Raising Hope for the 2019 Monarch Migration

274 Comments

1. I live in California east of San Francisco. Monarchs migrate through this area twice a year, once in spring/early summer on their way Northeast towards the Sierra foothills and again in the fall on their way South. They winter over south of us, down the coast near Monterey. I grow a variety of native milkweed that dies back in winter to attract them. This year I raised 7 northeastbound monarchs in July and 11 southbound ones in October/November. July’s batch were 4 males and 3 females, all of them healthy. Of the October/November batch, one caterpillar died of unknown cause at about the fourth instar, and of the remaining 10 (5 males, 5 females) 9 were healthy and one seemed misshapen and uncoordinated and unlikely to thrive. I don’t know what caused the problems with either of the troubled ones. I released the very last butterfly yesterday, November 16. What is interesting is that my first year of raising, 2018, the migrations came through our area a full month earlier than this year’s group, in both directions of migration. I don’t know what caused this trend. Ideas?

2. This was my third year of raising Monarchs and I had a much better year than last year. I purchased a metal bookshelf and positioned it outside on the porch facing south. With the exception of horrible storms or colder fall weather, they stayed outside the entire time. I released 120 healthy Monarchs this year. Last year was a challenge year – T-fly, pesticide issues, etc. and I didn’t even keep a count after losing so many. 2017 was my first year and it was 53 released.

   I live on an acreage outside of town (Woodbine, Iowa) so I deal with aerial spraying and farmers that need to spray for crops – I grew up on a farm and understand it (don’t like it, but understand).

   Thanks for all your informative e-mails.

   BTW, I did find 2 swallowtail caterpillars this summer and raised them successfully as well.

3. I live in South Texas and released my last monarch November 3, 2019 I gathered eggs from the milkweed plants, or brought in the very young caterpillars. Out of 91 caterpillars, there were 89 that made it to adulthood and were released. One died of T-fly and the other turned black but just never eclosed. I had a horrible season with wasps and aphids!! This was my second year to raise monarchs indoors. Sent one cage of 6 to my daughter’s first grade class. Her students loved seeing the monarchs fly off… My grandchildren are fascinated with the process as well.

4. I live on Edisto Island, a barrier island south of Charleston SC, and also in Summerville SC which is slightly west of Charleston. I released my first monarch of the year on March 10 and my last on October 29. There are still 3 instar 5 cats on the milkweed at Edisto. In total this year I released 401 butterflies. Migration generation monarchs were 105 in September and 31 in October. I had an 85% survival rate. Biggest problem was tachinid flies. Several deaths were unexplained (bacterial?) and several chrysalises fell before hardening and the butterflies emerged with deformed wings. I brought in eggs, and a wide variety of sizes of cats. I make sure to cut back all of my milkweed to lessen the impact of OE. I also overwinter milkweed in the garage because we have monarchs early on Edisto. I actually think there’s a resident population on the barrier islands. I also make sure to never allow a butterfly to eclose over feeding caterpillars. I have multiple mesh enclosures to avoid that situation. Thanks so much for all your advice and great products. I have referred a number of people to your site.

5. Hello Tony and fellow friends Of Monarchs. I am in Southern Calif, Wine Country. 4 years ago I planted my first skinny leaf milkweed and it is true if you plant it they will come. It had been many years since I had seen a Monarch so I was thrilled. We had about 10 cats that crawled into the watermelon vines , tomato plants and peppers, they did great and I would find Monarchs pumping their wings when I would come out to check the garden in the morning. . I lost some Chrysalis to lizards and spiders . Every year I learn a little more this year I found this sight and I would have had a terribly sad summer without it. I now have 20 skinny leaf milkweed plants most are over 3 feet tall and very full lots of blossoms but the Monarchs didn’t show up until mid July. Then the wasps and Tachinid flies . I hate them. All my cats and Chrysalis in the backyard were affected. The wind blows stronger in the front yard so it took the flus a while before they found the few cats there. I had 2 Monarchs that were big a beautiful and flew off in the blue. Then the aphids showed up. I started loosing cats to wasps and then the Black Death and t flies. Very depressing. I read all Tony’s hints on raising Monarchs so I collected eggs and a few instant 1,2,3 s I found looking for eggs. I started washing their milkweed with DrBonner’s soap and rinsing until there was no soap residue left but they still died. Then I found the bleach method . So I hunted for more eggs, they had the bleach bath 10 out of 14 survived I bleached their milkweed in a 5 percent solution they all survived 4 males 6 females . I keep them 24 hours after they made their entrance into their new world. All but 1 seemed to need the extra time. I was going to cut the milkweed down due to the aphids infestation and found 9 more eggs some looked a little dark but I gave them all the bleach bath. 5 hatched but they didn’t act the same as my other cats. I gave them fresh milkweed 2 to 3 times a day on eve they got to instant 3 . They got big and plump formed Js and chrysalis the fist one took off then hung around warming it’s self in the sun for half a day. The next one couldn’t get it last leg out of the Chrysalis then fell to the bottom of the mesh house. I got a beach of milkweed for it to crawl up on but it kept falling off. I put it in the freezer after an hour it just got weaker and started vomiting. It was a male. The last 3 1 males , 2 females Flew but not very strong their coordination seemed off. I am trying to figure out what happened to them. Next year I think I will spread milkweed to more corners of the yard . I know I have to find the eggs before the wasps do and disinfect the milkweed, I found another person in Texas who only soaks the milkweed for 3 mins and has good success. Back to Google.
   I found info about farmers using tachinid flies to control insects from crops., maybe that is why there are so many here. Also the BT products that are used by organic Gardner’s can infect caterpillars So thanks for all the info Tony .

6. This was my second year raising Monarchs just west of Cincinnati, OH. We got a late start in 2018, took in 13 caterpillars and released 10 butterflies. I was hoping to double those numbers and exceeded my expectations: 108 caterpillars and 85 butterflies; 44 females, 23 males, and 18 that were released by a neighbor while we were on vacation. The last lady took off today, November 2. I had to keep the final 4 indoors for 48 hours due to an unusual drop in temperatures.

   Big lesson I learned: bring the babies inside when the evenings start getting cooler. The last butterfly took from 10/5 to 11/1 before emerging from the chrysalis.

7. I have found about 40-50 eggs on milkweed planted in the yard. The temp dropped to 46 last night at my home in Richmond Hill GA (just outside of Savannah). I have quite a few milkweed plants that I could bring inside to try and save the eggs. I have heard if raised inside they lose their sense of direction. I have raised about 500 or so in the last few years but never this late in the year. Should I or should I not bring them in? I need your advice.

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

      Monarchs Raised Indoors Don’t Migrate?

8. I raised and released about 150 Monarchs this year. Out of 100 1st generation eggs collected, 75 perfect butterflies were released. I hatched the eggs on the milkweed leaves they were laid on, which I collected from my pasture and placed on paper towels in plastic lunch meat containers. Once the caterpillars were 2nd instar size, I moved them to large milkweed cuttings placed in empty crystal light containers with holes cut in the lids for the stems. The cuttings were placed in a large cage I built from wire fencing covered in screening material. I used a wagon to move the cage from my barn to my backyard during the day and then back in the barn at night. At one point, I lost many caterpillars and came to the conclusion that there was over spray from crop dusting that took place in a neighboring corn field. After a few good rains, the caterpillars remaining began to thrive again, and I released another 75 second and third generation Monarchs. There were definitely more males than females this year. The last to be released was a beautiful female on Oct 20. I hope they all are well on their way south. I am located in Rockton, IL.

9. I brought in about 10 tiny CATs a few weeks ago here in Tulsa, OK. So far 7 have hatched and they all appear healthy. The weather has already turned wet and cold here. The next nice day will be Friday with a high of 58, winds SSW @ 15 mph, but the low Friday night is forecasted to be 30 degrees. I’m worried that they will be too weak for a Friday release so I gathered what is blooming in my garden (lantana, a few zinnias and blooms from a butterfly bush). I do not have that many flowers that are still in bloom though. I’ve also placed slices of tangerine in the cage, but none appear to be eating. Will they eventually start eating? Or should we plan a drive south to warmer temps and more flowering nectar plants?

10. Hi, We’re Karen and Will in Bettendorf, IA. This is our second year posting results and our seventh in raising Monarchs. This year our total releases were 333 butterflies, down significantly and intentionally from last year’s total of 631. Our primary lesson from last year was to not try to raise more than you can feed from your sources of milkweed. As we scrambled to gather milkweed leaves from scattered, other locations last season, our numbers increased as eggs and cats came along with the food! The principle lesson from this year’s activity is that in spite of how cute they might be, collected cats can and do harbor diseases. Our overall mortality was significant, with only slightly more than 70% surviving from egg/cats collection to butterfly. Egg mortality was 10% so most of the problems were with the cats.

    Our season began on June 2 with 27 eggs. Through mid August, we had released 106 butterflies: 59 male-47 female. Our objective here is to enhance the summer population in preparation for the migration push in the late summer. From mid August to the 31st, we released 54 butterflies: 23 males-31 females, and hope that some of these might have joined the migration. From September 1 through our last butterfly on September 25th, our total was 173: 98 males-75 females.

    This year, we utilized Tony’s materials and procedures exclusively for raising from eggs/cats to chrysalides and were very pleased with the results. We do, however, move the chrysalides from the 2’x2’x2′ mesh containers to a separate hatching rack in a larger mesh enclosure.

    Finally, using techniques shown on Tony’s website, we started cuttings of Tropical milkweed last fall, growing them under grow lights to 18″ plants for spring planting and added 65 of them to our supply of food that included well established Common, Swamp and Butterfly Weed varieties of milkweed. Not only did it provide locations for more eggs in the summer, migrating Monarchs were filling up with nectar through late October.

11. I’m Irene, and this was my first experience with Monarchs, apart from watching them. I live on The Tug Hill in upstate New York.
    I took in 2 chrysalides and 8 caterpillars before learning they are great escape artists, when using a hastily assembled habitat. I’ll be correcting that mistake over the Winter. Anyway, one chrys’ turned black with no butterfly markings and no eclosure. The other eclosed and was released as if I were a pro! Of the 8 cat’s, one escaped and I never found him. One went into “J,” but apparently was sick and died before pupating. One disappeared, and then reappeared the next day in my kitchen, having pupated right where I do most of my meal prep. I transferred him back to the habitat. Another went on a hunger strike, that I was unable to cure. He died. Most of my cats hunger-struck after a major pig-out day. I’d wait 24 hr.s, then offer each a fresh leaf; that usually got them eating again. But, I discovered that a hunger strike can also mean they’re on the verge of pupating, but not yet in “J:” a very interesting lesson. If the cat’ utterly refuses a fresh leaf, and even squirms and “rears,” he’s getting ready to “J,” so leave him be. One of my chrysalides emerged, dropped his (yes, a boy) meconium, and fell off the chrysalis. I carefully tried to put him back up 4 times, but no success. He appeared to develop and dry normally on the floor of his habitat anyway, but refused nectar and died just 24 hours later. So 4 cat’s and 1 chrys’ successfully pupated, eclosed and were released. I learned Soooo Much!
    I’m starting a new butterfly garden: transplanting established Esclapius syriacus (long thick taproots, but not impossible), showy asters, goldenrod, butter & eggs, sedum, hollyhocks and whatever else I can manage before my hands freeze. I’m not stressing over the quality of my soil. Most of my milkweed is growing in the Winter’s road salt/sand on the shoulder of the road. If that’s what they like, that’s what they get in their new location. They also seem to love 6″ rocks to send the taproot under. I sure wish they wouldn’t do that! The milkweed reminds me of the often mischievous Monarch caterpillars. So, everything I dig up gets a few pounds of their surrounding soil to supplement what’s in their new space. My farm is in Ag zone 4b officially, but I usually have 2 weeks of night time temp.s below -27 F and daytime hi’s of only -5 F. In Winter, we typically get 15 to 22 feet (yeah, FEET!) of snow, so I will not be adding tropical anything to my garden or 35 acres of timber and wetland.
    I can’t wait for next August when they return!!! Did anyone else bond with their cat’s such that they grieved, even shed a tear or two when one died?

12. I am in Asheville, NC. I released my 75 th on Oct. 24. I had to keep the last two a few days due to unstable weather. My 2019 numbers: Two accidental deaths, four black deaths, two unexplained stage 4 cat deaths, two emerged but wings did not dry correctly (so sad!),and the first time ever – four chrysalides that did not eclose. Perfect in their appearance and formation, however they were chrysalides that I had relocated and wondered if that had anything to do with it ?? Others relocated did fine. My most difficult stage is when the eggs first hatch and keeping track of the tiny cats. But hopefully I have worked that out a bit better for next season!

13. Hi! I’m Susie from southeastern PA. My last monarch was released on October 18th. Luckily we have had warm weather. I did have a nectaring monarch in my garden on October 22nd. It was not the one I released, so definitely a late migrator. Again, the weather has been cooperating for these late monarchs. My numbers were down this year because I knew I had too many commitments to take in too many eggs. I decided it was healthier to raise less than try to raise many and hope the milkweed held out in the tent while I was gone. I raised 142 not migrating monarchs and 213 of the migrating generation. I did raise the migrating generation outside in a large raising enclosure for the first time. During the summer I saw many chrysalises around my garden from the caterpillars making it on their own. I know at least 8 of those were healthy butterflies. This was a banner year for eggs. I have never seen so many eggs on my milkweed plants in the 14 years that I am raising. I still have many plants blooming for the late migrators since we have not had a heavy frost as of today, Butterfly bushes, Mexican sunflowers, asters, zinnias, salvia, lantana and the late blooming tartarian aster are going strong. The tatarian aster is non native but is a wonderful flower to have. It only starts to bloom in October and continues into November. Pollinators cover those blooms every day. The best thing I did this year was plant a lot more milkweed. I was able to use my more of my own to feed instead of trying to find it in the wild and hope it was pesticide free.

14. live in Florida. released 117 monarchs this year- was out of country all of March and out of town several weeks during summer. had several in-chrysalis deaths- I started rinsing milkweed with 10% Clorox solution before feeding to caterpillars- 100% viable emergings after starting rinsing process. raised 95% of monarchs from collected eggs and tropical milkweed cuttings. The few caterpillars I collected I kept separate from the ones raised from eggs in case OE was a problem. Third year to raise and release monarchs using mesh cages in open back porch.

15. Hello from Harrow Ontario Canada! I’m pretty much across the river from Detroit Michigan.
    I was witness too 100’s of monarchs migrating across farm lands in the east to the maple trees in my yard where they appeared to be settling in for the night, Was an amazing sight! I raised 97 this year, 49 Females and 48 Males. Lost 2 eggs that never Hatched, 1 to ” Black death” or something similar and 1 to unknown causes.
    Here we are in the last bit of October and I Released a Male that took his time on a pot that I brought into my small greenhouse, thank goodness for our late warm days! I still have many chrysalis hanging around the yard and on planters, they definitely don’t look good,but there is one that looks like it may emerge today!? Took very long to darken and now it is very clear, Unfortunately it was very cold last night, still hasn’t hit freezing here and may not be warm at all today so we will see how resilient the butterflies are. I also have 6 Black swallowtail chrysalis tucked away for next spring!
    We had a really cold wet spring which is unusual for this area, seems that everything was late this year! Even the aphids didn’t really show up till late August, so Monarchs around at Halloween? seems to fit.

16. Well the season has finally come to a close in Ventura Ca. It was a fun time with so many monarchs in my garden every day. In total I had 260 healthy releases, about 20 not so lucky little ones I brought in as cats, the rest were brought in as eggs and were sterilized with a bleach solution as was all milkweed. My tropical milkweed naturalized in many patches this year so I had plenty of food. I planted another type of narrow leaf milkweed but the aphids liked it more than the monarchs . I’m going to try to find another type of native milkweed to add next season. There are a few small overwintering spots within 50 miles of my home so I don’t know if my little guys will migrate or not. Perhaps I’ll see them again next March. The best lesson learned this year is to only bring in eggs, however it hard to leave cats outside to the lizards and birds etc. I kept them separate from the others but its still sad if they don’t make it. My guess is I’ll still take in cats, just in case they may make it !

17. I live in Memphis, Tennessee. This afternoon when I came home I found a Monarch butterfly just sitting in the grass at our mailbox. The temperature outside today was 72 degrees. It did not move when I stood by it to get the mail. It looked unhurt, but not active. I was concerned about leaving it out in the open so gently transported it to our front porch and placed in one of our urns with plants/flowers which was sheltered. It crawled around the leave of the flowers and seemed to find a spot it liked. I just checked and it is still there. What shall I do, and why is it so sluggish?

    1. Hi Janet, it might need some time to dry its wings. If it’s still there the next day in ‘good flight’ weather, there is probably a health issue

       Monarch Diseases

18. I’m in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. I successfully raised and released 40 healthy monarchs this season, 21 males and 19 females. That’s more than twice the number I was able to raise last year. I released the first one on 6/27/19 and the last one on 10/18/19. I believe trying to bring in the eggs as soon as I would spot them being deposited helped prevent them from being parasitized or infected. I only had two that were parasitized and didn’t make it. I also think that having milkweed plants in several locations around the yard was a plus.

19. I have a monarch waystation number 5540 for 7 years now in Auburn Hills, MI. This is has been my most successful year. Last year I raised and released 59 monarchs. This year the total was 334 monarchs. The raise the migration total for me is well over 125 monarchs release since 09-15-2019. The biggest challenge I found in the later part of raising this many was finding enough milkweed that was disease free. Next year I am going to have to only raise enough with the milkweed in my yard. I found I had greater success as long as I raised the monarchs from egg and giving the milkweed growing in my own yard. The more I used milkweed outside of my yard the more disease and other mishaps happened.

20. Raised only 25 and they were released where I found the egg or larvae.
    I had no disease problems.
    Church Monarch Waystation didn’t seem to have any eggs until later in summer and that concerned me. I asked Monarch Watch in Lawrence, KS if there was a problem they knew of. They said no but that maybe the butterflies hadn’t found us yet. I doubted that.
    I observed many migrating monarchs during the month of October. Some in town and maybe 100 or more while working on my daughters ‘prairie’ in Henry Country, Missouri. That’s about 1 hour south of Kansas City. I felt so glad to see them.

21. I don’t know how much, if at all, that I contributed to the 2019 Raise the Migration, but it was fun trying, and I released 41 butterflies. I learned so much this year, my second year raising monarchs. Mostly I learned keep things clean clean clean. Plant natives!! Learned I want to try to tag next year- maybe we will see. Keep cats of the same size together, isolate any that aren’t thriving. Keep cats on milkweed clippings on bottom of enclosure until 2-3 instar before moving to upright stems- any smaller they are hard to keep track of and aren’t as good at holding on to the milkweed. If cats wander off milkweed, leave them alone, give them time before moving back to milkweed they are probably molting. Check for OE and don’t release any that are heavily contaminated. Be extremely careful if you have pets and use flea/tick meds, these chems could cause harm/death to caterpillars. These are the most important things I learned this year. I love the monarchs and this whole community too! Thank you all for what you do to help the monarch butterfly! Finally I want to say thank you to Tony Gomez for sharing all your knowledge that has been so invaluable to me, and for the group, which has enhanced the whole experience that much more THANK YOU! It has been an amazing experience and I cannot wait until next year!

22. Hi, I only raised 75 between March 2019 and June 27 when we left for vacation. We released the last one the morning we left. I thought I was going to have to take her and the enclosure with us as she wasn’t due to emerge until the next day. But she must have sensed something different with our packing activities. I’d placed the enclosure on the deck with the door open incase she was motivated to fly off. My husband came up the steps saying I just saw a monarch. I said I know it was our last one, so we won’t need to take the enclosure.

    Well, as it turned out I probably should have taken the enclosure. While gathering seed pods of milkweed in Pulaski, NY, we found a caterpillar on a stem. Having left the enclosure home I was concerned about it crawling where ever during the night. As it turned out it was ready to J. So all was good to go. It chrysalis’d on Sept 21, being due to emerge Oct 2. Well we left Pulaski the end of Sept, going to Ocean View, MD. Well right on schedule the chrysalis turned dark on Oct 1 and a fine male emerged in the early am of Oct 2. Again, regretting no enclosure to contain the male when the wings dried and it began flittering around, I’d repositioned it earlier onto a stick I’d found in the campground. So, I allowed 2-3 hours for wing drying and put the container outside next to a really pretty yellow flower. He remained there until late afternoon, then went his way on his migration. He gotten an extra boost south in our travel south from Pulaski, NY to MD. So hopefully that assured he actually will make MX as intended. Next year if we don’t travel as much, I’ll be raising more. Last year I raised a lot, but am not sure of the amount. Love the feelings you get releasing a beautiful monarch. In my research I found out monarchs are the only butterfly that migrates. All others hibernate. Monarchs accomplish their migration thru 5 generations. Key West we may have a permanent population. However milkweed may be a factor, with milkweed being in short supply. Hopefully the plants I left home will still be alive when we return in mid November.

23. Hi, I live in Nova Scotia. My milkweed patch is bigger every year, and each year there is more monarch activity. This year was amazing. We saw our first monarch here in July. Counting only after August 30th, we released 7 females, 4 males and 1 unknown. However, the real story is the number that survived out in my large pollinator garden. I went out every day and during the peak there were well over 100 cats on the milkweed. I went on to count 40 chrysalids in my garden. Of these, 25 eclosed outside. Hurrican Dorien came through here and so I brought in 12 chrysalids before it hit. Of these 37 “outdoor” chrysalids, 1 failed to fully pump up one of its wings; 2 had deformed wings; and 1 was stuck to its chrysalis. It was amazing checking the garden each day for drying monarchs. I learned that chrysalids are tough and can survive hurricane winds.
    I learned that the grasses in my pollinator garden are very popular sites for chrysalis formation! Even short grasses do the job. I found 10 chrysalids in one small patch of Hakonechloa grass! I learned that some cats will travel a very long way to find the perfect spot. This year I placed some eggs in an incubator for the first time. I am not sure why, but some eggs took a very long time to hatch. More to learn there. Thanks Tony!

24. We live a few miles north of Harrisburg PA. Today is Oct. 18, 2019, and I just wanted to report that this past week we have had Monarch butterflies coming to the Mums that have just started to bloom in our flowerbed. This week I photographed 3 beautiful males flitting to all the blossoms. I’m keeping track to see how long they stick around.

    We also have American Lady, Pearl Crescents, and Red-spotted Purple butterflies still around too.

    By the way, thank you Tony for this great website. I’ve shared it with many of our family and friends.

25. West Allis, WI. This was our second year of raising and releasing. We doubled the number of our 10 gal. aquariums to 8 this year. We have 2 metal racks that hold 4 aquariums each. We use screen tops and put our caterpillars in the tanks when they reach a good size. Eggs and small ones go in Tupperware containers. We released a total of 510 for the whole season. Aug. 30 -Sept. 22 =141. We really like using the tanks because we can easily see any changes in the caterpillars or chrysalides. We immediately quarantine these in separate containers. We clean our tanks and containers several times daily and always before feeding washed leaves. Sometimes up to 6 times a day when they are in their “hungry” stage before J’ing. We credit this with our excellent success rate. After a week in late May we no longer brought in caterpillars due to T-flies. Only had 2 instances from eggs. We noticed more aggression of caterpillars than in the past. ??? Every year is a learning experience and we love doing it, but also love “closing up shop!” Tired but happy!

26. Wilmington, Delaware
    My second season raising and I couldn’t believe the increase of monarchs this year. I’ve had a small patch of milkweed and planted for pollinators for many years but not until last year when I raised about 18 for migration in the cages did I experience the proliferation of population this year.

    Season started July 9 when buying swamp milkweed I found 2 eggs and a couple instar 2 cats. From there almost all the eggs and cats came from my own milkweed. I bought around 17 milkweed plants and also harvested milkweed from a state park to keep everyone fed. I’ll be strategizing this winter how to fit all the milkweed and additional nectar plants in my city garden.

