How to Collect and Protect Monarch Eggs for Raising Monarch Butterflies

293 Comments

1. Hi Tony,
   We planted our silk weed plant a couple of months ago. We have enjoyed watching these little eggs hatch into baby caterpillar? But once they get large they disappear. We live in South Florida and have a ton of lizards. Could the lizards be eating the adult caterpillars?

   1. That’s a possibility Sam…there are many garden predators

2. I found a Caterpillar egg and broke the milkweed leaf off at the end of its stem and brought it home. I had it in a mesh cage, but the wind was so crazy it had tipped the cage over twice. I had a board in there to hold the weight down and although it didn’t actually land on the egg, the leaf blew around and I’m worried it’s been damaged. How much force can they take? How will I know if it was wrecked?

   1. Hi Susanne, it sounds like the egg should be fine if nothing landed on it. I would use something heavier like a brick paver to weigh down the cage if it’s outside…good luck!

3. Hi! Wondering if it’s possible for me to move a cat that just went into its “J”. It is in a place where I know it’s going to fall when going into chrysalis as I sadly had one hanging in the same place yesterday and it fell and broke open yesterday. I ran out of room and used a plastic habitat tank and they aren’t crawling to the top but are instead attaching to the side and the silk is pulling off when they start to transform ?‍♀️ I’d appreciate any possible way of protecting this little one from the same fate.

   1. There is at least one detailed video on moving the chrysalis …googling for it should bring it up. Totally possible to do and lots of methods to re -hang

4. Hello, I live in Guelph Ontario Canada. I have 10 Monarch chrysalis’ that are going to hatch in the next few days. I also have 5 more monarch catapillars at various instars and monarchs are still laying eggs daily in my garden. I have tags but I found that I should tag until September, so most of the ones I’ve saved will be set free and tag free

5. I just had a J become a chrysalis but it was not able to wiggle all of it’s skin off. It’s at the very top. Do I just leave it? Will it harm it?

   1. Hi Sharon, sometimes the shed caterpillar skin doesn’t fall off the top of the chrysalis. This isn’t a big deal….you can carefully pull it loose after a couple days or leave it.

6. Hi Tony –
   I have two swamp milkweed plants here in Pittsburgh, PA. On July 27th I found the first eggs on them and am still finding some on occasion. In total right now I have 7 chrysalids, 15 cats, and 2 eggs (found just yesterday). Is there any way to tell what generation these all are? Thanks!

   1. Hi Leigh Anne, environmental cues they receive dictate whether or not they’ll mate or migrate. Migration generation caterpillars typically feed a bit longer to grow migration-size, but there’s no way you can tell for sure by looking at them…

7. Hi Tony. This is my first season finding and raising eggs. My process is eggs on leaf cutting in container. When hatched, switch to upright cage with other small/medium cats, then when I see they are getting close to full size, I move them to my Habitat outside for final munch and chrysalis . My question is, because I have hatched so many eggs…are the tiny cats ok to merge with the smaller cats? Do the smaller cats eat the tiny? Hope this question makes sense. Love your site. Thanks for all you do.

   1. Hi Kathy, if you space them out and there’s enough ‘fresh’ milkweed, this isn’t an issue. I would never put hatchlings in the same vicinity as large caterpillars though .You don’t say how many you hatched, but sticking to limits is always a good idea for both you and the monarchs.

   2. Yes. Sadly, in my experience, monarch cats are cannibals. I now try to keep all cats in separate containers, as watching one eat a smaller cat was disturbing.

      1. Hi Carol, this only happens if the cage is overcrowded, or the milkweed is drying out (or gone). Using floral tubes and racks is a good way to spread out the caterpillars and keep milkweed fresh so this isn’t an issue.

8. Hi Tony, I’ve been finding the most eggs lately on poor little milkweed plants I have growing in 4 inch pots waiting to be planted in the garden. 3 inch tall poke milkweed seedlings (I got a late start) that I left outside overnight were *covered* with eggs, while the nice tall tropical and swamp MW plants nearby had hardly any. Same thing with small potted balloon plants. (I’m gonna try to overwinter those)

   Also eggs showing up on the swamp MW seedlings and the honey vine suckers coming up in the lawn, especially the ones about 4 inches tall. I have to check those every time I mow, or I think my neighbor is about to mow his yard near the fence.

   1. Monarchs like new shoots of MW to lay eggs, don’t know why but that’s where I’ve found lots of eggs too. I read it in a article, forgot why they said the mommas do this. But obviously they know what they’re doing! ????

9. I know you do not recommend a wet paper towel under the eggs but that was what was recommended to me when I first started bringing in the eggs and haven’t had any problems with it. I make sure that the towel is damp, not wet. I usually cut around the egg in about postage size and arrange in a sandwich box, this makes it easy to left the small hatched caterpillar and place on fresh milkweed in a new container to prevent it eating the eggs or other small caterpillars.
   My grandsons have become expert in finding eggs, little caterpillars and huge ones. We will have raised and released over 200 butterflies this year, about 30 from eggs, Thank goodness we have access to lots of milkweeds as the ravenous teenage caterpillars make short work of the leaves.
   From Canada to Mexico with love

10. A tip for keeping cuttings hydrated: use a small knife to cut slits in the part of the midrib or stem that sits in the water – these can be surface cuts or all the way through, it works either way. This way the cutting can draw in more water and keep from drying out. No misting is required for the leafs, which can cause moldy spots. I’ve used this method for three seasons now and all of the cats are kept well hydrated, judging by the amount of extra meconium fluid each monarch releases.

    Most of my eggs come from tiny leaves of climbing milkweed, and these dry out extremely quickly even in a sealed contained. I always place them on a larger leaf, sometime 20+ cats on one leaf – yeah, I’m finding a lot of eggs! With so many eggs, the early hatchlings will go and canabalize the other eggs. I think that limiting leafs to 6-10 eggs each is a good idea.

    1. Interesting about scoring the stem. I will try that.

11. Hi Tony
    New at this. Some others have told me that they bleach the leaves and the eggs before they bring them into their habitats I would be afraid the bleach would kill them have you ever heard of this and should I be doing it I do bring in eggs and I also bring in the caterpillars thank you

    1. Hi LeeAnn, I don’t do this in Minnesota, but if you live in a continuous growing region where OE is problematic, it’s something to consider. A good resource for bleaching:

       The Beautiful Monarch

12. I put leaves with egg on it in a small vase with water keeps leave hydrated and when egg hatches the cat just starts eating then trasfy the cat to the big growing cage

13. i have been using my old prescription bottles for the milk weed leaves. i use the bottom only and put tin foil over the top so it is about 1’2 way down the sides of the bottle then i poke small holes in the foil to slip leaves into, then i fill it with water through the hole in the foil.if you are using the net cage you can use hair clips to clip through the net and hold the leaves from tipping over. the clips are about 2- 3 “long. for the small cats i also take a paper towel and wrap the leaves at the growing end then wet them to keep them moist so they last longer.

14. I was hired to teach 4th grade just a couple of weeks ago and would really like to find some eggs to bring to school. Is it too late to go searching for eggs on milkweed? Even if I find some cats, that’s ok, as I will still be able to capture most of the life cycle for the students. I have a mesh bin that I use for them, but I usually have a hard time finding eggs, and if it’s too late in the year, I don’t want to waste my time. FYI, I am in NE TN. Thanks for your help!

    1. Hi Annie, it may be harder to find eggs this time of year, but there should be some caterpillars in milkweed patches around your region. If you’re teaching next year, the beginning of September will give you plenty of time.

       1. Hi! I also live in TN and last year I found, raised and released over 150 eggs from mid August thru early October. (Athens, TN)

15. Hello, I live in S.E. Wisconsin and found two Monarch caterpillars in my garden today. (9-7-2018) I have no milkweed in my garden, but I do have a butterfly weed that’s related to milkweed. One cat is large and fat, the other is much smaller. I don’t know what they’ve been eating, but isn’t it too late in the season for these guys to turn into butterflies? I’d like to help them out, but since they are already mobile, do I find some milkweed, capture these two, and see if they can turn? I’ve never done it before… any advice you can give me is appreciated.

    1. Hi Cindy, butterfly weed is milkweed: Asclepias Tuberosa It’s not too late for them to develop.

16. I love the information you have provided. We started planting about 5 swamp milkweed plants last year and added another five this year. We had a lot of cats last year but every time they got big they seemed to get eaten by ?? birds, bugs or something. This year we are happy to see three have gone into a cocoon so that is an improvement. What is so disappointing is to have 13 cats on a plant when we go to bed and to wake up and have 9 and the next day we were down to 7 and today we were down to 2. These were all large cats close to going to the cocoon stage we find this very frustrating. If we bring them in like was discussed above and put them in the container as a cat and not an egg, how many would you put into a 6×6 container? Just one? I see above sometimes the cats are separated and I don’t know if that is something you always do once they ‘hatch’ and if so what size container do you suggest? Last question, is there a certain time from when they hatch into cats until they go into a cocoon? Hopefully sending some Monarchs to Mexico from Maple Shade this year.

    1. Hi Holly, I would use larger containers for caterpillars. Mesh works better becuase it’s breathable so you can give caterpillars adequate moisture without worrying about mold. Yes, lots of predators outdoors, but some hopefully found a safe place ot form a chrysalis

17. My newly hatched eggs keep dying within hours, I am following the directions. What could be wrong?

    1. Hi Susan, is it possible the milkweed is treated with pesticides?

18. Hi Tony,

    I successfully raised 12 Monarchs with your help back in 2017. My 92 year old Mom, who has Alzheimer’s was in awe as I released each butterfly. This year my husband and I are building our retirement home – I was heartsick to learn the excavator would be starting his work on August 6th. The field we are building on had several milkweed plants located where his work would be done (luckily we have almost a 1/4 acre that can’t be touched, which has most of the milkweed and beautiful wildflowers). That being said, on August 5th I spent 3-4 hours searching every milkweed plant that would be in his path for eggs and cats. I currently have 15 in the chrysalis stage, 10 more in various cat stages. I went back on August 25th to find new plants emerging where he had excavated. Guess what – as tiny as the plants were (no taller than 5″, they all had eggs on them. I’m now waiting for 19 more eggs to hopefully hatch. I hope I have 100%! Thank you Tony for your expertise!

    1. I just had my first butterfly today. have 50 more. this is so fun and exciting to do.

19. Hello Everyone, I was excited to help with the regeneration of the Monarch’s, it also turns out that I get a lot of Queens also. They seem to use the exact same plants and at first i didnt notice the difference in the caterpillars. Now we know and welcome them also.
    We started out buying ten milkweed plants in Jupiter Florida, we thought by count we would only have 13 Monarch’s hatch, that turned into 71 released, and 3 with crumpled wings, two of the crumpled wings died and one survived to fly away, his wings weren’t that bad, he struggled but made it.

    In the process of the first 71 we bought about 15 more milkweeds, those little guys sure can eat. We put the plants outside the gazebo so the leaves would come back, which took about 2 weeks. While that was happening we saw multiple females come back to lay more eggs, AHHH we had them hatch, and it’s like Vodka, it creeps up on you. We now have 65 Chrysalis’s in our cube, and another 16 or so in our screened in gazebo. I would attach a picture of the mass of of Chrysalis’s but do not have the option here. I am thinking we may have a mass hatching of somewhere around 50. We do feel really good about helping them to make a comeback, along with the Queen’s which I understand are more rare?

    Anyway I just wanted ot share our story as first time Butterfly Parents lol, we have come a long way in a short time with our knowledge.

20. FYI, I did not see the eggs or small cats, but all of a sudden the big ones appeared, I have brought 10 in to the screened in room in a mesh container
    with stems poked into small containers with water. Should I collect as many as I see on the Asclephias Tuberosa Butterfly flower? Thanks you for providing all this information and for the people who post additional experiences. By the way , some of my birch trees have cats who are yellow and black strips running vertically…..do they turn into butterflies. We have taken pictures of some big yellow and black butterflies, blue and black butterflies and monarchs. The big monarch cats appeared August 6, they are J hanging now. I live north of Nashville , TN

21. Hi Tony,
    I am raising about 75 Monarchs right now. The largest number of eggs were laid in early August. Today, August 15th, the laying has slowed up here in my Lake Elmo, MN yard. I found the floral tubes were always needing to be refilled so I switched to 8 oz plastic water bottles. I punch a hole in the cap with an awl and a hammer. The bottles fit with milkweed stems in either my tent or aquariums and are easy to wash and sanitize to reuse. The frass falls on the floor of the tent and is also easily cleaned. I just thought I would share this idea for keeping the milkweed fresh while feeding the caterpillars.

