Raising Hope for the 2015 Monarch Migration

222 Comments

1. I am here in south Texas and while cutting down my milkweed one last time before spring I found one 3rd instar cat. I can’t believe we still have them here. I brought him inside and he is doing well but I am going to try some butternut squash because my milkweed is depleted and dried up. I also found about 20 eggs right after Christmas but unfortunately none of them survived. I have only had success with raising caterpillars further along. Any tips for eggs? I tried to do all I read online but no such luck, they were also laid during a freeze period. Over the 2015 summer I released 6 monarchs successfully. Thanks for your website and tips!

   1. Hi Jane, it’s possible the eggs weren’t fertilized. This often happens to us up north at the end of the season. In the winter, the population in your region is smaller so she might not have found a mate. Here is some info for collecting and caring for monarch eggs:

      Hunt, Gather, and Care for Monarch Eggs

2. Hi Tony,
   So sorry that this is so late, but felt that I needed to write. I live near Reading Pa where I probably haven’t seen a Monarch in many years. I purchased Common, Swamp, and Tropical milkweed from Rose Franklin here in Pa. The plants came in really great shape. This was my first year trying to attract Monarchs. It didn’t take long until I found eggs-it was very exciting!

   Thank you, Tony, for all your advise; everything that I know came from reading your emails!

   I raised 25 Cats, releasing 9 males and 15 females. I only lost one Cat, coming in the last batch that I raised. I turned black and never hatched.

   I will expand the number of milkweed plants this season. Thank you, very much, for so expertly guiding me thru my first season! Keep up the good work.

   David Pepper,
   Birdsboro, Pa

   1. Thanks for posting David. I’m very happy to hear you had a successful 2015 season. This year should be even better with a bigger monarch population and mature plants…Happy New Year!

3. Released the last two butterflies today. I had no idea it would take this long for all of them to fly away. I ended up releasing 99 females and 54 males for a total of 153. Of course it is not about numbers, because I believe every single one released is a chance for several hundred more to develop down the line from eggs and caterpillars.
   The weather has been fairly nice here in Oklahoma the last month or so. I hope it stays nice enough for the Monarchs to make it to Mexico.
   One thing I have learned is to be EXTREMELY careful when taking the chrysalis down and moving it to a better hanging location.
   I got a late start this year and probably missed a lot of eggs in the spring. Next year I will have plants up and running much sooner. My Calotropis Procera is about 6 in. tall now so it will be a viable food source next year. It would be nice if it bloomed then. With the addition of some butterfly plants I hope to have an eventful summer 2016.
   Thanks for all the help on this site. I would not have been very successful without it.

   James
   Rookie butterfly rancher of Oklahoma

   1. Hi James, thanks for sharing your results and lessons learned this season. It sounds like the monarchs will have even more reasons to stop by your place next season. One tip that might help removing future chrysalides…turn the cage upside down when you do it. Have a wonderful fall/holiday season and than you for being an active part of our monarch community!

4. Hi Toni, I raised a few monarchs as a kid, and occasionally as an adult if I saw and collected random caterpillars when I went for walks…. this year I collected 15 caterpillars from a wild patch of milkweed by the house, but this was two weeks ago, and their patch was already turning yellow and dying because of the lateness of the season.

   I’m in northwest PA, on the NY state line, and we’ve already had some snow and numerous frosts and there are no flowers left anywhere in our county. My first monarch is going to emerge probably today, and I just wondered if these very late butterflies have any chance at all to get south far enough to find food. Any suggestions other than a road trip south? : ) Thanks! Beth

   1. Hi Beth, if you have a window of a couple 60+ degree days w/ some sun, your butterflies can be released. I looked at “erie” weather, and it looks like weather is favorable for release starting Saturday if there is some sun. the weather forecast gives them a shot…good luck!

5. Hi Toni, congrats on a fantastic season and thank you for supporting the monarchs. I think the hurricane will be a “near miss” for the migrating monarchs, but will post an update when there is more info.

6. Hi Tony, I had a busy year this year raising the most monarchs ever since I started this a few years ago. I, too, started with a female and ended with a female. My first butterfly emerged on Sept. 9, and my last one emerged Oct. 16. I released a total of 79 monarchs. 46 females and 33 males. I had 4 deaths. 2 got stuck trying to form into a chrysalis, and I had 2 chrysalids that turned black. But I still had a 95% survival rate! Thank you for the helpful and encouraging emails throughout the season. We couldn’t do this without you! My concern at this point is how the hurricane in Mexico is affecting the monarchs and their winter habitat! Do you have any insight?!

7. I released the last of my Monarchs this past weekend. With reservations at Mexico’s finest mountain resort confirmed, they were on their way shortly after fueling up, bringing my total this first year of raising for the migration to 29 (21 males & 8 females, all strong and healthy). Of the 29 released, 13 were from eggs and 16 from caterpillars. No parasitism or diseases. Had 1 fatality though which I wasn’t aware of until Monday when I discovered a Monarch forewing (intact) laying on the mulch under the pole bean vines in the garden. A few feet away I found a shredded hindwing but didn’t locate any other butterfly parts.

   Aside from that untimely incident, my raising experience was a very positive one and I’m looking forward to next season. One thing I will do differently next year though is to not collect eggs and caterpillars as late in the season as I did this year. October weather in Missouri is just too unpredictable for safely releasing Monarchs. Fortunately, the remaining 9 butterflies I had were in the chrysalis stage during the 2 cold fronts that moved through the Ozarks earlier this month. If the weather hadn’t warmed back up into the 70s last Friday when they eclosed, I might have had to drive to Texas to release them 🙂

   Lynne

   1. congratulations Lynne on a very successful season and thank you for supporting the monarchs! The season went very late for Minnesota too, but the weather held out and they all had time to safely make it south. Each year is different in that regard…

8. On October 9, I released butterfly number 21 in South St Louis County, Missouri. Would have kept better records if I’d known I would find that many eggs and caterpillars in my yard. I had only two that did not make it: a two-day old caterpillars that got accidentally squished and a butterfly that I had to euthanize. As a caterpillar he had a dark spot on his left side, chrysalis looked fine, but left hind wing did not develop properly. Next year I plan to grow even more milkweed and will keep better records.

   1. Hi Penny, congrats on releasing over 20 butterflies and I hope your success continues next season…thank you for supporting the monarchs!

9. I started this amazing process of raising Monarchs on July 16 and ended with my 110th Monarch released in the Chicagoland area on October 3. For the last 2 previous summers I’ve paid up to $150 for the purchase of 12 monarchs to release on my daughters birthday “in her memory” since she had loved monarch butterflies so much. In July of this year I met a wonderful person going through milkweed plants and asked what she was up to. Long story short, my new friend introduced me to my new passion of raising monarchs. But thanks to Tony and all his helpful information, I was able to release so many healthy Monarchs in my short season. I did have one fatality with 1 cat picked up at a park that ended up with a tachinid fly disaster. “Sad” but on the positive side, in Memory of my daughter, Kristy, 110 beautiful monarchs were released and I’m sure that next year will be a better year yet. Oh, and I also revamped by whole garden just for the Monarchs. 🙂

   1. Hi Linda, congrats on a very successful first season. Kristy would be so proud of your efforts to support the monarch population and what a beautiful way to celebrate her memory each summer…good luck with your garden!

10. Hi Tony I still have 6 crysalis. I released 7 last week. I had 3 fatalities. One only had 1 wing another had twisted wings. I tried to help it but it was no use. The last one I lost in the crysalis stage. It was the very first one to go into a crysalis. After 5 days I could see the orange and black but there was a tiny dent in it. Three other cats had changed and been released and this one looked like it was getting smaller. I thought it must have a parasite and I destroyed it. I am hoping my last 6 will come out tomorrow. They have a big flight over Lake Ontario.

    1. congrats on a successful season Cindy, and good luck releasing your final monarchs!

11. I was late to get into the game this Summer, but was able to get lots of eggs off the milkweed in the yard. Unfortunately, only a very few of those actually hatched. But in the meantime, I had gone to the nursery to purchase more to feed the presumed 30+ eggs and it turns out, these were laiden with eggs that hatched. I had a few cats that for whatever reason, didn’t make it and withered away and died even though they were in the butterfly enclosure pop-ups. I had one Chyrsalis that didn’t form properly and looked like someone had been eating on it or it had fallen apart and couldn’t hold it’s shape, really weird! I had to put that little one down as I wasn’t sure if it would survive such a misformation of shell with open green inner showing. Sad!
    I now have 26 hanging on sticks in a smaller enclosure. Now that they’re all safely hanging, I can clean the big cage and move them back so that when they emerge starting sometime this week, they will have room to flutter until I return and can release them. I still have three small cats eating like little pigs and they should be “J” hanging within a week or less. We’re still in the 100F temps here in San Diego so it shouldn’t be an issue. They’re in a nice shaddy spot so life is good. I’m excited for the first one to emerge and take flight as there has been a lot of effort into getting these babies ready for their migration. Of course, I am one of their destinations geographically so they may be hanging around longer than I thought, how wonderful!