    End results:
    Total for season raised, 57
    Of those released after August 31:
    29 of the 57 would probably be considered migratory

    Lost total of 8 cats or chrysalis due to infestation or bacterial infection.
    Raised mostly cats found on my milkweed so that’s why they got infected before being discovered.
    Don’t think OE was an issue this year. Last year 3 eclosed deformed.

27. Hi Tony
    This was my 1st year raising and releasing the Monarchs, was so exciting! Did not locate your blog until late so was figuring out as I went. Was able to release my last #46th butterfly September 26th. Majority were from baby and medium size cats, only 5 or 6 from eggs. Had total of 10 bad chrysalis, 5 in beginning and 5 at the end. After reading other blogs realize I certainly need to keep better records and my husband has committed to making a spread sheet for next year. My biggest frustration was trying to deal with aphids on my milkweed plants. So more research for next year. Looking forward to getting your books and thank you so much for all your updates and information it is so beneficial.

28. We are in McHenry county Illinois, Latitude: 42.258700 – Longitude: 88.598019
    We raised a total of 282 monarchs – 151 males & 131 females. 4 cats died for no reason 🙁 , they seem healthy, I can’t understand what happen to them. Few eggs just didn’t hutch, lost some cats & chrysalis due to parasites. It was a greats season, lots of work, but it was awesome to have so many. My last one left on Sunday 10-6 it was a little cold, but it was the last chance. We discover a butterfly on out back yard yesterday 10-12, it was eating from the Mexican sun flower, those are the only flowers left around here ( Thank God for those flowers ) I hope it’s ok, didn’t see it today. It’s getting very cold.
    On October 1st. I sow lots of butterflies and dragonflies passing by all day, It was an amazing experience, so many together. Did someone else see them? I would love to know.

29. Monarch 2019

    Short version: Middle of lower MI (3 hrs north of Detroit and halfway between lakes Huron and Michigan). Saw first monarchs beginning of July and got first photo the 14th. Native common milkweed had started to bloom at the same time.
    July 21 husband brought home three fourth instar cats and unknowingly two second instar.
    July 23 I found my first monarch egg.
    Note other caterpillars were being added all along.
    July 30 had first chrysalis form and caught it in person and on video.
    First butterfly eclosed on August 9. I took it outside and released it several hours later and it flew into a tree so seemed to be healthy.
    No wild cats seen after the second week of August despite lots of looking. Didn’t see any more the rest of the season.
    The last week of August (starting the 23rd) and first week of September were crazy with butterflies eclosing. I know the migration eclose date was August 30 but sure seemed like the August 23 butterflies did not have time to mate and produce offspring, at least none of them were doing this in my yard. A friend in SE Michigan had migrating monarchs passing through her yard for three straight days in the first week of September.
    Eclosures significantly slowed down the week of September 16 and the last butterfly eclosed September 25. Two other chrysalides never eclosed. No T-fly pupae. One just turned uniformly dark but never got clear, the other looked perfectly normal, got clear and you could see the butterfly inside, but never came out.
    In total I released 102 butterflies in this my second year of raising. Lost several eggs to wasps and a few to molding leaves. Two cats could not pupate, two chrysalides fell and leaked and two chrysalides never eclosed. Towards the end of the season I had two instar 3/4 cats that stopped eating and died. I also lost 4-5 instar two/three cats when I had to go out of town for a week and left my husband in charge-so not sure what happened. So I think my success rate from cats to butterflies was pretty good, about 90%. I think more than 50% were migratory.

    Long version with learnings (I had a lot since this was only my second year):
    Middle of lower MI (3 hrs north of Detroit and halfway between lakes Huron and Michigan). Saw first monarchs beginning of July and got first photo the 14th. Native common milkweed had started to bloom at the same time.
    July 21 husband brought home three fourth instar cats and unknowingly two second instar.
    July 23 I found my first monarch egg.
    Note other caterpillars were being added all along.
    July 30 had first chrysalis form and caught it in person and on video.
    August 1st saw a somewhat tattered monarch in the yard.
    August 3rd totally black egg. Glad for Tony’s explanation that this was wasp parasitized-euthanized.

    Side note, about 30 of the caterpillars and several eggs were found on a patch of twenty swamp MW seedlings I had planted in June! The seedlings were only 4-5 inches tall. A single fourth instar cat would have easily devoured the entire patch. Very interesting how so many eggs got laid there. And it was not near any other MW. It was by itself with some grass and a few weeds nearby, and a pine tree. The eggs were not all from the same laying but were probably laid over a period of 2-3 weeks.

    Several eggs found on very small leaves. Was keeping the plastic containers too moist (using damp instead of fully dry paper towels) and the leaves molded with eggs still on them. Then I went back and read Tony’s instructions again and realized my mistake on the too much moisture. Also some larger leaves turned black in spots and curled so badly it was hard to keep up with where the eggs were and if there an instar one cat somewhere or was I just overlooking the egg? Several eggs did successfully hatch and grow and move to my “nursery “. But I’d say egg success was about 50%. I only had about a dozen eggs overall. Three were wasp parasitized. A couple the leaf died or molded and I lost track of the egg and never found a cat. One first instar I accidentally smooshed ? handling the container lid (before I even knew the egg had hatched—and who knew they’d crawl that far from their leaf in less than twelve hours from hatching). I was checking my egg and nursery containers twice a day.

    One other sad egg learning. One night as I was going to bed I noticed an egg that was moving a bit. From the looks it was ready to hatch and I was super excited to get to see it and capture on video with my iPhone macro lens. So I’m standing at my kitchen counter watching and filming because I think it’s going to pop out just any second-and was so tied up in the drama I stood there for like 30 minutes. The egg had stopped moving and my iPhone was really hot and I think I cooked the little guy. I felt really bad ?and vowed to not let myself get so caught up in enjoying my new hobby again that I cause preventable harm to one of my charges. I did keep the egg for another week just in case but it did not hatch. I share in hope of preventing someone else from making the same mistake.

    Side note, had a really hard time all season with MW cuttings not taking up water well and drying out quickly. Next year I plan to get sharper scissors, remember to cut just below a pair of leaves and cut at an angle. Maybe pick fresher plants? I was trying to leave the fresher ones to use later or for the wild cats.

    After the first week of August I stopped being able to find eggs but cats were still found, mostly 2nd 3rd Instars I was picking up. Left some large ones because I was afraid it was getting too crowded and I would start having trouble with disease or run out of food. Next year I don’t think I’ll leave any outside-I bought more raising cages and was finding that the common milkweed grows back fast after being cut.

    For the ones I re-hung. I used waxed dental floss knotted to the silk mass and then made about a quarter inch loop of floss and tied another knot, looking like half of a figure 8 when I was done. Then I used a pin to secure the loop to the top of a tall baby tower that was turned on its side. The loop really made it easier to pin without worrying I was going to stab the chrysalis or myself. Next year will buy the longer dressmakers pins to make even easier.

    First butterfly eclosed on August 9. I took it outside and released it several hours later and it flew into a tree so seemed to be healthy. The next couple I released in a similar fashion but they would not fly off although in the cage they had seemed to be capable. I ended up leaving them on a goldenrod to eat and grow stronger. However I then decided for the rest, I did not leave them if I didn’t see them fly off, and for the most part I didn’t even try to release for at least 24 hours. After 24 hours they were much stronger.

    Second week of August I had two recent chrysalides crash to the bottom of their cage and burst. Both had the last molt still stuck to the top of the chrysalis and I think that had something to do with it. A third chrysalis still had that molt stuck so I quickly acted to relocate that chrysalis and remove the molt-but there was such a mass of silk in that corner that several other chrysalides started to fall. So I spent the following ninety minutes feverishly securing the loose chrysalides and rehanging the one I had removed (I had a long post on this earlier). So my learning on this one was don’t let too many chrysalides bunch together-start rehanging them if this looks like it’s happening. And if the molt sticks, after the chrysalis has dried remove the molt and rehang. Other learning on this was how sensitive J-ing cats are to disturbance. The cat that was J during this harrowing event died while trying to form a chrysalis. I think he wore out all his energy being annoyed by my messing with the other chrysalides. I also had a second J cat that died forming its chrysalis a couple weeks later.

    No wild cats seen after the second week of August despite lots of looking. Didn’t see any more the rest of the season.

    The last week of August (starting the 23rd) and first week of September were crazy with butterflies eclosing. I know the migration eclose date was August 30 but sure seemed like the August 23 butterflies did not have time to mate and produce offspring, at least none of them were doing this in my yard. A friend in SE Michigan had migrating monarchs passing through her yard for three straight days in the first week of September.

    Another side note, during the crazy period at one point I had 14 butterflies in a large cube. One ended up with the tip of its wing broken and floppy. I watched the utube videos and tried to splint it but total mess- superglue stuck to my glove, the splint and the wing. So I trimmed the broken part off and glued on a wing from a butterfly that died last year. Voila! Flew away 36 hrs later without looking back (I think it was very glad to get away from the crazy Frankenstein lady!).

    Eclosures significantly slowed down the week of September 16 and the last butterfly eclosed September 25. Two other chrysalides never eclosed. No T-fly pupae. One just turned uniformly dark but never got clear, the other looked perfectly normal, got clear and you could see the butterfly inside, but never came out.

    In total I released 102 butterflies in this my second year of raising. Two cats could not pupate, two chrysalides fell and leaked and two chrysalides never eclosed. Towards the end of the season I had two instar 3/4 cats that stopped eating and died. I also lost 4-5 instar two/three cats when I had to go out of town for a week and left my husband in charge-so not sure what happened. So I think my success rate from cats to butterflies was pretty good, about 90%. I think more than 50% were migratory.

    Historical note: in 2018 I started my monarch hobby on August 26 with several second instar cats. More cats followed. My first chrysalis was September 15, my first butterfly was October 3 and I had butterflies enclosing through October 9 for a total of 11 or 12 butterflies (can’t remember exactly). Quite the difference in timing from this year!

30. This is my second year raising monarchs. Releasing the last 2 yesterday brought this years total to 619. I have a large open porch where I had 3 stations, one area for eggs, second area for cats and then 20 hanging mesh homes for chrysalis.
    My husband and I would drive around hunting for wild milkweed so that we would have enough for all the cats.
    I also have 10 swallow tail overwintering in a mesh container.
    I live in Washington Twp NJ
    Already looking forward to next spring!

31. I’m in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve been raising for about 5 years.

    I did more than ever this year because more egg-laying butterflies came through (maybe 7 instead of 3?). Because I only bring in eggs now (and try to get them within hours of being laid), I only lost 2, and that was at the chrysallis stage. (I think one of those cut himself on a pointed leaf vein when he was a caterpillar, the other just turned black and dissolved). I released 77 healthy caterpillars. I hope to do fewer than that next year – it’s just too many to juggle through 3 cages and the food containers for when they are small. However, the most successful year ever!

    Wasps and flies are our biggest problem. That’s why I try to gather newish looking eggs soon after I’ve seen a butterfly laying them.

    1. Hi Betsy
       I’m in southern Ontario Canada and my monarch chrysalis I brought in the house finally emerged this morning. I’m new at all this, but I think it’s too late for it to make it if I release it here. This may sound like a crazy question, but could I ship it to someone like you to release it there?

       thanks Bonnie

       1. Hi Bonnie,

          as long as you have some weather left 50’s and partly cloudy, they have a chance. I would definitely keep them 24 hours before releasing so their wings are stronger and in optimal condition for flight…good luck!

          Safely Releasing Monarch Butterflies

          PS…it’s illegal to ship monarchs from Canada to the US and vice versa

32. monarchs 2019 Arnold mo. very wet spring. found and released 11 monarchs in late may thru early June. Started finding caterpillars of all sizes in late July. raised them and started releasing them mid Aug. released a total of 42 by Sept 29. but then found 4 more caterpillars early Oct . they are in their chrysalis now. waiting for them to emerge. temperatures in the upper 30’s tonight. this was a lot different harvest compared to last year when i released 173 monarchs. yes that’s 173!

    1. I’m not sure how to comment I could only see a way to reply……..hoping someone will see this and can help me. My kids found a monarch caterpillar that has turned into a butterfly. The day after it turned into a butterfly temperatures dropped to 17 degrees at night. I live near Provo, Utah and temperatures have come back up for a few days. I want to make sure that the butterfly is safe to release. Will it be able to migrate to a warmer place? Please Help. We are concerned and want the Butterly to be safe. What temperatures are safe for a monarch butterfly?

       1. Hi Melanie, your forecast looks great for release. I would release today (sat October 12) with 61 and sunny for high…good luck!

          releasing butterflies safely

33. Lafayette, IN – This was our 3rd year & it was the best ever. We started out VERY wet & I’d almost given up finding anything until 7/4 when we found the first 3 eggs. From then on we were off to the races.

    The year ended up with 179 released (90 m/89f). 140 of these were released after 8/20. (72m/70f).

    In years past, I kept track of time, etc of when each BF eclosed, but this year I only kept track of the total for each day & that worked better. Too many details.

    I had problems with bad chrysalides, partial wings missing, & some that had difficulty getting out of their chrysalis. Fortunately there were only 2 problems with the T-fly. There were a couple that got thin & turned brown, but I don’t know the cause. Disease?

    All of my nursery is on my 5.5’ kitchen counter. The cats are raised in food containers, with clear lids. Paper towels are cut to fit & used for the bottom of the containers. Since I only have Swamp MW, I feed the cats several times per day, so the containers are cleaned off or changed often. The chrysalides are only moved out after they have formed. Our cages are made of PVC pipe & netting w/Velcro tape.

    I have never done anything with bleaching the eggs or testing for OE, so maybe I’ll need to try that for next year.

    I have truly appreciated all the information I have received on this site & hope to be able to participate again next year. Sorry I cannot tell you what my success rate was.

    1. Hello, my name is Amy and I’m from Gowen, Michigan.
       I had 54 successful eclose this year out of 57. 1 of the 3 that didn’t make it was due to tachnid fly attack and the other two simply didn’t emerge after what looked like a successful transformation in the chyrsalides.
       The year before (2017) I had 6 out of 7 make it.
       Next season I plan to keep a detailed journal to record how many males, females and more facts.
       What I do know is keeping the cages clean daily , along with plenty of fresh milkweed, and keeping the tubes clean with fresh water is very instrumental in keeping them healthy.
       The enclosure and floral tubes with rack helped immensely; I don’t know what I would have done without them or this website to answer all of my questions.

       Thank you so very much and I’m looking forward to next season.

       Love Hugs and Monarch Butterflies ????

34. Location: Long Island, NY.
    Migration releases: 45 (27 male, 18 female)
    Total releases in 2019: 71 (45 male, 26 female)
    1 unexplained death during chrysalis formation.
    99% success rate.
    68 raised from eggs; 4 cats brought in.

    Learned:
    • A $20 keyboard vacuum made cage cleaning much easier.
    • First year using peg racks, previously I put floral tubes in jars & mugs. (2-3 tubes per jar, leaning at an angle, with dried beans in bottom of cup to keep tubes from moving.) With jars, it was easier to lean milkweed stems/leaves against the cage wall, and all chrysalises were formed on cage ceiling. With the racks, I had approx. 8 chrysalises formed under leaves & had to move them. Despite adding lots of milkweed tubes, it was harder to get leaves leaning on walls. (The round poo platter prevents pushing racks close to wall.) The jars are harder to clean though as frass falls in. Will probably use a combination of racks & jars next year.

35. In Atlanta, GA. I planted milkweed l from seed in the ground about 2 years ago. They stayed small and caterpillarless those two years. But this year they shot up and I had about 15 cats on them all of them were more or less at the 2 stars stage. I gathered 11 and brought them inside. I ordered two cages from your site and the individual stem holders. I successfully raised all 11 to chrysalis. However, one did turn into a sickalis. He turned brown and never emerged. The remaining 10 emerged and I counted 2 males and 8 females. They were very large! I know that is because they were the fourth generation and will be migrating to Mexico. They hung around my gazebo for a better portion of the day drying and practice flying before they took off on their long journey. I will be trying to raise more milkweed from cuttings and raise some nectar plants as well indoors.

36. I live on the Georgia/Florida borderline. I have raised 3 sets of cats this fall between 8-29/19- Present ! It’s been a busy season for me! I have had so many females lay eggs in my garden on different occasions!

    1st set- 3/7 Became Butterflies (all females)
    2nd set -42/44 Became Butterflies (mostly females)
    3rd set-1/5- Made it to the Chrysalis stage. (awaiting for it to emerge)
    4th set- 14 cats in their 2nd week of life.

    Lesson learned: That you can never have too many milkweeds. Some cats may require more time to eat. Last, keeping track of the female versus male ratio just for the fun of it!

    Thanks Tony for the support, resources and creating a space for a community of Monarch Butterfly lovers! I love forward to reading your book when it comes out!

37. This year we were able to release over 70 monarchs from our backyard habitat and enclosure in Southern California,This was a great improvement over the past three years. There were a large amount ,approximately 25, that did not make it due to various diseases. That was disappointing. A couple new things I learned along the way, are not to overcrowd our large enclosure to help decrease the spread of disease, and to start now picking off young leaves from the milkweed I have cut back to freeze for feeding emergencies next year.

38. I’m in Bixby, OK and still have 14 CATs feeding on what is left of my milkweed. They appear healthy and are munching away and with any luck will form Chrysalises in the next day since I’m about out of milkweed. Plus our weather has turned cool and wet, so looking forward to warmer temps later in the week and into next. We received so much rain this spring/summer that blooms never formed on my milkweed and the aphids were hard to control. I did successfully raise 5 (3 females/2 males) so far and released. I will be planting more milkweed next spring varying varieties and locations so that I’m assured to have a great crop in 2020.

    Last year we had a bumper crop of Monarchs that fed on only 4 milkweed plants. They ate the entire plant, stems and all. There were 50+ CATs and most formed their chrysalises around the eves of our house or in my flowerbed. Of those, I moved about 7 into a cage since they were in poor locations. All but about 5 survived and hatched. For three days we had butterflies emerging and flying into our maples to roost. It was a spectacular sight which all the neighbors enjoyed. We have not seen that many during this year’s migration and I fault the weather for that. And even though this year’s numbers are low, I’m still happy to do what I can to help them on their journey.

    1. I use tape to remove aphids when their are cats on the plants. Otherwise I rinse the aphids off, allow the plant to dry and then use tape to remove any left over aphids.

39. A good friend got me started three years ago when I “cat sit” for her. I started a milkweed bed and have been focusing on nectar flowers for the last four years. I raised and released 126 butterflies. I had a 93% success rate with a few dying while trying to molt, one died during chrysalis when skin split backward, and a few mystery chrysalis deaths like your picture of Sickalis. I am just south of Kansas City and could not find eggs until August due to rainy weather and, possibly, flooding in the south. My last baby was released Sunday. I learn more each year and this year was not to crowd the chrysalis and give them plenty of room to unfurl and dry their wings. I had two with each having a curled wing. I guess that was the cause. I bought more enclosures and I am ready for next year. Yesterday, October 8, was beautiful and we had a lot of Monarchs stopping for nectar. Today is cool and rainy and I hope they made it quite a way south.

    1. Cat sit?! I have never heard of cat sitting as in caterpillar sitting! What a fun job!

40. It was my first year raising Monarchs. My last 4 males were released on Monday (10/7) I had 44 successful released & 1 not – it had formed a chrysalis but not properly (the outside skin never was fully shed). I’m just north of Charlotte, NC.

41. Lyons, NY I had 78 total count released, 39 F, 39 M, 5 had bacterial issues, 1 T-Fly, 2 died as tiny cats all Monarchs from egg to release

42. Greetings from Bergen County, New Jersey 10/7/2019

    This is my first encounter with butterflies of any type! I saw an article about the Monarch decline back in April, and thought it would be “a good idea to plant some milkweed.” I knew nothing, but figured common milkweed would be the right choice. Common to my area … but where does one get that! A friend’s Mom dug some up from her garden, it rained for 5 weeks here in late April early May and the milkweed took hold. Transplant shock killed off the blooms. I was disappointed that the Monarch butterflies wouldn’t have food. Boy, what a novice. By July I was whining about the “deer” eating up my garden and nipping at the milkweed they weren’t supposed to like. Ha! Caught the culprits! Pesky yellow striped caterpillars. My husband looked it up … some kind of moth. I wasn’t convinced and collected them off the milkweed, containered them up for the night. Brought them inside the nice air conditioned house in a container of mint!

    Oh boy!!! I looked up “what does a Monarch Caterpillar look like”? Oh Boy … run. Put those “pillars” right back out on the milkweed next morning. Ever did they catch up on the chomping! Now I was onto something. I was careful to rinse the MW leaves daily of frass. I befriended a local farmer who has been raising Monarchs for many years. She had zero “pillars” and offered to take mine if I felt I needed help. I sure needed help. They ate my 6 little stalks of MW down to stems! I had 13 “pillars” to bring to her for safe keeping. 4 disappeared so I brought her 9. 7 of those were released as big healthy Monarchs. I visited them daily on my way to work. #10 who went missing … well … I did find … across the driveway chomping on butterfly weed that I bought from the farm. Sweet! My husband had bought me a 24 x 36 butterfly habitat. I was in business!! I had one “pillar” to raise into a beautiful female Monarch who was my first release. I cried the day I let her go.

    In the meantime my farmer friend “found” 7 more “pillars”. She told me to come get some for my habitat so I could hopefully see them J-hang, turn to chrysalis, and eclose. I took 4. One was super tiny, and it’s wings did not form. I euthanized it by freezing. The other 3 I released on Friday 10/4. 2 female and 1 very large male. It had gotten cold, so I brought them in. They had a large white Lantana in their habitat for which they nectared up for their flight. They were inside for 3 days due to very cold rainy weather.

    I did it! I raised Monarchs! I spread the word! I spread “interest”. I have friends and family interested in raising Monarchs next summer … or simply adding milkweed to their gardens. I am presently working on building a proper butterfly garden. Can’t wait for Spring 2020!

    I do wonder …. what do my neighbors think about “that nut out in the garden in her PJ’s again … taking pictures really really up close of something in the garden”! LOL

    1. Hi from Strafford County, New Hampshire

       I only bring in an occasional cat to raise inside, but did plant a few swamp milkweed , and have a little patch of the rougher wild milkweed, both of which had tons of cats that ate them all up this year.

       I am wondering why I found some perfect looking butterflies that emerged fine it seems, but that did not fly off and just died in place.

       I thought maybe the bought plants might have pesticides- but it seems that would kill the cats?

       Thanks,

       Sue

    2. I enjoyed reading your comments!

       Don’t worry about what others think! I was outside at random time of the day in my PJ’s too! Taking photos and caring for my garden! You aren’t alone ! Welcome to the crazy Butterfly club! Keep up the good work!!
       P.S.
       if I drove by your garden and saw you, I would say, “ she’s a butterfly mom” or “she is just gardening”. Lol

43. Sooooooo much information and stories here. Feels amazing to see there are so many of us out there giving Mother Nature a little assistance. She has so much to do and it is the least we can do since we caused this mess.

    Thanks to all of you!!!

    Our year started with a huge misstep. We never had a leaf-eating problem before and I was ridiculously naive in thinking a potato beetle was a spotless ladybug. I thought our swamp weed was suffering from a disease when I finally realized the potato beetles were decimating our plants! Started removing the little jerks when we ended up with southern blight and lost four plants.

    Somehow with all that mess we managed to over 50 monarchs (I did a bad job keeping track this year). We also took 36 caterpillars to our local botanical gardens who allow us to release them onto their milkweed when we run out.

    So number one lesson: Potato Beetles Are BAD!!!

    Happy Fall Prepping

44. My milkweed was destroyed by some kind of leaf bug – I forget the name and can’t seem to find it again, so I was very discouraged. I started bringing cats and milkweed home from whereever I might find them while walking. My milkweed recovered enough to be dotted with eggs, which really surprised me, so I brought them in and raised quite a few from eggs and tiny cats. I ended up releasing 98 butterflies and euthanizing 8. It is so heartbreaking how much a butterfly wants to live and wants to fly when it can’t. I did have one with bent wings actually fly away – which was wonderful.

