Raising Hope for the 2016 Monarch Migration

123 Comments

1. I’m a kind of late in commenting here but I’ll add on now if that’s okay.
   Our first 2016 monarchs were late here in northeast Missouri also. The first ones did not show up until July 05, 2016. That’s about 10 to 15 days later than normal for our area. Our first egg gathering resulted in 14 eggs.
   We finished the monarch rearing season releasing a total of 315 monarchs, with 200 of those being tagged.
   Two caterpillar unknown deaths and one chrysalis gone bad.
   One newly tagged and released monarch captured and eaten by a praying mantis hiding on a zinnia.
   Not too bad, although I always mourn the demise of each caterpillar/butterfly!
   Very excited and ready to start each new season raising monarchs! Thank you Tony for all your inspirations each year and for this helpful website!

2. 359 healthy butterflies released this year, despite first siting of a monarch on July 1. Only 9 eggs found at that time, 7 of which subsequently flew. Next generation was better, with 30 more released by late August. The remaining 320 were presumably migrators, released between Sept 20 and Nov 15.

3. I live in Harpswell, Maine and tried raising Monarch Butterflies for the first time this year. I was afraid to try but I gave it a shot. Things went pretty smoothly for the most part. It was a learning experience. I followed the steps outlined by you Tony to guide me along. Thank you! I was proud of myself with my results. I raised 60 Monarch Butterflies out of 66 caterpillar possibilities for a 91% success rate. It could be higher if certain caterpillar deaths were not taken into account for different reasons. A couple caterpillars died in failing to form a full chrysalis, 1 chrysalis failed to hatch, one caterpillar died in J-shape, and one caterpillar suddenly died and after falling from the milkweed cutting. One butterfly was unfortunately not strong and couldn’t move well and would not eat so I had to euthanize it after a while. 59 Monarch Butterflies flew off healthy and strong from the end of August until just recently. I released my last butterfly on Monday November 7. Now that I know what I’m doing, Maybe next year will be better if I do this. All these butterflies resulted from eggs and caterpillars found in my own 3 Common Milkweed patches in my field and some from the Common Milkweed in the large field across the street from me. This number was more than I thought I could handle but I wanted to give a chance to all caterpillars and eggs I found to grow into butterflies. After I found a couple caterpillars in my field in late July and then couldn’t find them again, I decided to purchase some cages from you Tony. This way I could bring the caterpillars in when I found them. So this has been an educational process and I’ve done pretty well I think for the first time.

   Every time something went wrong, I didn’t feel positive about doing this but I stayed the course. The lesson is to try to accept that things will happen and will probably not be perfect. Also, I learned that it is important to check milkweed cuttings 3,4, or even 5 times to make sure no small caterpillars are still on them when you move them to clean your cage or change over to a new milkweed cutting. I had a couple small caterpillars almost get lost when I moved out the milkweed cuttings to clean the cage. Also, I almost lost caterpillars to putting old milkweed cuttings in my compost pile. Fortunately I noticed the caterpillars at the last second and these crisis were avoided. Also, it’s important to only take on what you can handle! I felt overwhelmed at times but it all worked out in the end. Also, try to make sure you have enough milkweed to sustain what you take on. Try to stay calm and do one thing at a time.

   I’ve been concerned about Monarch Butterflies for several years after noticing not seeing them hardly. I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about Monarch Butterflies. I learned that the experts including Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch recommend raising only 1 generation of Monarch Butterflies each year for a number of important reasons they state in their paper. Large scale rearing and release of Monarch Butterflies hurts the wild population more than helping. The Monarchs didn’t get here in Maine until late July so the ones I released from the very end of August until now were all of one generation, the migratory generation. I didn’t always pay attention to determine male/female when releasing them. It was more important to me to release strong, healthy Monarch Butterflies with handling them as little as possible.

   1. Jaremy, thank you so much for sharing your raising journey including your successes and lessons learned along the way. I hope you will continue to build on your success next season!

      1. Thanks Tony for all your help!

4. This year in Minneapolis I rescued 187 eggs and raised them along with the help of others in the neighborhood. I didn’t find many eggs until the middle of July. This is the first year I have planted swamp Milkweed, and found that it is an egg magnet. My other surprise was that I found that the butterflies were laying eggs in some very small seedlings that had come up this year. Some plants were only a few inches tall. My gardening plans for next year are to have several seeding patches. I also have a boulevard filled with common milkweed and have encouraged neighbors to plant milkweed. Now they inform me when they find eggs. I raise my caterpillars in the most natural way possible, in milkweed plant cuttings put in small water bottles. They can roam around on a plant for days. One interesting behavior is that a caterpillar will first chew on the stem of a leaf to cut off the stream of sap, then it will start at the bottom of the leaf and chew to the top. They also sleep under the leaves. Keeping them on plants keeps those instincts intact. For those of you out there who are raising caterpillars in jars and boxes, I encourage you to buy a cube raising cage, and let them live on a plant. They are so entertaining, and a lot less mess.
   This season I learned that floral vials are a must. When I cut and rinse off milkweed, it will recover a lot faster if I put it in a vial and lay it down. And always have some ready for the next day when those cats really start eating a lot. When I have to switch out milkweed, I just place a new plant next to the old one and the caterpillars will crawl to the new plant. My other useful raising tip: I had 11 eggs about to hatch out from different leaves. I cut a small square around each egg. Then, I put a nice big cutting of swamp milkweed in a floral vial and laid it in a box. The eggs hatched and I was able to leave them alone for about 4 days. When they were big enough, I put the plant upright into a water bottle. Another successful experiment with eggs happened when I had to leave for vacation and was giving eggs to others. I cut a small square around the egg, took some sap, and “glued” the egg under a leaf. I had to hand out over 70 eggs, so I would just give someone a nice little plant with 5 or 6 eggs glued on. I also made sure that I only glued one egg to each leaf.
   My sad lesson learned this year is to make sure that the masking tape that I use to seal the water bottles is not loose anywhere. One caterpillar crawled under a leaf that was touching the tape and got stuck in the tape. I couldn’t save it.

5. I just found 2 monarch catapillars on my milkweed (finally) but it’s Oct. 16 and I’m not sure what to do. Can I bring them in and still raise them w/ the cold weather coming? I want to order the online book but wanted info ASAP to see if I can help these guys.
   Liz

   1. Hi Liz, I’m not sure where you’re located, but if you bring them in, they should at least have a chance. In fall, cool night time temps outdoors will slow down metamorphosis.

6. Final total- 76; (44 female 32 male)
   This was my third year , I had abundant common milkweed plus swamp and tropical . However the common went dormant near the end of catipillar season
   Which left me no alternative but leave cats in the field. From looking at the
   Milkweed they did well on their own. There is a invasive milkweed vine here in ky and I was able to collect enough of it to feed my last 11 cats and they did fine with that. I lost very few cats and only two died just as they were hatching.
   For nectar flowers I have mainly zinnias, Mexican sunflowers, marigolds, summer flocks.

   K
   Ve the cats o
   In the field

   1. Really love this site and all of the valuable information! Last year was my first year planting milkweed and raising monarchs..now im hooked! Last year raised 2 beauties ..and this year 12! Planting more milkweed for next year☺

7. I am a beginner in Central NJ. I planted common milkweed in 2015 and it came up in spring 2016… The monarchs continued their life cycle in one area where it grew well and I was able to release 5 new monarchs since late Sept 2016 and have one more ready to hatch. The weather so far has been just right for them to go and it has been an awesome experience. I look forward to doing it again in 2017.

8. Tony, thank you for the suggestion for next year. Which hydrogen peroxide concentration should I use to water the soil under the mw plants, the top chart or bottom one which is stronger?

   1. Hi Pam, I use the recommendations for sick/fungusy plants.

9. Again this year my results were poor. Last year released two healthy monarchs out of over 70 eggs/cats brought in. All died at varioius stages, no signs other than stopped eating and laid on side and then died.
   This year brought in same amount of eggs/small cats and ended up with 16 chrysalis but only three eclosed healthy. The rest either came out part way and fell to bottom of container with wings crumpled or stayed dark for two weeks (could see the wings) and never came out and had to be frozen. Some even made chrysalis that was in the shape of elongated hour glass and never eclosed. Problems also were a lot of eggs didn’t hatch, cats would be eating good then stop and die with no signs of disease, had several cats go into J shape but only made a chrysalis part way. I kept eggs and cats to 4 or 5 per container, washed hands before cleaning frass from containers (cleaned daily), washed off milkweed before giving to cats, gave fresh mw daily or twice daily, sterilized containers before using, kept nursery in back bedroom with door closed and AC vent closed due to having dogs in house that take oral heartworm/flea/tick preventative (dogs never go in that part of house), and still had these issues. I used stem cuttings and individual leaves in containers depending on how big container was and kept paper towel on bottom of container which I spritzed with water with eggs or younger cats
   I emailed back and forth with person at Monarch Lab this year and last and last year they said they didn’t feel the flea/tick RX should cause an issue as people working in their lab have pets using it and they have not problems (but I see on their website they wear lab coats and gloves). Another Monarch organiztion says it does cause problems. This year when I emailed them, they suggested next year I keep one egg/cat per container, wear gloves, sterilize containers used this year with 20% bleach for 15 min. and bring in fewer eggs/cats at first to see how it goes. They didn’t suggest to sterilze the milkweed but to wash it off and dry which I do already. They felt I had a severe outbreak of OE. I live in northern Indiana so my milkweed is fresh every year since it dies back in the winter. I used common, tropical, balloon, and swamp milkweed which I grew from seed (none from nurseries). I guess I will try one more year and follow their suggestions. At first I thought that they’d be better off left in garden but when I go look at the mw, I see tiny holes eaten and no cat so predators get them all. Have had lots of predator insects this year. Results are very discouraging.