    1. Hi June, it sounds like your season has really picked up in So Cal and I wish you good luck with your 26 chrysalides…enjoy your extended season!

12. We have as of 10/10/15 released 12 monarchs in the Western Pennsylvania area. We did not keep track of males or females. Currently, we have 3 more ready to be released tomorrow and three more chrysalis waiting to develop into butterflies. They should be ready by mid week. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we can release them as soon as they emerge and are ready to fly. Starting to get cold and a frost is expected later this week. Was really not expecting to see any caterpillars this late in the season but I could not keep them outdoors after I saw them out on the milkweed. I actually was running out of milkweed and had to search on the road sides to find any that had some leaves still on them. Feel like we helped a little this season and look forward to next year.

    I also forgot that we had one butterfly emerge from our vegetable garden. That was the first wild monarch I ever saw emerge. I was weeding the tomatoes and all of a sudden I noticed orange and black fluttering still hanging on the skin of the chrysalis. I almost did a happy dance.

    1. Hi Patricia, congrats on your 12 releases and thanks for supporting the monarch butterflies. How exciting to see a monarch make it in your garden…that is a rare site to witness first hand so I hope you did do a happy dance 😉 Good luck with your final monarchs…

13. Monarch season is winding down here in Southeast Arkansas. Since the beginning of August I have joyfully released 289 monarchs. There are 8 caterpillars still feeding and sharing net housing with 70 chrysalids. I have been raising monarchs for many years learning through trial and error. Thank you so much for your insight! My tropical milkweed (preferred by my travelers) is raised in pots. It is helpful that throughout my garden seed has propagated over the years providing much needed stock when the potted plants become sticks overnight! I now put the potted milkweed into net housing after the eggs are laid. I clean the pots and take care to watch for spiders and ants. My net houses are within a well ventilated small greenhouse. I use fans, humidifiers, and heaters when required. I frequently check the plants and caterpillars throughout the process. When I need to relocate a caterpillar I remove the leaf and caterpillar to the new leaf securing it with a long quilting pin (with the colored ball on the end). It is interesting to find the pins on the tent floor after the caterpillar eats all around the pin! My biggest problem this season was having enough milkweed to feed the hungry hoard. I used Osmocote to revitalize the spent pots of milkweed for quick turn arounds. I bring all chrysalids into my home in net tubes to await eclosing. I use the quilting pins to secure the silk top to the tube walls. The tube can be laid on its side so that the chrysalis freely hangs down before release from the shell. The net enclosure allows a monarch to crawl and rehang itself should it inadvertently fall during the process. Since I have used this procedure I have had NO monarchs with crushed wings from falling.
    Thanks to everyone for their tips and trials. Camaraderie is felt with those who can’t wait each year to feel the strength of a mature caterpillar’s grip and the rush of a monarch’s wings! It is exhausting but rewarding work.

    1. Hi Gail, thanks for sharing your results and congrats on a fantastic season! And yes, we can all agree raising can be exhausting, but it is always rewarding 🙂

14. I had beginner’s luck in South Carolina by releasing 32 monarchs from Sept.3 – Sept 6. I found eggs on my tropical milkweed Aug. 13 and got very excited, but I didn’t know about raising them indoors until I found your website. So mine stayed outdoors on the south side of my house, and most pupated under my windows attached to the bricks. Two other chrysalides were bad and had to be destroyed. A few caterpillars turned black and died. I learned by attending a talk at Hobcaw Barony Nature Center that a small number of monarchs stay on the SC coast in the Folly Beach area during the winter. The speaker (Billy McCord) also said that monarchs on the east coast may go to Florida or Cuba instead of Mexico during the winter. However, there is little proof available. The speaker is tagging monarchs in the Folly Beach area to determine just where they go. He also noted that some believe that tropical milkweed will encourage fertilized monarch females to dump part of their eggs that they would normally take with them during migration.

    I don’t really know where my first brood of monarchs were headed. At least some must have hung around my yard, because a week later (Sept. 13) I found more eggs on my milkweed. Most of these died as tiny freshly hatched caterpillars, but I have 9 chrysalides that will begin eclosing tomorrow (Oct. 11). I will have to report on them later. I was wondering if fertilizing the milkweed with liquid fertilizer may have damaged the second brood. I didn’t put the fertilizer on the leaves, just on the ground. Or could the first brood have left “disease” that the second brood picked up? I also think I learned first hand what an ugly creature a tachinid fly is.

    1. Hi Sybil, congrats on your first year success and thank you for helping to support the monarch population. I have never had any issues with sick caterpillars after fertilizing milkweed at ground level, so you likely experienced problems with disease. Those tachinid flies are a pest for sure, but can be avoided by bringing in monarch eggs. Have a wonderful fall season…

15. At the local nature park where I volunteer as manager and naturalist, this was the first year we used our new greenhouse to raise swamp milkweed and Monarch butterflies. We raised and released 150 butterflies. We tagged 50 for Monarch Watch. We also gave many public tours and presentations on Monarchs and gardening for pollinators. We also distributed milkweed seeds and plants. Several people brought Monarch eggs and caterpillars they found in their gardens in for us to raise at the park. We have already had requests to do presentations to 6 organizations next year on Monarch butterflies. We learned the importance of keeping everything Clean, how to repair damaged wings, and the signs of diseases and parasites. A great year for us and we hope next year will be even better!

    1. Congrats Pam on raising 150 monarchs and thank you for your efforts to get others involved in the monarch movement!

16. I’ve ramped up to this being the 3 rd year. I released about 200 healthy butterflies (no OE). I lost about 5 to OE and about 20 to the tachinid fly. I did kill some tachinid flies (yeah!). I could have raised a lot more, but I only have 3 habitats indoors. The other ones I try to bring over to a fellow Monarch friend. I think they remember where they were last year and are coming back and bringing more friends. I raised tropical milkweed from seed and also had to buy some. I also raised them on narrow leaf which I thought would not be enough because the leaves are so narrow, but not so. It was plenty for some of them. I also am using A. Eriocarpa and hairy balls. They love the hair balls milkweed! The seeds produced from them are plentiful! You just have to watch out for the red/black beetle. They like to burrow in and eat the seeds. It grows back super fast. Another one I am using is Tuberoso. However, aphids like Tuberose the best so you have to keep on top of them. I am also growing showy milkweed and purple heart for next year. It’s very rewarding! I live in zone 10a.

    1. Hi Kari, that is quite an accomplishment to raise 200 monarchs without noticeable OE issues in a continuous growing region. I am glad you are trying out several varieties of milkweed to see which works best…good luck next season!

17. This was my second year raising monarchs. I usually collect eggs since I never seem to see any caterpillars. I collected 11 eggs over several days in July. I learned a hard lesson though; I had several caterpillars that were quite a bit younger than the others, and one of my little guys was fatally bitten by one of the larger cats. 🙁 From that point on I separated them.

    While at the cottage I also found a 5th instar along the road and raised her to butterflyhood (I keep her separate from my egg-raised cats). All of my caterpillars had zipped themselves into their chrysalides and I was thinking egg season was over, but I decided to check the small patch of milkweed where I found most of my eggs – sure enough, I found a newborn still eating its shell on August 27th!

    Altogether I released 12 healthy, beautiful butterflies: 6 male, 6 female, most released last week of August/first week of September.

    1. Congrats on releasing 12 healthy butterflies, Carolyn. Sorry to hear about your experience losing the little cat, but those are the learning experiences that will bring you more success in the future. Enjoy a wonderful fall season…

18. Most all my monarchs were raised without disease issues. One was about to spin into a chrysalis, hanging in the “J”. It started oozing black / greenish liquid onto the cage floor. Had to euthanize it. What do you think caused that?

    1. Congrats on all your healthy releases Susan. The hanging caterpillar oozing black/green sounds like it could have had NPV virus:

       7 Common Monarch Diseases

19. It has been a great year for the Monarchs in Topeka, Kansas. Between three persons we have tagged over 100 Monarchs. We ran out of tags and could of tagged another 100. I have raised over 35 myself. But my most rewarding experience was to get the fifth grade class at West Indianola school involved in raising and tagging the Monarchs.