45. This was my first year raising monarchs. Almost all were from eggs (just three from cats brought in). We released 36 healthy monarchs, evenly split between male and female (18 each). We had one chrysalis turn black and two monarchs that eclosed and had deformed wings. So, 36/39 made it. 92% success rate for my first year. I learned a lot here on this website and I thank you for the valuable information. I will definitely be doing this again next year and hope to release more than 36 next year! Most were raised in a screened in porch once they hit chrysalis stage so I hope this helps with them finding their way to Mexico. I live in a western suburb of Chicago.

46. Last Monarch released October 1 in southwest Ohio.

    Despite a hot dry year that worked havoc on our milk weed and flowers, we managed to release an even 100 Monarchs – just about even male and female. We had some problems with the trachnid (sp.?) fly because we brought in caterpillars as well as eggs. We raise the caterpillars in group housing until about the 4th instar and then transfer them individually to clear plastic 20 oz. drink cups with nylon mesh over the tops (held in place by rubber band). So, if we had a sick caterpillar we had them already isolated and help in limiting disease spread and predators.

    Biggest success this year has to be asking our daughter to “babysit” the brood while we went on vacation. She and our granddaughter were so enthralled by the enclosing butterflies that they went out and found Monarch eggs and caterpillars of their own and raised about 30 themselves. They spread the word on facebook and found an eager audience that they directed to Tony’s Monarch Butterfly Garden site for information.

    Thank you, Tony, for all of your help and encouragement.

47. Reporting from northern New Jersey… I released 57 monarchs this season, between 23 July and 1 October. The genders were pretty evenly split with 26 males and 31 females.

    The most notable difference this season was an abnormally high mortality rate with 12 failures. I took in 5 eggs in July from my garden and all 5 died in the chrysalis stage with all the appearance of OE. Since this isn’t usually something we have to worry about here, I believe that the female who left the eggs had probably migrated from somewhere south of here where she’d been infected. Not a great way to start the season. I had 7 other caterpillars fail in either Instar 4 or 5 – in all cases, it appeared to be some sort of bacteria. We had an extremely wet summer so my best guess is that the extra moisture allowed some forms of bacteria to thrive.

    I will cut back my common milkweed early in the season next year to force new growth later in the season because I had nothing left but tropical milkweed by mid-August. Again, probably due to the very wet summer.

    This year I tried several new (to me) species of milkweed – “hello yellow” and “hairy balls” and both attracted monarchs with eggs. Probably won’t put the effort into these two next year and will stick with adding more swamp milkweed to my garden instead. All of my swamp mw was eaten to the ground this season by hungry monarch cats.

    Cages sterilized, cuttings of tropical mw under a grow light in the basement, and supplies stored for next year.

    Raise the Migration!

48. I had the BEST year ever here in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Very few losses, perhaps 6. I didn’t keep track. Sorry! But was too busy raising the 400 beautiful, healthy monarchs I had this year!!! Quite an even number. I was counting chrysalises hoping to make it to 400 and had one slow, lazy caterpillar still eating and frassing. After releasing 399, that last cat finally pupated and I kept my fingers crossed. And, success, albeit it was quite a small female. All in all, 223 females and 177 males, and I tagged 50 with Monarch Watch tags.

    I’m not sure what was different this year — why so many healthy and so few losses — except that most of the eggs that I collected were on my own swamp m.w. We live in a condo so have only a few swamps plants, and some tropical in pots. We are lucky that common m.w. grows everywhere around here, so adequate food, fresh daily, is no problem.

    A very successful season; shared many butterflies with neighbors and released many in memory of deceased friends and friends of friends; but raising 400 was A LOT of work.

    1. Awesome

       1. I have raised 49 Monarchs in West Seneca NY, tagged 13 , have had some catepillars having issues with not enough nutrients in milkweed that turned a little yellow, so lost last 9 , very sad , I could of did things differently , learning experience , 2nd year , raised 26 first year, Helping & Raising Migration is a part of life now.

    2. Hi Sally

       400??!! That’s amazing! 44 cats felt like a lot of work for me so I don’t know how you manage 400! Way to go!!

49. Hi, We’re from Santa Paula, CA. This is our first year for raising butterflies. We had a total of 17 chrysalis and 12 butterflies released. I don’t know why 5 of them didn’t make it. They turned dark, but not black and leaked something that dried and left a trail of white from the chrysalis. The first run had 8 chrysalis and 3 survived. These were raised in the open. After this, we bought a tent and raised them in our backyard. Had another 8 and all survived and then we had one that was released yesterday. Such a wonderful experience. This all started with a single potted milkweed plant that was a birthday gift last May!

50. This is my third year of raising Monarchs. I have raised and released 15 of my own and have given 8 cats to a friend. I am small compared to lot of you. But each one counts. I keep them in mesh enclosures that I move outside on the front porch so they can get fresh air and sun but no rain. Just before they enclose I move them to another mesh cage. I feel that is the best way to raise healthy strong Monarchs. I had no failures this year. I also found a Swallowtail cat on my dill, which I gave to a friend (she was very excited to raise it). I live in Hinckley Ohio about 20 miles south of Cleveland.

51. This is my third year of raising Monarchs. I have raised and released 15 of my own and have given 8 cats to a friend. I am small compared to lot of you. But each one counts. I keep them in mesh enclosures that I move outside on the front porch so they can get fresh air and sun but no rain. Just before they enclose I move them to another mesh cage. I feel that is the best way to raise healthy strong Monarchs. I had no failures this year. I also found a Swallowtail cat on my dill, which I gave to a friend (she was very excited to raise it). I live in Hinckley Ohio about 20 miles south of Cleveland.

52. We released a total of 116 butterflies. 65 female & 51 male. We also lost 29 to tachinid flies. This was only our 2nd season, we started out with 2 milkweed plants and added 6 more this year. We didn’t see our first Monarch until early a July so we didn’t see our first caterpillar until mid July. We released our last Monarch on October 2nd. It got harder to find food as the weeks went on as we were inundated with aphids and milkweed bugs this year which was very frustrating
    So we bought 5 more milkweed plants of a different variety only to find we brought home 12 hitchhikers (added bonus)
    So our cages are cleaned up and put away. Can’t wait until next year

53. I just released my last monarch of the season on October 3rd. We had a total of 183 releases for 2019, and of those, 56 were released since September 1st. We live in a northwest suburb of Chicago. I mostly took in eggs this year, and 7 cats, and of all that were brought in already born, 16 died. 4 of those died from Black Death, 1 of Tachnid Flies, a few failed to eat and grow and just died, 2 made it to the chrysalis stage but never emerged, 1 disappeared, and I accidentally killed a few tiny ones. In all, we had 95 females and 88 males emerge successfully. We raised any born after August 1st in an outdoor screened porch for the first time, after I learned about the new study. All were collected from common milkweed in our own yard. It was our 3rd year raising and we thank Tony for his great tips and advise!

54. Owatonna MN – I released 59 butterflies after Aug 30, 2019. I had 17 chrysalis’s formed after the Aug 30th date. This is just my second year helping the Monarchs. I totally raised 310 butterflies throughout the summer. A lot of work but very rewarding!!!

55. Feed the Migration

    I live in southeastern Ohio. This was my second year of raising monarchs. I released my last one on October 3rd. She was number 153. I tried to keep track of males & females, but there were a few days when I had so many to release that I couldn’t keep track of them! The most I released in one day was 16.

    I found my first caterpillar the end of May. My June, July, and August monarchs totaled 28. It was the latter end of August when things really picked up. The females kept laying eggs on the thriving milkweed vine on our front porch railing!

    Fortunately, my husband built me a big cage to keep on our front porch to accommodate all of them. In September, I was releasing monarchs almost every single day!

    My results were as follows:

    Healthy monarchs 153
    Chrysalids that just didn’t eclose 3
    Chrysalids with parasites 2
    Accidental injury 1
    Crumpled wing 1
    No escapes
    Diseases 0
    Every 5th instar caterpillar successfully made it’s chrysalis! I had a few that didn’t last year.

    The only caterpillars that died were the tiny 1st instars. I believe it was my fault for letting it get too moist in the container, causing mold on the leaves. I didn’t keep track of the deaths, but I would say it was under 10. Once I started raising them in the outside cage, it was no longer a problem.

    I had one chrysalis that fell from the top of the inside cage. It was small and I had pretty much given up on it. I layed it on a napkin in one of my open containers and forgot about it. One day, I went to get the container and there was an empty chrysalis laying there! I was flabbergasted! I was looking all around my dining room and then I noticed a crumpled up creature under the napkin! She must have just came out. I lifted the napkin gently and she started pumping up her wings! She turned out to be a perfectly healthy butterfly!

    Two other times, I ended up with a newly eclosed monarch hanging from my finger for about a half an hour while it expanded it’s wings! Both times, I was alone and didn’t have my phone with me to get any pics! They both turned out fine. One was struggling to get out of a chrysalis that I had laying on the floor of the cage. I picked it up by the cremaster and held it so the butterfly could eclose easily. I ended up letting it climb on my finger because that was easier than holding on to the empty chrysalis! The second one was trying to walk across the ceiling of the cage before expanding it’s wings. Luckily, it fell right in front of me, so I let it crawl on my finger and I ended up in the same situation!

    I have to say, it was an enjoyable year! But, very busy! Last year I released 66, so getting 153 this year exceeded my expectations.

    Thanks, Tony for making this page and the Facebook group. I have learned so much! And by posting my experiences on my Facebook page, I have encouraged others to start raising monarchs too. I feel really good about that. ?

56. I released 22 monarchs this year. I had eight last year. I live in Celina Ohio

57. Just wondering about putting weed and feed on yard now all butterflies have gone for the winter. I have successfuly released 120 monarchs and 4 swallowtail . I dont want to do any tbing to hurt butterflies. I was thinking of front yard .. all milkweed is in back yard. .. thank you

    1. If applied according to the label, herbicides should not be toxic to pollinators, although the long term effects of these chemicals on the ecosystem are not fully understood. keeping it away from host/nectar plants sounds like a good idea.

58. Hello from Pinehurst, NC. This is my first year raising Monarchs. I know you’re supposed to bring in the eggs but I didn’t get involved until I saw a bunch of cats feeding on the milkweed. I was concerned that the birds would get them so I put them in the butterfly pavilion that I bought last year. Brought in 11 cats and released 9 of them. Not sure what was wrong with the other 2. Saw 3 more on the milkweed and left them there. Hopefully they made it. Next year I will be better informed as to how to do this and will start looking for eggs early. Saw lots of black swallowtails but only 1 Monarch flitting around and was surprised to find all the cats in Sept. I’ll add more milkweed next spring.

59. (Northern Virginia) I have hesitated to respond because, while I read all of the newsletters about raising monarchs, I actually raise black swallowtails. I use the butterfly cage that I had purchased to winter them over as they emerge primarily in the spring and need to be protected while they are dormant. I have done so for about 15 years, last year raising 45 to maturity. This fall I have had 34 pupate. Four males decided to emerge and fly this month which will give them a short life span in the coming cold. Right now the cage is in my cool basement but will move to the unheated garage when the weather settles. Nothing ever freezes in the garage. I have raised some swallowtails from eggs but usually gather them after they have hatched. They feed on parsley, dill, fennel, rue and carrot greens. I grow all except the carrots myself and gather the carrots and some caterpillars from our Master Gardener demonstration veggie bed. This year we had a very wet spring and early summer and I experienced more caterpillars failing to thrive than ever before.
    This year I found and raised two variegated fritillary caterpillars that have recently emerged and flown. From what I have read they are also migratory and should be traveling south for the winter. While beautiful butterflies, they make spectacular sparkling pupa. Both were highlighted guests at Master Gardener meetings.
    I enjoy reading about all of the monarch news and thought that you might be interested that some of us butterfly folks have befriended other varieties.
    Anne

    1. Hi, Anne. I think everyone loves to hear about butterfly raising regardless of what kind. 🙂

       I am in Hampton Roads, coastal VA, and have swallowtails for the first time. I lost two to a sneaky spider who got into my hut. We found the entrance and that won’t be happening next year.

       Overwintering is not something monarch raisers have to deal with so I have asked this question of swallowtail raisers and have received different answers. I am curious what you will say. You mentioned moving your overwintering chrysalis to your garage and said, “…nothing ever freezes in the garage.” Are freezing chrysalis an issue? As I mentioned we have an outdoor butterfly hut, basically like a screened in porch, and currently there are five chrysalis in there with four cats still eating away at parsley.

       It sounds like you worry about freezing and others have told me they do this in nature and to leave them. Thoughts?

       Thanks, Lori

       1. Hi Lori, check out this post for info about:

          overwintering swallowtail chrysalides

60. This is our 2nd year of raising Monarchs. We raise a lot fewer than most enthusiasts do, but the rewards are just as equal.
    We live in the mountains just north of Harrisburg, PA, and, like last year, it wasn’t until August that we started seeing the caterpillars feeding on the Common Milkweed and also on Orange Butterfly Weed.
    We have the baby cube enclosure which holds up to 15 caterpillars. This year we successfully raised and released 10 beautiful Monarchs. 5 males and 5 females.
    During this time I was able to video-tape one of the caterpillars going into the chrysalis stage, and also filmed a few of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalis.
    It is so rewarding to share this experience with others thru the photos and videos I take. And more rewarding is when I’ve made others aware of the ‘nature’ around them and they start coming to me, sharing with me what they are now seeing. It is especially rewarding when you see the excitement from someone who never talked about nature before, but now is.
    Along with raising 10 monarchs in our baby cube enclosure, we actually got to see a Monarch emerge in a natural environment.
    My husband noticed a chrysalis hanging underneath our bluebird box. When he found it, the monarch’s pattern was already visible inside. 2 days later we could see it would be emerging that day.
    I patiently sat for 4.5 hours just so that I could watch the Monarch emerge. Rather than watching it inside the enclosure, this was the first time I photographed the emerging event outside. It turned out to be a beautiful female.
    After the Monarch dried it’s wings for a few hours, I was there to photograph her taking her first flight up into the big blue sky.
    I’m already looking forward to 2020 so that we can help the Monarchs all over again.

61. 2018–25 monarchs released. 2019–54 released. Today, Oct 5, I released my last monarch. It was sunny when I took her out, but is now 57 and cloudy in Racine, WI. She is now in Mother Nature’s care. About 4 chrysalides failed–2 did not fully eclose. Most of my releases had been raised from eggs. About 3-4 were cats. Toward the end of the season, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough milkweed for the instars, so I picked good leaves and washed them off. Then bagged and refrigerated them. That worked!!

62. Hi,
    I live in southeast Michigan. This year I collected 350 caterpillars from approximately 50 plants scattered over 38 acres. I released 266 Monarchs. (76% survival) The first Monarch sighting was on June 3rd. I found the first caterpillars on June 27th, and the last Monarch was released on September 9th. The last Monarch sighting was on September 28th. A fair number of the caterpillars I collected were approximately 1/16 of an inch, which I believe contributed to the lower survival rate. I also had a number of chrysalis which were infected with a bacterial disease, also a few Monarchs with crumpled wings. 2019 saw a higher survival rate than 2018: 76% compared to 60%.

    1. It is hard for me to navigate about the computer so I am hoping someone can help me get my butterflies counted for the migration.
       I am fifteen miles south of Pittsburgh. Pa. It was a late year getting started here with the first caterpillars and eggs appearing the end of July. From September 12 to October 1, I released 63 butterflies, There was three sickalises that didn’t open . Hatching actually started the middle of July so I didn’t include them in the migration count.
       It was a pretty successful year being that I got started late.
       What I learned this year is that you can never have enough milkweed. I thought I was going to have enough, but I was wrong.
       My husband built me a cage from wood then I added screen that you would use to repair a window screen and stapled that one, leaving and overlap so that I was able to get in it to clean and replace milkweed. It set by my back porch and made it so much easier for me to clean and it was the right size that I could lift it up and move it to another location as not to get to much poop poop in one place. the caterpillars loved it and made it so easy for them to hang and form there chrysalides.
       I don’t have a covered back porch so I used a beach umbrella that I put in the ground beside the cage and when it got really hot I opened it up to shade my little babies.
       Releasing them is like letting go of your children.

63. We raised 173 monarchs (91 Male, 82 Female) this year in Urbana, Illinois, all but the last one from eggs. 160 were released after August 20 and likely are part of the migration. This includes 14 released the first week of October, later than the last one in 2018 (Sep. 28). The last released on Oct. 5, was a 5th-instar we found in our garden on Sept. 25. They were fed on a variety of broad-leaf milkweed that I found in our garden and in local parks – common milkweed, purple milkweed, some others I haven’t positively identified. Most spent 9-10 days in chrysalis; I kept the “throne room” un-air conditioned to give them more energy.

    Eggs: I found more than 250 eggs in my yard and surrounding areas. Most were on small climbing milkweed (honeyvine) plants, some just a few inches tall and growing in our lawn. One 1-inch tall plant had 3 eggs. This is evidently the milkweed of choice for laying females. Starting in mid-August, many eggs were infected with Trichogamma wasps – more than 50, including almost all of one batch I found in a local park on small honeyvines in the mowed grass.

    What worked, what didn’t and lesson learned:

    Milkweed source: I had very good success feeding the cats common milkweed from a local park. Early in the season I took some plants from another nearby park, and many of the cats became sick, barfing green liquid, although not all of them died. Switching back to my original source cured the problem.
    I strongly suspect the milkweed had traces of herbicides or pesticides.

    Hydration: I don’t mist the leaves, but I do cut slits down the stems/stalks
    to allow the cuttings to draw up more water. All of the emerging butterflies had plenty of excess fluid to release, so I think this is working.

    Frass: This year I lined the bottom of the cages with pieces of an old bedsheet, and it made the cleanup much easier. Just grab the whole thing, take out and shake.

    Egg cannibalism: I sometimes collected 20-40 eggs at a time, and put many of each leaf. The early hatchlings will often go around and eat the other eggs. Lesson: limit how many eggs are put on each leaf. Alternatively, leave the eggs near the leaf (but not on it), move them to the leaf after hatching or when the egg gets dark. I lost fewer this way.

    Caterpillar cannibalism: I witnessed several of these, and I think it was caused by overcrowding and/or big cats on the same plant with small ones. Later I separated the cats, as much as possible, by size and there was much less of this. Still, I saw one 3rd-instar eating a 2nd instar not much smaller than it.
    Lesson: keep cats together of the same size. I bought extra cages to manage this.

    Moving small cats: I tried a new technique this year which worked very well, even with newly hatched cats. Pick up the cat with a rolling motion with a Q-tip cotton swab. Place the swap on a new leaf and wait for the cat to crawl off on its own.

    Overcrowding and molting: Having too many cats on one plant or one cage presents a variety of problems. Since they molt frequently, the molting ones need quiet places away from the others. Many molting ones dies because they were bothered by the others. The molting ones frequently molt on the sides on the tubes, the sides of the cage, and inside the tube-holder. One must be careful when lifting out the tubes – I erased a few this year doing this without seeing them.
    Lesson: keep to 10-12 in small cages, 25 in the big cube (I had double this many early on).

    Chrysalis issues: To encourage them to make chrysalides on the cage roof, I place pieces of cardboard on top. Still, I had many make Chrysalides under leafs; these are easy to relocate later. Two of them made their chrysalis underneath a cup of the half-egg carton I was using to hold the tubes. I was lucky to find the first one, and looked for the 2nd.
    Some cats tend to bother J’s and the J’s get very agitated. Three chrysalides in one batch fell down to the floor in the process. Two were eventually fine, but one was mis-shapen from forming on the floor, and the butterfly emerged deformed and had to be euthanized.

    Moving cats that are near chrysalis: Sometimes a cat will start making a silk pad at an inconvenient spot, like the cage zipper or inside the tube holder, and I move it away to the roof. It’s possible that these cats can run out of silk and end up with a weak silk pad for the chrysalis. A few fell down or were found hanging below the cage roof by a thin thread of silk.
    Lesson: leave them make their chrysalis wherever they want to, and move them later.

    Butterflies: I had only two emerging butterflies that did not live. One emerged but the wings never expanded. I don’t know what caused this.

64. Blue Mounds, WI

    We had a great year here in Southwestern WI. 134 total this year (56M/78F) up from 47 last year.

    3 eclosing issues, 2 got stuck part way out of the chrysalis while I was at work and had to euthanize them. 1 left part of its left side wings in the chrysalis, so it couldn’t fly even though the other side was perfect.

    6 loses to flies ☹️ I brought in a few (15) instar 2-4 range cats because they were cutting our field and was trying to save them from certain death. Host cats & fly larvae euthanized. Not giving those little buggers a chance to take more lives. There are plenty of them outdoors. Best part is completely full field of young milkweed about 2 weeks after cutting.

    No escapies this year. Kept a much closer eye on them this year while cage cleaning. 2 last year, both were beautiful butterflies though.

    We raise on milkweed (common, swamp, tropical & butterfly weed) Thanks to Tonys recommendation we added Mexican Torch flower this year and the hummingbirds live it too. They are big plants but so worth it. We indoor seed our swamp, tropical & mexican torch starting after Christmas to give them a good start before putting them outdoors for the year. They are annuals in WI, but not due to a lack of trying to overwinter them.

    1. Kokomo Indiana, . we are having a great year here in North Central Indiana, have had terrible dry summer but with watering had good milkweed growth. I tried growing balloon milkweed this year ,it done very well and the monarchs love it, looks a lot like swamp weed growing but has cool seed pods. We have releasedc137 monarchs so far this year but I still have 11 in chryalis and 35 cats of all sizes, I went out to retrieve more milkweed for them today 10/5/19 and found 3 more cats, I don’t know if they will be enough time for them to make it but we will give them a chance. We purchased a portable greenhouse and can’t wait to start our seeds earlier this next season. We also love that Mexican sun flower for t.heir nectar all butterflies seem to love it as do the Hummers. To all have a wonderful holiday season and spring will be back before we know it.

65. The you for all the information to provide. I refer to your web page often. Here are my counts for this year.
    West Liberty Iowa
    6/26/1 – first monarch enclosed
    10/2/19 – Last monarch enclosed
    49 – Males
    50 -Hwy Females

    Thank you

    1. Lutherville, Md
       I was better prepared this year, had all the tubes, cubes and ready to go. I first stated August 1st when I noticed my one swamp milkweed was almost bare compared to two days ago when it looked great! found 9 cats feasting with only a few leaves left so I gathered them and went and picked fresh milkweed from another area. 5 days later I had 6 chrysalis and two cats up top and one in a J. Had to destroy two chrysalis when they turned black and had the thread dropping down, also smooshed the eggs from the Tachinid wasp. I ended up raising 15 and releasing them. then raised from eggs 14, tagged and released them, The last one just yesterday.. very successful year. Had 4 make their chrysalis’ on the tube rack, 5 on the milkweed it self, the rest climbed up to the top of the enclosure. Only had one cat die of unexplained illness, it was in it’s 3rd instar.
       Very happy with my results and was disapointed that this morning was my first morning i didn’t eat my breakfast with cats, chrysalis or butterflys 🙁 Hope they all make it to Mexico and avoid the mosquito sprays. I witnessed a migrating band of Monarchs on the 22nd of September on Kent Island Md. Then two days later I read where Monarchs were found dead, huge amounts and probably from mosquito sprays.. I hope it wasn’t the group i saw but… Until next year.. 🙂

66. Dumont, NJ
    I’m so excited to have participated in this process! It came about by accident. We started noticing cats on the swamp milkweed beside our house in late July. Much to our surprise we found 4 chrysalides and watch as 4 healthy monarchs emerged. The next 2 times we saw cats, we failed to find a single chyrsalis. After reading the website, we came to the realization that there are many predators! The next time we saw 2 cats, we brought them inside to a homemade tent. From there our hobby grew as we searched for more milkweed to feed growing cats and discovered eggs. It was a learning process and only 1 cat didn’t make it. I’m happy to say we raised and released 18 monarchs! The biggest challenge was having enough milkweed to feed the growing cats. I will plant more milkweed to have plenty available for next season. Thank you for your advice, information and photos! I’m hooked!

