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
I released 28 monarchs and 4 swallowtails this year in WI. It also looks like I will be over wintering a Swallowtail Chrysalis. This will be my first time doing that so wish me luck. I lost only 3 monarch caterpillars to the dreaded Tachinid fly but did have a few accidental deaths. Two caterpillar drownings and a few 1st star caterpillars went missing. When removing an empty chrysalis I accidentally took one other with it and wind took my cube one day and tossed it several feet knocking one chrysalis down. I pinned them both up to the top of the cube and both emerged happy and healthy.
2020 results:
Successfully released – 183
This is my 3rd year raising Monarchs here in Urbana, IL and my success rate has increased yearly due to more experience, research and information provided from Tony’s postings. This year started when I received a tropical milkweed plant for a bday gift in late April via Amazon and there was a baby caterpillar that survived shipping. I panicked since we were still in frost season so no nectar flowers, but he emerged on May 13 and flew off! The real season started mid May and we released 32 by mid June. Everything was going well until a severe hail storm mid July followed by very hot weather destroyed most of wild common milkweed in our parks and fields. My husband sometimes had to search for hours to find viable common milkweed (we feed swamp & tropical from our garden to babies up to medium cats, but switch to common the last week of maturing cats since they are so hungry). From July 28 – Sep 25 we released at least one daily. (Aug 23 & 24th – 30 adults emerged!) We raise all of them indoors in individual clear plastic deli containers with clear lids. (I bought recyclable ones from Amazon) I find this method more successful, although lots more work, to contain disease. At the end of the season I did try putting leaves in water tubes and letting cats roam freely to use the limited milkweed more efficiently. It seemed to work, but sadly I had 3 of those emerge this week with crumpled wings (OE?) and had to euthanize them. They were all raised from eggs and I wash each leaf so can assume they were contaminated from eating their eggshell.
Lessons: check for eggs on milkweed 2 times a day to collect eggs that hopefully at not contaminated- we had lots of predators flying around the garden and bringing in eggs quickly helped survival rate. The milkweed from my garden, swamp, tropical & butterfly weed, all developed horrible black spot & white mildew disease and were infested with aphids by mid August. I should have started cutting the infected plants back sooner so they could have tint to develop new growth, but I was afraid of not having enough to get eggs for the 4th generation. Losses: over 20 non fertile or wasp egg duds, 3 missing hatched babies, 2 babies died on 2nd day, 2 cats died from some kind of disease, 1 cat died during “J” stage and 6 emerged too weak to hang on to chrysalis and dropped on cage floor. 3 of those we helped onto a stick which they grabbed and their wings did straighten enough that they flew eventually- 3 had wings so deformed they had to be euthanized which was so sad since they were part of our last group. As an additional tip, we use the cages from Tony to use for emerging days outside. Since each chrysalis is attached to an individual plastic lid on emerging day we set the lids on plastic dish racks ( the chrysalis hang down nicely between the plastic rows) and after securing each lid we leave the cage door unzipped and sometime during the day the Monarchs emerge, hang out drying their new wings and then flys away when ready.
To close my husband has become an essential parter in this year’s journey, we developed a great tag team each day – finding milkweed, feeding caterpillars and cleaning all of the containers. It can be very stressful – some days we worked 4 or more hours on this project a day – but we both love Monarchs and the joy is totally worth it! Thanks Tony for all you do to inspire us!
First year of raising monarchs. Released 43, 20 female and 23 male. Found it hard to find eggs after the first of August do not know why is we have a lot of milkweed along the pond behind my home. Was having so much fun my niece and sister starting raising them as well.
I have 8 chrysallis that haven’t hatched yet. It’s been 15 days! I have two catapillars waiting to go into a chrysalis. They aren’t as big as l hoped. Milkweed is scarce and dry with the very dry weather. I added a little slice of pumpkin. One catapillar still eating. Quite dark. We are in the northeast New York on the southern Vermont border. Hope the chrysalis’s become butterflies soon. Will they migrate at this late date?
Best year ever (started 2015) – released 108 monarchs through Sep using potted plants and keeping caterpillars safe under netting. Eggs and caterpillars are transferred from leaves and
milkweed planted in ground to safety under mosquito netting (camping netting). Monarchs loved the giant milkweed and 4 put chrysalis under leaf. Monarch in flight pictured about 15 seconds after release. I took video of release and reviewed frame by frame to select this “flight to freedom”.
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