    1. Hello John, Congrats on raising and releasing 35 monarchs and thank you for teaching the next generation of monarch enthusiasts…

20. Hi Tony,
    Here in Katy,Tx we are still in full monarch raising mode. I have released over two hundred monarchs. I also have about fourty chrysalis and over fifty caterpillars. The monarchs are laying eggs all over my milkweeds. I will post final results around the beginning of November. Then I will cut my plants all down to encourage them to move on.

21. Hello Tony…Sarasota checking in. 99 released this year…so far. 41 cats. in the cage and 40 eggs in the process of growing up. Like reports I’ve been reading from other FL. contributors, with all the MW, vines and nectar plants we don’t see but maybe one Monarch every couple of days. Might get a Frittilary or Swallow Tail flyby but no guarantee about seeing them either. (17 and 27 respectively of these released earlier this year). As reported earlier…you sure are lucky you didnt have to deal with the aphids this year. Still no pods on the Balloon or Swan but all the plants are established now so fingers crossed for next year. Finally I just want to say THANK YOU for teaching and promoting the raising of Monarchs as you do so well. Your newsletter is more than worth the wait…nice job!!! Gary

    1. Thanks for sharing Gary, you ended up having quite a productive raising season…congrats! Keep me posted on your swan/balloon plants. It will be helpful for others in your region to know more about the growth cycles for those milkweed varieties. We have a ton of swan/balloon pods on our Minnesota plants right now…they should be ready for harvest soon. I won’t rub in the aphids any further. Have a fantastic fall 🙂

22. To date, I have released 70 Monarchs. I still have one chrysalis and one cat to go – then I am done for the year.

23. Hi Tony,
    I always enjoy reading your blog and the posted comments!
    I again had a very successful year! I live in Davie, Florida which is located in south Florida. I released a total of 150 monarchs! (73 males and 77 females), have one last chrysalis, and see several eggs still on my multitude of milkweed plants. I only have milkweed plants in my garden because it seems that the monarchs only prefer the milkweed for nectar and host purposes.
    My sister lives north west of me in a town called Parkland, FL. Like your other poster, my sister saw very few monarchs this year and wondered if the spraying of pesticides in her community had anything to do with their few numbers.
    I bring my cats in when they are rather large, giving them as much time as possible to soak up the Florida sunshine :). I have milkweed stems in vases on my screened patio. Like clockwork, the cats crawl away from the stems, up the screen to the ceiling and form their chrysalis.
    Most Florida lizards avoid eating the cats but I had a non-native lizard living on my patio, so for about a month this summer (until the pesky lizard was captured and released outside), I had to have my vases in my kitchen. That was interesting! I did have several cats crawl away in the middle of the night to form J’s on a soap dispenser, on the bottom of an open drawer!, and on the bottom of window blinds. I try not to move them so as not to injure the chrysalis so there was a lot of “Be Careful” signs posted around my kitchen!
    I also had to laugh at one of your posts, “You know When You’ve Gone Too Far When Raising Monarchs…” In addition to having a friend come over to watch our dog and cat when we took our daughter off to college, my friend was also on “cat watch”! I checked in with her daily to make sure that she was bringing in fresh milkweed stems for my hungry caterpillars and placing cats that had crawled away into a screened butterfly cage. I also enlist the help of my teenagers, giving them directions while I’m at work!
    The one problem I seemed to have this year was that a few of my butterflies, that otherwise appeared strong and healthy, let go
    of hanging onto their chrysalis while emerging. If I happened to be home and saw this, I would quickly pick them up and hang them. Their wings dried perfectly and they would fly away. Others that emerged and let go when I wasn’t home were mangled. Some died shortly thereafter and some were willing to drink Minute Maid fruit punch for several days or weeks! I am still feeding the most unusual monarch. She was perfectly formed but only had 3 wings! Her larger wing on her right side was missing. As she could not fly, I have fed her now for 6 weeks! She also took nectar from milkweed.
    Sorry for the long post! I’m sure that you can tell I’m very enthusiastic about this hobby! It makes me stop and appreciate the peace and tranquility of my garden and something so beautiful as the monarch! I am so happy to do my part in helping raise its diminishing numbers.
    Someone told me that legend has it that you’re supposed to whisper your wish to a butterfly before you release it. As my family and I have had an amazing year, I have to believe it!
    Best wishes! Karen

    1. Congratulations Karen on releasing 150 monarchs and helping to support the struggling monarch population.Thank you for sharing your experience…and your passion!

24. We still have one chrysalis at home due next week…but there are still some caterpillars even in downtown Chicago. The city planted a ton of tropical milkweed (and Joe Pye and more) in the huge old stone planters in a long stretch along the river this year and probably close to 1000 were born down there this year. The majority made it; less predators there (though I rehung over 100 chrysalises myself and moved hundreds of cats to undevoured plants since mid-june). I even saw some kind of tree frog down there in the concrete jungle two weeks ago; blew my mind.

    1. That’s incredible Derek…it’s nice the city butterflies can escape detection from many of their predators. Hopefully there aren’t too many late caterpillars down there. It’s too late in the season for cats…thanks for rehanging chrysalides and moving hungry cats to new plants, and for making a difference!

       1. Yes it is a pretty late but hopefully they still can make it. There are predators down here but simply less than you normally find in the wild seeing as how it’s the central business district of a huge city and almost all concrete. When I saw the milkweed I thought maybe we’d get a few but man I was way off. It must be because this is right by Lake Michigan and the beginning of the Chicago river. I really got a ton of invaluable experience too being able to observe so many outdoors this year. I saw a bit of everything (and had a cat eat a chrysalis at home this year–another hard lesson). Suffice it to say, having to euthanize one is not as difficult and upsetting as it once was.

          Some chrysalises turned totally black though w/ no other signs of trauma. Predators sucking on them maybe?

          1. Hi Derek, the night time temps will be too cold for them (starting this week) and metamorphosis will come to a grinding halt. I guess they will serve nature in other ways. Black chrysalides are a symptom of NPV. If there are white strands hanging from a chrysalis, it was parasitized by tachinid flies. Congrats on a successful season…

25. This was our first year harvesting eggs. We also started very late but did manage to release 6 Female and 2 Male Monarchs in the second week of September. I grew a bed of Milkweed in the spring that really helped me find eggs and small cats. Have everything I need for next year including some wonderful knowledge from this site. Dale and Peg

    1. A great first season Dale and Peg and congrats on your 8 releases. I’m happy to hear you’ll continue to raise and support monarchs next season. Have a wonderful fall season…

26. HI Tony and all! I live near Lake Mntnka and Excelsior Mn.

    I have a question about Milkweed. I have 3 types..a couple of dif. Swamp Milkweeds which the Monarch seem to prefer, some common and one other I can’t remember. The question…IF you find a cat on one type of Milkweed must you continue to feed it that type when you bring it in? Or can you switch types anytime during any instar? I took a large cat off a common Milkweed and fed it Swamp Milkweed and it died after eating one whole leaf. I know it could have been a disease..

    I also noticed that at the end of summer, when eggs laid would turn into migrating Monarchs, that there were more eggs on the smaller plants even tho the big plants had some fresh leaves…. Sometimes I wondered how such a large Bfly could manage to lay eggs on such a small plant. When I saw a small cat on these little plants I dug up the whole plant and left it on that plant until it was large enough to transfer easily. Also, since I had cut back my Swap Milkweed I had plenty of fresh leaves by using vases covered with heavy tape [ NO sticky surface exposed] Each “bouquet” could handle a few cats and when they were big and fat I transferred to a dif cage to await chrysalis formation. I needed 3 net cages. I have replanted the small Milkweeds that the little ones ate down and I should have a good supply for next year. I sent 10 Monarch Off in August and 20 into the migration. First year…now I think I have a system! A few neighbors inspired too. I am a bit screed of taking in too many…the “bouquets” see a good way to raise 10-12 at a time.

    The think I lack is enough nectar plants. I had some Showy Goldenrod..lots of other Goldenrods and plenty of Asters [ mostly wild] Next year I will plant more annuals. When I looked around the relative neighborhood I cannot see much in the way of nectar plants. I think it must be very important that those of us raising Monarchs have a very good supply of nectar plants too. So many of my neighbors have nada for Bees OR Bflies but have lots of lawn…and many shrubs pruned into balls.. Yikes. Shrubs never allowed to flower. Another story!

    LOVE this…so much info. Great stories. Tony is tops! Thanks so much!