   1. Hi Pam, sorry to hear this has been such a discouraging season. One thing you might try early next spring to kill any bacteria, fungus, or viruses is to treat the soil around your milkweed patch with hydrogen peroxide to see if that makes a difference for your plants next season. I hope you are able to figure out the issue for next season…good luck!

      Hydrogen peroxide for the garden

10. As a beginner, I released 5 monarchs successfully for the first time.. planted common milkweed in 2015 which grew nicely in 2016. What a great experience from august to now with watching the monarch life cycle continue. Look forward to doing this again in 2017..

11. Well, my last two left Thursday. I released 242 monarchs this year. I found so many eggs in one week I had to rely on friends that also raise, but weren’t finding eggs. I adopted out 153 caterpillars and 146 of those became healthy butterflies. So, my milkweed produced 388 monarchs. I have since purchased more tents for the next season.

12. Well, my garden and porch seemed a little lonely, empty today. This was my first year raising, actually intervening, in the growth of monarchs in order to protect them from predators. My very last monarch flew to freedom yesterday! (10/6/16) First of all, I have to thank Tony immensely for responding to my questions on safely releasing my first ever monarch on 8/20/2016, as well as my last group on Monday, Oct. 3. I was able to release 78 monarchs that appeared healthy and flew away successfully. So exciting!

    Only 2 of my adult butterflies hatched and were never able to fly. They appeared perfectly normal, and I fed them, but both died, Also, one of my chrysalises that was about to emerge seemed like it was hanging in a spot where it would not have room for its wings. Since I was going out, I decided to rehang it giving it more room. Unfortunately, I dropped it and it died. Another chrysalis in the same position right against the wall emerged and developed properly. Lesson learned: leave well enough alone! I don’t need to get worried and intervene in every little thing in order for a healthy monarch to emerge.

    `I live in a western Philadelphia suburb and have 2 milkweed gardens. We watched and watched this summer; nothing happened until July 28 when we saw our first caterpillars. One was taken by a wasp, another found dead on the ground, and 3 disappeared. That’s when I ordered my first cage and started raising. I don’t know what happened, but the numbers of eggs from separate milkweed potted plants, then caterpillars from my tropical milkweed garden kept increasing. Toward the end of August and beginning of Sept., more and more larger caterpillars kept emerging from the tropicals. I brought every one I could find into a cage for survival.

    Finally, one of my milkweed gardens, the tropical one, is in front of my sidewalk right next to the road in order to receive full sun. Well, the gas company started digging up the road to replace the pipes, and the heavy dust in the air covered the milkweed for days, maybe a few weeks. I was upset and worried for the monarchs so my husband would spray the leaves. I also would bring the branches inside and thoroughly wash them under water before putting them into the caterpillar cages on my porch. Now I wonder if the road work was a blessing in disguise because it forced the habit of thorough milkweed washing. Could that practice have enabled me to release 78 healthy monarchs? I don’t know, but I plan to continue thorough washing next summer in order to increase the possibility of raising healthy monarchs.

    And thank you, Tony, for your encouragement and being available to advise when questions arise!

13. We live in a temperate overwintering site for West of the Rockies and often have winter babies raised indoors . We are on the coast of CA. My outside habitat has several varieties of asclepias. If I find eggs or cats I turn a tomato frame upside down around the plant, tie the spokes together at the top, then cover the frame all the way to the ground with netting (I use inexpensive Tulle) and secure it with clothes pins to prevent escapes. The net is so sheer, I can sit and watch the show. My 2 worst predators are wasps and jumping spiders. I get pretty fierce when I see them trying to get in. I started a fun club called The Monarch Mamas and Papas which has about 70 members. Our website is on facebook. Thank you for this wonderful site. I have released about 60 butterfllies. I have more success when I bleach (19:1) twigs to bring in. We do have OE in the area and I cut plants back in winter. One member has released about 200!

14. Hi last year I released seven butterflies from caterpillars. This year I’ve released 50 so far from caterpillars. Two of the caterpillars had deformed wings. I think one may have fallen off the chrysalis too soon. I have 6 yet to release and found a caterpillar just two days ago.

    I do have a question though the last few monarchs I relased seem smaller than normal. Is that common late in season, or what may be the cause?

    Thanks, and keep up your good work, please!

    Boog

    1. Hi Boog, migration monarchs are typically larger than monarchs that emerge earlier in the year. If they are small, but seem energetic and healthy they should be fine. If butterflies are weak, deformed, and can’t hold on to the chrysalis it could indicate heavy OE infection:

       OE Parasites and Monarch Diseases

       1. Thanks for the answer. I released # 50 today a female. Small but healthy looking.

15. Started with 10 caterpillars/eggs. One chrysalis turned black so I froze it in case of any parasites. Lost 1 due to my own silly fault of not checking the Swiffer Duster box for the Febreeze scent before buying them and using them in my house. Lost another 2 due to mysterious circumstances (one seemed unable to poop, the other just kinda sat there and didn’t eat, like you said yours did Tony, before starving). So lost 4 in total.

    So far have released 5 butterflies with one still in chrysalis…Next year I will learn from my mistakes and hopefully lose less!!!

16. Started with 25 eggs. Lost a couple caterpillars due to negligence. Lost one chrysalide due to deformity during pupation. Lost one chrysalide because I thought it was bad but it may or may not have been. All remaining 20 chrysalides eclosed to healthy butterflies. This year I saw less monarchs but because of the support from this blog I was able to collect and raise my largest number to date. Success!!

17. Hi Tony, here ins Florida it is endless eggs, caterpillars and butterflies. I enjoy it so much and your information has helped me to avoid death like I had in the begining. I have released approximately 45 monarchs along with Zebra Longwings, Cloudless sulfers, P. swallowtails and G. fritillaries. You have made a difference. After reading about parasites and various reasons for death you have published, I have had almost 0 fatalities. My milkweed is all in pots, after they chew it down, I bring it into my lanai for regrowth. Some are a couple of years old now and just keep coming back. My thanks to you for all of the great information you provide. I’m glad to know I make a difference. My only worry at this point is spraying for Zika virus mosquitoes. Here in SW FL they do spray for mosquitoes and is a huge worry for me. But so far we keep repopulating our beautiful butterflies. Thank you again for all you help!

18. We released 85 Monarchs this year and I sent our last box with 7 chrysalides to a kindergarten classroom, so I’m unsure how many of those have been released. We had a terrible, terrible time with tachnid flies here in Liberty, MO and I just about cried every time I saw one of my babies getting skinnier and skinnier and then go up to hang and never be able to make their chrysalis. I know I can’t save them all and our milkweed was just swarming with flies for a few weeks – it was awfully sad. However, I did get better at bringing in eggs and it’s very exciting to watch the metamorphosis from the very beginning to the new butterfly. Thank you so much for all the information you share with us – I’m really enjoying passing all the information on to the grandkids!

19. Tony,
    I just have to say thank you so much for creating this website. I’ve learned so much from the advice you’ve posted. I’m an accidental raiser in Long Beach, CA.
    I had seen a lot of Monarchs flying around a common area in our new apt so I bought some Milkweed thinking it was just “food” for them.
    Never did I imagine the excitement I’d feel when I found my first caterpillar, (yours was the 1st website I found with any substantial and helpful information) and shortly thereafter I realized the responsibility I would be taking on in raising just 1 cat.
    Sadly, Ono was a victim of either fly or wasp larva and did not survive. “Due” (2 in Italian) also did not survive, I’m not sure why,
    I was determined to give up at this point and I didn’t even name “Tre” because I thought a name would be bad luck! I was just going to leave him in the garden but by this time I’d actually bought a butterfly cage and thought maybe 3rd time was a charm and he was! I was able to video his Chrysillas transformation and on the day he was born I had a hairstylist appointment but I didn’t want to miss it so I took him (still in Chrysillas) to the appointment and he was born in the salon!
    After waiting 24 hrs I set him free to fly in our garden area and he took off like a champ that was September 1st, 2016. I had bought a few small milkweed for Tre and one plant had an egg.
    My 1st 5 instar was born and thrived on her own plant but she chose a tiny leaf for her Chrysillas and I had to move her. Sadly she was born with two bent left wings.
    *Tony, I have to thank you for responding to my email regarding how and/or if I should repair her wings, she seemed to grow weaker through her first day and did not survive. I am so grateful for your words of support and thorough explanation of OE.*
    Apparently Fall is a Monarch raising frenzy here in Southern C.A. I found 14 Cats at various stages, 13 have gone on to form Chrysalis, one did not survive. I bought them additional Milkweed and as you can imagine all 3 plants are gone.
    I have a few specific eating habit questions:
    1. In their earliest stage, what do they prefer to eat: milkweed leaves, stems or blossoms?
    2. If they wander or fall off a plant, what is the best way to reinstate them, by leaf or stem?
    3. I noticed in the later stages they seemed to prefer stems, is that normal?
    4. Of course I was overwhelmed by the 13 and although I was able to feed some by fresh cuttings, I’m afraid there was a lot of interaction between Cats, I plan to be better prepared in the future as I now have (5) additional 3rd stage and (4) additional 2nd stage – but when they do end up on the same leaf should I guide at least (1) on to a different plant or leaf?
    I always wear gloves and I avoid touching them directly.
    If these questions are answered in your book please refer me to it. I haven’t had a chance to purchase it on Amazon, but I plan to.
    Thank you again!y
    Seana

    1. Hi Seana, it sounds like you have had an exciting season, and I’m glad you are taking some time to learn more about the raising process. Here are the answers to your questions:

       1. I feed monarchs on stem cuttings so they generally eat leaves. They do like flowers, but I avoid bringing them in because small spiders can hide in them.