    1. Great idea! Thanks!

22. Have had a terrible time with red wasps eating and carrying off eggs and babies. I rescued some eggs and when one of the cats was a pretty good size I put him outside because I mistakenly thought that he was safe. When I went out a moment later, a wasp was eating it. A horrible sight; I sent this poor guy to his death. I found that I can kill a lot of the wasps by a spray of soapy water which knocks them senseless long enough for me to stomp them. I have gotten a lot of them that way. I immediately wash off soapy water which might have gotten on the plants with the hose.
    I have some eggs that I brought in and as one of these guys got bigger I noticed that he had six antennae instead of four. I thought that this was an anomaly and seriously thought that it might have to be destroyed, but thankfully I checked on the internet and found that it is a Queen caterpillar! We can’t wait to see it make a chrysalis and emerge.

    1. This is my first year raising Monarchs and collecting eggs; the experience you describe with the Wasps is exactly what happened to me! I was mortified…but I later realized, your going to lose some; It’s just a part of nature. I am doing much better with them now, and am very excited about having two Chrysalis that will emerge in the next day or two, with 6 healthy cats about to go to J-position in another habitat, and a great number of eggs on what I’m calling, “the baby tree”. Prior to this and planting Swamp Milkweed, I had not SEEN a Monarch butterfly in my yard in about 4 years despite that fact that I have a pollinator garden! So every single one matters! Good luck with fighting the Wasps and wish you as much joy and I am experiencing with this new hobby!

23. I had a strange looking moth , but beautiful lay eggs on the wall . Does anyone have some advice to try to save these?

    1. Hi Pamela, I would check here for more info:

       Moth Facebook Group

24. Hi!
    I was cutting some plants in my yard and I found a milkweed plant, that had a monarch egg on it. Unfortunately the leaf was cut off the stem. So could I still raise the egg with just the leaf its on? Or will the leaf die?

    1. Hi Mara, the leaf will die, but you can use the food container as a hatchery, as detailed in the post..

25. hi Tony. I have a chrysalis on the underside of my cement birdbath. My nights have been very cool lately (mid 40’s). Should I bring it in and hang it with a clothes pin. I’m afraid I might damage it if I try to remove it. Or, should I just leave it?

    Thank you,
    Peggy

    1. Hi Peggy, 40’s is fine, but hopefully there is a warm up in the near future? Regardless, you can always try to remove and rehang:

       chrysalis problems

       1. Hi I found an egg about a week ago I’ve had it inside is it getting too late in the season will some not hatch? actually I found about 4 and the one that I had the most hope or doesn’t seem to be doing anything it might be too late or too cold I’m in Northern Illinois

          1. Hi Dana, eggs take 4-6 days to hatch, and longer in cool conditions. If you use the food container method they should hatch closer to 4 days. Other reasons eggs don’t hatch are parasitic wasps, or that they’re unfertilized.

26. A female was going around our yard laying eggs today and I went and checked – eggs, eggs, and more eggs! 16 so far, some one common milkweed but most on climbing milkweed plants that grow wild in our yard and fence. Most of the plants are really small, and because we’re in a drought, I don’t think they will grow much more. Some plants have 2-3 eggs. I want to bring in many of these for raising, but the leaves are so fragile that they wilt almost immediately after cutting, even if you put the stems in water. I tried digging out a few whole plants but ended up cutting the taproot and they still wilt after a few hours (in water). Any advice?

    1. Hi Kevin, I would just use the food container method and transfer them to larger cuttings after they hatch. If you have floral tubes, leaf cuttings are also an option …

27. I have 4 little cats that I have switched to the second container. When do I put them on a milkweed plant and how?

    1. Hi Phyllis, please check out this page for more info:

       Care for Baby Monarch Caterpillars

28. Hi everyone! I’ve always loved butterflies especially monarchs. At my mom’s house in Massachusetts we have tons of milkweed but I’ve never found a caterpillar until this year i just found three on some milkweed plants by my house so i brought them inside. It was dark out when i noticed them so I plan to go check for more in my yard and at my moms house. If i find eggs tomorrow should i collect them? Will they have enough time to turn into butterflies and migrate? If i just collect caterpillars i find is there a good chance that many won’t survive? How many can i house in a ten gallon aquarium?

    1. Hello Cheyenne, the butterflies will have a much better chance to migrate if you bring them in to raise and keep them out of cold night time temps, which slow down metamorphosis. I try not to raise more than 20 in an enclosure at one time…it’s easier to keep the habitat clean and your monarchs healthy…

29. My son put a milkweed pod in with his monarch caterpillar (in addition to the milkweed leaves). He ate it and now there are really light colored pellets in there. They’re the same size as his poop but I’ve never seen poop so light in color. I wondered if it were monarch eggs but there are so many of them. Can the milkweed pod change the color of their poop?

    1. Hi Becca, yes…it’s from the pods. They can eat the pods without issue besides the light colored ?

30. 8/26/2017 – Lafayette, IN I planted some orange butterfly weed, 2 years ago. Then when I started readying about how the Monarch has decreased so much in number, I put out another 22 plants. Most of them turned out to be the the tall white ones, which was not really to my liking. However, they are the ones that seemed to have attracted the ONE Monarch that I saw this year.
    Two days ago, I found a caterpillar crossing our deck. Today, not really expecting to find any on the plants, I discovered 5 more. I’ve put them in various container that were not being used, but my plant s are so badly eaten by aphids, I’m not sure if I will have many decent leaves for them to eat.
    If anyone has any information to give me, I would appreciate it very much.

    1. Hi Janet, if you take stem cuttings for the monarchs, rinse all the aphids from them before serving:

       Using Cuttings to Feed Caterpillars

       1. Try to get cuttings with the least aphids as they do suck nutrients from plants. I’ve found cats on aphid infested stems & seem to not be phased by them too much. I avoid touching my cats, no lotion or perfume or salt on hands. Transfer leaf to leaf with patience to new cuttings. If they seem dormant, let them be. They are prob molting. Have 1 butterfly emerged today, plus 9 chrysalides, 5 cats raised from eggs that are getting huge. No losses so far. My first yr doing this but have done wildlife rehab of birds, & small animals in past.

31. I am overwhelmed with cats! In the past week I have found 41. I also found 23 eggs. I have just one cage so I cut two tall milkweed plants and put them in a jug of water. The cats are eating and none have fallen off or escaped. The eggs are in an “incubator”. So far I lost one egg. Turned 7 Monarchs out. 4 females and 3 males. Have 7 chrysalides almost ready to molt. Wish I had more cages!

32. I decided last year to help save Monarchs, and planted lots of Milkweed, which grew beautifully this year, but I was clueless. Now my milkweed has been ravaged by wasps, flowers are gone. Is it too late? Will there still be a chance for eggs?

    1. Hi Helen, not sure where you’re located, but in Minneapolis the latest eggs I find are the end of August or first few days of September…the warmer it is, the better chance you have.

33. Hi,

    We planted swamp milkweed in our back garden 3 summers ago and it is growing very well! This year my husband and I saw a beautiful monarch flying repeatedly back to our milkweed and landing on it, apparently laying eggs. Today, in seeing that we have a few patches of about 20 aphids each, as I was looking closer to find any monarch eggs and found a tiny monarch caterpillar right next to the aphids. He is a little less than 1/8″ long. I only have glass containers, so I brought him inside and placed him inside of a glass container (with glass lid slightly ajar) which has a dry paper towel on the bottom and a large leaf of milkweed. Should I still spray the milkweed? Is this a good way to take care of him, or is there a better way?

    We’re so excited to start our monarch journey, as we have been watching for monarchs since we planted our milkweed!

    1. Hi Melanie, if you’re using a jar I would put something over the top like pantyhose or a coffee filter, and secure with a rubber band…good luck!

       1. Thank you – that’s a great idea! We now have 2 and a possible egg we are hatching in a separate container. Just got done eliminating most all of our aphids too with some gloves, so hopefully they’ll stay away for now.

34. Hi, I’m excited to find 5 or 6 eggs on my tropical milkweed plants that I planted earlier this summer. (in Danville, PA) I’ve followed the food bowl idea and brought them into the house along w/ 2 developing caterpillars. (I have a large netting that I purchased from a local vendor for the caterpillars.

    Sadly, my most recent experience with raising monarchs has been “spotty” at best. I purchased 20 caterpillars from a vendor and brought them home. Most of them did really well until going into the chrysalis stages. I lost a few as caterpillars. The early ones that matured did not fare well.Their “shells” turned from emerald green to a very gooey and ugly brown. I don’t know what happened to them. I’ve thoroughly cleaned the inside of the net/cage and hope that the remaining 4-6 chrysalises will hatch normally? Any ideas what might have happened?

    1. Hi Jim, it sounds like you are describing NPV (monarch virus) or a bacterial disease. Hopefully you will have a better experience with your garden monarchs. Here’s more info:

       Monarch Disease and Parasites

    2. Hi Jim, I see that you are from Danville, I’m about an hour north of you, near Wilkes-Barre. I have had the same experience as you this year. All went well then in a few days the chrysalis turned a brownish color. So far I’ve had 2 like that. Currently have #31 in J position. With 16 cats and more eggs every day. Hope things improve for you. #lovethishobby

35. Hi I just found a monarch caterpillar in my garden. I plan Ted milk weed last year to help the monarchs. This caterpillar was eating a different plant. I thought they only ate milkweed?

    1. Hi Dawn, monarchs only eat milkweed, so it’s probably another caterpillar species…

36. Tony, what is a tachnid fly? I saw a small winged bug flying around my cats. The cats are only about 1/4 inch long. I sure hope it didn’t damage my babies.

    1. Hi Barbara, more info on tachinid flies here:

       Monarch Parasites and Disease

37. I have 7 in my 2 cages right now. 4 cats, and 3 chrysalis’s. Can i keep fresh milkweed, fruit, and flowers in my netting and encourage breeding if we happen to get a male and female? I am having a tough time suddenly finding eggs in the Elk River, MN area as of late. 3 weeks ago i found 5 eggs on one plant. Now i have found nothing in all the areas around me. thanks for the reply 🙂

    1. Hi Laurie, it’s getting toward the end of the season, but if you still have viable milkweed you could possibly see more eggs through the end of August. It is too late in the season to breed monarchs and breeding ‘siblings’ can produce inferior butterflies.

38. My daycare children are raising monarchs for the 2nd year. We raised 5 to butterflies and kept then for reproduction. We only got 2 eggs from them, but have recovered 5 more. Now they are all hatching. Should we keep them or release them?
    We live in SE Wisconsin. Are these the last butterflies of the year or will there be another generation?

    1. Hi Stacy, why not raise them if you already hatched the eggs? Baby caterpillar now will definitely be part of the migration generation in Wisconsin…

39. This is a reply to Dale he has a Catapillar in J on the side of the plastic, I had one do that I was worried to I worked on the day she e-closed and she was just fine a beautiful little lady . Thay are amazing and tougher than we think. Have a wonderful butterfly season. Carolyn

40. I raise Monarchs inside but also there are many outside. I never can find the chrysalis on the outside ones and this includes my Monarchs as well as my Polydamas. Where should I look for a chrysalis and how far from their host plants? I have found one Polydamas chrysalis but no more and no Monarch chrysalis outside.
    Thank you

    1. Hi Priscilla, check out this post for some ideas:

       Where to look for a Monarch Chrysalis Outside

41. I haven’t had much luck in recent years raising butterflies. The only success has been using mesh sleeves outside to protect the caterpillars. Ants became a problem but read peppermint near stems keeps them away. I’ve concluded but have no solid proof that my dogs (3) combo heartworm/flea/tick medication prevents being able to raise indoors. I’ve tried closing off a room but that didn’t work. Just wondering if others with dogs have had similar problems I miss having better outcomes though still keep trying. Thanks for any feedback.

    1. Sharren,. In regards to the raising cats inside around dogs who have topical flea preventative; this is my recent experience.
       We have three dogs who receive Advantix topical every month. I raised 14 eggs in a separate bedroom, AC vent was closed and door was kept closed. Hands were washed before and after going into room. Milkweed was bleached. Tweezers were used to pick up leaves and bleached after.
       Rarely had any direct contact with cats. When necessary, I wore disposable gloves. Out of the 14, 13 successfully made it to butterfly stage. Waiting on last chrysalis, probably tomorrow. In the past, before I implemented these procedures, I was losing 100% of my cats this year. Some were due to being parasitized because I wasn’t bringing in the eggs, but others suffered death due to some type of poison. Hope this helps.