    1. Hi Genevieve, congrats on your 30 releases for the season. I’m glad to hear your system is working!

       Caterpillars switch milkweed varieties easily. The only variety I have heard people have issues with is when they try to switch TO butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Otherwise, if they start on butterfly weed they are fine.

       Goldenrod and asters are OK, but you also want some nectar plants that bloom earlier for monarchs in July-August. Check out my butterfly plants list for more ideas:

       Butterfly Plants List

       Have a wonderful fall season!

27. My first year raising from eggs with big success. I raised 27 from eggs with no deaths or problems! had plenty of milkweed for these hungry eaters. We only saw a couple of monarchs late Aug thru Sept. Not sure why. Had alot last year. Will be planting more milkweed this fall. Thanks for all the info on your site. Can’t wait until next year.

28. I released 10 Monarchs yesterday, 10/9/2015. That is 100% success rate for my first attempt. I’m hooked! In another cage I have one chrysalis and three caterpillars to go. Thankfully, I’m in California, so hopefully we will continue to have warm weather for another release.

    1. congrats Nancy on a perfect first season…quite an accomplishment and thanks for supporting the western monarch population!

29. I found 35 eggs/cats around labor day and have released 21 so far with 5 more to go, I hope. 257 so far for the summer.

30. Hi Laura, sorry to hear you had some problems in year 1, but congratulations on your successful releases! I’m happy to hear you are expanding your milkweed selection and hope it will bring you some monarchs next season. Have a wonderful fall season…

31. I only saw 1 monarch this year that I didn’t hatch. I brought in the 10 eggs I found. They took several weeks then finally 6 hatched. They were doing great, but then I quit growing and started to turn black. I still don’t know what caused this. I had 1 other loss from 1 that didn’t tie itself up good and when it fell the crystalis cracked. I released the other 4 with no problems. I noticed my normal milkweed started to get spots on it then died faster than normal. I found 1 more little caterpillar on my new milkweed I planted next to me regular garden so I brought him in and he was a success. I just released him last month. I only did 1 last year so I am still learning. I did plant some tropical milkweed this year, but never saw any eggs on it just the native showy milkweed. I plan on overwintering some, because it’s very pretty. I plan on planting more milkweed soon so hopefully I will have a better year next year.

32. Hi Everyone! This is my first time raising monarchs in Ozaukee County, 30 miles north of Milwaukee. It was a great learning experience and I plan on continuing next year. I released the last one yesterday. Total: 15
    Male – 9 and Female – 5

    One male did not make it. He was stunted and had crimpled wings. But I did take care of him for two weeks and made him comfortable.

    Last year we ripped out the front lawn and made it into a butterfly /bee garden. No more cutting grass! No more chemicals! Yeah!!!!!
    I planted lots of various milkweed and other butterfly friendly plants. And I also added a second garden next to our bog area just a few weeks ago. So now I am REALLY looking forward to next Spring.

    Take care. Talk with you all next year!

    1. Hi Colleen and welcome to our community,

       congrats on a very successful raising season and than you for supporting the monarchs. I am glad to hear you are also doing some late summer and fall planting…this will help you to have even more success next season!

33. In previous years I had planted Swamp Milkweed and it had always dried out before the end of the season. This year I planted a different type ,the ones with the orange and yellow flowers. I was not even hoping to find eggs or cats, but one day I saw several caterpillars that were 4th or 5th instar4. I found 26 in all. Four did not make it. One cat death, 2 chrysalises that fell and one butterfly that did not survive. So, I had 22 monarchs that I released. This is the most I ever had! Next year I will be more diligent in inspecting my milkweed.

    I live in the Northern VA area and never seem to see monarch eggs or cats until late Aug or Sept. Is this typical?

    1. Hi Kathy, congrats on your 22 releases! I always recommend people try a few different milkweed varieties to see what works best in their region and growing conditions. The monarchs were late to the east coast this season, but it sounds like they made a good comeback at the end of the season. When you get eggs depends on several factors…especially weather patterns! I hope you get earlier eggs next season…

34. Tony, I had thought about bringing them in as I had with the others but didn’t know if they would be able to make the flight after metamorphosis.

    1. Hi Susan, it really depends on the weather. You could always take a short road trip south….good luck!

35. While tidying up the butterfly garden I found 3 very young caterpillars. I live in central Indiana and am wondering if it will possibly be too cool for them to make their flight home in a few weeks. Thanks so much!

    1. Hi Susan, it might be too late for them. The only chance they have is if you raise them indoors. Otherwise cool night time temps will slow down metamorphosis. You can also leave them outside and let them serve nature in other ways.

36. THIS WAS MY 1st YEAR WORKING WITH THE MONARCHS AND WILL NOT BE THE LAST. I DIDN`T SEE A MONARCH UNTIL AUGUST AND SHE LAID SOME EGGS ON MY MILKWEED. I FOUND 12 CATERPILLARS AND I PUT THEM IN NET HOUSES WITH LOTS OF MILK WEED LEAVES. ALL OF THE TURNED INTO CHRYSALIDS BUT ONLY 7 HATCHED. I GOT 2 FEMALES BUT 1 COULDN`T FLY AND PASSED AND 5 MALES. SO I LET GO 6 MONARCHS, 1 FEMALE AND 5 MALES AND I WAS SO HAPPY. HOPING FOR MORE NEXT YEAR.

    1. Congrats Edith on all your late-season success. I hope it spills over into next year!

37. Hi Tony,
    Thanks to you for your newsletters and helpful information. This is my second year and was very successful. Did not see many monarchs early in the season in northern Illinois. Had to order most of my cats from vendors. Did find 30 eggs/cats on my milkweed. My last monarch was a female released today totaling 140. From mid July until now I would see monarchs flying around the area. What a reward. Looking forward to next year.

    1. Congrats on a fantastic season and than you for supporting the monarchs! Vendors are a good option in case you need them, but hopefully after such a big season, you’ll be on the monarchs’ map for next season. I wish you continued success in 2016…

38. We planted 8 milkweed plants this spring which produced over 20 caterpillars of which approx. 15 Monarchs developed and were released. Our plan is to enlarge our milkweed garden into a monarch way station approximately 20 ft. x 20 ft. At a smaller site where we grew milkweed, aphids invaded our plants and we lost all of our caterpillars. We should have sprayed for the aphids sooner.

    1. Congrats on your 15 releases Gary! Here’s some info about aphids that should help you out next season:

       Aphid Control on Milkweed Plants

39. Up to 77 released so far (53 females, 24 males), and I have a few questions. There are 5-6 monarchs on my Tropical Milkweed patches at any given time throughout the day. I would guesstimate that 10% are at the end of their journey. Their wings are tattered and broken, but still laying eggs. I doubt they could survive a trip to the Texas border from Tulsa, Oklahoma, much less Mexico. While gathering eggs, they fly around me getting nectar or laying eggs. What I am wondering is: Are they laying eggs for the migration or are they just laying eggs late? The reason I ask is because yesterday I gathered 94 eggs, and today 96 eggs from 29 plants. I could have gotten by on 10 plants maybe.
    The temperature is still in the 80’s during the day, and 60’s at night. Should be about two more weeks before the migration goes through here, so if the eggs hatch they could still make it?
    What is the best way to store MW seeds? I have seed pods splitting open every day now. I plan on giving some away. Two of my Calotropis Procera seeds sprouted. I plan on putting them in large flower pots so I can move them back into the house when temperatures get cold. I have plans on having more butterfly plants for next year. Joe Pye and others like that.
    The beauty of them taking their first flight is amazing. I don’t think I could ever get used to seeing that.
    Again, thanks for the advise and help. I could not have made it otherwise.
    Novice first year Monarch rancher James in Oklahoma.

    1. Hi James, congrats on a fantastic first season, and it sounds like you have quite a ways to go! I am not sure what will happen to your monarchs, but my best guess is there is still time to raise and release in your region.

       Here is more info on harvesting seeds:

       Harvesting Milkweed seeds

40. In metro Detroit, we’ve started a project to plant as much milkweed as possible, and to find and raise as many monarchs as possible. We’re still giving away plants, and just put a box in the library for seeds. People can drop off extras or pick some up. We’ve given away 250 or so plants, hundreds of seeds, and as a group we’ve released over 200 butterflies. We’re just getting started, so expect next year to be even better. Ferndale Monarch Project on Facebook.

