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by Tony Gomez

3 years ago

Raising Book Resources

Raising Hope for the 2020 Migration- Raise the Migration Results


Share Your Raise The Migration 2020 Experience in a Comment Below

3 years ago

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By Tony Gomez

Raise the Migration 2020- Share Your Raising Butterflies Experience

by Tony Gomez

3 years ago

Raise The Migration is an annual North American challenge to raise monarch butterflies to release for fallโ€™s annual monarch migration. The time has come to share your 2020 experience and raise it forwardโ€ฆ

Raise the Migration 2020- Share Your Raising Monarch Butterflies Experience

The raising season is coming to an end, so weโ€™d love to hear how many butterflies you released for fallโ€™s annual 2020 monarch migrationโ€ฆand more importantly, what lessons youโ€™ve learned through this amazing raising experience?

If youโ€™ve still got some raising to do, raise on! But please post in the comment box at the bottom of this page after youโ€™ve released your last butterfly.

Every year, I start Raise The Migration in early August, but monarchs raised at that time arenโ€™t actually migration generation butterfliesโ€ฆtheyโ€™re actually the parents to that amazing generation of travelers.

Thereโ€™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 regionโ€ฆ

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 companionshipโ€ฆmigratory 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 youโ€™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:

Raising Monarch Butterflies Book

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:

A Monarch Caterpillar is about to molt with protruding face cap
BEFORE
A Monarch Caterpillar After Shedding its skin and face cap
AFTER

Accidental Deaths?

There have been two accidental deaths this year...seems fitting for 2020. ๐Ÿ™ƒ

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 40ยฐ 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. ๐Ÿ˜”

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:

6 Monarch Chrysalides Rehung- Raise The Migration Experiment

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:

6 Monarch Chrysalides Rehung- Raise The Migration Results

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...๐Ÿฅถ

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, hereโ€™s the part Iโ€™m most excited aboutโ€ฆhearing 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 populationโ€ฆremember 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 live in Manitoba, east of Winnipeg. I collected my first eggs on June 3rd. in total I collected 241 eggs and tiny caterpillars. But most were eggs from the plants in my garden. I released 224 healthy butterflies, 101 males and 123 females. 46 of these were released between August 26 until September 21. My losses were as follows: 7 unexplained disappearances, 3 lost in the caterpillar stage and 7 lost in the chrysalis stage. What an amazing year. There didnโ€™t seem to be a shortage of eggs and caterpillars. However after the beginning of August I couldnโ€™t find as many. I tried tropical milkweed for the first time which is an annual here in Manitoba. For several weeks I had a number of Monarchs that made my garden their home 24/7. I didnโ€™t collect every egg and caterpillar in my garden, so at any given time I had dozens of caterpillars in various stages. There were chrysalises everywhere, on the fence, under the garden boxes, on the shed, hanging on my bean plants and flowers. Unfortunately I only saw 2 healthy butterflies. I had to dispose of dozens of chrysalises that likely had chalcid wasps inside them. Unfortunately I also fostered an amazing number of those pesky wasps. So sad.

    Marcie on

  • We came from Florida to NH and brought tropical milk weed for raising cats . Plants did not attract monarch butterfly, so went out in search of cadepilers and to my surprise fond none. We visited grandkids and my daughter in law had twenty or so she found in huge fields near her home . Next day it was off with grandkids to find cats ,they were great at finding them , we brought back fifteen and raised thirteen of them successfully. My first time doing this. I made 3ft ร— 5ft screen incloser with a front door it works great.

    Andre Beausoleil on

  • I picked up 6 caterpillars off milkweed plants on the street I live on near Alden, McHenry County, Illinois. At the end of our street is a new conservation district park. There was enough milkweed there to feed them. One evolved and got stuck in its chrysallis and its wings did not form correctly. I kept it inside until it died of old age yesterday. Another one did not emerge from its chrysallis, turned black and shriveled. but the other four were released with tags on them successfully. I bought 15 caterpillars from monarch watch.org. One of them died when it was molting at 1/2 inch. The other14 went into chrysallis successfully, were released with tags on them.
    One thing I will do is increase my milkweed supply at the end of my street, enough so that I can cut half of them down in July to have enough new milkweed growth for the migration butterflies in September. I found enough, but had to go five minutes away to another park.
    Another thing, if you release them in a dog park like I did in Lake County, IL where there are lots of butterflies, make sure your dog is held by the collar upwind, so he wonโ€™t nip at the butterflies while they are released. It turned out ok, but could have been a disaster. My first year at raising butterflies, pretty successful, 81% release rate.

    Nancy Swain on

  • Iโ€™m raising out of Royal Oak, Michigan โ€“ this is my second year. First year was great โ€“ no issues. The 2020 spring raising went well โ€“ out of 8 I had to euthanize 2 (deformity issues). The late summer raising has been a complete fail. Half the eggs I gathered were not viable/infected (same issue a prior post also had). I had randomly put some cut milk weed in our outside sitting area and had a visitor that left some eggs. Those eggs were great โ€“ no issues. The eggs I gathered off the actual milk weed plants were already infected โ€“ clearly I need to get to them faster. I ended up with only five Monarch chrysalis. Only 2 have made it, I have 1 left. The female that left yesterday took a long time to get going โ€“ seemed weak but then she finally took off. The other 2 had issues with wings โ€“ one fell and the wings never fully extended despite our quick action to get hanging again. The other game out with folded/crumpled wings โ€“ assuming OE (but how and why? need to do more research here). I have one crysalis left โ€“ crossing fingers. Been very disheartening and I feel bad that I have been able to protect the ones I have in my care better.

    Samantha Ankeny on

  • This was my third year raising Monarchs. The first year I learned so much. Released 24. Last year was much better with 46 released. This year was very disappointing. Michigan had a cold May which Iโ€™m sure played a part in my low numbers. Only released 25. But I wonโ€™t be deterred from raising them every year. I love it!

    RUTHANN on

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