    2. I have a dog on nexgard chews. My monarch eggs, cats and chrysalis are on a table in dining room. Dog does travel this area. He is large enough to reach the area too. I have no issues from this. I don’t allow direct contact from dog tho, but him walking by isn’t a issue. Maybe it’s the type of preventative I’m using? I don’t like the drip on stuff due to having a kid and well why put something on my dog that I can’t touch? With the chews from vet I can touch my dog safely and he is protected. Just my two cents.

42. Have been following your blog… I live west of Fargo, our seasons seem to be about 2weeks ahead of yours…I have raised Monarchs for many years. I found using your plastic nursery containers to be very useful… and worked great. I have 24 in chrysalis right now. I use a very large glass aquarium with a mesh cover for the caterpillars once they are large enough to not escape the mesh. We have kitty cats, so this is a much safer way for me to raise them. Looking forward to their emmergance. Thanks for all the great tips. I bought a bunch of allium bulbs to plant near my milkweed … have had aphid /ant problems this year. Hopefully that will help.

    1. Hi Leanne, I’m glad to hear you are finding the tips helpful. Yes, for curious cats, you aquarium sounds like the best option. Good luck with your monarchs and I hope the aphids stay away next season! ?

43. I was out this morning checking milkweeds when a female Monarch flew very near and I watched her lay three eggs. Not on a milkweed but on a vine. What an experience!

44. Of the several cats now chrysalises in my cube, one has attached to the clear plastic wall. Will it have problems emerging and nothing to climb/hang onto? Should I move it to hang from the top of the cube?

    1. You can try to move it and put it on the ceiling, but pull gently several times instead of pulling hard once so you don’t injure the caterpillar. You could also wait and remove it after it forms the chrysalis…haven’t had this happen before so don’t know if it would stick to the plastic.

       1. Hi, Tony, I just wanted to let you know that I raise my cats in a plastic container and the chrysalises stick very well to the plastic.

       2. It will stick and also emerge successfully.

45. I have a chrysalis that has not been able to shed its skin, like one third off. Is there a remedy? It has been 24 plus hours.

    1. hi Dale, if it was only able to shed 1/3 of it’s skin, the monarch did not survive…sorry.

46. We have had hundreds of eggs as well as caterpillars here in Bartow, Florida. I released over 70 last month and have 50 plus in various stages right now. My problem is keeping enough milkweed for all of them. I am finding 10 or more eggs on one plant at a time and some plants have 6-8 active cats. They demolished my 30 plants in a few days and i can’t locate any more. I have taken the larger cats and put them in with butternut squash but there are far too many of the smaller ones that may die due to a lack of milkweed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I had been leaving the cats on the plants rather than taking separate leaves off and they have eaten the plants to nubs.

    Lyn

    1. Hi Lyn, it’s impossible to save them all. In regions like Florida where there is an extended or continuous season, you have to set limits and take breaks when there’s no milkweed available…good luck!

       1. Suggestion: share your eggs with others! Send out an alert in an email to people in your area . Maybe your garden clubs nearby would love to help / have Monarch raisers like yourself. That is what we do in the suburbs of Chicago.

    2. I also had that same problem Lyn! Here in Saint Augustine, FL. During June I had 60 that ate everything plus what I could buy locally. Our local Ace hardware has a butterfly enclosure. They were selling out of their non sprayed milkweed. They were willing to take as many cats as I could bring. I was so thankful they took 20 of my big cats. Maybe there is an option like that in your area! Hope this helps!

       1. I drive around town looking for common milkweed and stop with scissors in hand. I have cleaned alot of plants with bugs. Then I go back for daily supplies and eggs, I love finding the cats, that’s the prize. Have released 5, 3 females 2 males, have 10 chrysalis and many many eggs and day Olds. It’s very rewarding. Thanks to everyone. Cape cod mass.

    3. Hornets, wasps or yellow jackets will consume and kidnap your caterpillars. I have to bring all my plants inside. They are water loving plants. They will eat the stems too. And long stems, propagate quickly in water w/ food. Clean often.

       1. I had my first experience with a wasp gathering up caterpillars from my milkweed, while sad, I don’t have space in my enclosure, and I hear Tony in my head saying we cannot save them all. I am hoping that the bright side is that there is time for my milkweed will recover, and produce seed pods.

          1. Hi Lori, a healthy ecosystem is made up of both monarchs and their predators. It’s not always fun to think about or see, but it’s the truth. Establishing limits for your enclosure will be beneficial for both you and the monarchs you are raising. I commend you for making and sticking to your limits…I know it’s not easy.

          2. After losing a couple of big cats to wasps, I used tomato stakes to create a rectangle area and covered it in a mosquito net ($10 from Academy Sports). I have potted milkweed that I added when I needed more milkweed for the cats. I keep a couple of potted plants in the open and get regular visits from a Monarch and more eggs. This seems to be working for me.

    4. I learned 35 years, there’s no such thing as too many Asclepias.

       1. agreed…I always say…if you think you have enough MW, chances are you don’t. I have 10 swamp MW plants. At this time of year they have “rust” all over the leaves. I’ve cut most of them down. I need to find a late summer MW for all these eggs I’m getting. Common is getting past it’s prime as well. But I did freeze some young/early leaves. Fingers crossed for the next month.

    5. Hello fellow Monarch raisers… I am in Orlando, FL and can relate to some of the issues other FL residents have experienced. I have been raising Monarchs for over four years now. I spend hours combing through my Monarch plants to collect eggs since most of them disappear if I do not intervene. But, then, I went through milkweed so fast, I could not keep enough around. Every week I found myself driving 45 minutes each way to buy ~$50 worth of milkweed from a nursery that doesn’t spray their milkweed with pesticide. This got really expensive and time-consuming, so I started collecting the seeds from the seed pods and reusing pots to plant, cutting and rooting stems of leggy/leafless milkweed, and only taking portions of the leaves when I collect the eggs. Rooting the milkweed is simple, just cut off your leggy branches, you can cut extra long stalks to make more shorter stalks. If kept in a cup or jar with about an inch of water, you will see little fine white roots grow in no time. Then these are ready to be planted. Just be sure you water them well at first so the roots can get established. I also have milkweed in different parts of my yard, as well as milkweed I keep in pots. Since my husband built me an outdoor enclosure (mostly shaded), I am now able to handle many cats and my success rate is very high. I collect the eggs from both the planted milkweed and from the milkweed I keep growing in pots. Then I use the potted milkweed (once eggs are removed) to put in the enclosure for the cats to eat. Once the cats eat the potted milkweeds, I take out the pot so it can regrow, then replace it with another potted milkweed. While it is regrowing, females also lay eggs on these potted plants. This process of rotating the potted milkweeds and getting clippings from the long branches, seems to work the best for me. I have had occasions where I am so desperate for milkweed, I cut branches off the milkweed planted in my yard and put in water so the cats have food. This works, but be careful you have Saran Wrap or some netting covering up the water that the stems are in, since the cats may crawl down in the water and drown. When rotating the pots, sometimes there are chrysalis’ on the pots or branches, so I either leave those pots in the enclosure or if possible, I relocate the chrysalis. I have also collected chrysalis’ from my yard, since chances are they won’t make it. I have seen way too many chrysalis’ disappear, so I found a video online about how to safely relocate a chrysalis. You have to be super careful, but it works. The secret is making sure you do not pull the cremaster (black stem) off. I also try to keep much of the silk webbing intact. Then, using a toothpick and contact cement, I attach the cremaster to short section of a shoelace. You cannot get contact cement on the chrysalis, so only use a tiny bit. Once it is dry and secure, I hang the shoelace from the top inside of my enclosure with a small clothespin or clip. Then the chrysalis is in a good position for the emerging Monarch to hang and dry.
       On a final note, it is so refreshing to see everyone out there who is helping save the Monarchs!! Keep up the great work! Thanks Tony for doing this!!

       1. Wow,!Terri–thanks for the info. This is my first season raising monarchs. I live in Jacksonville, FL. I get very nervous when I start running low on Milkweed plants & I’ve supplemented feedings with butternut squash. To date, I’ve released 78 since June. I’m going to try cutting the twigs & growing then in water. Thanks to this group of cats I have now, I’ve got plenty of twiggy potted milkweed.

       2. To relocate a chrysalis, you can also knot the center of a piece of dental floss around the cremaster and securely tie the two ends together in a knot. Slip a safety pin through the resulting loop. Pin it to the top of the enclosure so the chrysalis hangs straight down.

    6. Our zoo has milk weed not sure if your zoo has some and would be willing to share.

47. I live in northwest Alabama., Fayette county. Can I expect to see monarchs here? If so, when?

    1. Hi Char, there’s info about peak migration times for each region on the supply list

       The Supply List with Peak Migration Info

    2. You bet . From April-May through out the fall.

48. My milkweed plants are covered in aphids – thus no eggs have a chance. Solution/suggestion please.

    1. Hi Mark, check out this post for more info:

       How To Stop Aphids from Taking Over your Milkweed

       1. I’ve sprayed the aphids down with a small spray bottle filled with water & a squirt of Dawn dish soap. A minute later , I spray down the whole plant with the hose. I wait a day later before using the plant for my cats.

49. i live in safty harbor ,fl just released 10 monarchs today….7 yesterday……..got 30 more to hatch….it is so great……..not to many eggs right now…….there taking a rest……

50. Hello Tony. I have been raising Monarch for about 13 plus years. And this year has been the best. I have 10 and 20 gallon aquariums with a mesh tops, that I raise them in. I gather egg and have been using your method with food container this year. I keep my smaller caterpillars in one aquarium and one for larger. I have hatched about 30 butterflies so far ?. Just yesterday I gathered 35 eggs. I will start tagging in a couple of weeks. I still lose some to the fly. But feel like I am making a difference. Love you posts to help me improve. Thanks

    1. How do you tag them? I have raising them for couple years now a n.v xxv would love to do that.

51. I’M FINDING WANDERING LARVA ( +OR- 1/2 INCH) ON THE OUTSIDE OF MY CONTAINER,?? I’M MOVING THEM BACK TO THE PLANT.
    ??? RIGHT OR WRONG?

    JOHN SHULENBERGER

    1. Hi John, do you mean outdoors or indoors? If outside, sometimes caterpillars leave the plants to molt (shed their skin) and I would leave them. If indoors, I would not raise monarchs in a habitat they could escape from.

52. In summer 2016 a friend gave me a potted tropical milkweed with 3 cats on it. I planted it outside, and created a homemade hatching ‘nursery’ with a tomato cage and a big piece of lace. Only 1 lived to hatch into a butterfly, and it was beautiful. At the end of 2016, the same friend gave me a potted cutting from a balloon milkweed taken from her own plant. We live in southern California. The balloon milkweed grew quite well and this spring, 2017, it was about 5′ tall with plenty of leaves. I don’t use any sort of pesticide or herbicide, and the plant got infested with aphids and lots of other things. As summer came on, about May, I would see eggs, a few tiny cats and then nothing. I realized there were too many predators so I started bringing the eggs inside. I took a cutting with about a 1′ to 2′ stem, cleaned off the aphids and put the cutting with the egg in shot glass with water. I changed the water every day, and the eggs hatched. I use a large magnifying glass, I think it 10X, to see what is happening. I have a small one-fish aquarium, easy for cleaning, and cover it with a piece of nylon netting secured with a big rubber band. So far, I have raised and released 21 monarchs since the end of May! I have cut back the balloon milkweed, but the tropical milkweeds I have are very healthy and I rinse the aphids off, and the cats eat it eagerly. I have read the section on aphid control and will be using some of those suggestions for pest-control.

53. Cautionary tale: I can’t believe I’m learning this for the first time!
    This past weekend, I found a milkweed plant with 7 eggs on it. I cut the stem, immersed the cutting immediately in water, and brought the plant home. I have a large screened cage with very fine mesh where I’ve hatched many a Monarch, and I put it in there. The following day in the late afternoon I went to check on the eggs and I couldn’t find a single one. Suspecting that aphids ate them, or something, I saved the plant because it was nice and fresh.
    On Monday morning, I looked the plant over again and saw nothing , until all of a sudden I did. But the caterpillar was so infinitesimally small, I hardly knew what I was seeing. It looked like a dot of something but with a really strong magnifying glass, I could see it was a caterpillar. Sure enough, over the next two days, the other caterpillars became visible, even though they are still incredibly tiny.