    1. good luck with your project Becky! I hope you start to see lots of monarchs in the motor city…

41. Hi Tony! We live Illinois and had a zero survival rate on our backyard milkweeds for the last two years. This year, we gatehered over one hundred eggs and through trial and error on when to move new hatchlings ,(before we found your awesome website), successfully raised 77 monarchs! We released our last one on the seventeenth of September. We had more females than males overall. About a 60/40 split. It was such a wonderful experience! Our whole family was involved. We are planning on raising them again next year. We plan on adding more milkweed to our backyard and front yard and are adding more butterfly friendly flowers. Thanks for the great info here! We look forward to future newsletters.
    Amy jo

    1. congratulations to you and your family Amy Jo. Thanks for supporting the monarchs and good luck with your garden and raising efforts next season!

42. Success year #1 for me. Milk weed, check. Five butterflies released, check. 2 died. Plans for next year in place. Happy!

    1. Congrats on a successful season Carol, and I wish you many more going forward…

43. Hi Tony. I am a beginner at this butterfly raising. Have only been doing it about 6 weeks and have already released 20-22 Monarchs. Have had 3 fatalities. My milkweeds are in pots and the butterflies just keep coming and laying eggs. We are in constant cycle here in Florida. This is so fun and interesting. Have learned so much and the kids and grandkids are fascinated with it. I have been saving all of my milkweed cuttings and replanting them in pots. They come back nicely. Now the butterflies are laying eggs on what I call my “feeder plants” for in the cage. I think I am about to be overwhelmed with babies (caterpillars) and they eat like crazy. I enjoy your emails and all of your very interesting information.

    1. Hi Judy, welcome to the exciting world of raising monarch butterflies! It sounds like you are having lots of success your first season. I hope you and your family enjoy the extended raising season down in Florida…

44. I raised and released over 100 monarchs this year. I lost one in the J phase and two just after eclosing – they fell to the bottom and their wings stuck together. I live in SW Florida and I raise monarchs all year round. I was told that our Florida monarchs don’t migrate – is that true?
    At one point I had so many cats that I was using 4 enclosures and they ate every plant to bare sticks! I keep most of my plants in pots so I can rotate them out of the caterpillar enclosures. I had a 5th enclosure for the Florida Zebra butterflys who have the cutest cats and strangest chrysalis (they look like a dead leaf) and you can’t imagine how a butterfly will emerge from it but they do!

    1. Hi Karen, congrats on all your success in south Florida. Your region can support monarchs year round so there is no reason to migrate. However, there seems to be a more theory on Florida monarchs than hard data through research. Hopefully one day we will know more. “Dead leaf” chrysalises are amazing, and the perfect design to hide from hungry predators!

45. Since September 1st I have had 18 monarchs eclose, 9 males, 9 females. One of the females did not survive, I do not know what happened to her. She died within hours of eclosing, she seemed fine beforehand.

    From August 16th through the 31st I had 10 monarchs eclose, 7 females, 3 males. All survived.

    I lost several caterpillars throughout August and September, due to parasites, disease, and escapes, and lost 7 chrysalises, due to parasites and possibly disease.

    1. Hi Susan, congrats on raising/releasing almost 30 monarchs! Have a wonderful fall season and I wish you continued success supporting monarchs in 2016…

46. This was our first year raising Monarchs. We released a total of 42 Butterflies. 23 Females and 19 Males. We had only 4 fatalities. We really enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to next year. We live in Des Moines, Iowa. The name of our garden is: JT’s Backyard Butterfly Beenanza. We are a registered Monarch Waystation #11885.

    1. Congratulations Jim and Tracy and your Butterfly Beenanza sounds like a great place for pollinators. Have a wonderful fall season…

47. Checking in from Santa Cruz. We get a very late season, our butterflies only have to migrate about a mile to the coast where the sanctuary is. But that is an important mile. Where I am at we do get frost and it can be for weeks, that mile closer to the ocean (and literally steps from the beach) does not get the frost. They have lovely eucalyptus trees and the Monarchs cluster in hoards to over winter.

    This year is the first for bringing in eggs and caterpillars that were missed in egg stage. I have released between three-four dozen so far, more females than males. Now, I have two dozen large cats, a dozen in chrysalis and another batch of eggs that are hatching. My neighbors are raising milkweed too, one has balloon milkweed and is sharing seeds. And I share seeds with anyone as well (I have tropical, swamp and heart leaf milkweed)

    I applied to be a Monarch way station and was accepted, I have a lovely sign posted on my front porch to help spread awareness. I have a pet mini pig, two aquariums, a parrot, four ducks and a large organic garden for veggies and flowers/plants for several species of butterflies. And I feel incredibly blessed. Thank you Tony for all you do, I bought your book and what I learned from it is the reason my season has been so successful. I did lose a few cats (most to my mistakes, I am still learning), but really the overall result would be at least 85-90% success.

    1. A mile away from a monarch sanctuary…if it’s too cold, you can just drop them off! Congrats on a successful season Gabrielle. We all make plenty of mistakes when we start raising monarchs, but as you get more experience you will learn valuable lessons that will bring even more success next season. Good luck with your garden, and with your colorful family of pets!

       Enjoy your extended monarch season and I hope you have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the sanctuary over winter…

48. Raised over 400 monarchs with only a few caterpillar:monarch deaths.
    At present have 15 chrysalis and 40 newly hatched cats to go . Boy am I tired. This has been steady since the first monarch elf Kaye’s eggs in April.

    1. wow Susan….congrats on all your success and enjoy a well-deserved off season!

49. Released my last 2 Monarchs this afternoon which makes a total of 4th generation releases of 5 males and 9 females. Last year I had 2 so I’m very excited about this year. Looking forward to next year. Thank you Tony for all your support and help.

    1. congrats on a successful season Karyn and thank you for supporting the monarchs. Have a wonderful fall season…

50. Hi Tony,
    This has been one of my best years. I raised & released 10 pre-migratory monarchs in August. Since mid-September, so far I have raised, tagged & released 15 and have 10 more in chrysalis. They should enclose over the next week or so. My garden is small, about 10′ x 10′. I had a problem with common milkweed taking over & taking out a lot of swamp milkweed. I kept pulling out what sprouted this year & froze the leaves which came in very handy last week to feed several cats as all the milkweed is now turning brown. To replenish my swamp milkweed I took a road trip to the Monarch Watch Open House in Lawrence KS in May and purchased a lot! I bought some swamp ice ballet which didn’t bloom this year, hopefully next year. I also bought a couple of purple mw but they did not survive. Rabbits got into my tropical which I put in pots on my deck, but it grew again and sustained 1 cat. My main garden is fenced because of the rabbits that frequent my yard. I also have a ground hog in residence & it also tries to get into the garden. Pesky critters!

    1. Hi Dottie, congrats on a ll your success this season and thanks for supporting the monarchs. I feel your pain with those pesky critters. We had to put up a rabbit fence too, but thankfully it worked! Good luck releasing your final monarchs…

51. Hi Tony,

    A newbie here from SoCal. First year raising Monarch’s. I say I had much success, but didn’t do any fancy record keeping to validate. I had two milkweed plants, bought two, grew two more. One was stolen and the others look like sticks with aphids all over them now. I had 2 butterflies die and one caterpillar that I am aware of.

    I saved thousands of seeds (that’s my estimate as I filled up a large cookie jar.
    Anything else I should be doing or posting?

    Elizabeth, the gardening lady

    1. Hi Elizabeth, glad you had a successful first season out west. It sounds like you have more than enough seeds to explode your milkweed supply for next season. Enjoy the rest of your season…

52. Hi,
    We had 157 monarchs successfully eclose this year with a 92% survival rate. Nearly all were from eggs found on the MW in our yard. Our 8% loss was due in large part to eggs that didn’t hatch – turned brown or were infertile. We also had one 4th instar caterpillar that died and 1 butterfly that eclosed with a severe deformity preventing it from flying.
    More next year :-))

    1. Hi Diane, I don’t count the infertile or parasitized eggs in the survival % because there is nothing you can do about that besides not bring them in. So, it sounds like you were pretty close to a perfect season…congrats! I wish you continued success raising monarchs next season…

53. Hi There!

    I just released my 9th and final monarch a couple of days ago. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with what was a brand new experience. A few didn’t make it. One was a chrysalis with brown soft spots on it, one egg that had something wrong with it, and 3 had wing damage when they emerged. The first one died within a week. “Lois” made it just shy of 3 weeks, and “Bob” the butterfly just celebrated his 3rd week yesterday and is still doing well although the one bad wing has almost completely shriveled up. Having the 3 non releasables was actually a great learning experience which generated some questions I’ve included. They have their individual preferences for food which I didn’t realize. It was also a surprise that Bob picked up a tiny piece of orange out of the syrup and ate it. For some reason I thought they only used their proboscis. They all lived “la vida loca” here complete with a little rock and dirt zen garden, fresh flowers, and small individual chrysanthemums to sit on. They could only manage to fly a bit, but they spent the day on the screen porch mostly sunning their wings.