67. This is my first year to raise Monarchs – I am in central Indiana – and released my last one today. I collected a total of 68 eggs/caterpillars; 35 females, 29 males, 1 ? flew away before I could see the gender. I had 3 deaths; one appeared to be Black Death, one adult that was damaged due to forming its chrysalis on the yellow peg and one chrysalis that I had to euthanize because it was partly eaten by another cat. I also had 2 eclose this week that had made their chrysalides in my garden.

    I would have to say that the most important thing I learned was not to let the cats form their chrysalis on the yellow pegs. The one butterfly that was damaged and did not make it had done that and I did not move it in time to prevent a deformed chrysalis. I later saw an article suggesting that it is OK to move a cat in it’s J if it is in a bad place. Following his instructions, I later did successfully move a cat in its “J” from the yellow peg and it eclosed fine. Another lesson was that if a cat is forming its “J” under a leaf, separate it from the cats that are still eating, even if there is plenty of milkweed to munch on!

68. This was our second year rearing monarchs. Last year we had 100% eclosure and were excited to release 13 beautiful butterflies. This year we planted our own milkweed and from that, collected 111 eggs and tiny cats. We lost just one cat to tachnid fly larva. All others were released. We tagged around 40 during the migration period. We had one butterfly stay with us due to crumpled wings. He had the best of everything for a few weeks. The BBC est thing we learned was that leaves laying down in floral tubes stay fresh the longest. Our cats stay on the flat in glass baking dishes covered with panty hose, the bottoms are covered with fresh paper towels daily. Cats are moved to large pop up cages when they are big enough to form chrysalises. We keep cats segregated by size, and in 7 separate glass dishes and 2 pop up cages and one huge pop up. It’s a wonderful summer activity. Thank you Tony for all the helpful information and entertaining stories.

69. I am in northern MN and my last one just emerged today. This was not a good year for us our healthy butterfly release rate ended up being about 61%. We had a great year last year but this year we had several caterpillars die, eggs that had parasites, chrysalises that were not healthy, and butterflies that had wings that did not form right. It was extremely wet up here and I am wondering if that didn’t have something to do with it. Last year we had caterpillars being found earlier than expected and this year they were later than expected. Hoping for a better year next year.

70. I am in Newark , Ohio, this is my third year raising the amazing Monarch. So far I have released 106 Males and 113 Females for 219 total. I still have 40 plus waiting to eclose. This is my first year with success in raising them from eggs. I have had a few failures with T -fly issues. I believe these came from larger cats found on milkweed. I always look for signs of wounds but this did not always work. I was sadden to see a t-fly larva coming out of a chrysallis. This was a first for me. I also learned how to move silk covered chrysalis so the butterfly could eclose properly by misting with water. This advice came from F B group The Beautiful Monarch Rec Room. Very friendly site with great ideas very helpful. I have also found Tony’s advice helpful. I am hooked planning for next year already.

71. HI from Central Wisconsin!
    I wasn’t planning on raising any this year (last year being my first year as part of Joint Venture IMMP)….but when I saw the cats on the milkweed in my garden, I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t go out seeking eggs though, just brought in the cats I saw and IF I saw an egg, then I would grab it too. I’d day of the 41 (24-F, 17-M) raised, tagged and released, only 5 were found as eggs.
    I had 2 other cats die at 3 instar
    1 – 2nd instar was killed by a spider that rode in on some leaves
    1 – cat formed it’s chrysalis under the fold of a paper towel and was damaged and subsequently died
    and 2 – tachnid fly casualties grrrrrrr
    so that’s almost 50 that came from my small butterfly garden. I’m pretty happy with that and even more so when I would see all the butterflies flying around my blooms. It’s weird and a little saddening though, I only saw maybe 2 that were tagged flying around those blooms after release day. I just tell myself that after mine were released they headed straight for Mexico. 🙂

72. I am in Northeast Tennessee. I planted five different varieties of milkweed, beginning in May. I ran out last year and wanted to be sure I had enough for this year. I kept three plants inside, and planted the others outside in three different locations. I found eleven caterpillars in early August. Of those eleven, ten successfully developed and eclosed with no problems. The eleventh chrysalis never turned dark and was removed from the cage. I now think it had tachinid parasites. I found 38 more caterpillars in late August, and was able to find 13 or 14 eggs after I saw a female Monarch laying them. This was the first time I had ever seen a Monarch in my flowers and milkweed, and I was thrilled to actually see her laying eggs. I brought the eggs in and kept them in a large, flat plastic container with a lid. It was so hard to see the eggs that I had trouble keeping an accurate count of them. Once they hatched the only way I could find them was with a magnifier. After a few days I put them in a separate cage to monitor how well they did. All of my caterpillars ate only milkweed this year. I had plenty for all of them. I had nine deaths from Tachinid parasites, two from accidents (cat turned the cage over at my granddaughter’s house) and one squished caterpillar in the cage with the caterpillars raised from eggs. I don’t know how it got squished. All in all I released 49 butterflies, ten males and 39 females. All were healthy and strong. The ones raised from eggs did beautifully. All completed their metamorphoses with no hitches. I had no butterflies that got stuck eclosing, no missing parts, no falls, etc. i kept my cages in a walkout basement bathroom with sunlight most of the day. I did mist the outside of the cage with filtered water every other day to prevent the chrysalides from drying out. I think that helped. All the butterflies, when released, made a beeline for our large Empress tree. I had lantana and Mexican sunflowers available for nectar. I also had a blue mist flower plant. I was plagued with aphids this year and will plant marigolds in with them next year to see if that keeps their population down. I found that my Monarchs much preferred swamp milkweed. They ate the other kinds when that was the only choice they had. I had poor results with the butterfly garden I planted, but kept adding more plants as others died. Out of 61 caterpillars and eggs, 49 butterflies survived and were released., the last one on September 29th. It was a good season. Thank you all for sharing your comments and experiences. I have learned a lot This is only my second year raising Monarchs. I did find the the tubes with spikes worked perfectly. I could replace or refill them with no problem. Our weather cooperated, too. Here’s to a bigger year next year!

73. I want to Thank Tony for all his time, knowledge, information, and emails. His help is helping People, help the Monarchs. I had 162 Successful releases, 66 Males and 96 Females.

74. I live in Northern NJ and have released 115 so far. (This more than doubles what I’ve had over the past 4 yrs). I have one chrysalis and 3 4th instars as of Oct. 2. I’ve also released 5 Black Swallowtails with another 5 in chrysalis and 3 cats. It has been a wonderful summer.
    On a negative note, I had at least 5 infected chrysalis, 3 monarchs with distorted wings and at least 5 cats die early being infected.

75. I live just a few miles north of you in Oak Grove, MN. I travel a lot so this year I had 2 groups of 8 cats and eggs. In the first group all but 1 were successful and flew away when I was on a trip. My hubby released them and didn’t take pictures so I don’t know what they were. The one that didn’t make it had crumpled wings and was a male. He was still here when I got home. I had another group of 8. One tiny cat wandered off. Of the 7 chrysalis 5 emerged perfect, 2 emerged but one fell during the night and didn’t make it back to the top of the cage and the other one looked perfect but must have had an injury to the left wing were it connected to his body and couldn’t fly. I just had my last one emerge last night. She is perfect and I hope it stops raining and the sun comes out so she can get going to Mexico. I had one emerge last Sunday on a perfect day and he was so ready to go I never got a really good picture of him and he was off. I raised the last group of 8 outside on my deck but I brought the last one in when the weather got cold. The chrysalis was just starting to turn dark late yesterday so I was surprised when I checked on it this morning and found the butterfly already hanging and drying her wings. I brought in eggs and cats. This last butterfly was an egg.

76. Hi Tony!

    I had a very good Monarch year this 2019 summer in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Because of all the rain we got in the Spring, my milkweed was growing beautifully. I waited until the blossoms started to fade before looking for eggs in my region. I was dumbfounded when, instead I came upon a instar 5 crawling around on one of my plants! I also found a lot of eggs! This was July 14, 2019. That is the earliest I have ever started raising caterpillars. It ended yesterday, with my goodbye to my last boy. All in all I successfully raised 70 total. Thirty males, and 40 females. I lost one non egg to Tfly, and several small cats to unexplained sudden deaths. I am not equipped to test for OE, but I did not see any indication that it was present. Only one male didn’t make it fully out of his chrysalis. He lived for several hours but then I put him in the freezer. I do intend to try and see if OE was the cause. Almost all of mine were egg raised, with only a handful that were cats when found. I raise my own milkweed free from pesticides. Next year I will try more varieties in my garden and maybe get a popup enclosure for my plants in containers, to keep outside. All of mine were raised indoors in several of your popups and using the yellow racks and poopoo platters. I kept them in my rec room with a grow light overhead. I love all the updates and information I get from both your website, and the Facebook page. Thank you for guiding me through a very happy Monarch season!

77. Watsontown, PA. I started with 20 cats – the most I have ever attempted. I lost 2 to bacterial infection, 2 died right after forming a “J”, 1 failed to emerge (assuming it was “stuck”), and 1 small one from an unfortunate accident. ): I released 14 – 9 females, 3 males, and the very first one I released flew away so fast I didn’t get to see if it was male or female. I could not have done this without the Tower cage I had ordered! The peg racks and flower tubes are really great. I had unfortunately misplaced the magnifying glass until after they were all released. I will be sure to store it with my cleaned raising supplies for next season! I also will be ordering another cage and more peg racks with tubes! On another note, I was able to raise about 15 black swallowtail butterflies before the Monarch cats showed up. I did not have my cage then and they all crawled off to do their thing, but I saw them flying around later!

    1. I forgot Mr. Crumpled Wings – one of the Monarchs emerged and had fallen to the bottom of the cage on his back. I found him, but not soon enough for his wings to straighten out. I feed him water on my hand and moved him from flower to flower for 5 days before he disappeared. He wanted to fly so badly, it was sad.

78. Williamsport, MD Started finding cats on July 4th. I found 38 cats and released 17 (9-males, 8-females) On August 10th, I put the cat cage outside on a table with shade from an umbrella based on a new study. it was a DISASTER! 21 chrysalis never hatched. This was heartbreaking.
    I am definitely going back to my original way of raising them inside next year.

79. I successfully raised 60 males and 57 females. It was a discouraging season in that I lost so many, both in chrysalis and caterpillars. I seem to have been infected with Black Death. I had 2 eclosed that looked perfectly fine but did not fly. One died and the other started flying after 5 days in the cage. 2 cats pupated in the middle of a yellow rack for floral
    Tube. I did not notice immediately and the chrysalides formed around the square posts. I did remove them, but the chrysalides had deep grooves. One never eclosed. The other did but one wing was damaged and he can’t fly. He is 6 1/2 weeks old now. Lessons learned: don’t skip the hydrogen peroxide soil cleansing and don’t put cats soon to pupate with the yellow floral racks.

80. I released my last monarch today, Oct. 1, in Western Mass. Since September 1, I released 16 butterflies, 3 males and 13 females. I lost 1 cat to an incomplete molt and 1 crysalis turned black. One lesson I learned early on this year was not to keep first and second instars with unhatched eggs. They eat them! Over the whole summer I raised 53 monarchs, 20 males, 32 females, and 1 I didn’t get a good look at.

81. Checking in from Newaygo, Michigan. Released my last monarch today.
    23 Successful females
    21 Successful males
    1 Accidental death. One very small catapillar was fatally injured due to not seeing it on a leaf
    1 disease or possible issue: The head and legs of the butterfly emerged but then stopped. I used a tweezer to try and help but it did not have wings and the rest of the body was black.
    Unexplained: The antenna were stuck to the chrysalis and could not be separated. The wings were also not fully expanded.
    Next year I need to carefully check the milkweed when I clean cages so I don’t accidentally throw a very small catapillar out. My granddaughter found I couple I might have missed. I also need to continue to plant more fall plants that will provide nectar.

82. I thought I did good raising 11 monarch until I started reading everyone elses comments. I guess everyone has to start somewhere 🙂

    1. You saved 11 of them. That is wonderful!

       1. I agree. All these people with gardens etc. I live in New York City on the border of Greenwich Village and SoHo. I raised 5 caterpillars, of them 4 out of 5 (3 females 1 male) survived and were set free. One died due to t-fly infection. This was my first year raising Monarchs. I felt very happy about the 4 I did save. Next year I will use what I learned from reading this web page and others to raise more and start with eggs. The 5 I did raise were all cats.

          I also raised 7 black swallowtails I found on my parsley plants that I bought from the 14 street farmers market. It was this experience that inspired me to look for Monarch caterpillars on the one patch I found in Riverside park and another I found near the fire station where I live. I stared looking in mid August. We do not see many butterflies here, but my experience this summer has encouraged me to do more next year. For example plant milkweed in my neighborhood in tree pits etc. and my fire escape where I have a small “garden” which will now be exclusively for butterflies and raising swallowtails and monarchs. Now I have a hobby I really enjoy and looking forward to spring to get started for the 2020 summer butterfly season. ??

    2. I’m in Key West, FL. Last year, I set pots of milkweeds from my neighborhood garden supply (in Tampa) and entertained myself by watching the process from my window. This year, I planned to do the same, but the conditions here are far more perilous for the little darlings. It’s hard to get plants, for one thing. Mine have been stripped to the stems twice. I hide them in shade and buy more plants as the need becomes obvious. Well, a friend called, having no leaves and 30 or more 5th instars. I kept them outside until I noticed at dusk that each one had climbed to the top of the naked stem and hung motionless there. The night predators would have picked them off. So I rigged cages with gleanings from the dollar store – one 36″ mesh bag, 2 plastic laundry baskets, 3 water-rifles (support) and 4 pipecleaners per cage. Inserted a milkweed plant that still had leaves, and called it a night. The next morning, they were chewing down on the remaining leaves. I’d thought they would have formed chrysalydes, but none did, and I was running out of food. Nothing for 20 miles at least. I took them all outside, reserving only 12. All formed chrysalydes that night. All eclosed successfully, 4 one day, 7 two days later, and the last one today. Of those left outside, I’m hopeful that many survived somehow, but I did find one dead and chewed-up one. I left it outside, hoping more predators would sample and learn to bug off. I’m new to all this, but intend to do better next time. Real cages, enough of my own plants to feed what I take in. Whether I start at the egg stage…idk. Maybe taking in cats makes more sense here…they’re proven survivors…and there isn’t sufficient space to grow an abundance of food.

    3. Greetings from New Freedom,
       PA! I’m a first year monarch enthusiast and I released 8 butterflies out of 9. I started late and didn’t really have my butterfly garden established until late June. I had an explosion of aphids and by trial and error finally rid those little orange vampires with Castile soap. I never experienced raising monarchs from eggs yet; as I rescued cats and feed them my milkweed leaves. All was well with all 9 butterflies as they came out of their chrysalides until one fell to the bottom of the butterfly pavilion as I was moving the pavilion. I let her crawl on my finger and reunited her with her chrysalis, but she died overnight. I got a little emotional about that.
       I learned how to deal with aphids, to plant more nectar flowers, and not to move the pavilion when a new butterfly emerges. It’s also helpful to trim off old flowers for new ones.
       I have a lot mire to learn yet, but I’m hopeful and enjoy the miracle of the monarchs.

83. My husband and I live in Canton, Ohio, and we finally released our last monarch today. This is our 5th season of raising. We had a RTM total of 148. We released 194 males and 210 females for an overall total of 404, our best season yet. We did have some casualties; we lost 6 after eclosion and 21 chrysalides. 4 were due to preventable damage in transferring them, the others were due to OE and/or bacterial infections. The two biggest lessons I learned this season involve sterilizing our enclosures more often, and thinning out our milkweed patch to promote healthier plants. Although I swept out our enclosures 2-3 times daily, the number of infected chrysalides still leads me to think I need to do more next year. In May and June,we got a lot of rain which led to fungus developing on our plants. As well as thinning , I’ll definitely be treating with peroxide next season.
    Happy raising, everyone!

84. I live in southern Manitoba. Saw our first Monarch June 11th. Wonderful season raising Monarchs in my covered patio. Collected 185 (mostly eggs from my plants). Released 167 healthy butterflies (85 males/82 females) 65 of these were released between August 31-Sept. 11.
    18 deaths and disappearances as follows:
    7 – disappeared (could have been killed by a larger cat or I threw them out with the milkweed)
    1 – deformed chrysalis
    1 – tachinid fly? (Got smaller and smaller and then died)
    3 – while forming a chrysalis the skin slipped down and caterpillar died (might have been my fault since I accidentally bumped the J cats.)
    1 – attached cremaster to skin instead of silk button (I dropped it while rehanging. It died)
    1 – deformed butterfly with black wings
    1- fell and was laying crumpled on the floor of cage, wings fully formed,
    1 – hubby killed one accidentally,
    2 – wing stuck in chrysalis, so wing was deformed. No disease so I let them nectar in the garden until they disappeared.
    I’m not super concerned about the percentage since some of these deaths were my fault. For the most part my Monarchs were very healthy. I observed about a dozen chrysalises outside. Of these only 4 healthy butterflies emerged. The rest of the chrysalises were a sickly green color. Not sure what was wrong with them. None of mine inside looked like that.

    A couple of things I’ll do differently is make sure large and small caterpillars are not on the same plant and be more careful when disposing of dried up milkweed. I may have accidentally thrown out small cats. Caterpillars make their chrysalises in interesting places, on the lip of yogurt containers, on the plastic side of the cage, on the zipper (fortunately lower down), I didn’t rehang them and they all eclosed just fine. 2 caterpillars made their J under a piece of newspaper that was slightly folded over. Fortunately I discovered them and rehung them. I also rehung Js that were on leaves that other caterpillars were munching on.

    We were interviewed on our local radio station and featured on our city’s website to raise awareness of the Monarch. I also gave dozens of swamp milkweed plants away. I definitely will plant Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) again. A couple of weeks ago there were dozens of Painted Ladies nectaring on them.

    Thanks Tony for all the great info you provide.

    Marcie

85. In Erie, Illinois: I raised and released 70 total (35 female and 35 male) this season. 54 were raised from eggs, 16 were rescued from my milkweed patches. I had 29 casualties, a majority from t-fly and some from pesticide exposure as our city sprays weekly for mosquitos from May through September.

    I learned A LOT this year as anything that could go wrong seemed to. I had to move several chrysalises since so many caterpillars decided to pupate in the worst possible places. I also learned that the less I move them/handle them, the better.

86. We saw a lot of monarchs in Chicago this year. I just released the last of my 32 migrators. Total monarch raise this year was 124 (125 if you count the one I found fluttering inside my bay window—no idea where she came from!). Three unexplained caterpillar deaths: 1 stopped eating and 2 died while hanging in a J, probably cats I had had brought in because of bad weather (usually it’s eggs only). Success rate 97%. I had 1 first-ever late afternoon eclosure (4:30 p.m.) and 1 I think eclosed during the night.
    More than half of my cats pupated under leaves—at first only in the baby and large cube; 95% in my tall black cages used the roof. But 10 of the final 14 used leaves, regardless of cage. One creative cat pupated halfway up the clear plastic cage window. I relocated it, fearing the chrysalis would be flattened on one side or that an emerging monarch couldn’t climb the clear plastic. I perfected my chrysalis-rehanging technique: Lay the cutting down on a towel; carefully cut off the leaf with the chrysalis (after its 48 hour hardening period). Cut away the leaf on either side of the rib (the chrysalis is always on the rib), then cut across the rib, leaving about a half inch on either side of the cremaster. Knot dental floss (my dentist wonders why I request so many floss samples) around the top of the cremaster and then again around the top of the leaf rib; then make a small loop with the floss. With the cage turned on its side, hang the chrysalis on a safety pin: put the pin point through the mesh roof from the outside, slide the loop over it (on the inside of the cage), poke the point back to the outside, and fasten it. Easy, secure, and doesn’t require removing the silk.
    My Lessons Learned:
    1. Always look first; keep your mind on the task. There may be a small cat on the zipper, cage floor, cutting jar or floral tube, or a J under a leaf. I’d hate to harm a potential butterfly because I’m thinking about what to make for dinner and not paying attention.
    2. Don’t remove empty chrysalides before all neighboring butterflies are gone. I started to “clean up” some empty chrysalides; the silk from a still-occupied chrysalis was superimposed on silk from an empty one and I almost detached it.
    3. Have a strategy to remove still-munching cats quickly from cuttings with an under-leaf J. Apparently the Js choose the most delectable leaf; all the other cats want to eat that one. Move fast; in an hour or so big cats can eat an entire leaf. dropping the J to the floor. Overnight, cats ate every bite of one leaf except—thank goodness—the center rib from which a J was hanging. But they do eat entire leaves, including the rib.
    4. Educate/mentor others. I try to engage passersby when releasing monarchs or collecting eggs. Everyone loves monarchs. Now another family on the block is raising monarchs, and more neighbors are planting butterfly gardens or plants and going chemical-free. I’m hoping for a butterfly corridor on our very urban block.
    And a Question: We get a lot of wind here. I’ve never seen any guidance about wind speeds and monarch release. Is there a wind speed above which one shouldn’t release monarchs?
    Thanks Tony and all in the “monarch community” for the great advice and for supporting monarchs!

87. This is the 2nd year I’ve been raising Monarch Butterflies and last year, 2018, I released only 25. This year, I tried raising on a bigger scale. Started the end of July with bringing caterpillars in as I found them on my Milkweed. Then I had a second wave which I raised by following your tips on collecting eggs on leaves and raising them in homemade incubators til large enough to place in the cage. I released 82 healthy Monarchs….47 females and 35 males. In addition, I had one butterfly emerge with only half of a wing and another so weak it could not hang from the top of the cage to dry its wings….they both died. I want to thank you for all the great information and help I received from the bulletins throughout the Season. Next year, I hope to raise even more. It is such a wonderful experience seeing these beauties take off and fly away. Oh, I am from Lancaster, PA (Southeastern PA). Thank you, carolyn

88. For the summer, it’s been a very good year. About 170 monarchs were reared from wild eggs from my garden and from egg storm rescues donated to our gardener network on Facebook and were released successfully. (See website link for release videos). About eight were lost due to eclosing mechanical malfunctions or falls not counting those freed. Genders favored about ten more males than females this rearing season. Early season eggs were reared individually indoors and the later generation large fifth instars out of doors. Lost twenty caterpillars due to mouse predation when one chewed through the mesh of the net house or my total would have been near 200. So glad it was a banner year all around from what I’ve read.

89. I had a good year for my third year of raising monarchs. Released 40 successfully and gave caterpillars to a few friends who also had success. In the past month, though, all my chrysalides (approximately 10) have had some issues with turning brown and not developing at all. Released my final one on Sept. 12. Still warm here in Pittsburgh, PA but haven’t seen many monarchs around so hopefully some are on their way south. Had about 8 chrysalises on my garden fence and a few of them survived as I found the empty shells. My milkweed started dying and looking pretty sad by end of summer. I’ll have to try cutting it back next year. I have common and swamp milkweed and the orange flower butterfly weed. Lots of garden flowers for nectar include Mexican sunflower, zinnias, cosmos and other flowers that they like. I enjoy this exciting summer hobby.

90. This is Becky in Ormond Beach, Florida and I have raised about 240 monarchs this year. This was my second year and I increased from about 90 in 2018 to this 240 this year. They are so much fun to release knowing that they will populate the species so that they will not become extinct.