    Now I know to be patient and also extraordinarily careful when harvesting a milkweed plant that has eggs on it.

    1. Hi Susan, they are easy to lose track of…glad you waited and were able to locate them. Aphids don’t eat monarchs, but a lot of other predators do:

       Monarch Predators

54. Hi Tony,

    I am completely confused… I have a number of plants that have what appears to be white looking eggs on the under sides of the leaves. Even with wearing a pair of magnifying glasses it’s still very hard to tell if they are eggs or something else. Is there any better way to tell if they are Monarch eggs?? I don’t have the space required to gather every little white “dot” that looks like an egg. What can I do??

    I did find one, loan caterpillar on a leaf today and even though it’s only an 1/8th inch long; there is no mistaking it for something else. I’m hoping it makes it and starts to grow.

    Thanks,
    Doug J.

    1. Hi Doug, if you’re seeing several on one leaf it’s probably some other type of eggs, aphids, whiteflies, etc…My best suggestion is to trying bringing in 1 or 2 of what you think is an egg and see if it hatches. Once you find a real monarch egg, you will have a better idea when you find them going forward…good luck with your caterpillar!

    2. Doug
       I used to struggle with identifying eggs previously. A simple remedy is s jewelers loupe. You can get one for about $10 on amazon.! It is an essential piece of equipment for monarch rearing! Solves the problem instantly

55. Hi,

    Thank you for all the great advice! I have 20 eggs on pieces of leaves in an “egg hatchery.” How do you move them from the leaf pieces to the cutlets in floral tubes?

    1. Hi Hannah, I usually move them within 1-2 days. If they are still on the small leaf piece, you can just transfer that on to a cutting. Otherwise, cut off a small piece of milkweed with the caterpillar on it and transfer to the new cutting.

       1. I stick a bigger leaf in a floral tube, and prop that up with a large binder clip. Then the leaf is more horizontal than upright, and the little leaf “chunk” with the caterpillar will sit right on the leaf easily.

          1. Hi Kellie, we sometimes use the floral tubes for single leaves with eggs too. The great disadvantage is always having to refill them…

             1. I have been using the floral tubes for my milkweed stems but yes, it is a pain to keep refilling them and to keep them upright. I was sticking the tubes with the pointy tips into styrofoam that I cut to fit the bottom of a small cube cage. I was placing paper towels over the styrofoam to make clean up of frass easier. I decided there had to be an easier way so I bought some small plastic containers at the dollar store and drilled holes in the tops then put the milkweed stems in the hole. The containers hold more water and making the hole a bit larger than what is on the tubes makes it easier to add the milkweed stems. They have flat bottoms so they sit nicely in the bottom of the cage. I still use paper towels or newspaper on the bottom of the cage and just throw it away for easy clean up. I also have used plastic containers with lids like you would get in a restaurant for salad dressing. I just cut a small hole in the top for the milkweed stem to fit and it doesn’t need to be changed/added to as often. I know that you sell the floral tubes on your website and the poo poo platter but these items work so much better for me. I just ordered a large cube from your website as I’ve had so many monarchs this year and needed a bigger cage. Love that you made the opening like a drawbridge. That will make it so much easier to add the containers and clean the cage. Thanks for all the info you post.

             2. Hi Lynn, we use floral tubes and sometimes food containers for larger cuttings, or if out of town for a few days. The platter is a good way to catch all the frass without lining the cage daily with paper towels. Here are some more convenient ways to set up the tubes, with more coming soon:

                Using Cuttings to Feed Caterpillars

                Happy Raising, Tony

56. This is our first year raising monarchs. We have found three cats, but only two became butterflies. I check about 90 milkweed plants every morning. No eggs and no more cats. But I’ll keep trying.

    1. Plant it and they will come! I had a hard time my first year too. It takes the mommas a little to find those sweet spots in the urban jungle. Check out this post on 8 reasons why your not seeing butterflies.

57. I’ve been looking for monarch eggs and caterpillars on some milkweed by a lake but I couldn’t find a single one. I’ve looked on June 6-18 and I still haven’t found any! Am I looking at the wrong time?
    It also turns out I walked right past some swamp milkweed not even realizing it was milkweed! I doubt I’ll find any there, though.

    1. Hi Cecilia, why wouldn’t you find eggs on swamp milkweed? It’s a popular monarch host plant. Make sure you’re checking milkweed buds. They like to hide eggs there…good luck!

58. Tony, Last year we raise over 300 monarchs. The 4th cycle was a disaster. We estimated about 100 caterpillars in this group. Only 20% made it to maturity. most of the caterpillars turned black and died. some of these made it as far as forming chrysalis , but those too turned black immediately. We suspect the last batch of plants we purchased had a sytemic applied. Thoughts,

    1. Hi Ken, this sounds more like a bacterial infection or NPV, a monarch virus:

       More info about NPV and other monarch diseases

       1. Thanks for the reply. One more question, can we use a ivory soap solution to control aphids? they are 4xs as bad this year than ever. We spray them off, mash in our fingers, but are back in force the next day. thanks.

          1. Hi Ken, check out our aphids post for both short and long term solutions to:

             Stop Aphids from Taking Over your Milkweed

59. Thanks Tony for such an incredible resource here. Just brought some fresh eggs in this morning. Feel like a farmer in deepest urban LA! You rock.

    1. good luck with your eggs Catherine!

       1. My husband built me a2’x4′ screened in cage for me it is also 4 ft. High. I put small plants about 12in high in there and put a cat on each plant is this not right to do?Thanks Diana

          1. Hi Diana, it’s difficult to control disease in a large, immobile cage. Also, if there are any entries into the cage (even small ones) predators can get in and small caterpillars could escape. I’ve seen some people put other enclosures inside of large ones if they are experiencing issues. At worst, a large wood/screened cage can still protect caterpillars/butterflies from extreme weather. Just keep an eye out for the other issues and add cages for inside the enclosure if necessary…good luck!

             1. Hi Tony thanks for the feed back.My husband and I gathered 41 eggs and 2 baby cats last night. I put them in a keeper paper mist and all. When the eggs hatch how do I get them on a plant or leafs? Also the cage I told you about he will put shelves in it for all the small plants I,ve started, is this a better idea? A little green house of sorts. Thank!

             2. Hi Diana, when the eggs hatch, just take the leaf piece the baby caterpillar is sitting on and put it on a new leaf, cutting, or potted plant:

                Caring for Baby Caterpillars

60. Tony:

    Last summer, here in St. Louis, I transplanted several milkweed plants. This Spring I have noticed numerous shoots coming up all over my garden. After reading articles on the internet, I discovered that some of the plants that I transplanted maybe be dogbane. How can I distinguish the difference between the common milkweed and dogbane? Are dogbane useful for Monarchs?

    1. Hi Roy, check out these photos for some differences…they can be difficult to distinguish:

       Milkweed or Dogbane?

61. Thanks to several remigrants, starting April 9 I am now up to 132 eggs on Swamp Milkweed from 1/2 – 4 inches tall. Last Sunday I had ~ 30 eggs on 1/2 – 1 1/2 inch tall MW.

    St. Joseph MO.

    Last year first sighting was May 29.

    Now I am scurrying to find some large plants and local folks to share my eggs with.

    1. congrats David! northerners are scurrying to find milkweed as some remigrants have journeyed north of the milkweed supply…good luck!

    2. Hi. Cats like yellow butternut squash (their frass is then yellow, not brown). You can also feed them parsley. Congratulations!

       Judy

       1. Hi Judy, eastern black swallowtails eat parsley, but not monarchs…

62. Hi Tony! I gathered 2 eggs I found on milkweed a couple weeks ago. They hatched +grew into healthy caterpillars. They both formed chrysalis last night. It was amazing to watch. My problem is both chrysalis formed on the zipper of their mesh enclosure. I had been using a small glass milk bottle for their milkweed stems…replacing them daily+cleaning frass also. I cant open the enclosure to try to relocate them or even clean it out because of the zipper. Also they are in my attached garage (i had put them there temporarily) with no natural sunlight. The milk bottle filled with water plus soft bottom of enclosure is making moving them next to impossible. Will they be okay? Do you have any suggestions? These are my very first monarchs. Thanks so much for your help!!

    1. Hi Debby, here is some info on chrysalis problems and rehanging chrysalides if necessary:

       Monarch Chrysalis Problems

    2. This is the first time I’ve ever planted milkweed to attract monarchs (butterfly bush, tropical and slender milkweed) and for the past 2 months have seen many monarchs in my yard. I live in Chula Vista, which is in South San Diego and I’ve not seen any milkweed around my neighborhood. I was pleasantly surprised to see the monarchs fly into my yard after I bought these plants! I ended up bringing in a some caterpillars and one egg and have been able to release 3 monarchs (one was today!). Not all caterpillars survived as some were infected with the T-fly. Now it’s the end of Sept. and some of my plants still have flowers (and I’ve cut back a few) and today a monarch came by and has laid many eggs on 2 different plants! In some articles I’ve read that I should cut all these plants back encourage monarchs to migrate, however do monarchs in San Diego migrate to warmer climates? I live in a warm climate but it can get cold during February/March. Should I bring these eggs inside to raise so they don’t get the various diseases that have affected some of my caterpillars that I’ve left outside? Thanks.

       1. Hi Kimi, you can potentially have monarchs year round. You are cutting back plants in your region so that healthy milkweed can emerge that’s not covered with OE spores and other virus/bacteria. If you bring eggs in and feed caterpillars with cuttings it’s easier to keep the milkweed clean and to protect them from predators…

          1. Hi Kimi!
             I live in San Diego also, and the safe places to buy milkweed are Mission Hills nursery & Andersen’s garden center.
             When you milkweed blooms,
             make sure to give seeds to your neighbors!

63. I have discovered a great idea for Monarch eggs. I cut a small square around the egg and “glue it” underneath a leaf of a cutting with milkweed sap. It has worked for me all summer. So far this summer I have rescued 182 eggs. I give them to others in my neighborhood that help to raise them, and when they come over I hand them a plant in a water bottle with eggs already attached. All they have to do is let them hatch and they can feed for days without moving them.
    Teri Joyce, Minneapolis

    1. I never thought of this before! What a genius idea! I will definitely try this next season. Thanks for sharing this.

       1. I’ve thought of using a drop of elmers
          Glue to attach the ‘egg cutout’ to the top of a leaf in a cage. I’ll try the sap idea!

64. I have found several eggs this year (my first year) and have been doing well, but my question is about the caterpillars I find. I went to snip off cuttings from my garden for the caterpillars I have and on one of the plants I found 5 caterpillars munching away. Should I leave them? Everthing I have read is about collecting eggs but does not mention what should be done if you find catterpillars.

    1. Hi Marsha, bringing in caterpillars is fine, but they should be kept separate from egg-raised monarchs in case they have diseases or parasites. If you don’t have a separate cage, at least keep them on separate milkweed…good luck!

65. I found an egg yesterday that was darkening oddly–the whole thing is black now and no sign of it hatching. I think it might be a bad egg, but I’ve had eggs last year do the same before hatching into healthy caterpillars… Most eggs I’ve found have hatched within 12-24 hours of darkening, so could this one just be slow or is it likely there’s something wrong with it? I’m going to give it another day and hope for the best, but I’m starting to worry, especially since I’ve only got five caterpillars this year instead of the 30+ I did this time last year. I read that the population took a big hit, so there aren’t as many around as there were last year, but I can’t help but be concerned when I do my rounds of the milkweed and come up empty-handed.

    1. Hi Kitt, an egg that turns completely dark is probably parasitized by trichogramma wasps. I’m happy to hear you have been able to at least raise a few…good luck the rest of the season!

66. Hi, Tony. I have two questions, plus a video I just watched today that I’d like to hear your opinion about. If they aren’t appropriate for this forum, maybe you could email me privately.

    First, I really am so disappointed that out of 3 females visiting my yard, I was only able to find 7 eggs this season. I know they fly other places too, but that makes me wonder if maybe whatever towns use to control mosquitoes might be messing with their fertility.

    Anyway, I have two chrysalides, two small cats and one egg right now. I am tempted to order some eggs from a butterfly farm. And that brings up two of my questions:

    1) If Monarchs are born in captivity for generations, do they still know to migrate to Mexico? Or would mine migrate back to the farm? (I’m guessing Mexico, because I think they’re amazing and mysterious, but want to know for sure before I raise some for the migration generation.)