    I have questions about how monarchs use their proboscis. I’ve noticed that they fill their proboscis for awhile and then rub it on their chest area before putting it back down into the syrup. What exactly are they doing with this motion? Also, do they fill their proboscis all the way after the first drink, or do they estimate how full it is before dipping it into the syrup a second time? When they curl it all the way up upon finishing, are they’re squeezing the rest of the fluid in? When they tap their foot or flutter their wings, is that a sign of disturbance?

    1. Hi Susan, congrats on releasing 9 monarchs this season. You said you were feeding the monarchs syrup? perhaps the foot tapping and proboscis rubbing is trying to rinse off the stickiness. Wing shaking is done to increase body temperature so the butterfly can take flight. Even if they are unable to fly because of a wing deformity, the instinct to fly is still there…

54. I live in eastern Kansas and am seeing a few monarchs passing through now. This was my first year to bring in eggs and milkweed cuttings and I successfully launched a male Monarch on August 19 and one male and one female on September 16. Next year I will be better prepared and more confident and hopefully launch many more monarchs. In addition, I am doubling the size of my butterfly flower garden. What fun!

    1. Hi Lynn, congrats on a successful first season. I am excited to hear you are doubling the size of your garden. Should be a fantastic butterfly season for you in 2016. good luck!

55. Last year 2 monarchs released (my first year), this year 10 if all goes well (four successful releases to date, 1 chrysalis, 5 cats in various stages to go). I live in Alexandria VA and thought I had missed the migration but around the first of September Monarchs visited my ~20 milkweed plants (variety of types but tropical seems most productive). I found at least 8 eggs and brought them inside on the leaf, but the leaves withered and none produced caterpillars. I watched one almost become a caterpiller but then faded away by morning. I don’t understand what happened and don’t understand how to care for the eggs. The leaves gradually dried up with a fuzzy mold overtaking everything. I feel I should have left the leaf on the plant and covered it with a silk bag or something similar. But I’m planning for exponential contribution to the migration for next year.

    1. Hi Cynthia, so sorry to hear of your late-season disappointment. It’s better to bring eggs in because they can get eaten by predators or get parasitized by wasps. Here’s some info about bringing in eggs you should find helpful for next season…congrats on the butterflies you released!

       How to Hunt, Gather, and Protect Monarch Eggs

56. My year started out great, planted a butterfly garden with MilkWeed (non native but what did I know) , MayPOP trellis, other nectar plants. The first monarch hatch was outside with 5-6 surviving, and lots of the Gulf Fritillary. There were already eggs on the milkweed I bought, so was really early season, before the predators came out. The next batch was not so good plenty of eggs and eating but no surviving cats. Seemed like every pest in the neighborhood like my butterfly garden, especially the mud wasp which leaves no leaf unturned here in NE Florida and can spot a big cat a block away. Collected eggs from the outside planted MilkWeed, bought a 16x16x30 cage, some potted MilkWeed (1/2 gallon), quickly ran out of MilkWeed since I had no gauge as to how many plants it takes to support x amount of cats, so scramble to buy more plants and moved some cats back outside that I thought I could not feed course we know what happens outside.

    The indoor 30cats I had about 25 make it to be set free. The biggest issue was while drying their wings, they would fall to the cage floor. I did save one of these by putting a nectar plant inside the cage which broke the fall, was able to hang and dry its wings. Estimated about 1.5 cat per potted plant 1/2 gal size. I’m moving my milkweed outdoors away from the nectar plants to see if the survival rate is higher outside, found more eggs, moved them to my potted plants that are in a secluded place outdoors let them eat my potted plants rather then just cutting them down.

    1. Hi Don, it sounds like it has been a challenging season, but congrats on the success you’ve had. If you have a lot of butterflies falling when they dry, it’s probably an OE issue. Healthy butterflies rarely fall from their chrysalides. I raise ours in a 3-season porch which exposes them to the outdoor environment minus extreme rain, sun, wind, predators, etc. You might consider bringing in cuttings and leaving your plants outside. Enjoy the rest of your season and good luck!

57. RELEASED MY LAST TWO IN CAPTIVITY TWO DAYS AGO, BUT FOUND THREE MORE THAT HAD ESCAPED, POPPED OUT THIS MORNING IN OUR GARDEN, BRINGING OUR GRAND TOTAL TO 32.
    BH

    1. congrats on a very successful season Bino!

58. Hi, everyone! This is y very 1st season; I started raising in Feb. then I found Tony’s site. So I didn’t keep accurate counts of ANYTHING! But I did release between 150 to 200 according to my husband & his twin.

    I euthanized about 6 for deformities; I did have 1 crysalides that was jut a bit flat on one side because she fell before completely hardening. I had great hopes for her. One of her underwings wouldn’t open completely. I put her on lantana after hour of “stretching”exercises. The next morning Twin said he saw her…but when I looked I couldn’t find her.

    I raised all from cats taken off of milkweed. Now I’ll try hatching some eggs. I had no parasitic diseases that I could tell. What I learned is to keep records!

    1. Sheila, what a fantastic first season you had. Records aren’t of vital importance, but they can help you see patterns and measure your improvement over time. You were very fortunate not to have parasites bringing in so many caterpillars. Hopefully your milkweed patch will remain parasite-free next season…

59. 2 years ago my daughter introduced me to raising Monarchs from the egg to butterfly for the fall migration. I released 7 in 2013. (In 2014, I didn’t locate any Monarchs).

    This year, I located 52 Monarchs from eggs to caterpillars. Of the 52, I released 47 (3 died in the chrysalis stage and 2 died in the caterpillar stage).

    From the 47, I had 18 males and 29 females.

    1. That is fantastic Amy…this sounds like your big breakout season and I hope you enjoyed it! I wish you continued success next season…

60. Thanks for this web site. It has been very useful to me. This is my second year of raising Monarchs. I’ve followed all the directions, but this year just about all do very well from when I bring the eggs inside to when the beautiful big cats go into their J. When they try to pupate, they get green stuff on their heads then go into what looks like a painful death and end up hanging limp. Out of about 40, only the first one of the season became a healthy butterfly. About 5 became butterflies, but fell when they came out of the chrysalis or were too weak to fly (I assume this is OE). Of the ones that died during pupation, I’ve never seen signs of any parasites.

    Does anyone have any ideas what is wrong? I have a large milkweed garden and would like to try again next year, but this to just too much work and too depressing to continue another year unless the results are much better.

    1. Hi Barbara, what you are describing with the green substance and the painful death sounds like a reaction to systemic pesticides. This can be an issue if you buy tainted milkweed or there are pesticides sprayed in your region…I heard a lot of complaints from people with dead caterpillars after there was mosquito spraying in their region. OE is more common in continuous growing regions like California and Florida. Otherwise, it is manageable with proper cage cleaning and rinsing milkweed. I hope you are able to figure out what the potential issue might be, so we can get you (and your monarchs) on the right track for next season…

61. We’re in the southern end of the Sierra mtns in CA at an elevation of 4200 ft. This is my 1st yr raising Monarchs after granddaughter left 2 cats with us in July. We have released 21 Monarchs so far. I haven’t kept a count of M & F, but most were females. We had Narrow Leaf MW growing in our garden, but I didn’t know what it was. It is very dry here with the altitude & drought: about 17% humidity now, so keeping leaves moist is extremely difficult. Spraying hasn’t worked well for me, so I moistened paper towel under leaves & that worked pretty well. I now have Tropical & Swamp MW.
    Recently, the Butters started laying eggs again & I’m quite concerned becuz it usually freezes here by Oct 1. However, they’re all on potted MW in net cover or container, so I can bring them in if needed. Lost 1 chrysalis to trachinid fly, 2 eggs that molded, & 1 cat that died today after shriveling & not eating after molt. 9 more cats currently.

    1. Hi Marti, congrats on a successful season. In the future, you might consider putting milkweed cuttings in water, which keeps milkweed leaves fresh for days…good luck with your late monarchs!

       1. I’ve only had luck doing that with Tropical & Swamp MW. The Narrow Leaf shrivels up even in water & I have lots of that! I’ll try crushing stems next year.
          Thanks, Tony for all your great info & the time you take to support our efforts. You’re a true Butter Man, lol!