       2. You can use a leaf or pick them up between your thumb and forefinger if they’re large enough

       3. They usually prefer stems when they run out of leaves

       4. if you only put 1 or 2 caterpillars on a cutting, you don’t have to worry about spacing them out.

       Here more info about the book if you’re interested:

       How To Raise More Monarchs with Less Effort

       1. I just had a very small Monarch emerge from a very small Chrysalis. It appears healthy but is it possible it has OE because of the size?

          1. Hi Seana, I’m not sure if/how OE affects the size of monarchs. I think some monarchs are just smaller than others. The migration generation is typically larger than monarchs the rest of the season becauue the caterpillars eat more…probably in preparation for the long journey ahead.

             If the adult butterfly is small and weak, this probably indicates heavy OE infection

20. Good morning! This has been my most successful monarch-rearing year to date, with a total of 121 releases. I’m not sure how many migrated, though. I’m hoping to have a more successful year next year!

21. I lost one and raised one. I found a very tiny cat on a leaf very late in season. Today Oct 2 it bloomed as my grandson says and is sitting on a flower.
    I thought it stopped eating a couple of times and changed leaves to a plant near where it was found. it took more than 15 days to cacoon and another 15 or so to bloom, I saw 3 others start their flights.

22. Hi Tony!

    This is my third year to raise Monarchs. Last year I raised and released over 300 from mid July through early October. This year I didn’t see a single Monarch in my garden until late August. Thankfully the late visitors left me over 300 eggs. I actually had to stop collecting eggs as it was getting too late to rear and release them before the cold temps arrive in Ohio (though I do continue to bring in all the cats that I find). It was very crazy caring for that many all at once but somehow I managed with only a few casualties. Even one casualty is very heart breaking though.

    The weather in Ohio was not great for releasing Monarchs this week, however, I was able to release 70 or so today and plan on releasing 30 or so tomorrow. I have about 20 left to release over the next few weeks. I hope the weather holds out that long or I will have to take a drive down south

    I was very happy to be able to supply my special needs students with Monarch eggs again this year. This is the third year that they have raised and released them at school. I wish you could see how happy they are while caring for and releasing their Monarchs.

    My problems:
    I did have more problems with eggs this year than in past years. At least 20 eggs did not hatch. Many turned black as if they would hatch but never did. Others simply remained white. I also had a problem that I haven’t had in past years with a handful of butterflies. I kept them in large pop-up enclosures for two to several days after they eclosed before I released them and about eight of them had the tips of their wings bent or broke off. They were fine when they eclosed though. I had the same amount in the pop-ups last year and did not have this happen to one butterfly. I watched them closely when I released them and they had no problem flying. They have been flying around the milkweed for several days with all of the others that are getting their bellies full of nectar before they leave for Mexico. I also had a pair that was mating last week. I thought this generation couldn’t mate for many months.

    .

    1. Hi Toni, thanks for sharing your raising experience. As for the late mating, a non-migratory male could grabbed a migratory female. Nothing should come of this if she is sexually immature. It’s always a good idea to let butterflies thoroughly dry before releasing so they can escape predators…or each other!

       1. I actually never release my migrating Monarchs until 2 days after eclosing. I place each one of them on a tropical milkweed flower so they get their bellies full for their long flight. All have headed south. Yesterday and today are the first days without a Monarch siting in my garden. I have 3 that should eclose by this weekend. I hope the weather in Ohio holds out till then.

23. Hi! Tony ;
    You are doing a fantastic job with all your information. This was my second year and I loved it. I have raised 125 Monarch Butterflies this year which was a lot more than m last year. I also got other people interested doing it too. One good thing I did was after the caterpillars ate the leaves off the plants I stuck the stem back in the dirt and got beautiful new Milkweed. I also placed a wet paper towel in a small container plate 4 x 6 inches,I then put the leaf with the egg on it. Then I covered the end of the stem with a damp paper towel, which then I covered the tray with plastic wrap with holes in it. That worked great till the egg hatched and the caterpillars big. I would also mist them 2 times a day. My season this year was much better. Thank you for all your help Tony.

24. This is my second year raising Monarchs. Last year I was only able to release 5, however this year I released 32 majority being females. My plans for 2017 is to expand my garden to plant more milkweed. In addition to Monarchs I also released 19 Black Swallowtail.

25. Oops, forgot a few things!
    1). Monarchs showed up in MD on Sept. 1, which is just about exactly the same as last year. While we saw almost none in our yard, they were stealthy, and we found eggs on our Milkweed (common and swamp) just about every day. Thank goodness my neighbor has a huge common milkweed patch, and was kind enough to give us access to his backyard so we could keep the caterpillars fed.
    2). WATER TUBES are your friends. That’s the name for those florist tubes you find at the ends of cut flowers to keep them hydrated. I save them when I get them, but with 5 dozen caterpillars eating, we didn’t have enough. Amazon has them! I ordered 100 for maybe $10, and they keep the milkweed moist for a couple of days (sometimes you have to fill up the tubes again).
    3). If the lids are not snapped down all the way on the Kritter Keepers, there is a hole on each long end at the top, and caterpillars can escape through the holes. We kept finding them outside the containers and finally figured out how they were getting out.

    1. One of the two “isolated” caterpillars hatched into a perfect, beautiful girl today, and we released her along with 7 others. One of the boys did not have hooks on his feet, so he was able to expand his wings but kept falling down, and we don’t have much hope that he will make it. That’s the first time we’ve seen this happen.

26. We are in MD and still have chrysalises this year–a couple of dozen left, and we’ve released about 3 dozen (most tagged). For the first time, we lost a couple of 2nd instar caterpillars that just stopped eating and died, with nothing seemingly wrong. We also had one loss of a caterpillar that couldn’t completely form a chrysalis, and my cat knocked over a container of chrysalises trying to get to a fluttering butterfly and damaged three of them. So, we have learned to keep the butterflies away from the cat. We had one chrysalis fall off the top of the Kritter Keeper, and were able to successfully use LocTite Power Grab construction glue (it’s non-toxic and will even stick to the waxy outside of a chrysalis!) to make a ball at the top and embed a thread so we could tie it back up. That butterfly hatched successfully. I’ve been raising Monarchs since I was 8 years old, and we learned a LOT of new things this year! We also had two caterpillars that seemed to have “scars” on their sides, so we isolated them together in case they had something contagious. They’ve formed normal appearing chrysalises, and from what I read online, the markings may just be a harmless genetic thing. We’ll know this week.

27. This is my first year raising Monarchs using a cage, but we’ve got our garden certified as a Monarch Waystation in 2011 and have had lots of “wild” Monarch success. Last year was a bad year, with hardly any Monarchs so I wanted to try and do something this year.

    Back in August of this year I successfully raised and released 10 Monarchs – 7 females and 3 males, all beautiful and healthy. I currently have a total of 16 caterpillars/chrysalides in my Big Cube on the patio.

    I love going out and checking on them to see how they are doing.

28. Sadly I lost over half of my brood this year. Last year I had 30 healthy butterflies out of 39 brought inside. This year I had 11 healthy butterflies out of 24 brought in. There were few from my own garden so I searched at parks in my area and to find more. It was disheartening to be trying to save them and have them die or not be able to fly. Hopefully next year will be better.
    Tam Bagby

29. This was my first year!
    Season total 57 Monarchs released, 31 females and 26 males!
    August 29 – September 17 – 41 released 20 females and 21 males!
    very educational and fun! I will do it again next year!

    Very few problems!
    I Monarch emerged with a hole in it’s wing, it could fly, so I let it have it’s time on my Butterfly bush, etc.
    I caterpillar just quit eating and died!

30. First year hunting for cats and eggs. Found 6 cats and all were released as monarchs in Hudson, Wisconsin! Thanks for all your advice and tips.

31. This year has been 100% success for raising monarchs. Living here in the eastern panhandle of WV I have not seen but one monarch in my flower garden. Which I raised inside in critter keepers. I found one egg on my pink milkweed and five cats on my common milkweed. Two things I have learned is that the cats eat enormously amount of milkweed so I definitely need to plant more milkweed this fall. I had to get 911 milkweed that I found in my neighborhood two times and I found two more cats. And I’ll buy a magnifying glass so I can see those eggs! I want to thank you for your website for all the information. I did let go 5 females and 2 males and one still in chrysalis.