    2) Do you know if the butterfly farms release any of their extras to migrate to Mexico? Or do they just let them die out in captivity? (That’s the question that you might not want to answer publicly.) I hope they release some, because I’ve seen pictures of huge numbers of eggs on single leaves of milkweed, and think it would be a shame of some of those couldn’t help boost the migration generation.

    And then I happened upon this video today, and was stunned, wishing I could do this to make up for my miserable 3rd batch of 3 babies. I don’t know if adding a link will work or is allowed. But I wonder if you have any opinions about this method of getting a butterfly to lay dozens of eggs on one plant?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgEGM4C1l2I

    1. Hi Sue, monarchs from a farm should migrate with the rest, although there isn’t any research on this I’m aware of. As for butterfly farm releases, I’m not sure what their policies are. You could try contacting one to see if they would share this info. Mr. Lund’s idea is an interesting one and I know others who have done this successfully. As long as you have enough milkweed to supply your bounty of caterpillars, I’m not opposed to it.

       1. I just heard that a local company released over 1,200 farm-raised monarch butterflies in celebration of their founder’s birthday. I don’t know the location of the farm where they purchased their butterflies, but we are in New England and my question is similar to Sue’s above – if a monarch farm is west of the Rockies (where the butterflies migrate to southern CA,) and the butterflies are released in New England, will these butterflies “know” to migrate to Mexico and not California? Or would they not migrate at all? And if the released butterflies lay eggs, do the butterflies from these eggs “know” to migrate to Mexico? In other words, is the “map” on where to migrate genetically programmed into these amazing creatures or are there other forces at work? I live a few towns over from the release site, and (after several years of seeing no monarchs in my yard and finding no eggs) I just found 11 teensy weensy new caterpillars in my backyard milkweed patch. I’m excited, but suspect that these might be the progeny of the released butterflies. I’ve brought them in to raise, as otherwise they disappear within a day outside (something eats them) but wondering what will become of them when I release them as butterflies.

          1. Hi Susan, it’s my understanding that environmental cues including daylight hours and weather patterns promote migratory behavior in monarchs. I’m not aware of any actual studies on this, but since these small caterpillars were born in your region, I would not worry about this.

67. I found an egg on a milkweed pod. Not sure if it’s a monarch. Do they lay on pods as well as leaves?

    1. Hi Deborah, I often find eggs on swamp and tropical milkweed pods toward the end of the season. Less often on common milkweed…

68. I have 3 caterpillars on my 8″ tall Asclepius and in one hour I expect all my leaves to be gone. Should I move the cats to other Asclepius in my yard? I don’t want them to die of starvation. My plants are far apart so I was going to move them around to 1 cat per plant. Suggestions?

    1. Hi Cheryl, one caterpillar per plant sounds like a good idea…increases the chances at least one will survive. Good luck!

69. Hello, I have 6 monarch caterpillars that have now turned into beautiful green chrysalises! Two more are on their way, hanging in a J fashion… So, I made a make-shift holding pen for them while they were growing caterpillars with a black bulb crate, blueberry/fruit white plastic insect netting, and three pieces of wood(1×4″), and string to jerry-rig it all together… Two of them decided to hang fairly close to the wood and netting, and some of the netting I noticed has pressed into one of the chrysalis a tiny bit. I am hoping this won’t deform the morphing caterpillar inside. (but I am a bit concerned)… I tried to move the net so it wouldn’t touch it. I guess my questions are, how far around the chrysalis should I cut, to transfer them onto a new area so they can hang freely, and what do you recommend me taping the chrysalises to? I was thinking about screwing together some pieces of wood to make a stand for them. I wanted to not disturb the chrysalises, but I have a new batch of milkweed stems with eggs and a new baby that is 4 days old and growing fast that I’d like to put inside where the chrysalises are. Thanks for your advice!!!

    1. Hi Devlin, this post should give you a few ideas:

       Common Chrysalis Problems and Solutions

       good luck!

       1. I have only two milkweed plants in my yard. In past years I’ve come across 3-5 large cats and brought them into a butterfly house to pupate. This year I was so excited there were more than 40 cats on my lone milkweed. I brought many in to raise from cuttings but when my supplies got low I put them back outside on the milkweed leaves to devour the last leaves and stems. Then tragically they started all dropping dead from the dreaded tachinid fly from what I could surmise. Now I’ve taken the survivors and am hoping they are not yet infected. I am down to just 5. I have 3 questions: 1) why do the smaller cats keep crawling off the milkweed cuttings? Do I continue to pick them up and place them in it 2) I need to buy more milkweed as the infected cats were huge and had eaten most of the leaves before dying and spawning fly lava, it there a faster growing or more prolific variety I should look for 3) how do I kill these flies, I removed all the carcasses and burned them but the flies persist.
          I fear the prolific egg deposits in my little milkweed means this female butterfly can’t find enough in the wild to drop her eggs. Wish there were a way to drop milkweed seed bombs in the small patches of undeveloped land around here to help the populations.

          1. Hi Jennifer, sorry to hear the tachinid flies found the monarchs before you did. It happens to most of us at some point.

             1) smaller caterpillars sometimes crawl off milkweed to molt (shed their skin) they’re more likely to do this if the milkweed isn’t fresh or it’s overcrowded.

             2) Asclepias curassavica is probably the fastest growing milkweed.

             3. If you bring in monarch eggs and small caterpillars, you can avoid tachinid fly parasite most of the time.

             good luck, Tony

70. I was hoping to post a picture of all the eggs I have on my milkweed plant….there are about a hundred! Most of them are down the stalk. I googled to find pictures of their eggs and they match! I am excited!

    1. Hi Karen, monarchs typically lay one egg per leaf…and maybe just a few on each plant. If they are running down the stalk, it’s probably aphids. Look close and you can see them moving:

       Aphids on Milkweed

71. Yesterday while moving furniture outside, I had to pull out a few milkweed plants that were growing in my lawn (I have others growing in the actual garden). I thought one of them looked like it had three eggs but I wasn’t sure, so I put it aside in the shade until I would have the time to look it up. Unfortunately I forgot about them until this morning! It looks like I have three eggs. The milkweed plant I pulled out was just a little seedling and it is all dried out, so I pulled the two leaves off and put them in a clean container with paper towel at the bottom and sprayed them with a mist of water I’m just worried that I may have let the eggs dry out too much, then on the other hand, I don’t want to make their environment too humid. Any advice?
    If they hatch, I don’t think they will want to eat their dried leaves, will it be safe to move them to a more luscious leaf?

    1. Hi Meghan, since your milkweed is already dried out, just cut off a small leaf piece with the egg and place it on a new leaf. Floral tubes/picks are a fantastic option for keeping individual leaves or small/medium stem cuttings fresh. Here are some options to consider:

       Raise The Migration Supply List

       1. Since I don’t see where to generate a new comment I will use the reply feature: I have found in transferring milkweed stems of any length to an indoor vessel with water that it has a better chance of not wilting (from cutting shock) if it’s placed in it’s new container in a cool dark place for a couple of hours. I put mine under my kitchen sink.

          Starting the sprig out in darkness allows it to adjust to the new environment.

       2. I found that if I get wet floral form at the dollar store and put it in a bowl, wet it and put the leaves in it they stay viable. You need to make little cuts on the stem to soak up the water. It keeps the leaves moist and the cats grow well. I am in NW fl and released 5 monarchs and now have a bunch of eggs this am. Also have shallowtails on my fennel and parsley, just found 15 eggs.

72. I live in Port Richey Florida, so as i have learned over the past few years, the Monarchs are here year round. Last year we released 150 beautiful monarchs. This year I started in March and to-date have released only 50. I believe the excessive heat we are experiencing is contributing to the OE disease of the butterflies this year. I cannot in good conscience attempt to raise anymore as i have been saddened by the ones we lost.
    Do you have any ideas on how i can prevent spreading this disease. Did i hear that you can wash the eggs on the leaves to remove potential OE?

    1. Hi Sherrie, some raisers in regions with heavy OE bleach eggs and milkweed.

73. This was so very helpful! Thank you! Right to the point! Love it!

74. Hello Tony –

    You made it possible for me to raise and release eight Monarchs last year….my first time ever!
    I have been looking for eggs outside and have seen bits of leaves being eaten and I’m wondering if the spiders are getting to the eggs before I do. I am in North Carolina. I smash any tachinid flies that I might see hovering about. Some fly away too briskly but others meet their fate between my hands.
    In any case, while looking outside for eggs today, I found three very large pearly white ‘things’ on the underside of one milkweed leaf. These are too large to be Monarch eggs and I was wondering if you might know what they are.
    May I e-mail you a photograph?

    Thank you so much!
    Gloria S.

75. I have a butterfly garden full of flowers to attrack monarchs and a variety of milkweed- none of which was treated with insecticides. The grass nearby was sprayed but not the garden. I haven’t seen a monarch or egg yet! Is it too early or is the grass keeping them away?
    Thanks!

    1. Hi Betty, insecticides can definitely be an issue. Even if they’re not sprayed directly on plants, they can always drift over. I’m not sure where you live, but insecticides could have a major impact this season because of all the extra mosquito spraying.

       You don’t say where you’re located, but the migration has moved into Canada. Sighting are down (for the eastern population) from last season though, and many are still waiting to see their first monarch. Good luck!

76. Hello!! We thought we had an egg on our Milkweed. We have had it for almost a week and the egg has turned green. Do you think we still have a viable egg? TIA Karen

    1. Hi Karen, I have never seen a monarch egg turn green before so it might be something else. Eggs typically hatch between 4-7 days…cooler temps slow down the process.

       1. Thank you!!! We are in Central Florida so it is definitely not cool :O)

77. Brought in 10 eggs 4 days ago and none are hatching or evening getting a black tip and the leaves are drying up. Could these possibly have been unfertilized eggs? Or did I do something else wrong?

    1. Hi Joanne, eggs can take up to a week to hatch so don’t give up on them yet and make sure they are getting enough moisture so they don’t dry out…good luck!

       1. How do you know if the eggs have dried out?

          1. Hi Erin, as long as you have eggs in sealed food containers, they should never dry out. If an egg doesn’t hatch inside those, it’s not fertilized or could be parasitized.

78. This is my first year for planting milkweed and seeing cats. I didn’t plan on raising them but I noticed they would disappear soon after I had spotted them. I found your web site which has been tremendously helpful. I live in Pa.and found 7 cats on my MW which was almost gone.(late sept). I brought them in and was able to release them Oct 20. , using your information. ( temp 66 and sunny) I don’t know if it’s too late or not,but they flew happily away. I am now hooked! My first question, I’m sure there will be others — you talk about raising for migration but do you collect and raise them early in the season?

    1. Hi Jane, congrats on releasing your first monarchs and thank you for helping to support them! Yes, I raise earlier in the season, but do “Raise the Migration” because it’s the time of the year when the most people will have a chance to raise monarchs. Earlier in the summer they are a bit more scarce.

       I do discuss more about raising earlier in the season in my raising guide if this interests you:

       How to Raise More Monarchs with Less Effort

79. Hi, I’m new to monarchs. We found an egg in October. I’m not sure what to do because all the milkweed (in NY state) is dying now in the colder temperatures.
    Is it possible to grow indoors? Are there any alternative foods it might eat if it hatches?

    Also, because it’s so late, would this one (or any caterpillars that are left at this point) enter a chrysalis and stay in it for the winter?

    Is it best to mow down the patch of yellow/dead milkweed, or should I just leave it alone?

    Sorry for so many questions, but thanks for any help!

    1. Hi Patrick, October eggs are typically too late for northern regions. The only way the monarch would have a chance is if you raised indoors. And then, you’d need a window of opportunity to release with highs in the 60’s…or go on a road trip.

       Monarch chrysalides do not overwinter.

       You can cut back milkweed now, or wait until spring. I’ve done it both ways and it doesn’t make a difference. In spring, common milkweed stalks pull out of the ground with no root attached.

80. i have been raising monarchs for two years. We have property with common milk week in road ditches. I bring my eggs on because of the problem with spiders. This year noticed a drop in egg numbers. Do the butterflies that migrate north in the spring return to a certain area? The Monarchs seem to be migrating earlier this year. Last year I found eggs up till October.

