchen without using the boot tray. Two of the cold, lethargic caterpillars fell to the floor. I rescued one...and stepped on the other. 😔
Chrysalis Problems
Chrysalis formation was perfect this season. I conducted 6 removing/rehanging experiments this year: 3 chrysalides hung up with pins, 2 hung up on a microfiber cloth, and 1 taped to the floor:
All 6 butterflies eclosed with no issues and the butterflies were released to join the 2020 monarch migration. The last male emerged Sunday October 11th, and was released on Monday October 12th:
Butterfly Eclosures
All butterflies emerged from their monarch chrysalises without issue.
Final Results
2 accidental deaths
0 disease or parasite issues
0 unexplained death
4 healthy males
5 healthy females
82% survival rate
Lessons Learned?
Of the two caterpillar accidents that occurred this season, one was a fluke that will likely never happen again.
However, the 'stepping' accident could have been easily avoided if I would have just followed my own advice for caterpillar safety. If moving caterpillars outside of the cage, place them on a boot tray so they will never fall on the floor.
I also learned that keeping chrysalides in the 3 season porch at night (during the fall) is a bad idea for our northern region. Cool night time temps slowed down metamorphosis by at least a week, meaning the excellent window I had to release butterflies in warm weather, quickly shrunk to just a few days.
The chrysalises get plenty of exposure to natural lighting and temperatures during the day through open windows. If these monarchs would have been left to fend for themselves outside, their wintry fate would have been sealed...🥶
Also, my preferred way of rehanging chrysalides is pinning the silk to the top of the cage. Really though, all 3 methods work well, so do what you're most comfortable with when you need to rehang a chrysalis.
August 2020 Migration Memory
And now, here’s the part I’m most excited about…hearing about all the valuable lessons you learned raising monarchs over the past few weeks!
Share Your Results?!
Please share your results below by letting 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 2020
348 comments
Last year was so exciting. My milkweed plants were covered with cats and I raised many successfully indoors as well as out. So many monarchs I couldn’t count them. This year? Nothing. I saw one lonely female fluttering around our garden for days and then she was gone. I am desolate and hoping they just found someone else’s garden. I live in Cumberland County Maine.
I raise 54 successfully. Only 1 bad one this year. My friend ended her season with 405.
I got off to a wonderful start with my monarchs. The milkweed looked great, common, swamp and butterfly weed. I had a couple of early caterpillars munching on all. I l let them stay on the milkweed and do their thing. But then the you know what hit the fan! In August i started collecting caterpillars and putting them in my enclosures with my nice milkweed, but in a day or two they would be dead. I was scratching my head wondering what did it do wrong. I re cleaned the enclosures, tubes, racks and made sure all milkweed was clean and started again. Out of the next group of 8 cats only two survived! One went in to chrysalis within a week and eclosed beautifully, more on her in a bit, the other one a day later. The lawn crew came the day the second was in transition, my guess is they used the blower and didn’t realize the cage was inside the porch and it knocked the chrysalis down while it was still soft. I found it and let it harden then brought it in my office and taped it to a shelf above my desk. Well low and behold it did eclose but was deformed. the wing on the right where it fell and hit the ground was not totally formed. So I made little buddy my pet. I at first put him out in the garden but he didn’t seem to like that, kept hiding in the leaves of the tithonia. So I brought him in and gave him fresh flowers and gatorade. He lived for 15 days till he started falling and getting stuck every time i turned my head. So i preserved him in a ziploc in the freezer. He now is on my cork board watching me work. I had more cats appear but they were all at my home gardens, they ate the last of every leaf I had and they still needed more. So I brought 28 back to the farm with lots of milkweed…. but… I lost most. I kept 4 at my home in an enclosure and they all went beautifully into chrysalis. I tested all of them for OE and will send the results in to find out if that is my problem here at the farm. So I released one in Lutherville, tagged and tested and 4 I took them in chrysalis to Assateague Island Md since we took a much needed break. They all eclosed while there so I tested them and tagged them and released them with the many that were migrating through.
It was a hard year seeing so many of them die. I really hope i can figure out what happened to them, perhaps there was a huge amount of OE here at the farm.
Hoping my 5 get to Mexico and can start a new next year and hope that 2021 will be a healthier year for everything!
In Stoughton, WI we raised 172 Monarchs – 96 females and 76 males. We have 4 enclosures total and we would harvest milkweed to help feed the cats. We washed the milkweed and stored it in a container in the fridge, this helped to extent the life of the milkweed for up to 2 weeks. Great for “sitters” while on vaca. We are now a certified Monarch Waystation.
I raised and released 81 healthy monarchs for 2020. I live in the middle of Michigan. My last release was on September 25, 2020. Last year 2019 I released 87, and the last release was September 11, 2019.