32. This is really my first year “raising” monarchs. I have a small green house that last spring I had at least 20 cats of all sizes. I had to watch where I walked! It didn’t get to hot, which is what I worried about. They were eating and chomping away and I had to get new MW. But so sorry to say, I found out that wasps were not a good thing. They seemed to all disappear. Only 3 survived and formed chrysalides and were released. Now I have 3 chrysalis and 3 1’s. And I received my large cube yesterday!!! I feel success in the future. Hopefully all 6 will make it. As soon as it cools down a bit I will move the babies to the cube. Also in the green house.

33. Had about 100 cats in yard last year and container raised about 20. This year here in Lexington Kentucky had despaired of seeing any then suddenly in September got some action though nothing like previous year. I raised about a dozen in my enclosure over last few weeks. I had beginner luck last year with 100% sucess. This year had one chyrlis that something somehow breached and had to dispose of it. Then after several successes two different cats fell off after “J”ing. They formed chyrlis while laying on bottom of cage. I tried to use a cotton ball to rehang them with no luck. All others were fine. Released one this weekend. Still have two chyrlis and two are in J. They have been in J an unusually long time which may be because it’s suddenly gotten colder?? Cage is on back porch and I’m afraid to move them right now but after they form chyrlis I’ll bring them inside where heat will hopefully speed up development so they can hustle on to Mexico. I can also control release so if it’s a horrid day when eclose can wait a bit to release.

    Biggest issue I had was keeping milkweed fresh during the last weeks of hot, dry weather. Tried every trick but cuttings would wilt very shortly after cutting. Only because I had grown plenty of milkweed in pots to use as food was I able to have enough to keep cutting more to replenish wilted ones.

34. st louis area
    First eggs; August 26
    2 eggs didn’t hatch
    16 total caterpillars hatched
    1- caterpillar died
    Start cocoon: September 12
    Emerge:
    September 23- 2 1boy 1girl
    September 24-7
    September 25- 5 3 boys 2 girls
    1- i let hatch naturally outside of cage

35. Like many others writing you, this too is my first year rearing Monarchs, and, milkweed. Monarch mamas obliged by laying eggs all over my plants and about twenty four hatched. While anticipating butterflies to come, I enjoyed watching those little striped creatures eating and waving their funny little antennae. Then, to my dismay, this fall, earlier than usual, came the Santa Ana’s (AKA “devil winds”), that wiped out most of my cats. Sadly I’ve learned a hard lesson: heed your advice and raise the cats indoors. In August I did raise and release four healthy Monarchs which I raised indoors. Don’t know why I decided to take a chance on leaving them outside this month! If I am blest with eggs again, as I said, they will come inside!

    Evelyn in Southern California

36. Hi Tony, I just recently found your website, and glad I did. I’m learning more from your website than any other site. Thanks. In 2015 I raised and released 198 monarchs. What a busy time ! (: I lost 24 to various things, but overall I was happy to do my part to keep these beautiful creatures from extinction. In 2016 however I have, to date, raised and released only 77, with 12 chrysalis to go. Only lost 3 butterflies this season. To date 39 have been males, 38 females. A question I have has to do with an emerging butterfly not being to get out of the chrysalis. The poor thing tried and tried but to no avail. Is there anything I an do to help it? Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks for any input on this problem.. Have a great day everyone. (: Jackie

    1. Hi Jackie, congrats on a successful season! If a butterfly is stuck in the chrysalis it probably has severe OE and would be weak/deformed if removed. In these cases it’s probably best to euthanize by putting in a baggie inside your freezer.

37. We have had a very successful year of releasing monarchs! One of our teachers and her husband have a very large farm. Her husband has been very excited to help in the monarch’s success. They have begun mowing their milkweed area down in mid summer which allows it to regrow into healthy stock for the migrators. She brought in more than 70 cats from the patch and we hatched them in fish tanks throughout the school. We have only had about 4 that either didn’t hatch, or were in some way deformed. We tagged 50 and I ran out of tags because I didn’t expect so many cats! One of our teachers bought a 20 gallon fish tank and we put it in the library for everyone to watch. It has been a roaring success for children and parents alike. Our own butterfly garden only produced 2 cats this year (we had 40 last year). It is filled with butterflies an bees however, which makes me happy. We are glad to be a part of this effort!
    Pam Ososky

38. Hi Tony,

    This was a hard year for us in central Indiana, and not just because of the March storm in Mexico. In the middle of May we had two nights of killing frost. It had been 80 degrees up till then with all the trees in bloom, butterflies coming out, 1st generation monarch eggs being laid and hatching…and then nothing. Hardly any butterflies after that; only Cabbage Whites and Tiger Swallow Tails seemed unaffected. Nothing on the trees either. It’s been a year without maple seeds and walnuts.

    Lesson learned: to help monarchs I now expand my search for eggs beyond my yard. Any public place with milkweed and friends with milkweed who don’t raise butterflies. By doing that I’ll have at raised at least 60 migration monarchs to salvage the season.

    This is also the first year I have tried planting Mexican Sunflowers and have had great success with them. For the past several weeks I’ve had a least a 6-8 monarchs constantly in the yard feeding up for the migration. Next year I’ll plant even more and stagger planting so as to have some in bloom for most of the summer.

39. This August I harvested 18 Monarch eggs and all reached adulthood and were released with success. However, I was disappointed they did not return to my garden to lay more eggs. Or least I didn’ t see them fluttering around as I did in July, the prior month, when I harvested 42 eggs and successfully released 33 adults. I’m not sure what happened to the August batch and I’ m hoping they didn’t fall prey to nearby Bluejays. There are other butterlflies that frequent my garden that are also orange. Maybe the bluejays can only differeniate between Monarchs and Fritillaries after one bite. I still remember, many years ago, my first Monarch release. I had no prior experience with rearing butterflies and I worried so much about my precious little God’s creatures life expectancies. I read everything I could get my hands on and waited for a warm enough day ( winter was setting in) for my long anticipated well reasearched butterfly release. As I stood there carefully nurturing my little baby out of her house I had images in my mind of others who wrote about their releasing adventures of their butterflies. They had endearing experiences with their Monarchs returning in midflight to land on their finger–it was as if we’re finally learning how to live with Mother Nature rather than to harness her for our convienice. Well, my first experience was a night mare. No sooner than my first release descended 10 feet into the air did a bird swoop down and attack it. Somehow my butterfly managed to escape or was released after the first bite and fluttered to the neareast tree branch for refuge. No sooner than it landed on a branch a swarm of rodents living in the tree attacked it. I couldn’t believe what happened. From that experience I’ ve learned what was meant by 5% survival 95% mortality.
    This year I had a higher survival rate but it took a lot of guarding and a lot of patrolling in my garden. But it was every bit worth it. This July I released 33 Monarchs within a two week time frame and many considered my garden their home. I was such a touching moment for me to see them fluttering about my garden. Whenever I came out so did they. And they followed me around for a short while or flittered about me as if they had recognition. I’m looking forward to next year.

40. During the spring migration I hatched 5. I wasn’t prepared for the fall migration back through Texas but have 5 chrysalises which should hatch next week. This was my first year and I’m hooked. Will be building a cage to keep milkweed in to keep the aphids off. and transfer young cats into. I don’t seem to have a problem with wasps, yet. I am also increasing my flower beds to attract more Monarchs

41. hi
    first year trying. we had four black swallowtails, three male Monarch,7 female Monarch all from baby cats. And now one huge swallowtail cat. so glad to see article re:wintering over. thot we were going to have to drive it somewhere.
    we only lost two cats ,couldn’t figure why and one monarch cryst. just turned to goo inside.
    thankyou for your great tips. Brighton, mich

42. My daughter and I were lucky enough to find around 100-monarch eggs this year along a railroad track in SE Missouri during August and September. Between us, my sister and my daughters good friend, we managed to raise several adult butterflies that were released during the month of August. The last monarch left September 17th.

    Lessons we learned this year: The cats seem to respond to a small fan blowing across the top of their cage for part of the day. Once the fan was turned on the cats immediately became active and started to crawl and feed. We came to believe the air movement took out stale air that may have formed in the plastic cage due to the frass. Also, we learned that the common milkweed leaves we found the eggs on were great to start the newly hatched cats but (due to the distance we had to travel for fresh leaves) gathering enough was quite a chore. Quite by accident we started feeding (Sand Vine Milkweed) from the backyard and the cats devoured leaves and stems as though it had never been placed in the cage. Sand Vine MW is much thinner and our success rate greatly improved.

    1. Hi David,, I too have found that a small personal type fan works well at my butterfly cage. I set it a couple of feet away from the cage on oscillate at low speed. Keeping the air moving, even a little keeps everyone happy. I have had only one incident of OE this year. Maybe that helped ?? Good luck with next years batch.. Jackie

    2. I live in central Nebraska and the year was a normal one for monarchs. This is my third year raising monarchs. I love the hatching cages, they have helped tremendously.. I recommend them to everyone that raises butterflies. It was the 4th of July when I saw a monarch fluddering around the milkweed we have in the road ditches by our house. I found 17 eggs that day. We have a lot of milkweed around out area and just a mile and a half from my house I collected 130 eggs and released 122 monarchs. There were 70 males and 52 females. I had 45 released in September for the migration. I have asters, zinnias and lantana in my yard and had daily visits from migrating monarchs. Sad to see the season end, waiting impatiently for next year. I also share my cats with grade schools in the area. I take milkweed seed packs and handout to each child with information on monarchs. My granddaughter helped me this year in her class. Till next year

43. Living in San Diego County, SoCal, tachinid flies have been on the rampage this year. Checking with other local enthusiasts, they also report that this has been the worst year for flies. There must be a hornet nest or wasp nest in the vicinity also, as I rarely see any wild cats past 2nd instar. When searching for eggs, the appearance of a couple of empty egg shells with tiny holes bored out of them announced the presence of trichogramma wasps (I think).