62. I had a good start at the beginning of the year, had 12 released, 0 died. THEN the infestation of the flies and aphids began. The eggs were destroyed before I could even gather them in. I cleaned off all 75 plants with streams of water and just left them alone – thinking everything was done for the season. After 3 weeks or so, I noticed leaves eaten so I went back to each plant and found dozens of cats having a full meal. I transferred them to the cages and so far 25 have survived (numerous cats turned into hard shells) . Funny thing, tho. The chrysalis hatching times are off. Several were chrysalis for 7 days and when released, flew off. Then several of them hatched within 3 days of forming! I know this sounds weird, but I watched them form, made my notes, and then yesterday went out and had 4 hanging from the screens. I doubled checked the logs and number of the cage. The 4 that formed quickly were very small – and 1/2 size of the others but were perfectly formed and flew off with no problems. I still have 3 hanging to hatch. One is going on 7 days and is huge, the other 2 are small and turning black as I am typing. Thank you, Tony, for introducing me to the wonderful world of monarchs!!!!!

    1. Hi Martha, it sounds like you are learning a lot this season and I applaud your efforts! Good luck with your remaining monarchs and I wish you lots of success next season.

63. Hi Tony, I’m still raising here in Southern California! I didn’t keep track , but I think I’ve had 5-6 groups of 10 per cage that were successful. My learning curve took a while to avoid tachnid fly, OE, and NPV – had it all! Thanks for all your help! I’ve shared the thrill and lots of eggs and caterpillars and have several other people hooked and raising. I’ve got 10 huge healthy caterpillars now and about 10 just hatched eggs and a few eggs left. I’ve learned to resist the little caterpillars I find in the yard and just raise from eggs . Also to keep my cages zipped up immediately or those pesky flies find their way in! First year raising for me so I’d say I had good success!

    1. Hi Beth, I would say you had a successful season too…especially because you learned what wasn’t working and fixed it. Good luck with your remaining monarchs and enjoy a wonderful fall season!

       1. The learning curve has given me much more success with the last groups of cats. I have about 95% success rate now! woohoo! There’s about 20 in one mesh cage left and I’m releasing monarchs daily from my last group of 12! For me raising from only eggs has made the biggest difference. I found a few more eggs that hatched a few days ago, but I think that will be it. No more eggs to be found and they seem to only stay around a day now after I release them. I wonder if they are going to Mexico or the coast? I’m about 10 miles from the coast. I love getting your updates! So time for fall planting. I can’t find a Liatris! I killed the one I did find, well actually I think some rodent found it. I think I’ll have to mail order one. The monarchs are loving my gomphrenas though and they are easy to grow. Thanks again for all your information and help to us all!

          1. Beth, I’m happy to hear you kept trying and have found more success as you’ve gained experience. 95% is an incredible survival rate and thank you for supporting the monarch population. Liatris might not be a viable option for your garden. Check out my butterfly plants page to see what plants will grow well in your region:

             Butterfly Plants List

64. We live in an urban area in South Central Pennsylvania. So far, we have successfully launched 69 with 8 more chrysalids to go. We had only 1 death – a 5 day old cat stopped eating and became blotchy in color. We tried to control OE by sterilizing our enclosures and equipment more frequently than in past years. The resulting monarchs have been very healthy and quite large. Tony – thank you for your wonderful advice and encouragement. It has been a joyous year!

    1. congrats on a very successful season Laurel! Good luck with your remaining chrysalides and have a wonderful fall season.

65. My daughter-in-law has released over 100 monarchs in the past few weeks. I released so far 19 with 4 left. It has become a family project we love doing.

    1. Hi Diane, such a rewarding family activity! Congrats to you and your daughter-in-law and I hope your family raising continues for many seasons to come…

66. At the corporate offices of The Land of Nod, we participated in a Save the Monarch program this summer. Eggs were collected and raised, then distributed to willing employees to care for the cats. Milkweed was collected, cleaned, and stored for use by all to feed their hungry cats. We had a very successful program, releasing over 100 Monarchs in our community. On my daily lunch-walk, I would see 1-3 Monarchs enjoying the flowers.
    Thanks, Tony, for this newsletter and all the tips. We look forward to next year!

    1. 100 monarchs! Nice going Margie, and congrats to you and your coworkers. Onward and upward next season…

67. This my first year planting milkweed so I had no intention of raising butterflies but happened to find a couple of cats & some eggs — on the 23rd, because I live south of STL, I released my last two butterflies of the three for the season. I didn’t take pictures but a video & posted it to facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nanbarnett/videos/10204780976712354/
    I’m simply excited to have been able to participate this year with the help of your website we increased those cats potential of survival and have bombarded my co-workers and friends with information about milkweed and butterflies to raise awareness.
    Have also ordered many more seeds & plants for next year’s raising of monarchs!
    Thank you for all your help & encouragement.
    nancy

    1. Hi Nancy, congrats on a successful season, and for taking steps to expand your butterfly garden next season. Your video isn’t available for public viewing…you can change that in the facebook settings,

68. This was my first year and I am hooked! We live in a condo and I cannot plant a garden. Bummer. I started tropical milkweed seeds inside in early April and kept the plants in pots around in the garden area and on the front porch. I was able to release 33 monarchs and the only tragedies I had were with a couple small cats that I handled. Good lesson to bring them in on the leaf, put leaf on a plant in a pot in a cage.

    There are layers of newspapers in the bottom of my cages and several times a day, I would remove the top layer to remove the frass and vacuum up the rest. One cat was resting between two edges of paper and hadn’t moved so I figured it was making its silk in preparation for the chrysalis stage. I ripped off a piece of the paper, made a small hole and hung the paper with cat from the top of the cage with a wire. It looked like the cat was reading the paper! LOL. But the next day the chrysalis was hanging from the paper and eclosed right on time.

    On some Facebook sites I have seen horror stories of people with sick, diseased monarchs, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have had all 33 monarchs healthy and doing what they were supposed to do right on time or a little early (I kept them warm).

    Soon we will be heading for Florida for the winter, and I will be participating in the SW Florida Monarch Monitoring program. These are the non-migrating monarchs. Looking forward to learning how to tag the butterflies, etc.

    Thanks, Tony, for all your advice, information, encouragement, etc.! Sally

    1. congrats Sally…Florida can be an especially unforgiving place to raise with the high OE infection rates, so it sounds like what you were doing was working. Keep up the good raising!

69. Thanks Tony for the newsletter, tips etc., and especially for your dedication to help Monarchs survive. So far, I released 35 Monarchs as of yesterday. My first time! And, I still have about 20 chrysalises still to emerge. One Monarch, sad to say, emerge with dwarfed wings and could not fly well and is now in butterfly heaven. Three turned black and it’s over a week now and nothing has happened. (Yes, I did rescue several caterpillars from my milkweed and reading more about fly and wasp problems, they may have been bitten/infected.) My 35 (did not keep record of males vs females were beautiful and healthy. Finished feeding my last cat yesterday and I hope he/she can make it for the Great migration. I am also flat out of milkweed and had to get some from a friend to carry me through for the last day. Will have to plant more milkweed next year; though I know it’ll be more work. But the joy of seeing these beautiful creatures emerge is indescribable and knowing I’m helping out a good cause is well worth the time and the effort. Thank you again for your website and your wonderful advice and information!

    1. Hi Evie, congrats on a successful season and I’m glad you are continuing to help support monarchs going forward. Enjoy a wonderful fall season…

70. Today should be the last of my Monarch season with 3 ready to fly sometime this afternoon. This was my first serious attempt at this, releasing around 25-26, with more females than males this year. I hadn’t seen a Monarch all spring and then in early summer, while I was planting some swamp milkweed, one appeared out of nowhere, as if to say hurry up…I got these eggs I have to lay! Luckily I discovered a nursery, not too far from me in S.E. Michigan that not only sold milkweed and nectar plants, but had a butterfly house on site.

    Thank you Tony for all your hints, encouragement and knowledge. This is something that really grows on you! There is a group near me, also on FB, that share ideas, and barter cats, and eggs. Many have progressed to swallowtails and luna moths, but I stay devoted to my Monarchs. Haven’t had a casualty yet. This year I bought a half dozen whiskey barrels, filled them with swamp and common milkweed, dwarf butterfly bushes and various flowers. I think I will see a big uptick next year. I also purchased some Mexican Sunflower and Hairy Ball milkweed seeds. Have an aero-garden to get an early start in the spring. 2016 will be my year of the Monarch! Thanks again Tony.