    1. Hi Lisa, we would need digital tags to answer those questions….it wouldn’t surprise me if they did return to the same regions in the south, and if their offspring returned to the same areas in norther regions. As for the early migration, perhaps the monarchs know something about the fall weather that we don’t…

81. Do the caterpillars “retreat” during high temp. days? This morning in Kentucky, 65 degrees, we had 10-12 on our tropical milkweed in our butterfly garden. Now, it’s 92 (was 95) and there are only three. I did see one crawling off of the plant and over the undergrowth.

    1. Hi Phil, the caterpillars are less active in extreme heat and will shade themselves under leaves. Keep in mind, they also have many predators. Only 1-5% typically survive outdoors.

82. I’m going to have to get some additional plants to attract the swallowtails next year. Saw a huge black one with yellow on it yesterday.
    I had my first hatching (eclose?) yesterday! It was a male, and turned out just fine. After 2 1/2 hours I took him out to the milkweed where he sat for a few minutes, then flew around. What a great feeling that was! After hanging for three days I moved the chrysalis to a new location because it was over some of the milkweed plants in my mesh tent. Not supposed to have them over feeding caterpillars, but I can’t remember why?
    I have two more pop up cages for a total of five. I have eggs in tubs, and small caterpillars in their own cage. I gave medium sized ones their own cage and large ones live in a mesh tent and a large pop up cage. Does this sound like it might work? As this is my first season raising eggs/caterpillars/butterflies I am open to any and all suggestions.
    Being retired, I spend a lot of time outside. I see Monarch Butterflies around most of the day, visiting one of my tropical milkweed patches. They prefer the patch that gets early morning shade from a large oak tree next door.

    1. Hi James, it’s a good idea to separate them based on size…you don’t want adult butterflies hatching over the caterpillar food supply because their could be OE spores on their bodies and wings. Yes, tropical milkweed grows well in partial shade and we get a lot of eggs on our shaded milkweed too…

83. As always, great information here! I have been experimenting with sand as a stem cutting holder. So far I have had good luck with this method. They seem to do best when stuck about 3 in. into the sand, but not touching the bottom. I keep water above the sand so I can tell that the sand is good and wet.
    I purchased clean sand from Lowe’s (sandbox sand), then rinsed it several times in a large metal bowl as I used it, just to be sure it was clean. I am using plastic bowls as you are in your pictures.
    I didn’t see any Monarch’s for a couple of days so I thought the egg laying was over (this is my first year). They were just hiding from the two rainy days. Yesterday I found 36 eggs! I bought three more Tropical Milkweed plants and moved them to bigger pots. Going to keep them hidden from the butterflies and aphids in case I need them later.
    I see these large black butterflies on my zinnias and wild flowers. I presume they are eastern swallowtails? Very pretty to watch.
    I got a few cages from RoseFranklin. They are working out great. I move the newly born caterpillars from the tubs (with lids) to one of the mesh cages. When they get big enough I put them in the big cage. You were so right about the tiny ones escaping!!! They are little escape artists. I find them on the sides and even the lid of the tubs. I give them plenty of food to eat, but guess it is just in their nature to escape. If you had not told us to use lids on tight I would have lost most all of them! Thanks again.
    I believe next year I will space my MW plants 3 ft. apart to prevent over-crowding.

    Thanks Tony for all the help

    1. Hi James, it sounds like you are doing a lot to improve your set up and this will all pay off for you now, and for raising future monarchs. The black swallowtails you are seeing could be eastern black swallowtails, pipevine, spicebush, or even dark form eastern tiger swallowtails which you can see in photos here:

       Dark Form Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Pics

84. Hello Tony…..
    I also found many eggs one week ago today. The Mother Monarch came back to visit. I saw her flitting about in the side yard. I ran out the door in time to witness her laying the eggs. OMG…OMG I yelled I’m sure the neighbors thought I was nuts. So 37 eggs (now cats) later I’m .proud to take part of Raise the Migration 3. Just hope my MW holds out!!!!

85. When I went out this morning to get some mw leaves for the cats I have, I found 2 cats about an inch long and 6 eggs and brought them in. Last night it was 52 degrees, will that be too cold for the eggs to still hatch? The 2 cats I found this morning I’m not sure are healthy, so I put them in separate containers. One has a darker yellow hind end and the other, its feelers on opposite side are there, but bent over and look glued to its body. Any suggestions on what could be wrong with them and what I should do, if anything. Thanks!

    1. Hi Anne, 52 degrees is not too cold for caterpillars. The problem with bringing caterpillars in is something they can have parasites or disease. You did the right thing by separating and monitoring them. All you can do is keep feeding them milkweed and hope for the best…good luck!

86. I currently have 7 chrysalis and 27 cats in jars in my livingroom ( Ifound 2 cats today at the park)! I released 1 female butterfly Sunday. It’s been a great year for finding them!

87. Hi Tony,
    I’m new to the monarch culture. I have a lot of cats of all instars and I had my first eclosure this morning. I have a healthy looking young male and will release him to the wild tomorrow. I live in Southern California and we have had a very warm summer this year. I have lost a lot of cats and have found some flies inside the enclosure I use to raise my cats. I will do better next year, but my question is that I wonder if this is the last batch I will have prior to migration. I have five new eggs on leaves in a food container right now. Should I buy more milkweed? Next year, I will be raising tropical with the seeds I have harvested so far. Hopefully they will be clean and pesticide and predator free.

    1. Hi Nancy, there are monarchs that will mate year round in your region so it’s hard to say. There is a western migration to coastal California, but the large Migration to Mexico is mostly eastern monarchs. Fall and winter are great times to plant milkweed in your region because temps are cooler. good luck with your monarchs!

       1. I know the main topic of this thread was if this generation of butterflies hatching now will be the one that migrates or if we’ll have more batches. I couldn’t help commenting on Nancy mentioning finding flies inside rearing cages.

          I’m also new to raising Monarchs and have learned a lot both from Tony and the school of hard knocks. I got lucky with my first caterpillar – it made it all the way to a beautiful and healthy butterfly. What’s more it did all this outside on a plant in the garden.

          However, from then on, until I followed the wise advice to bring caterpillars inside, I had 100% loss due to parasitoid flies. Once I did get a mesh pop-up cage, I put in a 5-gallon pot of milkweed and transferred whatever caterpillars I found crawling around on my outside plants. I was fiendishly careful when opening the cage that no flies got in, but wouldn’t you know it, about every other day there’d be a fly buzzing around inside the cage. I was virtually certain I didn’t let any flies in. My assumption is at least one fly larva must’ve dropped into the potting soil before I put the milkweed in the cage and now the pupa(s) were hatching. There were also instances where I moved a caterpillar already parasitized with eggs into the cage and when it died and the larva dropped into the soil it became a ticking time bomb.

          My next step in my butterfly raising learning curve was to get a second mesh pop-up cage in which I put another 5-gallon potted plant. I then let this plant “bake” for a week or so, expecting any nasties that were going to hatch would come out before I put caterpillars on it. By now, I had perfected my hunting skills such that I’d either find eggs or freshly hatched caterpillars before the flies got ’em. This drove the loss rate due to flies close to zero (I confess to sometimes finding older caterpillars and brought them in hoping the flies missed them).
          I will say this: finding one fly inside my mesh pop-up cage was quite a shock. But – finding more than one fly in there was sheer panic. I figure if only one fly hatched in there, unless it came out already pregnant, there was no risk of it laying eggs in/on the caterpillars. My fear with finding two files at the same time was that if they mated in the cage then there could be some parasitizing going on.

          Of course, most of Tony’s followers know he advocates not putting caterpillars on potted plants in rearing cages. A sad story for another day is what caused me to heed this advice: a devastating OE outbreak.

          Thanks to Tony and everyone else for helping a newbie like me improve my processes!

          1. Hi Brian, thanks for sharing your season with us and all the lessons learned. As you’re discovering, raising is a process, and as you work to improve it (which you are doing) you will have a lot more successes than failures. Welcome to the exciting world of raising monarchs!

88. Hi Tony,
    First let me start by saying your website is wonderful and the information and tips are amazing, I look forward to your emails. =)
    My mother raised monarchs all through my childhood and I have always loved them and wanted to carry that tradition on. I moved into my first house 2 years ago and planted 4 milkweed plants and then added 4 more along with several Mexican Sunflower plants as all kinds of butterflies love the variety of flowers. I live in California and have been patiently waiting for 2 years, I had a monarch flutter through last summer but no eggs =( this year I have added even more plants and am currently growing some from seed indoors. I check my outdoor plants every other day. I haven’t see any Monarch butterflies floating through my garden but when trimming back my plants I found a small cat under an aphid ridden leaf! I was so excited my first cat! I brought him inside and provided him some fresh milkweed from my seedlings and placed him in a Repti-Breeze screened cage I got from PetSmart.
    My biggest problem is Yellow Aphids… does anyone else struggle with them? Growing up I never battled with these little pests until recent years. They suck the plant dry of nutrients and get in the way of hungry cats wanting to eat. I don’t want to use a soap shield spray or pesticides of any kind as I don’t want to hurt any eggs or cats but the aphids are coating and destroying my plants! =( I have taken a hose to the plants a couple times after double and triple checking for eggs and cats, but they keep coming back with a vengeance…. How do I get rid of yellow aphids?!?! Lady bugs don’t want anything to do with them either… Please Help – any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
    Thank you in advance,
    Shelly

    1. Hi Shelly, aphids are a common problem for butterfly gardeners across North America. This post should will give you some ideas to help get rid of them…good luck!

       Aphid Control for Milkweed Plants

    2. I put on a pair of my rubber gloves and squish all I find every morning and every evening.

89. Hi , Sorry to say I still do not have Monarchs. I have seen one since April and it was a male.I have PLENTY milkweed I live 25 minutes north of News Orleans. Last year was better.

90. I just released 24 butterflies today and have 23 chrysalides yet to go for generation #3. Right now I have nearly 100 eggs and tiny cats of migration generation and there are still ELFs out there. I’m going to have to do some serious milkweed management this year to feed these catter-piggies. I guess that’s a good problem to have though.

    1. wow Steve…that is a good problem to have. What a way to end the season!

91. My two chrysalis emerged early this a.m. I checked last night around midnight and they were turning dark. But I overslept this a.m. and missed their emerging. I’m glad I’ve seen butterflies emerge before or I would have been upset. The last six years I’ve worked in the tropical butterfly exhibit at the zoo so I got to see a lot of different species emerge. Sometimes the butterfly farms would send us monarchs.

    I have about 18 small to med. size cats right now but no 4th or 5th instar stages. The last two larger ones died. One fell off his branch while making his J form. He didn’t look good for awhile and the other just quit moving and eating. I sterilized their containers (they were in seperate containers) in case I have to use again.

    Have a question about tropical mw. I have about 6 common mw plants, 4 prairie mw, and lots of swamp mw. I have an area where I’d like to try the tropical mw but the area only gets 5 hours of sun. I have a butterfly bush in that area that seems to do okay. Do you think that’s enough sun for tropical mw? Thanks.

    1. Hi Pam, sounds like you are having some good end of the season butterfly activity…congrats! Tropical milkweed actually does pretty well in partial shade, so I would try planting it…good luck!

92. When taking eggs from single leaves, why do you cut the leaf up into smaller pieces? And when the egg is on a leaf that you have removed from the plant, do you still mist with water daily? Thank you.

    1. Hi Karyn, I put the small leaf pieces on large leaves before they hatch…going over that in the next email. Yes, I mist eggs daily to keep the leaves from curling up and drying out.

93. Hi Tony

    We are in Iowa and running a large Monarch operation with Iowa State. We are really having a hard time keeping common milkweed
    cuttings fresh. Maybe 2 or 3 days. We need to get tropical or swamp going next year. Very interesting about using just cuttings.
    We made a device that allows for washing milkweed in the pots. We submerge the plant for 10 minutes in water to kill insects.
    Still could be some on the pot or soil, but most are removed. If we have cats inside close to the migration, do we need to do anything
    to get them into diapause?

    Cam

    1. Hi Cam, you will find swamp and tropical are typically more viable for raising migration monarchs. We still have some viable common because we took cuttings from our plants to feed caterpillars in June/July and fresh growth emerged from those plants.

       Submerging the plants to kill predators is an interesting strategy, but there’s still the potential disease issues with frassy soil.

       As for diapause, I let nature decide when that happens. Good luck with your program at Iowa State!