    For this season, it seems my butterfly garden was almost devoid of adult monarchs flitting about. I can only attribute that locally to wasp or hornet predation on the larvae, hence a reduced adult population, as I’ve been collecting, rearing, and then releasing quite a few adults.

    One important self-lesson learned in rearing cats inside is to go with larger rearing containers than smaller to save space. I can place more food in them. There have been a few times where I got busy doing other things, spacing out and forgetting to check on my charges, only to find later that they’ve eaten everything, even the stems, causing them to go hungry for a period of time.

44. 2016 was a good year here in Southern California. Last week, I found what I would assume is my last batch of eggs (15 in all). They are munching away today and getting big! This year I’ve had 4 batches of babies that were a combination of egg raised and bringing in tiny cats. Each group had 13-15 cats with varying survival rates.

    My first group went great with all but one making it to healthy beautiful butterflies. I lost the one to tachinid fly parasitism. – released 13

    My second group had problems with toxicity. About half of my group started throwing up green goop and I followed the instructions on bathing them. I was actually able to save many of them (I figured out it was because I had flea-treated my dogs and failed to thoroughly wash my hands!! Now, I ALWAYS put on nitrile gloves when I handle or work around my cages). In the chrysalis stage, I lost another 3 to tachinid flies (I’m not sure how they were getting them because I use a cage 🙁 ), but I was able to release another 13 butterflies.

    My third group had a different challenge . . . I had about 15 that I raised to chrysalids and some started turning dark in spots (OE??). I euthanized 2 of them and the rest seemed like they were okay. I had 1 butterfly come out crippled (bent wing) and I euthanized her because she couldn’t fly, so I released about 12 more butterflies. Made sure to wash down my cages with dilute bleach water and rinse thoroughly. I also cut down my bushes and went out to get fresh ones.

    My fourth group was pretty uneventful, except for another couple of tachinid issues, so I released 14 more butterflies.

    Now, I’m on my last group and I have 15 cats of various sizes. All in all, it’s been a busy year!!

    Looking forward to a quiet winter!! Thanks, Tony, for all the great information and advise throughout the summer!

45. This is my first year at raising Monarch caterpillars. I grew my first milkweed plant and harvested six eggs from my new little swamp milkweed plant. Three hatched that very day and the other three hatched 4 days later. It was really amazing watching them grow, seemed to happen right before my eyes. My grandchildren also enjoyed this experience with me and my 4 year old great-granddaughter. I am happy to report that all six went into chrysalis nine days after hatching and when the first three emerged, I had two boys and one little girl. The next two emerged and both were girls. The last little girl decided to make us wait another day before she made her appearance and when it came time to release her, she had other ideas. She would not let go of my finger. I couldn’t tempt her with all the other Monarchs flying around or the fragrant butterfly bushes. We ended up cutting her some flowers and let her stay with us one more day. By the next day, she was flying around her cage saying let me go, I’m ready now. I feel very blessed that my first attempt was such a success and I hope to raise even more next summer.

46. After a very good year in 2015, our office released over 100 Monarchs. But, 2016 only saw about 10 healthy butterflies released in Morton Grove (a suburb of Chicago). Not many eggs were spotted and, of those, many failed to survive. We had a cold snap in late Spring which may have affected things or it could have been pesticides. We seemed to have better luck with Swallowtails.

    We have high hopes for next year, though.

47. I’ve had 15 successful releases thus far, one more chrysalis still to go. I was fortunate this time around – only lost 1 caterpillar and 1 butterfly.

48. Well Tony, what a year this has been. After I got introduced to MONARCHS last year and raised and released 3, I got all goofy and had all winter planning and preparing. I have tagged 200 and released over 300, not sure what the final number is going to be. Still have some chrysalis’s to eclose. Was almost in trouble, they eat a tremendous amount of milkweed. Have more plans for more planting this fall. Flowers were no problem, have lots of them. Have not decided exactly what my raising tecniecks (sp) are going to be next year as I tried several. Learned a lot and have a lot to learn yet, but it’s fun. I’m seeing a lot of butterflies coming through my place headed south. I live in eastern/central Iowa. Cedar Rapids, Iowa City area. Have a good one, love your site. Dale

49. Released 7 males and 7 females. Had problems with aphids this year but rinsed them off before feeding to cats. Will be more diligent next year in controlling the aphids. Will also be planting more butterfly weed.

50. Thank you Tony and most beautiful group of Monarch caretakers. This is my first year and not only was I not prepared, I was winging it until I found this site! Truly, thank you! I live in central Florida, where the aphids were out of control this year! Since June 21- today, I have released 56 happy healthy Monarchs. In August, I finally started to count Males 10 and females 23 . At this moment in time, there are 59 chrysalids, 18 cats in various stages and 30 eggs in incubation. When I began this magical adventure, I had 2 milkweed plants, ha, now I have 60 pots! I lost 3 caterpillars recently to some kind of disease, and early on I lost 3 butterflies due to ants, because they fell down, but they were also apparently parasitized. Focus, Food, time, cleanliness and safety is key I have learned thus far. Also patience and surrendering to nature. I have shared this awesome experience with my friends and strangers, whoever would listen and look at photos, really! It’s magnificent, watching transformation everyday with joy, love and beauty and raising the migration. It is a win for all. I have also learned that those cats move really quickly, need to be watched and if they can find a way out of their enclosure, they will. Also, they can really eat, I was so not prepared for that and the poo, wowwee! This is one of the most magical, rewarding, joyous experience of my life. Will let you know about my final results!

51. Despite not seeing many monarchs in west St. Louis county Missouri, those that stopped by dumped eggs. So far I have released 30 monarchs, 23 females and 7 males. Have one more to enclose – assuming it is healthy my total will be 31. I tagged 25 as that is all I purchased. I did have 4 casualties. One cat attempted to spin its silk on another chrysalis, it fell & got smushed & died. Another cat attacked a cat in J, causing the J cat to fall & die. One chrysalis fell before drying & got smushed. And one monarch enclosed so deformed I had to euthanize it. A few days ago, a very worn & pale colored female stopped by and laid several eggs on the tropical MW. I am assuming this female has been traveling from way up north because of its condition – no tag. I understand that the females traveling to Mexico from Canada and the upper US are in diapause so these eggs may be sterile. Is this a fact? I will check these eggs daily. I have been raising monarchs for 10 years. Last year (30) and this year have been my best years. No signs of tachnid fly infestation this year.

52. We let our last protected monarch fly skyward this afternoon but it is definitely not the last of the Monarchs in South Texas; my plants are in shreds while the little caterpillars eat away at the tropical milkweed. We had a major problem with red wasps eating the eggs and dragging off the baby caterpillars; then when I saw one carry off a bee I declared war on them! We found the nest quite unexpectedly and sprayed it well (the only insecticide we ever use). Within a week we saw a difference in the numbers of little caterpillars surviving. Last year since we didn’t have a freeze we had caterpillars all winter; we will see what happens this winter. It has been a moving experience to see the little caterpillars, barely visible to the naked eye grow so quickly, become a chrysalis and fly upward to freedom. My grandchildren, 3 and 6, loved having the Monarchs crawl onto their finger before flying away. I have greatly enjoyed sharing this wondrous experience with them.

53. We live in northern CT. So far this year, we have released over 250 Monarchs, with around 250 left to go (total = about 500). This is the most Monarchs we have raised in our 30 years of raising Monarchs. It is also the latest year that we have found Monarch eggs and caterpillars. Last year we raised around 150 Monarchs.

54. This was my first year raising Monarchs…. And it was transformational. A lone Monarch flew into my backyard and laid 8 eggs on the tropical milkweed I had -not the seedlings of common milkweed that I had started for the school that I teach at in NYC. I took in four and left 4 outside The next day I looked and found 2 gone of the four and ants all over the milkweed -and so instead of leaving the remaining 2 outside , I took them in. The next day I found another on a different plant and took it in. Lesson learned : take them all in. All flourished , were tagged and released. I found your website to be the most helpful with some unknowns I was experiencing with raising them. One experience in particular stands out – how to handle a cat that was probably exposed to airborne poisoning. I learned to identify the green as vomit & quickly rinse the cat and the area. I also removed the milkweed and cleaned new milkweed and observed it . It began eating and did not vomit again. I felt thrilled to help it.
    Another lesson I learned was that many folks are not aware of milkweed as the host for Monarchs. After experiencing the milkweed emergency search for the lucky 7 I raised , it inspired me to reach out to neighbors, neighboring schools in Westchester County and even the NYC Parks department to allow my student community to plant Milkweed in Inwood,Northetn Manhattan.
    Having watched this lone female fly from the woodlands into my backyard and locate the milkweed, watching her lay eggs was amazing…and even more inspiring was learning how to raise her eggs. Your site educated my family & brought deeper insights and responsibilities into helping the Monarch survive like never before. I have a deeper understanding of the perils they encounter. I’ve learned many things through your site, that have helped these beautiful butterflies thrive …advocating for the planting of milkweed along with nectar plants is what I’m now focusing on in my teaching , and getting involved with folks that are ensuring milkweed is planted in our pathways and beyond. Thank you for all you do & continue to do to help educate folks on Raising the Migration- bringing awareness and advocacy to us!