91. We had a great year raising Monarchs. In 2018 I raised 13 monarchs with about a 90% success rate. This year it was over 50! I had so many eggs and caterpillars I had to foster some out to friends. We are a no-chemicals of any kind yard and garden and I feel it really has made a difference over the last years. I did pull a few milkweed plants as soon as they emerged just to save the look of my front yard, but the back yard is a haven of milkweed. It was really easy to spot eggs, nearly every plant had eggs on them throughout the summer. I noticed so many more Monarchs and milkweed plants this year than any years past in Michigan. They were flying everywhere and growing everywhere. Just this last week I counted 8 at the same time flying in our local Meijer’s parking lot. We had pretty good weather this summer, not to much rain and lots of warm days. With this said I lost two to natural causes I believe. One caterpillar just died and my last chrysalis just never emerged. It turned black with visible Monarch markings but then just stayed black. Made me sad that it was one of the last of ours to potentially migrate. I did find two chrysalis in my garden who made it naturally on their own! I’m wondering how many more there actually were? As I look toward to next year it will mean a change for my family and I as we are moving out to the country! With more land means more Monarchs to raise. My neighbors will continue to raise Monarchs within our small neighborhood, as they are all hooked now too! Once you start raising Monarchs and see the magic of nature emerge right before your eyes you just can’t stop. I’m finding more and more people willing to help, and that’s amazing!

92. Our second year of raising monarchs in Michigan had several challenges. Maybe it was because of so much spring rain, but we had difficulty finding eggs, even with loads of native milkweed and various pollinator-appealing plants and bushes. We came back from vacation to find caterpillars starting to appear in August, so we raised them in the butterfly cages successfully until #10. It had it’s “mask” stuck to its face when we found it as an approximate 3rd instar. I removed it with a dampened cotton swab and the cat appeared to develop normally. At the end of the first week as a chrysalis half of it was still green, while the rest seemed OK. It never developed fully and we euthanized it at 16 days.

    #14 cat, smaller than usual, appeared to be overly eager to join its friends on the ceiling and, as it was shedding to go into chrysalis form, the exoskeleton wouldn’t split at halfway and it appeared to be strangling itself. We ended up euthanizing it as the struggle appeared to be fruitless. Then #16 – our last chrysalis – turned black and was euthanized mid-September. Bummer! But fortunately we successfully released 7 females and 6 males and we were still seeing several monarchs around the neighborhood until we had heavy rains the last 24 hours.

93. In Lake Elmo, Minnesota I raised 33 Monarchs this summer. Did not start until the end of July.
    22 Females
    11 Males

    1 female cat was small and did not develop well. She died shortly after eclose. All others healthy. Last release was 9/28/19.

    I planted a new Milkweed patch w five varieties which they loved over older, more established plants. Aphids were terrible this year.

94. We live in Jacksonville, FL and released 23 butterflies during April and May of this year. During September we have released 4 butterflies and have three remaining caterpillars that hopefully will mature properly. Our numbers were down from the 88 that were released last year. All were raised from caterpillars found on our milkweed plants which are older more mature plants. We observed plenty of swallowtails in our gardens this year. It’s fun to watch them all flying around in the garden.

95. In 2018 I went ahead with planting my California butterfly garden and now have dozens of sunset flowers, showy milkweed, calotropis, and other kinds of milkweed here, Cape milkweed seems to be the hardiest. In June of 2019 I got a dozen live western Monarchs from Farfalla Butterfly Co and released them in the garden. Only one pair stayed with us to lay eggs, these hatched, but then the caterpillars disappeared. Late I found a few caterpillars on the bronze fennel and brought them in to raise in condiment containers, they proved to be Anise Swallowtail, and one chrysalis survived and was released. One day in September I noticed holes in Indian milkweed leaves and brought the caterpillars in for their protection. As a result I was able to release two male Monarchs, one of which emerged from chrysalis the day after my birthday. So far, the worst mistake I have made was to use ‘cleaning bleach’ to disinfect leaves. This stuff has soap in it and will kill caterpillars. Now I know pure water is the best thing for disinfecting leaves, and won’t make the mistake of using bleach again.

96. I’m from Oconomowoc, WI and this is my third year raising Monarchs. It has been, by far, my busiest year as I released slightly over 100 Monarchs in each generation. Our second generation monarchs even vacationed with us!

    The first two generations had a 100% success rate and required less work due to the lack of insects on the milkweed at that time. As the summer progressed, so did the various insects covering the milkweed. Even though I’m extremely careful washing milkweed used for feeding, I ran into a few problems. I also found the gathering and washing of milkweed for 100+ caterpillars extremely time consuming.

    The migration generation: Unfortunately I lost 7 J caterpillars due to tachnid fly infestations which, I believe, were brought in with a number of 4 and 5 instars, Fortunately they had been isolated in a separate cage. Just the same, I was extremely worried about my room full of mesh cages. My final Monarch will be released today when the weather clears.

    Generation 1- 100% success (100+ monarchs)

    Generation 2 – 100% success (100+ monarchs)

    Generation 3 – (100+ monarchs)
    – lost 7 to the T fly
    – lost 1 to the zipper
    – lost 1 due to damage to a new chrysalis
    by another caterpillar
    – lost 2 to bacteria
    – 1 Monarch born with undersized wings

    Lessons learned:

    Resist bringing in 4 and 5 instars, no matter how excited you are to find them!

    Do not overcrowd. Although I have 8 large mesh cages and 6 smaller plastic cages, I had difficulty managing the number of 5 instars at the top of the cages once they began to form Js and convert to chrysalises.

    I recommend you purchase the magnifying glass with a battery operated light. This was the first season I had it, and it proved to be invaluable!

    I plan on purchasing the grass vacuum next year.

97. Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin report from a Master Gardener Volunteer:
    I have had 3 years of experience raising Monarchs. I restricted myself in the first half of the season to raising from eggs with the exception of a few instar 1 or 2 cats. This year I had a 98% survival rate thru July. In August I took in about 20 instar 4 or 5 cats that I knew did not have enough food and the survival rate of these was more like 50%. OE showed up in most of those that were weak and did not grasp after eclosing or in a couple of cases, had OE symptoms in the chrysalis.
    My statistics for the year were as follows:
    3 accidental deaths
    9 disease issues
    0 unexplained deaths
    53 healthy males
    52 healthy females
    I released my first adults June 29 and my last one September 11.

    1. London, Ontario, Canada
       2019 we saw 91 butterflies in our flower garden this year and raised 12 monarchs from eggs found on milkweed. 100% success rate. 5 monarchs eclosed since August 30. This is my first year. Will definitely do it again next year. Even though I have lots of butterfly weed to feed the caterpillars, they really were not keen on it. They much preferred milkweed leaves.

       1. Monarch larvae feed only on milkweed leaves. It is the adults that feed/nectar on other flowers.

          1. They also feed on seed pods (mostly on the tropical milkweed) but I’ve seen a lot of stems be reduced to nubbins too! 🙂 many folks in the south were feeding their 4-5 instars squash and peeled cucumbers. This was only done when milkweed supplies dwindled! There was a bumper crop of eggs and caterpillars this year and everyone was running out. The growers had trouble keeping up! That’s a good thing.

98. I released 75 Monarchs this season (2019) from Annapolis, Maryland. 30 males and 45 females. There were 2 that didn’t make it, ..One accidental – chrysalis damaged. The other had a broken wing which I tried to repair but was u successful. I raised the eggs inside until they hatched. I collected the eggs daily and put them in Chic Filet salad container with lids that I saved from all the salads I’ve eaten. After hatching, I put the container outside on a shelving unit on my patio. When the cat was approximately an inch long, I moved it to the cage. I have plenty of common Milkweed in my backyard. I also have honeyvine Milkweed that the cats seem to prefer. I found more eggs on the Honeyvine Milkweed than the Common. They would eat the Common Milkweed but always ate the Honeyvine first. My biggest problem this season was the cats choosing the zipper on the cage to J hang. I couldn’t remember which way I put the cage last year but next year I’m definitely not putting the zipper at the top. I noticed more wasps and flies on the Milkweed this year and had to move 4 praying mantises from the common Milkweed. I enjoyed the butterflies this year on my zinnias which I grow every summer from last years saved seeds.

99. So I raised sixty Monarchs successfully. Some from eggs and some from caterpillars brought in from my Milkweed stock. Then I bought some late season swamp Milkweed and had worse luck. I had to euthanize six chrysalides. I attributed these loses to OE after I had one enclose with OE symptoms. I had one enclose in my butterfly garden and waiting on another in the garden. I also have one very small chrysalis in my enclosure. We’ll see what happens with this little one.

100. This is my second year raising Monarchs. Had 59 releases. 29 male and 32 female. One thing I noticed was that the males eclosed earlier than the females meaning the beg of August I saw more males eclosing. I lost about 20 most due to t fly. There was about 15 5th instar and I noticed some were acting strange. I brought them in and put in a separate cage. Within 4 days most were dead. Dying while eating or dying in the J form. I accidentally squished two smaller ones while cleaning the cage and then I rescued one out of the garbage can as it had hitched a ride on a milkweed leaf. Learnings for next year be real careful when cleaning cage and triple check discarded leaves. I like the idea of putting the leaves in a bucket just in case one was overlooked . Watch out for t fly if they are anything other than eggs. Overall I think a successful year. I live in northern NJ and just applied to be a monarch way station. I had about a dozen coming thru today feeding on the butterfly bushes, Mexican sun flowers and lantana.

101. I started my journey early this year in Louisiana! They started coming up from Mexico in March. Everyone seemed to be caught without enough milkweed!! lol Luckily, most of the local nurseries had a great supply. I raised and released 56 butterflies and donated 250 eggs and caterpillars to a butterfly sanctuary. When I returned to Iowa, I started collecting eggs. I raised 141 butterflies and tagged 50. 75 F and 66 M. 3 cats were killed in the darn zippers of their enclosures! Why do they insist on crawling there? 5 just died for unknown reasons. The worst of the year was losing close to 30 chrysalides to tachnid fly infestations!! The worst was losing 9 out of the last 15 chrysalides!!! It made my heart hurt. I raised almost all of my cats from eggs so I’m puzzled how the flies were able to lay the eggs. I never saw any flies in the enclosures but after the chrysalides turned colors, I would find the strands then either the maggots or the pupa they formed at the bottom of the enclosure. The photos that you posted of the 2 discolored chrysalides look exactly like mine did. So, over all a very successful season!

102. This was our 9yo son’s second year of raising monarchs. He is obsessed and is already planning out next year! We live in the south metro area of Minnesota (Lakeville). Majority of ours were found as eggs or as instar 1.

     His final results this year:

     3 Disease issues (two as a chrysalis, one as a caterpillar)
     1 Deformed wing (wing about half the size as it should have been – kept, not released, lived about 3 weeks)
     2 Tachinid fly larva 🙁
     50 Healthy males
     30 Healthy females
     93% survival rate

     We did have 5 or 6 that formed chrysalis earlier than what we had expected and were smaller. These were brought in as bigger cats. They seemed like strong flyers though when they took off! He also found a monarch outside with a broken wing and brought her in (not included in data). She was with us for about 4 weeks before passing away.

103. I live in Delaware. This is only my 2nd year and it was done outdoors. In 2018 I set up a mesh cage over the milkweed plant once it had some caterpillars on it. I counted 25 chrysalis – 20 beautiful monarchs flew away, 5 had “crumpled” wings. 2019 I did the same exact thing except the milkweed was late to bloom and the few monarchs I saw arrived a little later this year. I counted approx. 25 chrysalis so similar to 2018. However, only 6 of the 10 that opened were perfect and the remaining 4 had crumpled wings. The other 15 did nothing so I discarded everything. I also cut the plant back to the ground. I’m also not equipped to do this indoors so in 2020 I’ll try again outdoors.

     I have 5-6 milkweed plants in different locations but they seem attracted to 1 particular plant. Since I’m a newbie, and not sure if this is a dumb question, but is it the blooms that attract them? This was the only plant that bloomed. The remaining plants were new this year and I’m hoping they come up again next year.

     I also have another plant that gets infested with aphids as soon as it pokes thru the ground. Every years it’s plagued with them. Even though this plant does bloom no monarchs visit it (location??). After chopping it down to the ground several times, and even trying to dig it up, I decided to spray it with a mixture of water and dish detergent to kill the aphids. As soon as the plant poked thru the ground it was again covered with aphids. So I soaked the plant AND the dirt and it worked! Aphids were gone!! Since no monarchs had ever visited the plant I decided to be safe and after a few hours I washed the plant to remove any soap residue. I did this several months ago and to date no aphids are on the plant! I will probably do this again next year since the aphids seem to appear long before the monarchs do.

     I’m glad I discovered this site. I’m sure it will be most helpful in 2020.

104. I live in Southern California inland. Got started in mid-June when I decided to just see if I could raise any monarchs so I bought two healthy milkweed plants at my local home store that I saw had three cats about 2 instar on it. Well it also had eggs hiding on it too! It took me awhile to get the proper enclosure as the netting wasnt enough and flies got to the cats infecting them. I purchased the suggested mesh enclosures and things took off. I ended up having a total of 7 milkweed plants, of the monarchs 4 died in the chrysalis, 3 got infected by flies in the chrysalis and had to take the chrysalis out and dispose, of the ones that did emerge I had 4 with crumpled wings, 3 (females) that looked perfect but about a day after emerging suddenly flopped around on the bottom and eventually injured themselves. Overall healthy released total was 9 (but I have a big male that emerged yesterday and one more that will tomorrow most likely so hopefully release total will be 11)
     Ended up getting a bigger metal mesh enclosure (actually used for reptiles) which works well as I can put several pots of milkweed and nectar plants in it, it has a nice door that I can tend to them and release. Im still learning and trying to find a way to keep the aphids off! The plants in my metal cage have had no issues with aphids. An interesting note -the milkweed in soft mesh cages all had aphids, the mesh also seemed to have sicker monarchs or ones that didnt emerge at all.
     Now I’m stocking up on and planting more milkweed outside to hopefully be able to gather eggs or else find a way to get eggs/cats next season.

105. Madison, Wisconsin…. 27 monarchs eclosed and released, of which 9 were post August 30. 2019.

     After dealing with sooooo many aphids this year on my milkweeds, my biggest lesson learned is: Try to keep some milkweed ‘clean’ and away from the masses. I sewed some floating row cover into a sheath that I hope will keep aphids off new milkweed I start in a pot next year.

     It’s not too bad to look for eggs and hatchlings on the milkweed in the large flower bed in my yard, but trying to spray and rinse and wipe those same plants to have enough clean food for my cats was 1) time suckage and 2) gross.

106. This was my second year raising Monarchs here in Northern New Jersey and the first time I’ve brought in eggs. Last year I only brought in caterpillars. I didn’t go looking for eggs but found them on the milkweed when I brought in cats. I’ve expanded my milkweed patch quite a bit and added some different varieties. Even so I was sweating by the end of the season, worried that I would run out. This year I released 20 happy butterflies. Unfortunately I lost 3 in the late part of the season, one outside and two inside. Normal looking cats and chrysalises but eventually turned black and greenish with no wing markings. Mine is a small nursery but I love doing it.

107. Hi Tony, thanks for all your great info. We are in CT and just started out this summer raising monarchs. I planted 3 different types of milkweed and had at least 50 cats this summer. Wanted them to pupate naturally but never found any chrysallides outside so in August I brought 9 fifth in-star cats inside. They all eclosed! One had the chrysalis skin still attached around the center of her body, but after a few hours of hanging outside on the butterfly bush she eventually flew off. So overall 100% success. Looking forward to continuing this next season with more milkweed and mire pollinator plants, and bringing more inside, possibly eggs too.

108. I’ve managed to raise 249 this year, up about 70 more than last year. But, the weather in Florida has not been great this year, introducing beetles, flies, and spiders. I still have 4 in chrysalis right now, and some eggs on leaves. Hope I have enough plants to support those to hatch. I love the monarchs and have started many friends and neighbors raising them. I never tire of their process, and handling one to release is just the cat’s meow always!

109. Naperville, IL
     44 females and 30 males took flight for the south.
     *I saw first hand the results of the tachnid flies on two of my chrysalis.
     4th and 5th stage caterpillars can be gathered but separated from the egg raised caterpillars. Very scary and sad.
     *My first 10 eggs turned caterpillar of the spring all became ill and died. Very sad.
     Started over in a new cage and different plant for food, success.
     *Planted more milkweed than previous year. My yard is where I gather the eggs. But need way more milkweed to be able to sustain them and know that the milkweed has not been sprayed.
     *Planted more perrenials and annuals flowers just for butterflies. What I learned was I need more late, late summer flowers.
     *Had several chyrsalis drop off from their support, I believe the plant was chewed up by 5th stage caterpillars and dropped the chrysalis to the bottom of cage. So learned how to rehang the chrysalis with dental floss and super glue with great success.
     *Also this year I raised them all outside in cages and think being outside really helped the Monarchs adapt to the seasons and the heat seemed to speed up their growth cycle.
     *Also love the jumbo cage this year. Holds lots of tall milkweed. It was superb to work with.
     In total released 130 the whole season. More than twice from the year before. But the year before I had a %100 healthy releases no deaths.

110. I live in Fairfax, VA, and this was my 11th and best year raising monarchs! After three/year for the first two years, and none for the next three, each year has gotten better with a release of 64 this year. The last was released on Sept. 24, Having more/different types of milkweed spread throughout my yard seems to have helped. Of the 64, 33 were female and 31 were male.

     That is not to say this year was easy. I lost multiple eggs (many just turned completely black), caterpillars (they got black and gooey), crysalis (black/orange goo), and for the first time (and most heart-breaking) a butterfly that fell and had to be euthanized. I sent him off to God’s garden with a prayer for safe flight.

     In a fun note, nothing can beat my 2017 season. I had 38 caterpillars/crysalis ready to go when my dad was in a bad accident in Salt Lake City, UT. After about a week, I flew out to help with my mom, but ONLY after giving my husband a quick but thorough education in monarch feedng, sexing and safe release. The first monarch emerged 2 hrs after my flight left, the last two days before I returned home. Through it all, my husband kept me posted on the daily happenings in my cage, successfully releasing all 38, as well as an eastern black swallowtail! Luckily he worked close to home so he could come home at lunch – I made him promise not to release any in the evening! ?

111. I am in Beavercreek, OH, outside of Dayton. I raised 40 out of 42 monarchs this year for a 95% success rate with 19 females and 21 males. I thought that was a good total as I stopped in mid-May and mid-July due to travel. I lost one due to not rinsing off a very small red spider that killed a day old “cat”. I did take in a 2nd instar from outside which was mostly black & yellow and it slowed and stopped eating and died. I had isolated it as it was a “wild” cat, so others were not affected, but it is an unexplained death. I raised 90% of mine from eggs collected on my swamp, prairie, and honey vine milkweed. I raised 5 Mexican Sunflower plants for the 1st time this year, and the Monarchs, bees and hummers loved them.
     My tip to prevent aphids includes, cut back the tops of all milkweed no later than March to reduce the eggs laid last fall before they hatch in April. I also recommend the use of silver mulch or a substitute such as pie tins. This recommendation is from 2 different extension sources and it prevents the aphids from finding the plants. Aphids did not appear on my plants until late summer when they started to lean due to decreased sunlight. Next year I will also use the silver mulch spread further to the west so it protects the plants that are leaning. I have also demonstrated to school groups and plan to give presentations to adult groups next year via the Master Gardener program. Tony-Thanks for all of your advice and expertise!

112. We raised 120 Monarchs. Tagged 25 of them. Lost 10 Cats probably to Tachinid Flies, 7 Chrysalis to probably the same.
     We lost 1 butterflies. 1 we found on the bottom of the cage stuck in his extra blood with his wings bent & unable to fly. The other failed to fully pump his wings & was found on the bottom of the cage as well. We successfully released 114 Monarchs. They were all a mix of eggs & cats.

113. Reporting in from Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin! This is my first year of raising Monarchs. My season started July 14th and just ended September 24th. Successfully raised 37 Monarchs, 29 females and 8 males, mostly from eggs harvested from my milkweed plants. Brought in a few in star 1s and 2s. This is one of the most amazing journeys I have ever been on, I am hooked and cannot wait for next year. Expanded my milkweed garden last weekend. Biggest lesson learned: Do NOT bring in Instar 4s and 5s. I had to euthanize 5 chrysalids due to tachnid fly infestations, heart breaking! Best tool purchased: I bought a small battery operated keyboard vacuum, fantastic for cleaning up frass. Appreciate this website and otherYoutube sites for sharing tips and expertise!

114. This year in NE Florida seemed a banner year for year-rounders.
     In July, I took in over 85, learned about giant milkweed from a friend, and
     put several inside the lanai + other milkweed where they could feed.
     68 were healthy and could be released.

     Now in the migratory season, I took in 20. Released 16
     healthy Monarchs. Two more in cat stage. Thanks to Tony, I learned how to become a foster mom
     for the Monarchs after I saw a paper wasp kill a gorgeous Mcat in 2015.
     And, much appreciation for Tony’s fabulous website!!

115. I released 217 healthy monarchs in Muncy PA. 123 were females . These were almost all raised from eggs except for the last few that my husband brought in as caterpillars. I lost six to the tachinid fly and two that just turned a dark brown. I convinced an owner of a property loaded with milkweed to delay mowing until fall. He mowed part of it in July which made the milkweed beautiful by the time the monarchs arrived. This is my backup source so I was very happy about .

116. Westborough, MA

     0 Accidental death.
     0 Disease issues
     0 Unexplained death
     2 Healthy males.
     3 Healthy females.
     100% survival rate

     Found 4 caterpillars (various sizes) and 1 Egg in our milkweed patch.

     Raised in Rubbermaid containers. Each had there own. Lined container with moist paper towel and cleaned everyday. Caterpillar would attach chrysalis to lid. Day before it emerges move lid to butterfly cage. After release I would soap and water the butterfly cage to have it ready for the next butterfly.

     Butterflies would emerge usually late morning. I would leave them in the cage to release the next day. Found it best to leave the cage in the sun with the door open and let the butterfly leave when it’s ready. Most were gone within minutes. 1 hung around for a few hours.

117. I started out this year with grand plans, a large successful butterfly garden and nursery for the first couple of generations, averaging about 30 adult butterfly releases each generation. Then I got blind-sided with a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and spent August in the hospital with two major surgeries. I’m facing a long road to recovery and my husband knew how bad I felt about not being able to participate in the fourth generation project so he gathered bouquets of milkweed and whatever large caterpillars he could find the first week of September and placed them in the nursery for me to watch. Half the large cats were already infected with parasites and didn’t make it. The other half, 10 of them, turned into chrysalises but 2 of the chrysalises didn’t make it. I was able to hatch out the other 8 into beautiful adults and release them, with the exception of the very last one which hatched out less than an hour ago and will be released later today. So far, 6 males and one female. I don’t know the gender of the one still in the nursery yet. Hopefully next year will be a lot more normal for us. About the only piece of advice I can offer to other raisers is to watch out for any insecticides in any situations. We found out the hard way early on that just putting Revolution on the house cats (a couple of drops at the back of the neck once a month) then allowing them to wander into the nursery proved to be fatal to about half my caterpillars even though the house cats never got closer than 4 or 5 feet from them.

     1. Best of luck with your treatments!
        Karen

118. N.E. OH. I raised 75 Monarchs this year. I had more diseased cats, though. Several stage 3 instar caterpillars failed to thrive, quit eating and died. Two cats couldn’t form a chrysalis, and 2 could not molt properly. One of my stage 4 cats had pesticide poisoning, I rinsed him in cool water, cleaned the leaves again and he survived. I did kill several tachinid flies that were hanging around the milkweed. I had enough milkweed, and I raised most of my caterpillars indoors. I did make tubular enclosures from wire and window screening . I put them over the plants to keep the caterpillars in and the flies and wasps out. It worked well for me. My project for the coming year is to add late blooming flowers because after the milkweed is gone I don’t see many Monarchs. Thank you Tony for all of your hints, and tips. I look forward to your emails.

119. this year wasn’t quite as bountiful as last year but I gathered 108 caterpillars/eggs throughout the summer and released all 108 as adult monarchs. The only problem I had was with one when his chrysalis broke at the top and he tumbled down. Part of the chrysalis dried onto his abdomen and I had to peel it off with tweezers. But he survived and flew off without problems

     1. This is really my first serious year. I released 99 monarchs…I would have had 100, but one never hatched.

        Lessons learned: don’t release them too quickly. Don’t release them around a prey driven Weimaraner.
        Plant/buy lots of milkweed.
        It’s a lot of work, but so amazing to do.