       1. I make sure to have a container of water in my car before I go to get more milkweed. Old juice bottles work well. I put them inside a plastic pail with a handle, and use an old towel around the bottles so they don’t tip over. I use sharp garden shears to cut the milkweed stem at an angle, and then cut vertically up the stem in a couple of places, about 1″ in length. When I clean the frass out of the cage, I will sometimes re-cut the milkweed. This keeps the milkweed from wilting before I even get it home, and once it’s home, it stays fresh longer.

94. I am wondering what people do with all the eggs. I mean, do the raise them all or leave some on the plants? I have collected over 50 eggs with lots more on the tropical milkweed. They are in 5 separate containers at the moment. I have 2 of the medium pop up cages, and one large 7′ x 7′ tent with a mesh top.
    I started with 14 plants then added 5 more, then added 7 more. Yep, 26 plants, with most of them over 5′ tall and covered in blooms. It’s a new garden site with all new dirt, manure and a 50 gallon tub of worm castings plus some powdered minerals I bought from Amazon. Oh, and about 400 worms.
    This is my first year raising eggs/caterpillars, so I am so fortunate to have found your site. Thank you for all the information!!
    What is with all the little bitty spiders? I find several on every plant cutting.
    Thinking about getting more pop up cages……

    1. Hi James, I think it’s important to raise without overcrowding so I would leave some outside if you don’t have the space. Your tent sounds huge, but keep in mind you could have to bring wayward caterpillars back to the milkweed. I typically raise about 5-7 caterpillars on a large cutting so they have their own space. Those spiders are a nuisance, but much easier to detects on cuttings, than entire plants…good luck!

95. Hi Tony,
    Moved this year so unable to hand rear the cats but made sure there was swamp milkweed moved and available and have 5 chrysalides on hosta leaves. 4 chrysalides hanging from the front porch and 3 chrysalides on the underpart of vinyl siding. Two more cats looking for a place to j and one on a Christmas cactus plant. Hoping that most will hatch ok. I have never seen so many chyrsalides develop in such a well protected area. Thanks for all you do.
    Brian

    1. Hi Brian, that’s incredible you have so many chrysalides outdoors. I hope you have healthy butterflies emerge….good luck!

96. I’m new to Monarch raising, my coworker is a registered waystation for Monarchs and has been doing it over 13 yrs, she raises many breeds of butterflies…I have 5 Monarch caterpillars hatched from eggs that are now growing larger, and 3 Eastern Blackswallowtails, growing nicely both in separate containers….love my babies and love watching them grow,

    1. congrats on a successful butterfly season Wendy and thanks for helping to raise the migration!

97. Hi Tony ,
    Thanks for all your great ideas,putting some of them to use .
    Just want you to know how things are going on ‘ Flutter by Acres ‘.

    So far have let free 12 Monarch’s to date .
    Have 39 Chrysalis – 3 rd generation , 31 Caterpillars- 20 are 4th generation , 9 eggs and finding new ones every day .
    Looks like I’ll get my 100 for tagging .
    The Monarchs I’m releasing will be laying eggs just for me .

    1. fantastic Judy, you are having a banner season! And yes, the monarchs are still mating and laying eggs, even up in Minnesota…

98. Thanks for the update Tony, I’m switching from pots to this method after all your help on the forum. In addition to the floral tubes I’ve started using the little disposable containers that you get for salsa at fast food places like Rubios. They are perfect for poking a tiny hole in the top of the lid and putting in a small cutting or even a couple leaves with eggs on them. Another thing that works is an old travel coffee mug with a lid that has a small hole to stick the stem in for larger cuttings. I’ve had better luck this way than the paper towel method in keeping the leaves fresh. The potted plant was so easy until all the problems with disease, pests or pesticides started developing!

    1. Hi Beth,

       I was completely charmed the first season we used potted plants…50 eggs on 2 potted tropical milkweeds and no issues. For me, it has been the predators. I don’t know where these little spiders come from, but they have gotten a few caterpillars over the past couple years. Cuttings take a little extra preparation, but it has eliminated the spiders!

       I will be editing the book before next raising season starts to reflect the cuttings preference. I like your disposable container idea too. I prefer the larger food storage containers because they hold more water, but it’s always nice to have other options in an emergency!

99. Hi Tony, I’m looking and looking for caterpillar eggs and I’m not really sure what I’m looking for. I’ve searched website after website looking for a size comparison so I know how big the eggs actually are but I haven’t been able to get a good idea. I currently have one caterpillar that I found already hatched and it just turned into a chrysalis this morning. I need to know so I can go get more and raise em!

    1. Hi Kaitlyn, I’m not sure where you’re located but there might not be too many in your area right now. A common place monarchs try to hide their eggs is on/in milkweed buds. small caterpillars will crawl into buds too…

100. Thank you very much for the information.
     I will be starting this project.

     1. they are finally up in Canada so now is a good time to start looking…good luck!

101. Tony,
     I have raised monarchs for years. I live in Houston. I have released 50 monarchs this Spring, but all of a sudden I am having some problems. I have butterfly weed(Asclepias curassavica) in my garden and have bought butterfly weed ( the same kind) from a local source that does not use pesticides. I am really down to the nubs of my milkweed, so maybe that is part of my problem??? I do use two butterfly cages. One is brand new this year that my husband made. He made both cages exactly alike. Both are screened all around and have wooden floors. Here is my problem. My last six butterflies have gone through their cycle, but when emerging don’t make it out of its chrysalis or make it out but have deformed wings. The chrysalis does not drip fluid or anything like that. I can go get new milkweed if you think that is the problem. I do clean out the cage almost every day, and I put the milkweed in yogurt containers filled with water but that have small holes punched in the top, so the caterpillars don’t drown. I change that water regularly, but not every day. HELP!
     Thanks,
     Ann

     1. Hi Ann, congrats on all your monarch success this spring, but sorry to hear of these recent problems. If your butterflies are getting stuck in their chrysalises, my concern would be OE infection.

        Monarch Diseases and Caterpillar Killers

        It sounds like you milkweed is being reused and may have OE spores building up that the caterpillars could be ingesting. Do you thoroughly rinse milkweed before serving? Do you clean out your cage regularly? do you disinfect your cage between batches of monarchs with a 20% bleach solution?

        These are the cage I recommend because they are easy to clean thoroughly- both rinsing out and drying.

        It’s hard to say what’s going on for sure without seeing your exact set up, but I would thoroughly disinfect the cage and your milkweed supply before bringing in more monarchs. Good luck!

102. Do the eggs turn dark brown at any point? I’ve been finding what looks like tiny eggs on the back on some milkweed leaves, but I assumed they were the eggs of something else since they are brown. I haven’t seen any eggs that look like the picture above.

     1. Hi Bett, the tops of the eggs turn dark, which is the caterpillars head before it eats its way out of the egg. Impending hatchers are typically more difficult to see on plants.

        Dark Egg Pic

103. Thank you so much for the invaluable information. I spontaneously decided to raise caterpillars because I had seen only a few monarchs this summer, and have been checking our many pots of tropical milkweed and not finding any caterpillars. Finally, two and I could find only one chrysalis with a successful eclosure. Then I found a beautiful monarch whose wings were not yet expanded on the ground, being eaten by ants. I was heartbroken. There were numerous caterpillars on one of the milkweeds so I dashed to BB&B to get a large popup hamper I read about online. And I have been reinventing the wheel on milkweed cuttings for 3 days. I had some flower stem tubes and have been using them, bit they have to lie down or lean and it’s not very hygienic. I just found some little glass vases to stand them upright in. Tomorrow I will try your method with glass jars. I have 5 chrysalis on the ceiling mesh and many large caterpillars. They eat lots and cleaning the cage isn’t lots of fun. This is only the third day for me I am ordering the small cage tonight. How many caterpillars can I safely have in one cage? Obviously I will move the cats to the other cage and will finish reading your information. I will need to move the chrysalises to the hamper. There are now more small cats on the same tropical. I don’t know if I should move them, too. Thanks so much for your amazing willingness to help all of us novices. Oh, I had to remove a chrysalis that didn’t look right and started oozing green goo and euthanized a caterpillar that looked really dirty, just like the OE pics and was shriveling and not eating. Sad.

     1. Dee, welcome to the world of raising! It’s amazing and a lot of fun once you get down a good system that will allow you to be successful. I don’t use glass jars myself, but they’re a good option while you are waiting for your cage to arrive. The more caterpillars you have in a cage, the harder it is to keep clean. I have a large 4 foot mesh enclosure. I raised over 50 in it a couple seasons ago, but I think 30 is a more reasonable number. Since you are just starting out, you may want to limit yourself to around 10 to get familiar with the process. Please continue reading and let me know if you have specific questions in the comments section of that particular page. Good Luck!

104. The whole summer went by and I have only had one egg to raise, a black swallowtail. And that one looks like it may not eclose until next year!

     Until today, that is. My husband saw a monarch in our yard, hanging out by the tropical milkweed. He then went around and checked the butterfly weed. Eggs on both. LOTS of eggs.

     The problem is what to do now. I counted 17 eggs on the tropical milkweed and 25 on the butterflyweed. Unfortunately, I didn’t raise any tropical this year, just had a couple of volunteers, only one of which is a decent size. As for the butterfly weed, these are first year plants I grew from seed last winter. Only one of them is any size at all. The other plants are maybe 6 inches tall, not having been planted in the best spot. I understand that it is difficult to switch from one kind of milkweed to another. There is certainly not enough tropical for 17 cats. The situation with the butterfly weed is even worse, but there is a lot of it growing around so I might be able to scrounge up some decent leaves for the babies. What do I do?

     I don’t even know if it is possible to raise a batch of monarchs this late in the season and have them survive in time to make it to Mexico.(I’m in New Jersey, zone 7a.) Should I just let nature take it’s course?
     Liz

     1. yes Liz, you still have time to raise and release in zone 7. You can pick healthy wild milkweed leaves and bring them home. Rinse them off and then store them in a plastic baggie in your refrigerator. Rinse each leaf again before your serve it to the caterpillars. Good luck!

        Ps…caterpillars switch milkweed pretty easily. It can be difficult to get them to switch to butterfly weed though.

105. Hey Tony,
     A friend of mine has his tropical and swamp milkweed surrounded by a 4′ tall fence. There’s approximately up to 6″ of space between the plants and the fence. He asked me if that might prevent monarch mamas from laying eggs due to potentially only having access to the uppermost part of the plants. I told him I would ask your opinion? What do you think?
     Thanks,
     Chris

     1. Hi Chris, it really depends on the condition of the plants, and what else is available. Monarch females will sometimes dive into patches to lay eggs on lower leaves. But sometimes they are looking for shorter plants. Monarchs surprise me every year with their garden behavior, so I’m not sure what they would do with a fence. If someone else has experience with this, please comment…

        1. I have plant supports on one side of my milkweed and a vinyl fence on the other side. I put the plant supports there because there is a sidewalk next to them and I worried about the plants, eggs and mini cats getting beat up by people walking by. I have found eggs on all levels of the milkweed. The mamas flutter between the bars of the plant supports and flutter between the milkweed plants. I don’t see as many eggs against the fence , but there are some. I do have some space (maybe 10 inches) between milkweed plants so this gives some acess as well.

           1. Shari, thanks so much for sharing your experience…very helpful!

106. are the seed pods of swamp butterfly weed useful to butterflies ?

     1. Hi Sarah,

        it’s possible to get monarch eggs on seed pods…caterpillars will eat immature seed pods too.

107. Hi Tony, I have raised and released around 200 monarchs this year. I still have eggs, caterpillars of various sizes, and many chrysalises. I have given away around 3 dozen caterpillars for others to raise. I am also caterpillar sitting for a friend while she is on vacation.
     My question is regard to both my swamp milkweed and tropical milkweed. They are both going to seed and therefore losing their blooms. If I cut off some of the seeds will they bloom again. They really are the best nectar plants, even though I have other flowers coming into bloom for the migration, like asters and liatris.

     1. Hi Bonnie, tropical milkweed has a continuous growth cycle, so cutting it back will promote more flowering. Swamp will put out more foliage, but I don’t think it would bud and flower again before the end of the season. Perhaps if you had done this to a couple plants before they flowered, it would have delayed them. The swamp seedlings we kept are flowering later than the perennials. If you want a fantastic late nectar source, try Mexican sunflowers:

        Mexican sunflower page

        1. I moved into a new house and the previous owner had a 4 season garden., so I’ve had all sorts of plants and flowers pop up (California, so I don’t worry about the snow and ice garden), never quite knowing what they will become. Several months ago a huge plant emerged and from your information it is a 6 foot Mexican sunflower. Everyone loves it (butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, and even canaries and finches). When you dead head it how far down do you cut? Just the flowers the stalk or further down.?