    1. I love this story about your first year experience and that you’re already getting others involved to help support the struggling monarch population. Thank you Lynette and congrats on a successful first season!

55. In Chicagoland, Illinois, we raised eight monarchs, 4 male and 4 female. The only monarchs we saw this summer were the ones we raised! This was my first year (so I’m not disappointed with our numbers) and am thrilled that we have eight success stories. Hopefully, their offspring will find their way back next year.

    A few suggestions: 1) Relax, enjoy, and don’t worry too much! The cats know what they’re doing 🙂 We obsessed over the one who went into a J too soon (she didn’t), the two that pupated on the habitat zipper, and the two that pupated on dying shreds of milkweed. Next year, we’ll be calmer!!
    2) Make sure you have access to LOTS of pesticide-free milkweed. With our small numbers, we were fine. I wound up shipping milkweed to a fellow raiser in Florida who had exhausted all local sources and didn’t have enough to feed her cats. She’s planting more as I type.
    3) Have a backup person available to care for your cats in case you need to go out of town. We’ve all learned to be good foster parents this summer.

    1. great pearls of wisdom Karen…thanks for sharing. I especially like #1, because more often than not, things turn out ok if you give them a little time.

56. I know you all have read the articles regarding the high rate of OE disease found along the Gulf coast. I live in the Houston area and I have Monarchs pretty much year round unless we have unusually cold weather. I am sad to report that of the 80+ monarchs that I have raised in the past month, 100% tested positive for the disease. I have been cutting my tropical milkweed back as recommended but it has not helped. I have attempted to grow other types of milkweed with no success. I get so much joy from raising the butterflies but it seems I may be hurting them more than helping them.

    1. Hi Donna, you might want to cut back all your milkweed and let fresh stalks and foliage grow back. You could also try spraying down the soil wth a water and hydrogen peroxide mix (50/50) with 3% hydrogen peroxide. I’m not sure if it will doing anything to kill OE spores but it does kill other bacteria and viruses so it could have a positive impact. h202 is also good for root growth. I’m not sure if 100% OE-free is even a reasonable goal in continuous growing regions….monarchs infected with OE have flourished in your region for years. good luck!

57. After 2 weeks of no monarchs in our Gulf Coast Fl garden, 3 females visited today, and laid eggs on tropical, swamp, tuberosa, and whorled milkweed. Since the ones we saw 2 weeks ago were 3 females we raised and released from our mesh enclosure, we’re thinking it might be the same three! They zoomed over a hedge and straight to the garden, like they knew it was there. This is our third year, with about 95% survival, and we’re totally captivated! Thank you for your wonderful, informative website.

58. Raised about 250 monarchs this spring. Then after June, saw none. Did see arrival of the Queen Monarchs. Raised 50 of these. Now this week, september15 had arrival of a couple monarchs and now have 50 small caterpillars I am raising indoors.

59. With help from my butterfly sitters, I raised and released 19 beautiful monarchs this season. I didn’t actually see many monarchs in my urban Chicago garden but found eggs anyhow.
    Lessons Learned:
    Chrysalis relocation: Last year I practiced relocating chrysalides by moving some empty ones. This year two chrysalides required relocating from the undersides of leaves: In one case some caterpillars were about to eat through the leaf and refused to be redirected. In the other case the leaf was drying up and sagging, and I was afraid the chrysalis would fall. I used the “tie dental floss around the cremaster” method, tied the floss to a safety pin, and pinned it to the top of the cage. Both butterflies turned out fine. Lesson: Practice chrysalis relocation. You may need it.
    Butterfly escape! I had one that I kept for >24 hours because of bad weather. She was hanging quietly from the top of the cage and hadn’t moved much. I unzipped the door to put some tasty tidbits inside, and she made a beeline (monarchline?) for the closed window. After uttering a 4-letter word I grabbed a large soft plastic storage bowl, centered it over her (careful not to hurt her wings or her feet), and lowered it, then slid a piece of paper under the bowl-with-butterfly, turned it right side up, and returned her to the cage. I released her when the weather cleared a few hours later, and she flew off without looking back. Lesson: Don’t assume that a quietly hanging monarch isn’t plotting escape, don’t unzip the cage door fully until you’re prepared to release, and plan ahead for capturing an escapee.
    Butterfly back-up: I did some traveling this summer so I lined up some butterfly sitters. My sister is a pro at this and a friend with an 11 year old son also volunteered. Now the friend and son are planning to raise monarchs next year. Lesson: Identify someone to care for your monarchs if you need to leave town. This may also expand the pool of monarch-raisers.
    Pesticide-related death? One of the caterpillars died from what seemed like pesticide poisoning. The City of Chicago sprayed for mosquitoes late in the season; this may have been the cause, even though I cut and brought in some milkweed prior to the spraying. Lesson: Next year I will plant some milkweed in pots that I can bring inside if necessary. (And I will work harder to educate city officials about the unwanted effects of pesticides on pollinators.)
    Thank you for all the information that helps us raise and release healthy monarchs!

60. I have been raising Monarch butterflies for over 15 years and this was one of the worst years for seeing Monarchs and finding eggs. Usually I release around 350 butterflies. My best year I released 572. This year I released 173.
    I have experienced all of the diseases and predators through the years and this year a new experience – pesticide poisoning which I quickly caught and the cats survived. I wrote a letter about pesticide poisoning and sent to to 25 garden clubs and received good responses.
    My survival rate is usually around 65% but this year it is 43%. I look at it different way than you do. I raise as many as I can and overlook the loss. I collected 394 eggs & cats. If left in the wild only 3% (a high estimate) would survive which would be only 12 butterflies. Raising that many with the disasters indoors, I saved 161 more.
    I always try to do better and rely on your website for information.

    1. Hi Shirley, thank you for alerting all of those gardening clubs to the dangers of pesticides for monarchs and other beneficial pollinators…even though 173 is a ‘down’ year compared to the last few, you are still doing great things to support the struggling monarch population. Raise On!

61. I have released 35 monarchs this year so far in north Houston. Have 9 chrysalis and more cats then I can count. Luckily the milkweed has come up all over my yard so for now I have enough for them.

62. This year the Monarchs were scarce. I saw a few females throughout the summer, but they didn’t lay many eggs because I had a horrible aphid infestation that was hard to keep up with. Late in the season I was able to find one cat and released him last week. I’ve seen many Monarchs in the last two weeks stopping by to fuel up. Hoping for better results next year!

63. I live in Spain and this is my first year at raising; I thought I would be dealing with about half a dozen or so, but those little beauties kept laying and I have about 70 in various stages and using 3 different food nets-next year aquariums-so they are on my dining room table. nearly out of my hairyballs milkweed and now on a flowering variety just seeded a month or so ago, luckily have grown quickly. You need a lot of grub for these cats!.
    No diseases, one half made chrysalis, but my nightmare has been not being around as they emerge.. some just plop to the floor of their cage and then struggle, others hang on to their chrysalis skin and can let their wings plump up. I have lost 8 so far because they have not been able to right themselves without my help, so upsetting. two hung from under the table, one is still gripping the edge of a box under the kitchen table-huge walkabouter. So, my advice is not to do this on a larger scale unless you are going to be around a lot-I work a twelve hour day and only home all day on sundays. Mostly females. In the “wild” I have my eye on about 20 which should be the end of it all, no more eggs for a day or two, maybe on the new plants though, becaue the swan plants are all but sticks!Found a death head hawk caterpillar-absolutely beautiful, huge, yellow and blue , had to remove from the plant and place elsewhere and got a good chattering to for that from this blighter. Same day a black and white swallowtail, bit late for eggs though I expect… Phew, heres to next year!also surprised that although form chrysalides on same day, they can hatch at such different times.

    1. Greetings to you Mary all the way over in Spain! Congrats on a successful first year raising. If you have a number of weak butterflies falling from their chrysalides, you are probably dealing with heavy OE infection (monarch parasites), and should consider disinfecting your cage. There’s more info about OE and prevention here:

       8 Monarch Diseases and Pevention

       1. Thanks for the guidance, this new batch seem all ok, 15 over the last 3 days. loads of eggs but having to destroy as no food left

64. I thought I was done with the caterpillar nursery as I haven’t seen a monarch in my garden for weeks. The last batch (6) were collected as 3-4 instar cats and I brought them in thinking they were probably infected with fly maggots. Well two were and died. The other 4 grew fat and frassy then pupated with nice clean jade jewel cases. I’m glad I brought them in! So they’re hanging out in my studio and I’m enjoying a bit of peace until they eclose. Then I’m in the garden and I see a flash of orange among the milkweed …….I find 5 newly laid eggs…….I bring them in………life begins again!
    Pat in So CA

65. I released 5 females and 2 males.

    I had one additional female who fell after emerging and didn’t climb back up fast enough before one wing became deformed. I wish I had been there when it happened so I could have helped her up. (Note: all my chrysalises get a little ladder of plastic screen to climb in such emergencies. Don’t know why it took her so long to find it. Again I wish I was there at the time.) I released her to the zinnia patch where she survived for 5 days. I would find her on the ground and either lift her up to a fresh flower or bring one down to her. On day 6 she was gone (sniff).