        I live in Hertford NC about an hour from OBX and Tidewater VA.

        We are still seeing monarchs—Oct 24 and still finding cats.

        Also raise swallowtails.

120. This is my first year to raise monarchs. I have 3 milkweed plants in my yard. I collected 14 cat’s and was able to release 12 monarchs. Lost 2 in the chry stage. I live in Central Indiana (Plainfield).

     I’m collecting seeds pods and plan to plant seeds in November both in my garden and on our church property which has several wild meadow patches growing,

     Thanks for all of the information.

121. I think this was my 4th or 5th year to raise Monarchs. Unfortunately it has been my worst year. I have released 17 total, Some were spring and some in early September. I have lost cats to tachinid flies, OE, anal prolapse, at least one other kind of parasite which left larvae in the caterpillar before chrysalis stage and some cats (about 3rd instar) were found underweight, not eating , lying on their side and writhing. I dispatched all that were sick. Last year I released 78. What a change one year can make. Being in NW Louisiana I could still possibly rear a batch but I’ve only seen 1 or 2 Monarchs in the last 1 1/2 months. I still have plenty of nectar plants and plenty of milkweed.

     I planted several perennial varieties of milkweed last year but none of them bloomed this season. Luckily my tropical milkweed did OK. However, I have never had an invasion of Oleander aphids like I have had this year!!! I have manually squashed them until both of my hands, palms and all, were solid gold. I will not give up though. 2020 will be much better, with the grace of God.

     Congratulations to all of you whose seasons were a success.

122. My wife and I had a very good year Brookville, OH (near Dayton). This was the our first time using a large cage and it really worked well. We didn’t make a serious effort to find eggs but with around 40 common milkweed plants right outside our enclosed patio, it was easy to find and bring in mostly tiny cats. And the rhizomes kept producing plant after plant so we never ran out of food.
     So the final successful release will be 78 healthy monarchs. We have 2 last minutes cats to make 78 but I wanted to get our count in now before we go on a brief vacation. We lost 6 or 7 cats and 2 of those were my mishandling. The last 1 was never fully developed and when I finally decided to remove the chrysalis from the cage it was a gooey mess. Not sure what got it. We did have 3 escape artists that still managed to form a chrysalis and successfully hatch. Next year we’ll keep a male/female count but there were plenty of both.
     Lori and I had a lot of fun working on this together. Blessed to have the milkweed so close as I have mobility issues. To me it’s a gift from God!

     1. We had a productive season in Milford, Ohio (near Cincinnati) raising Monarchs. This was our 3rd season for raising Monarchs with our 2 granddaughters (4 years & 12 years) helping collect eggs and small cats.
        Milkweed was plentiful in our 5 butterfly gardens in our 3/4 acre backyard. Swamp Milkweed (35 plants), Tropical Milkweed (20 plants), and Butterfly Weed (15 plants) kept us with a constant supply of Milkweed.
        We raised and released 18 Monarchs in our 1st year, 52 in the 2nd year, and 114 this year.
        We used 3 large, mesh cages to raise our Monarchs, outside on our concrete patio. During heat storms, I covered the 3 cages with a large piece of plastic – but took it off once the heavy rain stopped…otherwise the cats & chyslasis were always exposed to the elements.
        On the nectar side, we added 20 Mexican Sunflower seedlings for the first time – they were Monarch magnets, not to mention the steady stream of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Spicebush Swallowtails you could find on them daily. Hummingbirds love them too
        It was fun for everyone and we are passing along this opportunity to our grandchildren, of course releasing them is everyone’s favorite time!
        Thanks to all the citizen scientists and folks, raising & releasing these beautiful butterflies!

123. This year I finally used a butterfly cube and was able to release 39 monarchs! About 15 of those were female and the rest were male. I did have one chrysalis not make it (black death) and 5 died as they were forming their J (I think the tachinid fly did them in). I live in Sullivan, IL (central), and I have been seeing tons of monarchs the past couple weeks. And they do love the Mexican sunflowers!

124. I feel this is my true first year as I kind of fell into it last year. Last year I released 2 and this year I released 22. Of my numbers: 11 were female and 10 were male and one I forgot to check. Of that number I had one with a bad wing not sure why but possibly because the chrysalis fell when it was brand new. I had 2 cases of tachnid fly. Best thing I learned this year through this group is the use of the syringe to fill up tubes! For next year I want to get a small vacuum…that’s number one on my list. Also I need to keep better track of baby cats and not keep their enclosures as moist. Thanks so much for this group. Your posts and advice have helped me so much this year.

     I live in Fargo, North Dakota. If anyone is nearby, please let me know. I would love to get together and discuss all things butterflies.

125. We had an extremely active summer of Monarchs visiting our yard in Batavia, IL, with many ups & downs and lessons learned this year with our Monarch raising. My husband will be releasing our final Monarch today, bringing our final tally to 183 caterpillars, with 158 butterflies released. 24 caterpillars did not make it, mostly due to the tachinid fly parasite, which was devastating 🙁 One butterfly emerged, but fell from her chrysalis when we weren’t home, so her wings never dried out or developed properly, sadly dying several days later despite our best efforts to help her. The number of butterflies released this year is over double our number last year, which leads me to the biggest lesson we learned– plant more milkweed!!! We relied on buying milkweed from a dependable nursery throughout the summer and planting them in pots, because our main swamp milkweed plants were overtaken by aphids in July and August. This leads me to another lesson we learned- try to control the aphids right from the get-go, instead of waiting until it’s too late. The final lesson we learned was to bring in as many eggs as possible. So many caterpillars were affected by the tachinid fly parasite this summer, and there were more flies in general around the milkweed this year (perhaps because of high humidity and plentiful rain in our area? Not sure). I want to give our caterpillars the best chance to survive, so bringing in eggs as we find them is the best and only option. A final realization and goal for next year: plant more things that Monarchs love, like Mexican sunflowers, zinnias, and butterfly bushes! And more milkweed, of course 🙂 Thank you for providing such a great resource and such a wonderful, supportive community for us Monarch enthusiasts!

126. Just released my last monarch on Sept. 22 in Breezy Point MN. I released 27 successfully and had 2 cats die, one chrysalis turn black and not hatch, and one hatched deformed and did not survive. It was the same size when found as the last butterfly, but went into a chrysalis early while the other continued to eat and grow for a few days. I wondered if it was a teenager eager to grow up.

127. Hi Everyone, I though you might find this short article on metamorphosis interesting:
     https://www.labroots.com/trending/plants-and-animals/15714/here-s-happens-inside-caterpillar-s-chrysalis

     1. Loved this article and video. Thanks so much for sharing!

     2. Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

128. We release 31 Monarch Butterflies (male and female) 100% Eugene, OR

129. Eden Prairie, MN. Released my last butterfly on September 17th and wished it safe travels to Mexico (I did not check to see if passport was up to date). This year I downsized my indoor rearing as my daughter moved out and was my butterfly partner. I raised a total of 77 healthy butterflies – 37 girls and 40 boys. I did have two that hatched with deformed wings – set them out in nature to be nurtured. I did not tag this year as I was in Alaska during part of the tagging time. We did create two new pollinator/butterfly gardens this year with plans for more next year. Working towards a no-mow yard.

     On the side – the raising of butterflies has been a very healing process for my daughter. We raised our first three butterflies with her husband’s help 4 years ago. Three years ago he passed away. Emily and I started the first butterfly garden in his honor and registered our home as a butterfly way station. Two years ago we raised 287 butterflies tagging 50. Watching the rebirth of the garden and the miracle of a tiny egg producing a little caterpillar which later emerges as a graceful butterfly help her realize that life does go on.

     One of her comments to me “Mom, if I have all these babies does that mean I can go on maternity leave?”

130. This is year number two for me raising and releasing Monarchs . I have a 25 acre farm so last Fall I put in more milkweed plants and a butterfly garden containing 17 butterfly bushes. This year I hand raised (mostly from eggs) and released 58 Monarch butterflies but I am most pleased with the success I observed outside. More cats than I could count. Of the few cats I brought in – half had been parasitized. My butterfly garden is teeming with beautiful Monarch butterflies (among others) preparing for their long journey south. This is year number two that I have not mowed my fields or yard until the last butterfly is gone! I’m hoping nature will take over and spread those milkweed seeds all over my fields.

131. I released 144 butterflies this year (72 girls, 72 boys) in southeastern CT. The majority of them were after the “threshold date” for possible migrators, so I potentially released approximately 100 migrators (although I didn’t tag this year, definitely will next year). I think my biggest lesson learned was to give them all a chance, even if the cats look a little funny or the chrysalides look damaged. I had a few damaged chrysalides (from falling) that produced damaged butterflies, but in all but 1 case, after a couple of days of extra TLC, they flew away. I even had a female with a very damaged forewing (a large chunk bent over at the top) who surprised me by flying away a couple days after she eclosed. So, be patient, even with those you think might not make it because you just never know.

132. I gave up vegetable gardening 4 years ago to concentrate on butterfly loving yet deer resistant flowers here in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Finally having a substantial area of milkweed I had a bumper crop of eggs and caterpillars this year. I raised 32 healthy butterflies out of 36 losing one in the J position to tachinid fly larvae and three to dark unopened chrysalises. My last raising ended last week with nine super monarchs hopefully on their way south. I think it is important to note, make sure you have plenty of annuals left for fall feeding before these final groups head out. It was a rewarding year for me.

     1. I had the feeding problem last year so put in Butterfly Bushes – 17 of them. The ‘Cascade’ is late blooming and huge with 9” panicles. It’s Sept 23 today and my Monarch s are all over them

     2. I am also in PA but on the Eastern side and I always plant my zinnia seeds in mid July just so the monarchs will have plenty of nectar come September/October. They are all blooming profusely now when other gardeners’ zinnias are nearing their end. Another plus–a lot less powdery mildew to deal with as they are usually growing after the high humidity days of summer. Monarchs and other pollinators love zinnias!

        1. Planting Zinnias in July is such a great idea. Thanks!

        2. I raised 58 monarchs this year. 29 males & 29 females. Most were from eggs I found in my little patch of 6 milkweed plants and brought inside. I left 10 or so eggs outside as an experiment and lost them all. I lost 1 chrysalis to disease and 3 larvae that were in the enclosure with the sick chrysalis. All in all a good year for a tiny yard in suburban Buffalo NY.

     3. Read the reply to the comment under yours. Went to the wrong comment.

133. From near Pittsburgh , Pa.
     I just started this year raising the butterfly’s. I tried to make sure that I hade the cage / correct plants for laying eggs and feeding.
     I only had one caterpillar but raised it to a strong healthy male. The weather was windy and raining when he emerged , so he got an extra day to dry .
     When released he took off like a champ ! I saw glimpses of him the next day and then he moved on.

134. In my second year of pollinator garden we were able to find over 100 caterpillars and release the same with only 3 deaths due to chrysalis failure . This is all taking place in Ashland City, Tn in June. Again in September we found caterpillars on swamp milkweed and on the20th we released 42 monarchs, some small and mostly females. Only 2 came out deformed from chryllises and died. Really enjoyed the process and almost started naming them. I found out that putting fresh flowers in cage as they come out helps some of them until release

135. This was our first year raising Monarchs. I planted two swamp milkweed (Asclepius incarnata) in the spring. I was too late to get common milkweed, but the cats loved the swamp. I didn’t have my cages in time to collect the first 10 cats I found on the milkweed. When my cages arrived, we started taking in cats for a total of 27 through early September. Tachinid flies were a problem in July, and we lost 4 cats and 2 chrysalides to them, so I realized I had to get to the cats sooner. After that, we had pretty clear sailing and have released 17 healthy monarchs (all but 3 were female; is that normal?) One adult had very underdeveloped wings in the chrysalis, couldn’t get itself out and died. Just happened yesterday, so haven’t researched yet, but if anyone else has had this happen, I would be eager to hear about it. I gave 1 chrysalis away to a friend and I still have 2 that will hopefully eclose this coming week. Assuming these last two are successful, we will have a 75% success rate for our first year. I also now have 6 Eastern Black Swallowtail larvae that hopefully will release before the first frost date. So much fun doing this and so easy to get other people excited about it. Several pollinator pathway projects are active in our area of CT.

     1. Hi most likely your swallowtail will over winter with you and emerge in the spring. I have 20 swallowtail chrysalis and I know they are mine till next May.(Chicago area release). I put my cage in our unheated garage for the winter and early May pull it out and put it in a protected place behind our garage where it gets diffused light. And viola in a week or so beautiful swallowtails.

136. Cynthia from Inland Empire, So. Calif. from June-Sept. released 45, but only raise as many as I can feed & keep clean. The rest I leave outside to nature. Still have 14 chrysalises. Reflections: So many dangers in the wild, not counting human activities, like aphids eating milkweed, scurrying lizards, wasps checking under milkweed leaves for their next meal, and tachnid flies hovering like drones over milkweed plants. The cube mesh enclosures are so helpful!! Most important lesson for me in this past year is to keep my milkweed healthy & plentiful if I want to get healthy butterflies.

137. So this is all very new to me , I have had milkweed in my yard for years , not really realizing how important it is to Monarchs , I have also had for years a large purple flower butterfly bush which they absolutely loved. Unfortunately about 2 years ago it died and we removed it from the yard , I have then noticed a decline in Monarchs in my yard . This year I would see the occasional butterfly through out the summer , but nothing like what had been . One day while gardening I found on my milkweed a large caterpillar , then another one , then another one !! It was then that i started researching them and found your website on Pinterest and wow did I realize how vital this is and that I should have been doing this years ago . So I really began closely watching the caterpillars , though they are in the “wild ” and not protected from any predators , they were very large , than one day they disappeared , I wasn’t to concerned , having read they leave the milkweed to go on to their next stage . I looked all over my yard for any chrysalises , for days , with no luck , until the other day my husband found one on the siding of our house pretty high up . I have been watching it daily hoping to see a butterfly come out , but I dont know , I hope and keep my fingers crossed . With all your great information and articles on your website , next year I am revamping my butterfly garden and going to enclose and protect any caterpillars that I find , hopefully !! Thanks again , I have learned alot !! I live in central PA by the way .

138. I bought a Butterfly Weed plant with bright orange flowers at the Farmers Mkt. and brought it home. A couple days later I noticed a Monarch caterpillar on it, so I brought it inside. The caterpillar grew and made it’s chrysalis and took 14 days to emerge! I was worried because it took so much longer than the normal 7-10 days, I thought something was wrong. But a healthy female Butterfly finally emerged! I didn’t have a Butterfly cube so I came up with a safe temporary home for her. I used a clean (never been used with cleaning chemicals) pail and put her and the plant she was on in the pail and covered it with cheese cloth. She immediately climbed onto the cheese cloth and hung there drying her beautiful wings. It was late in the day when I discovered she had emerged so we waited until the next day in the early afternoon when it was sunny and warm to release her. She stayed around our yard for a couple of weeks eating nectar from my Butterfly Bushes. So the lesson I want to pass on is sometimes it takes longer than the 7-10 days for the butterfly to emerge from it’s chrysalis, so be patient. (:

139. Hello from North Central PA, I’ve been growing my own milkweed for 5 years and now have many plants. This is my first year collecting caterpillars. I released 17 Monarchs so far. Still have four in chryalides and hoping they make it. Have had no loses. Next year I hope to be able to identify eggs and raise them. It has been a miraculous experience and I have been spreading the word of importance to get involved.

140. We released 25 healthy butterflies this year, 13 females and 12 males. First 1 emerged on 7/11/19. Last 2 emerged on 9/8/19. 8/15 was the mean.
     We had 3 that mutated and died in their chrysalisses ?sp), and at least 4 very tiny cats who were eaten by larger ones (I now know to separate cats by sizes!).
     What I also learned this year is that yes, one can have too many caterpillars! In 1 day I brought in 22 eggs. 17 of them then hatched over 2 days. I was using 2 hours each day to clean the cages, get fresh cuttings, remove old cuttings, and the tasks went on and on.
     Favorite time saver tool is the vacuum you recommended. It really works, and holds a lot!

141. I’m in southeast Vermont and foster loads of Common Milkweed on my property. This is the 3rd year I’ve raised Monarchs. In 2017, I released 8. (There was hardly a Monarch to be found in the 4 or 5 years prior to 2017.) Last year, I released 179. This year, with today’s 4 releases, the total (so far) is 182, and I still have almost 90 left in my house. Most are now chrysalises or are J-ing, but I do have 2 pre-5th instar cats. I keep finding cats outside, and for as long as I find them, I’ll bring them in! Since early July when I started, I’ve had about 25 casualties, which is FAR fewer than last year. It seems the Tachinid flies, while there were some around, were much fewer in number than last summer. I’ve had some OE victims, too, but also fewer than last summer. One thing that’s been fun this year is, I’ve gotten very adept at safely relocating/hanging chrysalises, and have adorned my kitchen counter with the little green jewels, tied up with dental floss! So, now, with the number I still have here, the most important factor is the weather. Fingers are crossed that we have a warm, sunny next few weeks. ??

142. Hello, this is my first year raising Monarchs. I planted Milkweed 3 years ago and have a nice crop. I have raised 4 eggs, with successful release, brought in 10 caterpillars, all have formed chrysalides, one was bitten into by a caterpillar prior to it forming its J and it died, and interestingly enough, 2 chrysalides ( both from eggs) took almost 1 month to eclose. The temperatures had been lower than normal with a lot of cloudy days. One chrysalis I had to move from the rim of the PooPoo platter and it was held by duct tape and an alligator clip to some string, it eclosed but it fell onto the floor of the cardboard box, fortunately I was there to see it and I was able to get it back up so it could hold onto the string. Sadly it looked like his leg and one antennae were fused together and were not functioning. After 3 days in the cage , he did fly away, very strongly . I still have 6 chrysalides- 1 looks be ready to eclose. I so hope they all emerge before it is too cold. I am in Manitoba .

143. I have a milkweed garden right out front of my farmers porch which must have come from the birds dropping the seeds, I don’t know. For the first time ever I had a great year for the monarch caterpillars. I had 37 that after feeding came up on my porch and went from a J into their chrysalis and every one emerged a beautiful monarch butterfly. They hung on the logs (we have a log home) they hung on the beams, the ceiling, a couple tables, under a rocking chair, on the grill so we didn’t grill for awhile!, some also hung on the outer side of the logs, under the step, on the garage, We have one left to emerge and that will be soon. One of the ones that hung out from outside the porch something got it, perhaps a bird. We also had one make its chrysalis by the milkweed. I watched just about each one go from their J shape into their chrysalis and the whole process from egg to butterfly is truly amazing! Now I wait for one more and can’t wait for next year!!
     Thank you Tony for all of your information as I know a lot about the monarch butterfly because of you! I know 37 doesn’t sound like a lot, but compared to last year of only 3, it’s a big deal!!!! I am so happy to be helping these monarchs. I love them❤️

144. For my mother’s 84th birthday. My sister and I surprised her with a tent, a milkweed plant and a dozen or so caterpillars we found at my sister’s farm. She had never found any before. Mom loved this surprise gift (who gives caterpillars?)? Mom and the neighborhood kids enjoyed watching all the stages of the monarchs then planned the milkweed outside.

     Albion, Michigan

145. I am in Manatee County Florida. This is my second year raising monarchs. I released 407 healthy butterflies this season.

     I had one ‘batch’ that was contaminated with, I am sure, OE. So I euthanized all the infected ones and cleaned everything. My new method is that the plants the caterpillars eat are raised in the screened porch. I never let butterflies fly over or eclose over or near the inside plants. I collect the eggs from outside plants. (I failed at trying to decontaminate eggs.)

     After my cleanup and start over, a month, I had success. My last monarch flew off September 1st.

146. This has been my first year raising monarchs. I was late to the task but I raised and released 7 monarchs, the last one today. I live in Ontario Canada

     1. NC coast. Released 4 and still have 3 chrysalis to go. Lost 3 that I know of. Was using an aquarium for select few but hope to invest in cages next year. Most cats remain outside on plants. At one point I had several cats in captivity and I transferred them to plants due to space limitations. Although I’ve been growing size of milkweed garden for the last 4 years I can’t seem to keep up with demand and ended up buying extra plants and placing them next to in-ground plants which had been eaten clean. I have a big problem with aphids and have tried the soapy water but it doesn’t seem to help. Next year I will try your suggestion of planting allium.

        Interesting note. I had a fennel plant which overwintered, growing to 6-8 feet this spring. I had dozens and dozens of swallowtail cats eating and forming chrysalis on the plant throughout the summer. Very successful and quite by accident.

147. I started for the first time in mid July. Having only 1 cage I brought in only eggs. I was able to find 40 eggs. 38 have enclosed and have been released. I expect the other 2 to be released by Monday. I am in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The greatest lesson is how easy it is to help the Monarch population. My plan for next year is to plant more butterfly friendly plants and of course more milkweed. I have been harvesting seeds and will share with friends and neighbors to encourage more food availability. I may purchase a 2nd cage but have not made a final decision.

148. I raised 19 cats and 16 were successfully released. My 1st cat was released the next 2 died hanging on the top of the cage. My next 15 were released healthy but the last one died in the Chrysalis! After all my Monarchs were released, we found a Swallowtail caterpillar, I thought he would go to chrysalis the same as Monarchs do. I read a lot and asked question, he is now outside in mesh cage, waiting to see if he is overwintering or will eclose, its been 7 days as of today!

149. I raised this last generation outside after reading “the article”. I was wondering if the more natural temps and lighting would produce larger late-season monarchs. I can’t see any difference in size. They do emerge quicker with the outside heat, though.
     Last week, during my recess duty, we noticed at least a hundred monarchs high up migrating south! I’ve never seen this before. It was unforgettable! Many of the kiddos thought so too.

150. This was my first year having enough milkweed to actually raise monarchs. I managed to successfully raise and release 23. I don’t have enough milkweed to feed more than that, but next year there should be even more. Yesterday,, a kaleidoscope of monarchs descended upon all of my fall pollinating and nectar plants. There were dozens and dozens and dozens. It was awesome to see. More are here today. Fall migration has begun here in central Virginia

151. Hi. Thanks Tony for the raising information. Could not have done it without. We started by accident by finding cats on our milkweed. This is our first year. We released 5 total. 3 females. We lost 2 cats to something – one just died hanging from his eating perch. The second climbed down and started releasing green. I washed him twice hoping was just pesticide but no luck. We have been seeing a lot of Monarchs here in SE Michigan going south. Right now we have 5 Black Swallowtails we brought in as small cats to the Monarch enclosure. We finally figured out that the chipmunks were eating the swallowtail cats once they got to 5th stage . We have 9 more young swallowtail cats outside we will bring in soon to help them get to chrysalis to over winter.

152. I live in Strathroy, Ontario, Canada (near London) and I successfully raised 240 healthy monarchs!!! (almost twice as many females than males) I didn’t count the ones that hatched with wing problems, tiny parasitic infestations of what looked like hundreds of fruit flies/flying ants, a couple with those nasty wasps inside, nor the ones whose chrysalis’ turned black and were stuck or half stuck in their chrysalis.
     One thing that works really well for safe hatching is when the chrysalis hardens, I remove it and place them on paper towels inside of a cloth net , wire rim bag I found at the Dollar store for washing delicate undergarments which I hang in the window. This way the paper towels immediately absorb the moisture from hatching and they are not stuck to the bottom of the cage if they fall while hatching ( in case I don’t get to them right away) unable to dry out their wings properly. They can then easily crawl across the towel and climb the cloth netting and hang from the top. Some days I would come back from work and there would be 8-10 ready to be released!
     I was also able to hatch 26 Black Eastern Swallowtails and half a dozen Giant Swallowtails!
     I enjoy your emails, thanks!
     Genevieve Bolton

     1. I’m in Southern CA. I had at least 20 amazing caterpillars, most made it into a chrysalis, but with the extreme heat (105f) one 4 have made it so far! So sad!

        1. Wow! I love that about seeing the migration. Here in So. Calif., we witnessed the spring, migration of millions of Painted Ladies. Never in my 66 yrs. of life have I seen that, so it must have been awesome. Thanks for sharing.