           1. Hi Shari,

              just cut back the flowers. Tithonia is a prolific bloomer through the entire migration period. One of the “must have” plants for a successful butterfly garden, in my opinion.

108. Hi everyone! This is my second year rearing monarchs. My first year was a complete failure due to lack of knowledge and very late start in the season (October). This year I have had great success with Monarchs. I have a local nursery that specializes in butterfly plants and always has a ton of milkweed. Everything I buy, they are already loaded with eggs. I leave them outside and bring in caterpillars as I find them. I have a Florida room that has become my butterfly sanctuary. I would keep about 5 potted milkweed at a time to keep them clean and transfer caterpillars, then let them use the whole room to go into Chrysalis. I wanted them to experience their life as natural as possible with more protection. It was all great until the spiders figured that out. They began waiting for the butterflies to come out of chrysalis and attack.

     Well since I joined your group, I decided to begin rearing them in pop up hampers. I never actually collected the eggs, but have been doing so now. I honestly believe I have close to 100 caterpillars from newly hatched to almost in chrysalis all since your last email! I have 16 in chrysalis right now and have not gone out to check my milkweed in 2 days so I bet they are full again!

     This has turned out better than expected. Since the first monarch appeared this season I must have already reared about 100 since March. That’s in 5 months. Within the last week I have collected far beyond that! Very exciting!

     Thanks for all your information. I have picked up many tips to protect them better and have more to care for.

     I also have tags from monarchwatch.com. Do you think it’s too soon to tag them? From Deltona, Fl.

     1. wow Jessica, Congratulations on a very successful first season! I’m glad you have found the pop up cages helpful. I couldn’t imagine raising without them. I would check with monarch watch to see what their timeline is for tagging monarchs. I will be briefly discussing tagging in an upcoming post.

        1. what a wonderful success story!

109. Thanks for the advice Tony. I have mostly common mw on my property which I take cuttings from. I let the stalks outside on a porch, but with the recent batch of larva, I had problems with parasitoids. Several larva died at different stages and about 20% of the chrysalides were infected. I’m assuming tachinid flies, but perhaps infections of something else is also possible. I also have problems with wilting stalks and can’t figure out a good solution. Do you think I should add something to the water?
     Thanks for your help.

     1. Hi Kim, common milkweed is difficult to use for cuttings unless you’re using first year plants because the leaves are so thick. It’s also a better to use earlier in the season as the plants are starting to shut down for the season. I would suggest fall planting swamp milkweed or adding tropical milkweed next season. Both are good options for most of North America and late season favorites of monarchs.

110. Hi Tony,

     I saw 1 female Monarch in my garden,landing on milkweed. Checked plants after she left. Boo hoo, could not find any eggs. Thirteen days later while weeding, I found 3 cats, 1 was dead so I brought the 2 into my sunroom. I put a small milkweed plant into a plastic bottle for them. I wrap plastic wrap around the top of the bottle so they cannot get into the dirt. As they eat the leaves, I change plants until they form their chrysalis. Then I leave them alone until they come out. Forgot to tell you I raise them in aquariums, that I stand on the tall side. This makes it easier for the milkweed to not have to bend over. I also have covers that I keep on with bungee cords. I bought cats from Rose Franklin because I buy tags from Monarch Watch. As of 8/15 I have let 1/2 of them go in my garden near flowers. Some left right away and some flew to flowers for a drink before leaving. Our weather hasn’t been good to let them go. 8/17 looks warm enough so I will let the rest of them go.

     I sure will miss taking care of them, I put paper plates with wet sand and dirt so they could puddle. And I put cotton balls with sugar water for them to drink, it worked very well.

     1. Hi Carol, sometimes those monarch mamas hide the eggs a little TOO well. Glad you were able to find some caterpillars. I have not used sugar water to feed our adults before, but we have a whole can of a sugar-mixture for hummingbirds. If we have to keep any in the next few weeks, I will see how they like it.

111. I see that Jo mentioned that her milkweed is too old to use for new caterpillars. I have been raising for four years and I have never heard of that. What exactly did she mean?

     Also, I live near Kansas City, MO and have a couple of monarchs that have been laying eggs this week. I also have 12 in chrysalides and 9 cats of different instars. My question is are these newly laid eggs the cats that will be migrating or will it be their offspring?

     Thank you!
     Amy Gans

     1. Hi Amy,

        at the end of the season common milkweed starts to look pretty beat up. It develops leaf spot and fungus. I usually cut our back when it starts to look like diseased and some healthier foliage will emerge. However, common is best used as an early milkweed, and the monarchs prefer other varieties for late-season laying. You may find some leaves that still look healthy on your common plants and those are fine to feed caterpillars.

        For your second question, the answer may be both. Not all monarchs go into sexual diapause at the same time, so some may mate once more in your region or somewhere between KC and Mexico.

112. I am in Central Florida. I have released around 20, and have a dozen chrysalises left. In the meantime, my potted milkweeds have started to recover their foliage. At what point should I bring them in to prevent Monarchs staying here too long and missing the migration? I have also had good luck cutting stems off of plants and then rooting them in water after the caterpillars have eaten all the leaves, so I should have a LOT of plants for next year. Too bad none of my ‘stash’ is native!

     1. Hi Seana, Florida has a unique set of circumstances. Many of the Florida monarchs don’t migrate and there is a yearly population in central and southern Florida. However, some probably DO migrate. There are more questions than answers about florida Monarchs.

        You could try cutting back your plants and bringing them in at the end of October. Give them a couple months to grow healthy new foliage and then replant outside. This will decrease OE spore levels on your milkweed. (I’ll discuss this more later) Congrats on all your monarchs!

113. I found 3 very small wondering caterpillars on one of my swamp milkweed plants outdoors. Can I do the cuttings in a bottle for them as well. I did not have a cage so I took a copy paper box and cut the sides and top out replaced it with some screen I had laying around. So I don’t have a tall box. Just wondering if I could use the a small cutting. Also how long do the cuttings live? This is my first time raising monarchs and I am very excited!

     1. Hi Lee, you can put the cutting in a bottle. You could also try wrapping a wet cotton ball around the bottom of the cutting and securing it with aluminum foil (I will discuss this in an upcoming post) It will keep the cutting fresh longer, but not as long as if it were in water. The up side is, you can lie it down in your cage. If you cage is not 100% secure, the caterpillars might escape. Good luck and welcome to the world of raising!

114. If I am trying to hatch eggs brought in on cuttings and the leaves wilt will the eggs still hatch? Is there any way to remedy the situation? I’ve been spraying and I recut the cutting, but the leaves still look droopy.

     Second question, I have a brown vertically striped caterpillar with some hair, any idea what it is? Do I raise it with monarchs? Isolate it., or put it on my outside milkweed and let it fend for itself.

     1. Hi Shari, I would take another cutting without eggs (or try a few) and then let them crawl to those. Make sure you are using a sharp pruner or knife so the cut is clean. It should take up water fine then. Cuttings work best with swamp, tropical, and balloon plant this time of year.

        You could have a tussock moth caterpillar? You could try raising them together, but I would separate them in case there are unforeseen issues.

        1. That’s what it is . Thanks.

     2. Hi Shari,

        I’ve had a similar issue with wilting when I bring in an individual leaf with an egg on it. As the leaf dried out, it would curl tightly over the egg. To keep the leaf fresh and lying flat, I’m putting a slightly damp piece of paper towel in a zipper bag. Then I lay the leaf flat on the towel and zip it shut leaving a little airspace inside. So far this seems to be working well. The leaves are staying fresh, and the cats are hatching and feeding on the leaves. When the cats are big enough to handle safely, I’ll be moving them to my rearing containers.

        1. Thanks for the idea. I’ll give it a try.

           1. Thanks for sharing your technique Dana. I’m always interested to hear what is working for others. I’ll be sharing my technique for keeping leaves fresh in an upcoming post.

115. My eggs from Rose Franklin hatched. At least a dozen adorable little babies. They’re making quick work of the seedling they rode in on, but no one has moved over to the tropical milkweed cuttings I put in with them. I hope they move soon! If they don’t how can I encourage them to move to a bigger food source? (This is my first time doing this) Once they all have moved over, I hope I’ll be able to plant the roots/stem of the seedling so that I have two kinds of milkweed for them to choose from.

     Reading your comments, I should have cut back my plants. Oops. There’s enough new growth to help these babies out, though. Sadly, I haven’t seen a single wild butterfly in my garden yet, despite my 7 big milkweed plants. We’re pretty far North, though.

     Would appreciate anyones input!

     1. Hi Shelley,

        they will crawl over when it’s time. You might put some single leaves on the cage floor too in case any of them have issues finding the new food source. As long as the foliage is healthy, it should work for your baby cats. You should be able to replant your small plant from Rose. Tropical milkweed is very resilient. I will be posting more on feeding caterpillars soon.

116. To find eggs at this time of year, look on new common milkweed sprouts, rather than on old tough leaves. I find a field or garden border that has been mowed a few weeks earlier and look on new growth.

     1. good advice Fran, if I find eggs on our common this late, it is always on plants that were cut back and have new growth. Less frequently, they also lay on pods.

117. Hi Tony,
     I’m finding great suggestions on this site and appreciate it so much. The milkweed I have at my house is really too old to use for new caterpillars and it’s SO disappointing since I have access to more eggs for the migration. There is no good plants near where I live so I’m afraid I won’t be able to raise any more. Right now I have 23 in chrysalis and 4 J’s with 4 cats ready to make a button. Then I have maybe 10 cats of different ages still eating. Next year I will make sure I have plenty of potted milkweed and the plants in my garden will be cut down at least twice to ensure fresh leaves for the migrants.
     Again, thanks for all the tips even though it’s a little late for me this year.

     1. Hi Jo, I’m still glad you are following along with us. At the end, I will be talking about fall planting milkweed which might interest you for this season.It sounds like you are already helping to Raise the Migration with your past and present monarchs…congrats!

118. Hi Tony!

     It is so terrific that you are sharing so much knowledge with everyone. I really appreciate it and read every word you write 🙂

     I have a question about changing milkweed species on caterpillars that I am raising. If a caterpillar starts its life on common milkweed, is it possible to change them over to swamp milkweed or butterfly weed? My common is really looking worse for wear while my swamp and butterfly weed is in good shape. Do they care or are they okay dining on different kinds as they are growing up?

     Thank you so much!
     Laura L. – Le Sueur, MN

     1. Hi Laura,

        caterpillars usually switch milkweed varieties pretty easily except I have heard they won’t switch to butterfly weed after eating other varieties. I suspect they would switch back, but may go on a short hunger strike first.

        If you have enough swamp I would try that. Try throwing in some butterfly weed with the swamp and see if anyone goes for it. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

        1. So funny! I went to get some swamp milkweed cuttings and found 3 eggs on the ones I brought into the house. Thanks for the advice!

           Laura L – Le Sueur, MN

           1. Yes careful they are easy to miss including little baby cats! Don’t throw away any old cuttings for awhile…

119. Very helpful Tony!

     1. Hi Tammy, I’m happy to hear the info is helpful. I hope you are able to find some eggs to raise for the migration.

120. Hi Tony,
     Just brought in 4 more eggs and one caterpillar in the second instar .

     Had my first caterpillar go in to her pretty green dress with pearl’s .

     Have a total of 45 so far .Eggs are hatching every day .
     Have a great weekend .

     1. Great news Judy…it sounds like the monarchs aren’t hiding any eggs from you. Raise On!

        1. We have raised monarchs for many years while living in NJ. We would find our eggs on milkweed in the wild. We have now moved to the high plains of Texas. I am starting to see monarchs right now but they seem to be just “passing through.” I’ve found a few scattered milkweed plants but no eggs. The plants are always out in the barren, dry, windy areas…Which IS the ecosystem of this area (no moisture, no trees). Is it hopeless to find eggs here? If so, how do I go about raising monarchs each year? I miss it SO MUCH.

           1. Hi Crystal, it would sure be nice if more of the monarchs were utilizing full-sized milkweed down south. The first monarchs are already up in central Iowa where milkweed supply is slim to none. I am not sure when you should typically see monarch activity in your region…spring or fall? However, the drier the conditions, the less likely you will see them. Is it possible to create a milkweed patch on your property that you could regularly water? You might have a better shot of getting eggs then…good luck!

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