    Another caterpillar made it to the chrysalis stage and immediately turned black from disease.

    I use peanut butter jars and each critter gets their own jar so no spread of disease. This year I bleached all my jars after sterilizing them in the dishwasher so hopefully, no spread of disease other than the odds of bringing disease in with them.

    The peanut butter jar method works well for small Monarch Ranchers like my neighbor and myself. This is my fourth year and I pretty much have my technique down.

    Oh, one lesson learned. I had one chrysalis form on a thin tightrope suspended from the top of the jar and to make matters worse I had too much humidity in that jar. Slowly the “tightrope” began to sag. So I did your dental floss trick and reattached it to the top. I also had two chrysalis form on loose leaves. I just cut around it on the leaf and taped the piece of leaf to the lid of the jar.

    One attached to the side of the jar and the chrysalis had a small flat side, but that didn’t affect the butterfly at all.

    Thanks, Tony, for keeping us all informed and holding our community together.
    Zoe Eckblad

66. My Mother and I live in Lebanon, Oh on a small farm. When we lost my Dad he had told Mom to plow under all those flower gardens and turn them back to grass because they were too much work. So Mom being Mom, she just planted milkweed!
    Reading and learning as much as possible about the plight of the Monarch, my sister, Mom and I watched and hunted for Monarchs and their eggs. Our first siting was 6/21/15 Happy Fathers Day! With Dads approval, we watched as a lone female deposited eggs in our swamp milkweed garden. Following her we collected 10 eggs. On day 4 we had babies on my Father’s Birthday!
    We raised 384 butterflies, tagged 125 of them.
    Unfortunately I lost my husband this year and our newfound butterfly project has kept us excited about life. The most exciting thing was one of our tags was found on 2/2/2016 in El Rosio Mexico!
    This year was a long awaited start. Our first siting this year was 7/14/16, but it is definitely off and running with 72 releases to date. There are now too many ? (catapillars) to count in the crates. Yahoo!

    1. What a beautiful story Suzanne…thank you for sharing. I’m happy to hear you were able to find peace and joy this summer while also helping the struggling monarch population. Have a wonderful rest of the season!

    2. HOW WONDERFUL!

    3. Hi Suzanne! I enjoyed reading your story. This was your first year? Amazing that you had such success! I began raising butterflies late this year, rather unexpectedly by finding Spicebush swallowtails on my Spicebush. I got in contact with Swallowtail people, learning how to care for them and was thereby introduced to raising Monarchs when I found a big caterpillar on my butterfly weed. Ran in to find out what I needed to raise it and went back out about a half hour later and it was gone. That experience led to me checking my other milkweed and I soon found a few small caterpillars that I raised. Only five total but that was probably good for such a beginner that I was. It sure was a learning experience and was fraught with worry about doing the right thing. Overall though it was an experience that was life changing and has turned me into an addictive butterfly raiser. ☺️
       I live pretty close to you, in Xenia Ohio. Would be great if we could somehow meet and share our love for the Monarch butterfly. I could use another mentor next year, especially from someone as successful as you were. Not sure how that could happen but even if we never meet, thanks for sharing your story!

67. I just read about the cat that fell into the water. I take Glad or Ruubbermaid containers bought in the grocery store and cut a hole in the lid. I put a piece of wet floral foam, not the Oasis brand, and put it in the container. I fill the container with water until it is saturated and put the lid on. The milkweed stalks get stuck in the foam, last for up to 6 days, depending on the temperatures, and the caterpillars have no water to fall into. I have been using this method for about 10 years with success.

68. I have my first 2 cats, with ordinary milk weed in my cage and we will see what success I have. This is so exciting!

69. 329 Monarchs released this season in Ottawa! Can’t wait until next year with expanded outdoor butterfly habitat and friends that are interested in raising Monarchs too! Planting more milkweed this week and my daughter and I have been asked to speak with a cub/boy scout group in the spring about our experiences raising Monarchs. Collecting milk weed seeds next weekend to put packages together to give out during our presentation. May try tagging next year.

70. I released 64 butterflies. This is my first year and failed to keep track of the number of male and female.

    I learned it takes a LOT of milkweed. I raised some from seed and bought a lot of other plants.

    I learned we are given many miracles to witness through this process. I got to watch and film a catipiller turn into a chrysalis. I also got to watch several butterflies emerge and learned how they pump body fluid into their wings to expand them. I watched monarchs lay eggs and managed to catch that on film also. I got to share all of this with grandchildren and hopefully started another generation to raise monarchs.

71. Hi Tony,
    We started with 14 Catapillars that were 1 thru 3 instars, and the students released 9 butterflies a week and a half ago — 6 females and 3 males. It made front page news here in Loveland ,CO.
    Lesson 1:
    We lost 2 chrysalis when we tried to move them before 24 hrs had elapsed and I failed to have a soft towel underneath. They fell only 12 inches but they cracked and a large amount of green fluid leaked out… A sure sign we’d lost them.
    Lesson 2:
    I raised the butterflies inside a 4 x4x6 ft enclosure with a mature flowering tropical milkweed plant inside as a great nectar source. Unfortunately, my second emerged butterfly took a header into the water dish under the plant and by the time I found her she had almost drowned. She only lasted 24 hrs. before she passed on. I immediately stuffed plastic grocery bags into the water dish and I suffered no further losses!

    1. congratulations Robert and thank you for sharing the hard lessons. While they’re never fun to talk about, your stories can help others from making the same mistakes…

72. I have released 10 so far– 9 females and one male. The first batch were content on tropical milkweed. This is my first year raising Monarchs inside. I tried in 2015 planting 3 types of milkweed but had no takers.

    I have another batch of cats eating me out of house and home right now– 2nd and 3rd instar. I have not been able to tempt the majority of them with tropical milkweed; so far they have only been interested in my common milkweed. Has anyone else had problems getting them to switch from one type of milkweed to another? Is there a trick to it? A few of this batch (about 10 %) made the switch to tropical but most have completely resisted it. I tried swamp milkweed as well but they are ignoring it also.

    I had to go out and source some more common milkweed in the wild for them. I am concerned I will run out before they are ready to go into chrysalis. The common milkweed here is thinking about going into dormancy.

    I had two more “wild” cats on the milkweed outside– one definitely reached the last instar and has moved off the plants(hopefully to make a chrysalis). I found these when they were too large to bring in with the small cats I had inside already. The second cat I think may have died—or at least I lost track of it.

    I decided not to tag because the eastern Monarchs have a lower chance of reaching Mexico according to prior research. I wanted these Monarchs to have the greatest chance possible of reaching their winter home. I am in eastern VA.

    My success rate to date: 10 of 14 successfully flew. Three caterpillars died by accident when they were still very small and hard to see–bumped the plants they were on when changing paper in the cage and they fell. I also lost one chrysalis by accidentally knocking it off a plant…I did not see it because it was attached to a dying leaf. It dented and then two days later turned dark. I removed it when it fell and taped the leaf to another surface. When it died I removed it to a sealed plastic bag and tossed it.

    I am planting 36 more swamp milkweed and will try for the first time to overwinter some tropical milkweed in order to try to take cuttings for a head start in the spring.

73. As of today released 152 monarchs in Leawood,KS. Have about 100 plus in the chrysalis stage and about 30 caterpillars still munching. Very exciting year! I have been using the extra large cages (3) to accommodate the different stages. I had a ton of tropical milkweed that came up voluntarily which attracted a few monarchs that laid a ton of eggs. Every morning when watering flowers I went on an egg hunt and started them in plastic take home containers with holes on top. Once they were about a half inch long they were moved to the large cages with milkweed. Will do an update with final numbers later.

74. I live in zone 9b which is very hot and humid from June to October, reaching temps of a feels like of 108 many days, actual temps in the mid to high nineties for most of July, August, and September. Growing milkweed is a challenge because it’s either very, very wet for days or very hot and dry for days or weeks. Its leaves turn yellow and drop or yellow and spotted or just loaded with brown spots. Aphids are rampant as are those orange and black bugs that suck the juices out of the top leaves. Even snails and slugs are a problem. It’s tough in the garden. Three years ago, I raised hundreds of monarchs to healthy eclosing on my back screened-in porch,even without special netting to keep out wasps. Last year when I did the same things, I had a terrible problem with malformed butterflies that dropped out of their chrysalises and cold not fly–I am assuming OE, so I bought the special containers to keep out wasps. This year, I had very few eggs in the garden, even in the spring–very few monarchs even flying around. It was strangely quiet. Then, when they did show up in the heat of the summer, the plants were already loaded with fungus on the leaves, humidity was so high that it killed some of the caterpillars, and of the eclosings, only about 50% were healthy, even in the special enclosures. I have read your website hints and done everything with, sadly, only so-so results this year. It is so frustrating. One thing I have done that I think might be a problem is that I have allowed my milkweed just to stay year after year. My mother had better results with new milkweed and healthy butterflies from them. Perhaps the OE is just thriving in my garden. I know that at least one of my chrysalises suffered a fly attack (I saw the thread hanging down and found a maggot!!!) I think now that I should pull all the milkweed in the winter and start over each spring. I am hoping that will be the answer. I think that even growing plants from cuttings is dangerous because my plants must be infected. I just think our climate is a killer, but I refuse to give up. I am eager to join your Facebook group to see if other Florida gardeners have some hints. I’m glad we are all working so hard to save the species and am very thankful for all of your tips.