153. Released my last butterfly today found 8 caterpillars through the summer and all hatched and released

154. I am from Lititz, Pa. so far I have released 103. I still have 7 chrysalis and 4 caterpiller’s. I released 47 males and 56 females. I had 2 chrysalis that were no good and 4 in the J form that died. I work in a greenhouse, so I am always checking the milkweed for caterpiller’s. I made sure I had enough milkweed this year, the one problem I had this year was fly’s in my cage. I have no idea how they got in. I also released 13 swallowtails, they are also very beautiful. I so enjoy your newsletter. Hopefully next year I can do better.

155. I am in Southern California and I had a great season. I raised from eggs only and released 250 butterflies with only a loss of 2 this year. This is my third year raising but the first year with a full butterfly garden. I learned to have all season plants and the butterflies favorite by far was the Mexican sunflowers!! Also for the first time I raised a few giant swallowtails and some Anise swallowtails. As my garden improves each year I am attracting more types of butterflies. I also added a popcorn plant, cassia and love the smell and the many small yellow butterflies . I have added about 6 native milkweed varieties but the monarchs still like the tropical the best, sorry. I am busy collecting seeds now for next year.

156. I got started by accidentally finding a small cat on my butterfly weed. I searched the leaves and suddenly, I had 20 eggs. I read how to care for them, bought a mesh habitat, collected milkweed for them and watched them grow. Of the 21 that I started with, I only lost one – she didn’t seem to chrysalize properly and was missing antennas and a proboscis when she eclosed. The rest were healthy and I let them go in my yard. I have since ripped out a giant old rhododendron in my yard and I’ve ordered 5 different milkweed varieties to try next year. This was such a wonderful experience I can’t wait to do it next year. I’m really worried about wasps, but my cats didn’t have any. I think it’s because I had them in a mesh enclosure in my kitchen (no A/C on at all, because I wanted to simulate the real weather as accurately as possible for them). One tip I’d like to share is that for my milkweed “vase” in the habitat, I used a glass beer bottle. Since the opening is small, the milkweed fits perfectly and there’s not much chance of a cat falling in and drowning.

     1. Like the beer bottle idea.

     2. This round, I’ve been using a 24oz cottage cheese container, with 4 x’s cut in the lid for stalks of milkweed. You do have to watch the frass that collects on the top, but either every day, or each time you replace a stalk, you tilt it and most of it falls off (what doesn’t fall off, you can knock off with the old stalk).

        The funny part is that after everyone had made their chrysalids, I put the container outside with 4 stalks in it, 3 of which were “sticks”. Over the course of a week, they all had rooted and new growth had formed (tropical milkweed).

157. Released my last 2 today! 530 total. 60 more females than males. Oak Creek WI

158. First, THANK YOU Tony! You provide a wide variety of VALUABLE information! With it (and other sites) I am successfully raising Monarchs-my 3rd year. Plus, this year some Eastern Black Swallowtails! INFORMATION is the KEY! Thank you!
     Here in Ft Wayne, IN, May 8th I found milkweed emerging. I knew this year I would not be able to start raising right away (a prior commitment).
     6-14 (couldn’t resist!) brought in tiny cat’s I found! July, I collected eggs to raise. Sept 10th – the last of the Monarch’s released.
     Most important: People! STOP USING CHEMICALS! Then, you will see more than just butterfly results! I have a Hummingbird Moth too!
     Lessons learned for successful releases: Learn all you can! (I still am). Follow advise given to us. Protect your babies! I use large vases, an aquarium (all covered to keep babies safe), and purchased net habitats. Vigilant cleaning habits, of food and habitats! And enjoy the amazing journey of the lives you care for! The PRIZE: Beautiful, newborn butterflies to release! There is nothing like having them sit on you, for just a moment before they joyfully fly away!
     The 2019 count, while not accurate from the beginning, and far fewer than 2018 as follows:
     The first +10 of the season, I didn’t record, sex or test for OE.
     The 2nd round of butterflies released:  +30 Monarch’s INTERESTING! 20 female & 8 Male.   (sadly 3 with OE -euthanized in the freezer)
     Eastern Black Swallowtails: 8 which were about equal Male/Female. With 5 still in chrysalis (may hatch or may overwinter?). 
      Our amazing, surprise guest: 1 Giant Cecropia Silk Moth – spun it’s coocoon & will overwinter (protected in a habitat).
     So…I guess about 50 butterflies (total) this season, with 45’ish releases so far! 
     I have ton’s of milkweed, but I need to plant more late blooming flowers for those necturing for their long journey. And, I would like to raise (later in the season), to further RAISE the MIGRATION!
     I love being able to help, protecting and nurturing these beautiful, amazing babies! If only it were possible to visit them all in the mountains of Mexico! I will definitely keep learning about them, and sharing their story!

159. This is my second year of raising monarchs and I’ve learned so much this year. I brought in 20 caterpillars and successfully released 19 of them. I had one that sadly was infected with the deadly fly. I’ve enjoyed keeping records on them and truly look forward to next years season. Thanks to all of you for your comments, I have learned so much from you and enjoy seeing all of your successes. See you next year!

160. I raised around 200 Monarchs this season which is the same as last year. I live in New Jersey. I have 5 Butterfly Habitats in which I raise them starting from Early July and I still have a few eggs this late in the season. I am waiting on around 12 Butterflies to emerge and 30 caterpillars just went into their Chrysalis stage this week. I still found 6 eggs this week. I grow a Huge Butterfly garden from seed (100+ Milkweed Plants) with multiply types of Milkweed and butterfly bushes and they love to visit. I even had 6 Caterpillars crawl to my house and make their Chrysalis on the Vinyl Siding or onto other plants that were not Milkweed. I have been raising Monarchs since my son was 6 years old and now he is 35 years so I have 30 years experience. I learned so much from your website that I never knew about raising Monarchs until my late husband found your site 3 years ago. My biggest issue this year was I had around 5 Caterpillars not make good silk pads and the Chrysalis just dropped down to the ground and died. I also had a few caterpillar deaths but this is always to be expected. I have taught my Grandchildren to raise Monarchs too. I love your Website.

     1. Hi, I’m from NJ too. Did you raise them inside or out? I have no space inside my house for this but I had one milkweed in my yard and at any given time in Aug I had at least 20 or more cats eating it. I found 12 chrysalis: 2 on my tomato plants and 7 along the bottom edge of my fence and 3 a bit farther away from my milkweed. Two of the farther away ones and 1 from the tomato plants disappeared as chrysalis, the other 9 chrysalis were found dried and empty after the appropriate amt of time – I’m a teacher and never got to see them exit, but I assume they flew away.
        I would love to be able to set up my yard as a safe place for more Monarchs, since inside would be impossible.

        1. Melissa:
           I live in Central NJ and have a Solarium with several tables in which I keep the Butterfly Habitats. I plant over 100 Butterfly seeds in several varieties indoors over the winter and transplant them into pots with colorful Butterfly Bushes in the garden. I see them emerge daily and release up to 15 butterflies per day at some times throughout the season. I have been doing this for 30 years so I must have released thousands of Monarchs over the years. All you need is a few nice Planter Pots on your Patio or even on a driveway with either Mexican Milkweed or Swamp Milkweed Seeds planted in early Spring and 1 single Net Habit that does not take up that much room to get really started. I used 1 single home made butterfly habit for 25 years before I purchased a few more and have been able to raise dozens of Monarchs each year. You can do it with very little space. Maybe you can bring it to school to make it a class project.

161. I started my very first egg the beginning of June in Western Pennsylvania, documented and took pictures of each stage. I released it with my granddaughter and what a thrill. My next 2 went well also but in July I had both of my Chrysalis turn black and die. Must have been OE. I raised and released 2 more and they did well. I now have 2 Milkweed plants in my back garage area and will allow nature to take its course next year. I will nurture the young until they are safely large enough to not be eaten by predators and return them back to the milkweed plants.

162. I’m in northeastern PA. This was my first year raising Monarchs. After reading Tony’s “Bringing Home the Butterflies” and watching multiple instructional videos online (as well as reading other articles), I began collecting cats (all instars) and eggs in late July. Some of the eggs didn’t develop properly, but by early September, I had successfully raised and released 25 butterflies (17 males, 8 females). I bought a hand-held microscope (60-120X) and tested all the butterflies for OE before release (thankfully, all tested negative). I only had 2 chrysalides which were parasitized by the tachinid fly (one had the classic “hanging thread” with a telltale larva found on the floor of the cage, the other developed a large black spot 3 days after pupation; I performed an “autopsy” a month later…..gooey butterfly parts with 3 dead larvae). Both of the affected chrysalides were from cats which I had collected in my garden, shortly before they pupated. All eclosions occurred in the morning hours. Only one newly-emerged butterfly lost footing and fell to the cage floor. I immediately “rescued” it and placed it back on the empty chrysalis; its wings inflated normally and it was released a few hours later. Because of this, I tried to actively observe all eclosions. Also, I was diligent about cleaning the frass out 2-3 x day, not “over-crowding”, and washing all milkweed and equipment. I chose not to raise another generation, as I was traveling in the Fall. All in all, it was a lot of work, but a wonderful experience. I’ll be sterilizing all my equipment and storing for next year. Good luck, everyone!

163. Hi from S.E. MA. My 3rd yr raising Monarchs and it’s been a banner year. Started the season in May, early here. Then very few eggs through June. The explosions happened in July with releases of 5 to 8 Monarchs daily in August. I feel this was due to many MW plants throughout the yard and a pollinator garden planted last year with Tithonia, Verbena bonariensis, butterfly plants, zinnias, bee balms,sages etc. Soon I’ll be transplanting the MW from my front garden to more secluded areas around the house. Biggest lessons, put cuttings into warm water to prevent drooping, and keeping the enclosures outside to recreate the natural habitat.

164. Released my last butterfly last night – 58 total this year. This was the first time I kept track of male/female and was amazed when I counted last night that I released 29 male and 29 female.
     I think the most important thing I realized this year is just how much the caterpillars eat in their last two days or so before they form their chrysalis and how well they can hide if they want their privacy LOL Had horrible issues with aphids this summer, so it was difficult to find milkweed to feed my growing cats. Discovered also that I had ZERO caterpillars on our wild asclepias. I know the cats that had been eating tropical or swamp varieties would not even nibble on the wild variety as it seems almost “fuzzy”. Really love the native milkweed as the leaves are bigger and more substantial and can feed the critters longer than the long skinny leaves of the other varieties.
     All in all a good year in Liberty, MO (north of Kansas City) but didn’t see near as many monarchs this year as we have in years passed.

165. Hello: I live in S.W. Arkansas. 2018 was my first year to raise Monarchs. I raised 4 from baby cats. I had another one that went through all the stages where he was black, but one of those flies killed it and I killed the fly. Believe it or not I raised them in a large Bob’s Sweet Stripes container. That’s all I had, I put white netting over the top with a really long rubber band. They all flew South. I only had one milkweed plant so I called around and couldn’t find any. I have 4 Milkweed plants now and all of them would have been destroyed if I hadn’t dug them up. I have what’s called a Drain Spade it’s narrow and long. Even using it I couldn’t get all the tap roots. I dug all of them up the end of May this year 2019 it was very hot and all of them were in bloom. The last 3 died all the way to the ground in a few days from shock as I knew they probably would even though I used new W. M. garden soil. Well to my Surprise in about a month they all were coming back up and they all bloomed again. One of the Butterfly Weeds I dug up was at least 2 feet around. After it started coming up again I drove out to where I dug it up and sure enough it was coming back up from the Taproot that was left in the ground. There’s another one the same size next to it that I didn’t dig up.

     I haven’t seen any Monarchs this year yet. All my flowers died again, so I cut them back just a few inches and now they are all trying to bloom again. I’m just waiting and watching for Monarchs.

     Thanks to everyone for all you do. I also help the Hummingbirds and Honey Bees.

166. I live in central NJ and this is my first time raising caterpillars. I raised 6 healthy butterflies and lost 3: 1 as an instar 1 caterpillar, 1 as a pupating caterpillar, and 1 as a chrysalis. I learned the hard way to be more gentle while using the paint brush technique (I felt so bad) and to make sure a caterpillar doesn’t “J” on the side of the mesh cage. That caterpillar fell while pupating and didn’t make it. The other one I lost as my cat snuck into my room and knocked over the mesh cage to the floor, , which knocked down one of my chrysalids.

     On the upside, I felt so much joy raising my babies into butterflies, and watching them fly away. I saw two caterpillars form chrysalids and a butterfly emerge. Right now, I haven’t seen any more caterpillars on my milkweed but I think it’s because it’s getting cool out. I am definitely raising monarchs next year and for many years to come.

167. Hi! Thanks for this great resource Tony! I started raising monarchs in 2015 and one of the best “tips” for other enthusiasts is a caterpillar safe receptacle for milkweed. I use floral tubes as you do, but when the caterpillars are bigger and eating more I place my cuttings in a 4 oz baby bottle with the nipple inverted. I score the silicone nipple to make help it accommodate a couple of milkweed stems. This way there is plenty of water for a nice bunch of milkweed, the bottom is flat for stability, and the nipple keeps the caterpillars from drowning (which happened with a few of my earlier experimental receptacles).
     I can’t seem to attach a photo – but it works really well!

168. My 2nd year and very, very cold start. Our weather was extremely cold with rain until mid July. Could not find any in my city and home and have milkweed -, but will plant more next year. I have large gardens.
     Found a good number of the ones released at our cottage in Quebec Canada. However, this was not in a controlled environment. We are from Ottawa Canada.
     Released 70 and was thrilled.
     However, last group, mainly found as cats were not good and had to end up euthanizing far too many. So sad. Chrysalis stayed dark and some did not open. When they did the monarchs were weak.

169. The students at Walt Clark middle school in Loveland Colorado released five monarch butterflies and one swallowtail butterfly this year. They were raised from eggs spotted on the Milkweed in a friend’s garden. We would have had seven monarchs, but we learned a valuable lesson when we found a couple enormous praying mantis on the outside of our net enclosure and two dead butterflies on the inside of our net enclosure. The net is only 1/4 inch squares, but they reached inside, grabbed the butterflies as they flew past, and ate their poor little head’s off. The larger of the two praying mantis was at least 7 inches long. Lesson learned.

     1. This is most likely a Chinese praying mantis that is not native to US…..I’ve heard other stories about them too…..chickens seem to like to eat the mantis, if you are so motivated.

170. In previous years I have raised only a few Monarchs. This year I released 19, which was exciting for me. Four were from eggs I found on a “wild” milkweed and 15 were cats that I found on 5 asclepias tuberosa plants in my small garden. I lost 2 tiny cats and one chrysalide.

171. I started with eggs found on the milkweed growing in my yard in Northfield, Mn. I started by raising them in a 10 gallon aquarium with a screen, set on my dining room table. I soon found I was running out of space so purchased the big butterfly tent 24x24x 36. What a great product! I put some small branch sticks from our maple tree in it along with the milkweeds. I have not purchased any tubes but I had a couple of floral tubes. I found the milkweed did not last long with these. I then started putting the milkweed in Gatorade juice bottles. I lost one caterpillar by drowning in the water. So I learned I had to wrap a piece of paper toweling around the milkweed and then placed it in the bottle. No more drowned caterpillars. I found the milkweed lasted much longer this way. I only lost 2 other caterpillars for unknown reasons. They seemed to be eating good and then just shriveled up and died. I only had 1 butterfly whose wings did not open up. I tried wetting the wings like suggested but to no avail. So I put it outside and let nature take over. I ended up releasing 67 monarchs butterflies.

172. Reporting from Western migration country-Northern CA. Since we don’t have any Monarchs this year I received eggs from a commercial Monarch company. From them I raised 2 generations releasing 40 Monarchs.
     Wasn’t able to release any 4th generation this year but, hopefully, next year!

173. Hi! Checking in from Harrisburg PA. I decided to plant swamp and butterfly milkweed this year. I helped 4 summer monarchs and so far three migration monarchs. I have 12 chrysalides waiting and four more cats eating. Hoping they all make it. Next year I will make sure to bring in the caterpillars and eggs as soon as possible. I lost so many to Black Death but I think I lost more to assassin bugs. (Never felt so much anger seeing them eating the caterpillars). It really is heartbreaking when you lose them. Also three chrysalides were killed by chalcid wasps and many cats died from tachinid flies. I know you aren’t supposed to bring larger cats in, but I figure I will take whatever parasites got them out of circulation. I have a container with chalcid flies waiting to die as well as killed a bunch of tachinid fly larva. Also Many eggs were parasitized by those trichogamma wasps. Next year, I will do better! But at least another 16 monarchs will emerge soon – fingers crossed!!

174. My experiences have been similar to Valerie in Florida. So many lessons with continual new issues and my latest are wasps. In 2018 I raised about 500 Monarchs but 2019 something seems to be not working. I have both tropical and Crown Flower milkweed to attract and feed the monarchs. I search for young cats to transfer to my castles. Even with a few butterflies landing on my milkweed, there are literally no cats to be found. I’ve notice wasps almost following around the landing Monarchs. Are they eating the eggs?What can I do to keep them away? They are really too fast to catch.

     1. yes, wasps will eat eggs. Here’s some info to deter them: wasps

     2. Thank you. We have no nests on property but I will try the netting and tomato cages.

175. I released butterfly #129 today. My first came out on May 12. My milkweed is completely depleted. I’m in Burbank CA so if the milkweed comes back I may have more caterpillars before they’re gone for the winter. My caterpillars and butterflies were very healthy this year. I was diligent about finding eggs and tiny cats but even if I found a larger one they were healthy. I have no idea what I did this year that was different from other years. I have one chrysalis on a strawberry plant that I just found. Not sure how I missed that guy in the garden. I’ll keep an eye out and bring the butterfly in when close to coming out so my actual cat doesn’t get it. The aphids were horrible this year. Even the ladybugs couldn’t keep up with them.

176. I began with 50 eggs/caterpillars in the second week of July. Those early ones grew normally. Five were released on the 25th of August into the Memorial Garden of my church which made it a very tearful event for the people who had lost loved ones. Each butterfly represented a loved one. The majority of the rest were released over the next few weeks. This is when the problems began. I had two that fell from the chrysalis and therefore their wings did not dry properly. I began to experience ‘Black Death’ at several stages – babies through the chrysalis stage. Some caterpillars just failed to thrive. I tried everything. I bleached containers and transferred the cats to a clean container each day. My supply of milkweed came from five different locations along rural roads and from the farm itself. I truly doubt that it involved insecticides but rather parasites/viruses etc. We suffered from a tremendously rainy and humid summer which would be conducive to all kinds of afflictions. I’ve been raising Monarchs since the ’90’s and never have experienced this kind of attrition rate. I ended up releasing 34 Monarchs – at least 2/3rds of them were female. I lost two to falling and two died in the chrysalis. The rest just failed to thrive. For me this was quite discouraging since I had never experienced this in previous years.
     What would I do differently? Definitely more detailed records. When caterpillars and eggs were acquired. At what stage I lost one. How many females vs. males released.

177. This summer, I released 270 monarchs. All of the eggs and caterpillars were from my back yard. I finally have enough milkweed everywhere to feed all of them with no problems.

178. This past season has been a dismal year for monarch butterflies here in the Central Highlands of Arizona; more specifically, around the Prescott area.
     Last year I captive raised, tagged and released 48 monarchs. One of my releases was recorded visiting a private garden in Huntington Beach, California. This year I observed three, maybe four monarchs all season long. I found no caterpillars in my milkweed. Being that, I have never seen such healthy milkweed plants so late in the season! ;-))
     The Phoenix/Tucson areas south of me have had monarchs and cats all season long, and there have been various reports in Nevada and Utah north of me.
     One observation to note was the increase of swallowtail numbers as compared to previous years, and the apparent lingering of painted lady butterflies throughout most of the season. Painted ladies normally pass through fairly early in the season, migrating to other areas and not staying long.

179. I’m in Parry Sound, Ontario Canada.
     My 9 year old daughter and I have successfully raised and released 644 Monarch Butterflies.
     30% eggs, 20% 1st I star, 40% 3rd I star and 10% 4th.
     Of these numbers we only lost 3.
     Had one escape unknowingly from collected pods.
     Of the 644, 407 were female and 237 were male. We began with a mostly male release but then female was the primary.
     We have 13 to release in the morning. I’m still seeing caterpillars on milkweed and some are around the 2nd instar and the rest are big and ready to J into chrysalis.
     It’s been a great year.

180. I live in Florida, so we are not done yet…we have some locals most of the year now….and we are happily anticipating your northern Monarchs swinging through the neighborhood.
     Third year raising. Have raised and released about 400 in that time frame….and that was mainly due to when I started, I had to save every egg and cat I saw….well…I have learned that will make you cray-cray….
     So many lessons each year and am now a big fan of simple. I put a potted (organically grown) milkweed plant outdoors. Within a few days it will have eggs. Bring entire pot into one of the taller mesh cages. Place one or two additional potted giant milkweed plants in cage…and let the process happen. There is some frass cleaning, as well as monitoring plant moisture and chrysalis formation…they do like SAFE so I place a cloth over top of mesh cage and they seem to like that. I also have to monitor general activity to see if any hungry cats are devouring a leaf with chrysalis…but simple fix is to move the hungry cat to another leaf, snip off the leaf with the chrysalis and tape it to mesh cage. I have learned to place clean, cushy towels on bottom of cage in case of falls….of cats or newly emerged Monarchs.
     I really like using potted plants as leaves stay fresh…and when plant is stripped, I just put it back outside, cut the stems back (to avoid OE) and then wait for it to grow back again. If you need extra milkweed clippings in the cage, you can use floral tube with clippings and just ‘plant’ the tube right in the soil of potted plant….easy-peasy….
     One of my biggest lessons was when moving the tiny cats, I use a small paint brush to pick them up….but be very careful when you place them on new leaf. That silk thread on cats usually is now stuck to paint brush…when I place them on new leaf, I keep paint brush right there until they start crawling over leaf…then, SLOWLY remove paint brush to make sure that thread has disconnected…I had a few ‘flying’ cats before I recognized this issue. Wishing you all beautiful Monarch raising experiences!

181. Hi from Hecker, IL. I am what you would call a new be at this, I started raising in 2018. this year so far I have release 12 health butterflies that I raised from cats to full term. They were released in mid June, the earliest I have ever seen on in my area (I live across the Mississippi from South St. Louis). Since the successful release I have had 14 cats that grew to about 1 1/2 inches, eating well and healthy one day to going out the next and they are dead. I had a major problem with milk weed bugs and aphids this year and tried my best to keep up with them. When you go on vacation they take over. With milkweed in the front and back yard I was able to control on the smaller plants. It hasn’t been until this last couple of weeks that I have had success with the cats. At this time I have 5 healthy chrysalis. So I am hoping that next year will be better. I am also happy to say that I have one Black Swallowtail chrysalis.

182. Brand new to raising butterflies. I have only raised and released a total of 5 monarch. 3 males and 2 females. A friend that I supply milkweed to had actually received quite a few eggs and babies from my milkweed. I only got involved when I found swallow tail cats on my dill, but they disappeared before she could come to collect them. Hence, I started “saving” them, and got “hooked”. No new eggs or babies since we had several violent summer storms in august. Still have 8 swallowtail chrysalises and 2 cats eating, also 2 spice bush chrysalis and 4 cats eating. So hoping they all release successfully as they appear to be wintering in. Looking forward to next year.

183. Elkins Park, PA. Last year was my first year so I brought in 2 eggs. None of my milkweed is eaten which makes me think that what eggs I don’t rescue is eaten by other insects. I released 1 male and 1 female.
     This year I decided to try 4. One chrysalis was on a leaf so I used a straight pin through the silk and attached it to the top of the mesh cage. That worked very well Thanks Tony!
     I released 2 females and 1 male. I love to photograph the entire process and I made the photographs into a story book for my granddaughter. For some unknown reason the last caterpillar which I thought was going to J any day would not latch on to eat the milkweed and died laying on the cage floor. I transferred it several times to fresh milkweed and maybe that was the cause.
     Lesson learned: I will do a better job of transferring the cats on to fresher milkweed and just have it in the cage and let them discover it.
     BTW. To make sure they were fed I took the cage to our hotel room and labeled it Butterfly project do not touch. That all worked well. I pulled out milkweed with the roots and wrapped it in wet paper towels and plastic bags. I also brought my spray bottle. Next year I try for 6.!

184. Here in Florida they stay year round as is the raising. As I find eggs I bring them inside as our small lizards wait at the base of the milkweed and climb up for a snack as soon as the egg is laid. So far this year I have released 90 monarchs with 3 chrysalis, 22 caterpillars, and 20 eggs in production. I have about a 70% survival rate from egg to butterfly. Black death killed a bunch in the spring before I cleaned cages thoroughly. I am frustrated by several deformed butterflies recently.

185. Greetings from Long Island, NY! I started collecting monarch eggs on 7/21 this summer once I noticed the first monarch butterflies in my garden. Had my first chrysalis on 7/31, and first butterfly on 8/10…a healthy female! Since then, I have released 16 other healthy butterflies, 6 females and 11 males. And I currently have 6 chrysalides, one j-ing cat and one up on the ceiling of the enclosure, soon to J. This is my first year raising, and I have had a 100% success rate so far thanks to all the great guidance and supplies you provide. Thank you…this has been such a rewarding and joyful experience for me!

186. I’m in southern Maine. Reading all the grand results you all have I shouldn’t say anything but because I am so new at this I am writing for others who are just starting in. My outdoor cats seem to be very cavalier about what they attach themselves to when they make their chrysalis. Frequently they are on dried up leaves which fall off the stem taking the beautiful chrysalis with it. I found two on the ground. Don’t know how long they had been there, possibly overnight. I took them in and taped them underneath my kitchen cupboard. One of them hatched perfectly and I released a beautiful monarch after waiting for her wings to dry three hours. The other has not hatched but turned black, has been there too long and today I will throw it out. Not a very impressive record. But it proved you can pick them up outside and bring them in successfully. Two other chrysalises I found outside on the ground I taped up to the milkweed plant. Both hatched successfully. Generally, there were more than 50 cats on my milkweed, more than I have ever seen and one day I lost count of newly hatched adult monarchs fluttering all over a swamp milkweed that was blooming in our garden. More than I have seen in the six years we have lived here. Good season in Maine!

187. This past year I started raising butterflies by cheer accident. My little granddaughter 6 years old moved in with us and I wanted to show her the process of metamorphosis.
     Being a retired teacher,I had ordered the butterfly kits many times for my students.
     This time I came across your sights and decided that we were going to raise Monarchs.
     I started with a few portable mesh enclosures then moved to building my own screened outdoor enclosure. Last August to this August I have released 148 Monarchs and two beautiful Queen Butterflies.
     I had some issues with the little flies and the lizards ,since I live in Florida, but it’s very rewarding when I release those beautiful butterflies!
     Thank you for your Blog!

188. I planted my first pollinator garden this spring–three kinds of milkweed, some zinnias, a butterfly bush, two Mexican sunflower bushes and some Black Eyed Susans. The lot is on a major road through my town and I wondered if any butterflies would show up. I saw only one Monarch. A woman helping me weed saw one as well. By mid-August, no caterpillars, so I assumed with a young garden, I wouldn’t get any. Then they started appearing and I was not prepared since I didn’t expect them. Several have grown to healthy looking fat cats. Some are gone after a huge rainstorm a couple of days ago. I hustled to order a butterfly cage, arriving tomorrow, and found a few healthy milkweed plants at a local nursery. I’ll get the remaining cats in the cage and go from there. What I learned is that there is so much I don’t know, but I’m learning through this unexpected experience and will be planning a much better garden for 2020, starting this fall.

     I have seen a couple of Monarchs since that first one, and there was a gorgeous Swallowtail feasting on the Mexican Sunflower a few days ago! I wish I’d done a better job this year, but I’ve learned a lot.

     1. You did a great job! Bravo! Every year you will learn something new and exciting and educational to add to your raising experience. Every hobby requires learning and doing and it is the same with growing a garden and raising Monarchs. Best wishes for an even more successful 2020 raising season <3

189. Good morning. My husband and I are on our 3rd year raising monarchs in Tampa Bay Florida. What a learning curve. The first year I wanted to do something to save the Monarchs so I bought 2 milkweed plants before I even knew what an egg looked like. Once I was shown all the eggs on my plants it was a mad scramble to build an outside cage as I know we have brown anoles (little lizards) that eat caterpillars and lots of wasps. Once the cage was built we just put the milkweed plants inside and watched the show. On two original plants 30 eggs turned into these ravenous little worm munchers and we were scrambling to buy more milkweed. We released all but two that turned black in the chrysalis. I thought for the end of the summer, and on the fly we were pretty successful. I thought raising Monarchs was gonna be a cake walk.

     Year two was a disaster. I learned all about the OE parasite and watch so many of the pretty monarchs emerge with crumpled wings and worse. After the second round of cage raising we discontinued and started doing lots of research. This web sight has helped a lot but I still have more questions than answers.
     1. Do Florida Monarchs make the flight to Mexico. I couldn’t find a map that showed our area for there migratory journey.
     2. If they stay in the TB area and don’t leave, am I promoting the never ending cycle of OE?
     This year(3) I was very nervous to even attempt the venture. I did research the best I could. Cleaning the cage, the plants before exposing them to be hosts and we did release 150 butterfly’s but even so, some were not strong flyers and now I am questioning if I am doing more harm than good. I have watched the video on testing for the parasite with tape and I mentioned it to my husband who stared blankly at me with the “You are joking, right?” look. So, this season is done and I wonder how many sick butterflies were released into my area.
     If anyone knows, please let me know if the Monarchs from my area just stay local. I would hate to think this whole area is contaminated. I know my friends a city away are also having a sad season as well. Any information would help. Thank you.

     1. Hi Lynette, there is a year round population of butterflies in your region, but it’s possible some migrate. Most butterflies in your region have OE but by bleaching eggs and rinsing leaves thoroughly you can kill OE spores or reduce the severity of the infection.

        1. Thank you for your reply.

190. Hi I’m in Yorba Linda Ca. This season I released 65 males and 57 females. I had 3 born with bent wings, 2 died not sure why and about 10 died from T-fly.

191. After my neighbor told me about milkweed and the butterflies plight (while I was busy mowing over the milkweed…) I’ve stopped mowing and happily spent the last three Michigan summers building up the milkweed on about three acres.
     This summer I sent them a clip of the first monarch stretching in the sun, while others weren’t far behind, and they were tickled pink. Shortly after that I saw some really great ideas for butterfly structures to build so next year I’ll be sharing that with them too.
     As far as problems went I had no issues, probably beginners luck, and I’ll take that.
     Now just a word about the other posters here…you guys amaze me! So many butterflies, and so much knowledge! I really enjoyed reading your stories.

192. This has been a good year for us, we have released 127 monarchs, 35 black Swallowtail and for the first time 14 pipevine Swallowtail. We only lost 2 crylists early to tachnicd flies and 2 to just drying up, I have noticed that the monarchs crylists are much smaller and the butterflies are much smaller, has anyone else noticed this, they seem healthy just small. Please excuse my spelling I excelled in science not spelling. I did raise some Some swan milk weed or hairy balls as they call it ,I was pleased with the results but still had aphids terrible. I forgot I live in North Central Indiana, kokomo46902

     1. Hi! I’m in Kokomo too! I have been raising for three years. This year I put my cages outside in the beginning of August for a more natural environment. I would love to have the host plant starts for the pipevine :D. I am at Pack Rat Storage just off of Alto Road. I live and work here, if you are around please stop by. Congratulations on the raising results. And the aphids are horrid this year!

193. I live in Algonquin, IL. This is my second year raising Monarchs. For my first year I had only one Milkweed plant, and one butterfly cage and a collapsible hamper that I used for releasing the adults. I had 10 Monarchs. This year I had 4 cages (2 large, 1 medium and 1 ER cage) Still have my collapsible hamper. Works great when the weather is crummy and you can’t release for a day of two. This year I released 51 Monarchs! Most were from egg. I had a group of 8 caterpillars that I found on a plant that I had sitting on my deck waiting to be planted. Most of the released Monarchs were female. I didn’t really encounter any problems. Did have a whole group of chrysalis fall from the top of the cage while I was cleaning. Tied them back up with dental floss and mini binder clips. I tried the tape on both sides, but it wouldn’t stick. Also used unbent paperclips to hook the string on when I ran out of binder clips. Did have a couple of caterpillar losses. Just didn’t seem to make it to the chrysalis stage. Had 2 chrysalis that were soft and stringy and looked like they had a parasite or something bad going on. They were destroyed so as not to infect everyone in the batch. Also had one chrysalis that looked strange. I separated it from the group, but it turned out to be okay. Lots of new plants in my garden this year, can hardly wait for next season. Also have an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail chrysalis that should come out nest spring. Looking forward to see what next year brings.

194. South Central MN here. I usually only raise about 30 max. It’s my 3rd? year of raising. My raising is done outdoors due to space limitations. Lost more eggs on moldy leaf bits than other years, due to rain & humidity in my egg containers. Raised a couple of found cats, best year of that for me. Lost two chrysalis, black stuff inside. I take chrysallis attached to a tomato cage, cage in a flowerpot, all covered with screening, to an older neighbor to share the journey. Also got my sister hooked, found her first eggs & had some success.

195. This is the third year I’ve been raising. This is the first year I’ve had an infestation of tachnid flies. I usually release about 4 dozen monarchs. This year will be less, but I have been finding some stragglers in the garden that are still healthy.

     I’ve lost about half the population because of the flies. One day I found a dozen dead and infected cats. It’s been a very disappointing season.

196. Rudolph, WI. 90 this season, mostly the last ‘batch’ that migrates to Mexico. I have 18 left to go as of today.I have only had a total of 5 males from this season, which amazes me! I have had 3 deaths mostly from a group I pulled of mature cats from a neighbors milkweed patch. I have learned another 2 good care lessons on how to save a cat:1) how if the skin it is shedding gets “stuck”, to wet a q-tip, get the area wet, then gently use a pin(yikes) to get it off, I was successful and my expert friend talked me thru this on the phone while I performed this maneuver, and 2) if a cat falls in water to revive it by placing salt on it. In ten minutes or less that cat I thought was dead was walking up the paper towel!!!
     I also had a WIND SCARE as my butterfly cage pop-up I had purchased from you all was put attached on the windy front porch in the sun before I released as our weather has been pretty wet and off this summer. I went out 1/2 hour later and the cage was NO WHERE to be found and I scurried all over my property and in the culvert. Heartsick, as 3 females and one male where in there. I thought of calling my hubby to see if he saw it on his way home from work up our street as we have no neighbors, but I neglected to call as long shot…He walked in the door 2 hours later and said he saw something white bobbing on the pond…we hurried down there with the roof rake and were able to reach the now submerged butterfly cage and the four were alive!!!!!! I released them today! One flew onto my shirt before it left–scolding me??? So, I have learned a lot this summer, again!!

     1. W e raised and released 40 monarchs thi year! We are very excited we had a very successful year. We got a neighbor involved this year and she released about 30…her first time raising. She then got her sister involved and she was successful as well. We only lost about 3….we feel. Very happy about that..The one problem we had was the chysalis forming on the white holders. I had to take them apart and place them on the roof of the cage. I wish you could come up wit a solution to that problem.

        Rebecca Foster. Ellsworth, ME

        1. Hi Rebecca, we are updating the design next year, but there is a way to prevent this on both current rack styles that is detailed here:

           when caterpillars make chrysalides on racks

197. When I lived in Louisiana 3 years ago, a friend of mine had a butterfly garden. She helped me teach my pre-k4 classroom about the life cycle and brought in a butterfly habitat with caterpillars to keep in my classroom. Since then, I moved to Arkansas and now have my own small garden. So far, the kids in my classroom and I have released 10 butterflies with more eggs on my plants left!

198. I started planting a small amount of milkweed, in Hudson, MA, a couple of years ago. Last summer I noticed a good sized caterpillar on one of the plants. At that time I did not know what a monarch caterpillar looked like. I went inside to looked it up. Once I went back out with a camera to take a photo, I could not find it again.

     This August I saw a couple of small caterpillars on one of the plants and after doing some research online decide to bring them in to try and raise them. That is when I found this website and bought first one of the small cube kits and later a taller cube.

     While the first 2 cats were about the same size, I eventually found a 3 smaller one. Don’t know if it was an egg or newly hatched cat that came in on one of the leaves.

     Of the 2 older ones, one seemed to die of the black plague, but the second one a female was my first successful monarch butterfly release.

     The third smaller cat, a male, did grow and become a butterfly. He was release today.

     Now that I have some experience and some of the cages, I am hoping to start looking for and finding more egg and/or cats next year and have more successful release.

199. My first group of monarchs was met with one obstacle after another! Milkweed was not growing well (black fungus) which meant while I waited for regrowth I had to purchase more …much more milkweed! Then the neighbor sprayed for weeds which killed about a dozen or so cats from infected milkweed leaves and 23 eggs collected very early in the season never hatched (no idea why). I managed about 65% success of monarchs released from first 100 eggs/cats collected.
     Second group was much better with over 80% success rate! Average for this season was 77% successful butterfly release (272 total-my second year!)
     My challenges continue to be milkweed health; Tachinid flies and balancing food demand for the wee cats.
     I learned how to help pupas continue to a healthy butterfly if they fall w/o a cremaster/silk to rehang (they are placed in small, padded test tube until dark then they go into a cage where they can eclose horizontally. I learned, although heartbreaking, it is much more humane to euthanize a horribly deformed butterfly that has no chance to survive. I learned how to feed a butterfly if it needs extra time with ‘momma’ before flying away. I continue to be awe-struck with every eclosing, and releasing of these beautiful creatures that have blessed my life! It never gets old and as long as I can physical and financially to…I will continue to help raise the Monarchs! Already making plans for next year???

200. I am in coastal North Carolina. This is my second year raising and releasing Monarchs. Things were slow until August then I had caterpillars galore. I have released, with the assistance of my friends 9 year old great niece, a total of 119 butterflies. I have one about to open and 2 caterpillars still munching on my milkweed.
     My little assistant was so enthusiastic about the whole process, and surprised me with her knowledge. I will have her helping me again next year.

201. Here in Grand Marais, Michigan (in the Upper Peninsula, on the south shore of Lake Superior), we had a grand year for monarchs. Because of other commitments, I didn’t start raising them until the migratory generation. We’ve released 53 so far, just about half male and half female. I still have two big guys crawling around on the enclosure ceiling, two in J’s, and 26 chrysalides. I’m a bit worried about the late ones – our weather is definitely more like fall, with no warm spells predicted. The trees are turning color, nights are in the 40s, etc. However, everyone has been healthy so far.

     I did bring in five painted lady caterpillars just for fun, as I’ve never raised anything but monarchs, and TWO of them turned out to have wasps in them. Creepy. I released the wasps anyway, since the world needs predators, too. I almost always start from eggs with monarchs and rarely bring in a cat, but these painted ladies were the last five left on a hollyhock after a family of wrens decimated the rest, so I thought I’d try them. Good learning experience. The other three butterflies were lovely and healthy. By the way, it was a lower year for tiger swallowtails here, but they seem to be very cyclic.

     Our milkweed patch is growing fast and we have plenty of other butterfly flowers around, so we see lots of monarchs. I am encouraging a couple of milkweed patches in the shade, as they provide more tender leaves for the babies and don’t seem to get aphids like those in full sun sometimes do.

     All in all, we’ve gotten a lot of pleasure out of raising monarchs again this year, and introduced some kids to it. Forgot to buy tags, so I can’t mark this batch like we did last year, but oh, well.
     :0) Nancy

     1. Last year I brought in one swallowtail cat. I thought It made it through the winter in our unheated garage. When it got to be Spring and warmer weather I was so disappointed to see an ugly
        Wasp instead of a beautiful swallowtail. Needless to say I was disappointed but not so much that I won’t try again. I’ve been looking for cats on my Rue but none yet. Yes those wasps are creepy!

202. I raised this Season 21 Monarch Butterfly’s. Last year was the first year I started this journey, I picked up very tiny Caterpillars ? of the Milkweed leafs and brought them inside the Cage and every day I went out and got new Milkweed leaves and cleaned a lot poop, and I have been Lucky, no Caterpillars died, when I let them go they flew with in a few minutes into the wild blue yonder.

203. this was my 1st yr to bring monarchs in to raise. I brot in 9, successfully released 8, the last 3 were all this morning! not sure what happened to the very 1st one. his chrys had fallen a few days before he emerged. he struggled getting out, his wings never unfolded and he seemed very weak. it’s just a dumb butterfly so why was I tearful!? I was very sad to lose the 1st one I tried to raise but the 8 that followed, wow, what an amazing experience. thanks for all tips and advise. looking forward to next year

     1. I guess I should mention I’m in Dayton, Oh. Also raise Swallowtails for the past 4 yrs with about a 95% success rate.

204. We released a total of 57 monarchs this summer. We hit a round of disease with our last group of cats and lost all but two sadly. Our last female was released on 9/7. The slow start to summer and rainy August had quite the effect on numbers.
     I will be building a third cage this fall as we got really full with just 2 during July. Everything has been power washed and going into storage for next spring. I’ve been harvesting seed pods like crazy and drying seeds. I need a bigger yard ?
     Located Eastern Suburbs of MN.

205. Well, today (9-14-2019) I released #14 of our Black Swallowtails, which was a disappointment – usually the number is much greater. All my butterfly enthusiasts are quite baffled as to why they were so late in appearing here in SE Michigan. I was quite leery of letting her go but the weather right now is beautiful and is predicted to be for several days to come. I still have 6 chrysalises left and am hoping they wait until spring
     The American Ladies were my biggest sorrow of the year – out of 50+ eggs brought in and hatched – only 3 survived. Not sure again what happened because in the past these, next to the Monarchs, are my largest quantity to rear.
     In previous years I usually release around 350+ Monarchs, but this year I decided to slow down – I do have a life beyond butterflies (my husband finds that hard to believe) and so the number came to 187 – not quite my goal of 200 but close. With only losing 3 – I was very happy. All in all it was a very wonderful butterfly year

206. This is my first year raising monarchs in southeast Arkansas. I successfully raised 14 butterflies out of 22 chrysalides. All of these caterpillars appeared in late August. I released my last butterfly September 9. I felt like a proud mother watching my flock leave the nest for their migration across the Gulf of Mexico.

207. The spring in Michigan was very wet and cold this year so everything was late, but the month of August was a drought. The milkweed was late and then seemed to fade early. Still I was able to raise 87 healthy monarchs. Mostly I brought in eggs , but then I found a batch of second instar babies happily feeding on my growing butterflyweed in pots. I had 100% success, but none of them remained in my yard. I learned I need a larger flower garden with more late blooming flowers, several things are blooming now but we’ve had more rain this past two weeks and after a very cool period we are back in the 80s. I hear from other people in Michigan that they are seeing large numbers gathering getting ready to migrate. No diseases this year, very few pests on my milkweed, I only grow common and butterfly weed . I would like to expand the number of varities. All and all it was a great year.

     1. I live in Texas, the native milkweed here is Green Milkweed. It is similar to common in appearance only not as tall. I have been quite successfully digging it in places destined to be destroyed. I’ll be glad to send you some seeds if you want. Richard—-rclark1507@aol.com

208. We released so far 95 Males and 105 Females, a very good year. We are in Webster N.H.

209. Hello all, So far up to date as of September 14, 2019 I have released 73 monarchs butterflies, I have 11 chrysalis in stage waiting to hatch, and I have nine monarch caterpillars eating and getting fat, in addition I had Lost 7 caterpillars and Lost six chrysalis, and lost six monarchs after hatching due to a development problem in the chrysalis

210. I raised 15 very successfully in July this summer. In August, I collected another 15 eggs and cats in various stages. I started losing the youngest quite quickly..and as the days and several weeks went by, I lost one or two regularly. I ended up with only 3 chrysalides, and they also did not make it before liquid started oozing out.

     I’m very puzzled how 1’st group was so successful and second group such a failure.

     1. This was my first year! I hoped to have 10 healthy butterflies so I was thrilled that I ended up with 62 perfect butterflies! Along the way 3 caterpillars died ( 2 nd in stars )and one that made it into a chrysalis ended up eclosing with deformed wings that never opened and passed away after 2 days. I learned that before taking in eggs be sure you have access to enough milkweed to sustain them. I have lots in my backyard so I thought I was ok. Then the aphids came and they really took a toll on the milkweed. Luckily I found a good source of milkweed around a pond nearby.

211. Drew Modic Lorain Ohio, Happy Monarch days everyone. I want to start by paying a huge debt of gratitude to Tony for this amazing resource . Tony’s contributions through personal experiences raising Monarch butterfly’s has quadrupled my successful releases annually. I followed one of Tony’s tips this past winter of sowing my milkweed seeds in January outside. I was overwhelmed in mid May when I started to inspect my seedlings that I had not even transplanted into pots from the milk jugs. I discovered roughly 24 Monarch eggs and 15 teeny tiny cats. ;). By following Tony’s guide I now have Monarch butterflys visiting my yard in early early spring opposed to the end of summer. “Downside”, Oleander aphids took over my native swamp milkweed plant in my flower bed and I had a lapse of reasoning and treated it with insecticidal soap. Bad idea! I eliminated the aphids but sadly discovered I had killed multiple Monarch eggs as well. It was a great season overall and I believe I released 48 Monarch butterflies this season. I currently have one Monarch left in it’s cocoon which should hatch any day now. Thank you

212. So far I’ve released 467 with 46 in Chrysalis still and 12 – 5th instar caterpillars. My mortality rate was higher this year especially in the 2-3 instar. No known reason. Other caterpillars in the enclosures with them didn’t die. Total of 3% mortality which is my highest in 6 years. I had a 67% male rate this year for releases. All that came into my homes as eggs survived. Any that died were found as caterpillars and 5 had t-fly. Learned to move my enclosures to a safe spot outside during this period of time so that the remaining caterpillars and Chrysalis would use the days light and temperatures to better feed and develop. Saw my first roost in Iowa! Incredible feeling of magic as they fluttered around my head. Taught 3 sessions on creating a pollinator garden. All in all, an excellent year I think.

213. Mequon WI here. 120 this season, 80% female, 7 deaths. Best season in the Midwest so far.
     Sharing with others (Nursing Home, neibors and in community newspapers, middle school) has been my biggest lesson….teaching others in classes and in person. Raising education.

     1. Got started a little late, I really had a hard time finding the eggs. Found about 18 cats, and successfully released 15. Next spring I am going to plant more milkweed. Right now they are all in full sun. In August I purchased a butterfly weed at my favorite plant place and there were 2 cats on them. Took them home and released them successfully. Love your newsletter, an I am definitely going to try and get better at finding them. Thank you, Eugenia

        1. Hi I am in Winnipeg,Manitoba Canada. This is my third year raising Monarchs. This year I have released 301 Monarchs with one still in mesh enclosure in my kitchen with fruit and sweet water since Sept.29th. We have had rain and cool days and some frost warnings overnight so am still waiting perhaps this Sat. Oct.5th. may be sunny and hopefully 17C about 63F Marty as I call him is eating then flying around the cage. Every once in awhile I put him and cage outside in my screenhouse and immediately he flies to the top and just hangs there,(too cold) outside. I lost about 9….3 going into chrysalis,3 stayed black in chrysalis,2 fell from top of enclosure and soft so didn’t servive,1 stayed in J. I also released 8 Painted Ladies, 1 American Painted Lady, 10 Black Swallowtails,and am now overwintering 37 Swallowtails in a box in my basement fridge which will be put in an enclosure and in my screen house in the spring when it warms up, I will release when there are flowers blooming again. All and all a busy and satisfactory ending . So much fun.

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