    1. Hi Virginia, I’m sorry to hear you are having so many problems in Florida. The continuous growing zones have high levels of OE spores, and if you don’t cut back your milkweed occasionally, most of the butterflies will be heavily infected. Yes, there are a good number of raisers from California and Florida in the group and it’s always helpful to talk with others with first hand experience raising/gardening in your region. I have no doubt the group will help bring you more success…

75. This was my 4th year raising Monarchs here in Colorado at 8,000 feet. I got my seeds at the Monarch Butterfly Lady seminar years ago in ABQ.
    It took years for our giant plant to grow and I wasn’t sure it would make it. I planted the seeds in peat moss so every year it comes up now and in August a female comes and lays her eggs. This year I got to watch her. This year I managed to raise 5 and tagged 4 of them but the tag fell off one male so I didn’t retag him. All of them seemed smaller than usual and I think it was because Tussock moth caterpillars ate most of the plant so we had to collect leaves from plants in Ute pass which the caterpillars did not like as much. I realize now I should have carried the last little caterpillar to a plant instead of continuing to try to collect enough as they dried out too fast. Its quite a thrill for me to see them fly away. I got a Coreopsis plant for them this year but they didn’t like it. One sat on a white columbine for a few hours before flying away.

    1. Hi Alice, thanks for sharing your experience. I just wanted to say that if you have to collect milkweed off-property again, you can always try storing it in the refrigerator and then using stem or leaf cuttings in water to keep them fresh longer. It makes a big difference:

       Using stem or Leaf Cuttings for caterpillars

76. This is my first year of raising a monarchs. I have released 32 butterflies 15 male and 17 female. I just had four go into chrysalis yesterday and I have another 15 Catapillar’s. I live in California so I know They are around longer than back east. And they don’t actually Migrate. It’s been an exciting season for me. I’ve had a great response from next-door.com. It’s a website for neighborhoods. And many people have become interested in milkweed and raising monarchs. I have absolutely loved the experience. My biggest issue is with the tachinid fly. If I don’t bring them in. I would say they only have a 1% chance if that. We have a major fly problem out here in my area. It’s maddening. But I keep bringing them in. I’d rather have them have a chance. I have raised about 25 from eggs and the rest from instar ones and twos that I found in the garden.

    1. Its sure good to read that. I only had 5 make it this year and one caterpillar died while small as other caterpillars ate the milkweed up. Next year I plan to start early getting rid of those moth caterpillars. The ones I release have to migrate as it gets too cold here in Colorado. You are sure lucky that yours can stay around.

77. This is my 1st year trying this…went to a seminar at the Durham, Conn. Fair on Monarchs and decided to try it!We already had plenty of plants to attract them but no milkweed . Planted 6 m/w, 3 different types, all grew but only the swamp ended up with any cats…they seemed to be much later than other emails you got.Lost the 1st 3 cats ,probably to birds, brought the next 3 inside and they are just finishing their cute little green houses! Will see what happens! ONE NOTE!!!!! I accidently knocked one crysalis off that was suspended from the screen on the aquarium I was using… I put a drop of Krazy glue on a piece of thread and touched it to the original point of attachment and then tied it loosely to the screen and we will see what happens. We live on Long Island,N.Y. I was never able to find any eggs, checked almost every day….. they sprayed for Mosquitos and I think it killed most of the few monarchs we had this year ! ALSO used a piece of 3/8″ hose held in the end of my wife’s vacuum to clean the cage and found it worked well & you can regulate the suction with the hand that holds the hose in the vacuum hose! Ned B.

78. Hello from Thunder Bay Ontario…..I’m just north of you and followed your sightings to know when to start looking for visitors in my garden…
    This is my third year raising Monarchs and I am so hooked!!!
    This year I released about 110, lost 5 and gave another 25 to be fostered, so I was pretty excited to have so many guests this year.
    My first female visitor came July 19th, and my last release was August 24th, but just the other day September 14th there was a male sunning itself in my garden….hope it finds it’s way.
    I raise my cats in shoe box sized containers and line the bottom with paper towel. This year I decided to turn them on their side so the chrysalis attaches up top and when it is time to release I move them outside and take the lid off. I also have two mesh cages that I’ve moved some chrysalis to, and that is great to have as well.
    I have just finished transplanting in my garden and created two new beds in the front and added more milkweed of course. I plan to add cone flowers, brown eyed susan, zinias and more liatris.
    Thank you for all you share with us, I enjoy your newsletters and seeing everyone’s enthusiasm.

79. Ist attempt:
    So far
    10 females
    6 males
    23 crysalis waiting
    Only one with deformed wings, the first one
    At least 9 new eggs
    5 big cats
    Southern Calif. do they leave here?
    And 1 fruitilary that somehow snuck in the cage?

    1. congrats on all your monarch success, and your one honorary monarch…it’s possible to have monarchs all year in your region.

80. I am near Atlanta, I used one swamp milkweed. I used seeds from tropical milkweed I had to start 30 plants which grew well. None have flowered for seeds yet. I only saw one Monarch this season and no eggs were laid. Hoping next year is better. BTW I was planning to cut back all tropical milkweed to control keep them clean from disease. Only necessary on tropical milkweed I believe. Thanks for caring about the Monarchs, Tony

81. We live in Central Florida and the Monarchs are thriving! We released total this past month 137 with help from some other school moms. Today 20 more hatched and 16 formed Js. We are now using large serving trays given away at Costco with meal trays. We poked holes in top and the trays are 18inches x18 inches.

82. 42 monarch butterflies hatched between August 29- September 17

    15 more chrysalis to go. found a 1st instar yesterday!

    0 accidental deaths

    0 disease issues

    22 healthy males (so far)

    20 healthy females (so far)

    100% survival rate

    1. I have released 171 to date over the summer.

83. 34 monarch butterflies released, one didn’t make it. This is my first year participating and I could not have done this successfully with out the e book I purchased from you Tony. Really everything I needed to know was in there. The only one that didn’t make it was the caterpillar I found wandering on a dirt road obviously looking for more milkweed. He had already been parasitized by the time I found him. However I would not even have know that without your info.
    Lesson learned: I live in an area in N Ca that had a huge and very high temperature fire. The fire temps were so high that the ground in many places was sterilized. I realized the crucial importance of saving seeds, especially the local milkweed seeds.
    Thank you

84. I have tons of milkweed and different varieties of it. I have all kinds of flowers. Last year I found lots of eggs but this year I barely found any. I can’t beat the aphids and this year I had the shiny blue-green, goldish beetles as well. I managed to hatch two eggs and they didn’t make more than a couple of days. three other eggs did not hatch at all.

85. So far I have released 156 healthy monarchs. I still have over 30 chrysalises and over 20 caterpillars. Will give an update when the last one leaves. I have also given 148 caterpillars to friends to raise because of overcrowding in my tents and they have been successful with those.

    1. Wow! You are an inspiration! What state are you in Susie?

       1. I live in Berks County in PA. Last year I released 291. My entire back yard is flower beds with native perennials and I am convinced the Monarchs see it as they’re flying by. The iron weed is 6 to 7 feet tall and they are drawn to that when it is in bloom. I go out every evening to look for eggs and in one week I found over 200 eggs. I wonder if the same female was hanging around.

86. Hi Tony! This was my butterfy gardens’ first year…and what an exciting year it was! I collected two eggs after my husband spotted a monarch on our milkweed. We watched them hatch along with my grandkids, then grow and grow and grow into fat healthy caterpillars! What an experience for the little ones. Even my big kids were amazed to watch the transformation. We were able to record them “being born” as my grandaughter calls it and just released them a few days ago. For anyone who is even considering raising monarchs DO IT! Not only will you be helping the butterfly population but you will witness the miracle of life right in front of your eyes. We only raised two but it was quite an experience for my family. My biggest lesson learned is plant more milkweed than you think you will need! Those cats have an enormous appetite!

87. This is the first year I have tried to raise monarchs using milkweed which i grow myself so no pesticides. I have had 3 successes so far with many losses. I live in Mexico and we have just finished our rainy season so hopefully I will have more luck now. I have a tiny caterpillar eating away and 2 pupa’s looking very healthy. I however can not find the eggs on the milkweed and I go out with my magnifying glass. This is the most rewarding thing I have done in years. Thank you Tony for all of your great advice

    1. I wasn’t as lucky as some of you, 🙁 I only saw 4 butterflies all summer, however I was able to find 4 cats!!! One egg (my first one ever), 2 cats on my milkweed and one from the side of the road. The good thing is that all 4 were released safely these last two weeks. 3 girls & a boy!!! The exciting thing is that I found a Black Swallowtail cat. Brought it in and now I’m waiting to see if it comes out this week for if it is going to stick around all winter. Yikes!! What do I do?? I learned that the March storm really did “a number” on my family of Monarchs!! 🙁 Pray for good weather this next winter and a safe return of our butterfly families!!!!!!

       1. Hi Marilyn, it was a slow season for many but releasing 4 still makes a difference…remember just one monarch female can lay hundreds of eggs.
          If your swallowtail decides to keep you company over winter, check out this post:

          Overwintering Swallowtails

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