    1. Congratulations Joan on a perfect first season! That is really quite an accomplishment and I’m glad the info here has helped you. Good luck with your expanding garden and raising monarchs next season…

71. Unfortunately, I had a slow season, which I feel is because I planted my milkweed too late. I had a very successful summer two years ago, but this summer only gave me two cats and no releases. I did see butterflies in my yard, but, again, not as many as in the past. I do plan to try again next year and will start earlier, to attract the most butterflies. I am also going to take Tony’s suggestion and begin planning this fall for next year’s migration. I have a 1-yr.-old grandson, which will give me even more incentive to bring on the butterflies next year! 🙂 Thanks, Tony, for giving us so much great information! I enjoy your emails!

    1. Hi Millie, sorry to hear it was a slow season, but glad you are being proactive and doing some fall planting. It should have a positive impact on your garden for next season. I hope next season brings more butterflies for you and your grandson to enjoy…

72. Hi Tony. This is my first year raising Monarchs. I live just south of Chicago. What a wonderful experience it has been. I have released #22 with 8 still in their chrysalis I have had some die on me. Not sure why. They just stopped eating and thriving. I also lost some larva that I order on line. The biggest thing I learned is that they are not dead if they stop moving for a few days. They are just getting ready to molt. I am very happy to be part of this group and I can’t wait until next year to do it all again.

    1. congrats Gail on a successful first season, and you’ve also learned a valuable lesson! Many new raisers get concerned over the inactivity before molting, which is typically around 24 hours and sometimes a little more. Sometimes you just have to just leave them alone (which I know can be hard) and let them do their thing…have a wonderful fall season and thank you for raising the migration!

73. My daughter Mairead and I raised five butterflies from five caterpillars. The cats were off our lakeside milkweed in Backus, Mn and the butterflies due to timing were released in Eden Prairie, MN. We hope to do more next year!

    1. congrats Trish on your 5 monarch releases…every butterfly makes a difference! Glad to hear you will be raising monarchs next season too…

    2. Heh.. Boy do I know Bakus… I found four cats in Hackensack, very near you. Did you see that huge acreage bed of swamp milkweed off 371 to the west before you hit Pine River going south? Amazing habitat. Three of the four cats eclosed to females and I released them in Hopkins Minnesota. In my own garden there, I had three hatch, two flew away. One was kept and fed until she passed naturally. Rain storm deformed her wings while emerging.

74. I have released 49 so far, with 37 being females and 12 males. Still have 36 hanging in their chrysalis, and 30 eggs I found yesterday. Temps here in Oklahoma have been in the 60’s at night and 80’s during the day, so I expect more eggs.
    Of the 16 caterpillars I put in isolation, all have formed chrysalis but two. Of the 14 left, two have emerged as butterflies with no visible deformities. I lost 8 caterpillars due to parasites and unknown reasons. A few looked too dark, so I moved them to another isolation cage and cleaned the old one.
    I realize that I couldn’t have made it without reading the wealth of information on this site. Thank you so much for all the help.
    Sometime in mid-late October I will have a final tally on the Monarchs released.

75. I just released my last 2 Monarchs this week in SE South Dakota. A male Tues night and a female Wed night. I released a total of either 13 or 15 this year which I hadn’t even planned on raising any as I thought I was too busy. The grandchildren had the joy of releasing 4 for me. We went on vacation over labor day weekend and had 3 that would hatch then so they kept those for Grandma and released them. Found more eggs this year than ever before so was excited about that. And then 4 days in a row had the migrating Monarchs come thru our yard-loved it! I try to plant more flowers every year for the butterflies and it is paying off. My milkweed garden is also growing. Looking forward to next year!

    1. what a great year Jo, and having migrators come through is always treat. I’m glad your growing butterfly garden is starting to get more visitors. Have a wonderful fall season…

76. I had two separate groups this year. The first batch (late July-early August) included 43 caterpillars, which I raised in my greenhouse. I ran out of milkweed and had to give 12 away to a friend who had milkweed to spare. Of the 31 remaining, I lost 7 during pupation. I collected 24 chrysalis and rehung them with thread and scotch tape (very labor intensive since they were all over my 10 x 20 greenhouse.) Only 2 eclosed and were both males. The rest appeared to die in various stages of development. I brought them to our nearby butterfly farm and the opinion was they got too hot in the greenhouse which caused damage.
    At the beginning of September, the same friend who took my excess cats called to say she had new cats but her plants were already stripped. So I took 25 cats and put them on my plants, which had quickly leafed back out. I had built a screened butterfly cage which I could put over my potted plants; it included a removable top, for releasing the butterflies. Of the 25 cats, I had 3 pupation deaths, 1 chrysalis death and 14 healthy female butterflies that I released on Sept. 20th to 22nd. 7 cats disappeared from the cage and I suspect they escaped, squeezing out a small gap at the bottom of the cage. I will seal the bottom fully the next time. It was a great experience and I look forward to the first batch in the spring.

    1. Hi Lisa, so glad to hear your second batch turned out much better. The better your process becomes, the more success you will have raising monarchs. Congrats on all your releases and I wish you lots of success raising forward!

77. Hi Tony,
    The number of Monarchs that I raised from the beginning first egg on 6/24/15 to today’s September 22 release of three is 635. For a while in August I thought I would lose my mind with so many mouths to feed. I did give away about 100 eggs and caterpillars. I have built up the amount of milkweed in my yard, but the Monarchs used my Tropical Milkweed the most. I did bring in the eggs quickly after being laid. I had about 25 various fatalities, mostly due to OE I believe. Next year, I want to do some testing for OE. I often use my butterflies for teaching people about the importance of planting milkweed and nectar flowers. I have started collecting milkweed seeds to winter sow in milk cartons and plan to put in more Mexican Sunflower next year. That and zinnias are great nectar plants for this time of year. My asters are just starting to open and the remaining Monarchs will also love those. It has been a great year here in Lake Elmo, MN.

    1. Wow Bonnie, what an extraordinary season…you are raising the migration single-handedly with numbers like that! Tropical milkweed is a fantastic late-season milkweed, but over the years I’ve found that monarchs prefer our natives earlier in the season…especially common and swamp. Good luck with your expanding garden next season and I wish you even more success…

78. As of today I have successfully released 10 butterflies and have 30 chrysalides to emerge into beautiful butterflies in the next 7-10 days. I know this is small compared to some but this is my first year. I have big plans for next year!

    1. Hi Susan, congrats on an amazing first year and helping to Raise the Migration. Good luck with your big plans for next season!

79. This spring I read about the low population of the monarch butterfly. Ever since I’ve been researching on how to raise the butterflies. Then I got two common milkweed plants at the nursery. Then I found your site on the net and signed up for the news letters. And have been reading it now weekly. So much information. So one day I was watering one of my plants and found one caterpillar, I was so excited! So I raised it through to the most beautiful butterfly I have ever seen. Only my first, but I will be ready for more next year. Thanks for all the information.

    1. Hi Ruth, congrats on raising and releasing your first monarch this season and getting your butterfly garden started. I hope next season is even better!

80. We planted our butterfly garden last summer. Only had 4 caterpillars, total, and one night they all wandered off. No clue what happened to them. This year, we’ve been blessed with 2 generations of cats. The first one that made it from egg to butterfly had 4. Now we are on the 2nd generation. #8 flew off this afternoon, and we still have 4 sleeping in their little tents waiting to fly south for the winter. We are in Northern IL, about 50 miles from Chicago.

    1. What a great summer you had raising monarchs Ann…congrats! This was a great year for the upper midwest, and I hope it continues next season…

81. As of September 14, 2015, my total release for my 2nd year of raising came to 139 (unfortunately lost some along the way). I’m in Port Richey, Florida and I didn’t realize until recently from Tony, that our Monarchs are here year round. We have been raising indoors since February of this year. There was a gap to where I thought they were done, and then one day 3 butterflies laid at least 100 eggs. It was nuts trying to save them all. We did manage to do so, but heed Tony’s warnings, “Set a Goal”. It was overwhelming to care for that many, they completely depleted the milkweed, to where we were forced to buy from a box store just to feed them. (and were lucky to find the plants, some stop selling them after a certain time frame.) They got into the last instar and I had to let them complete there cycle, they were all so close to the next stage. I never seen so many cyrsalides before. Many of them would hang right next to each other, as if the ole “safety in numbers”. It was sad thought when some didn’t make it. I had a few with crumpled wings, one lasted for 4 days in a quarantine cage, a few others just couldn’t completely come of out its shell. Like Tony wrote in his post, I too, tried to pull of the outer shell, but to no avail.
    That is the hardest part of raising them is when some don’t make it, but like tony said they have gone to Milkweed Heaven. Very important that all of us who raise these butterflies, we must remember we have to on occasion euthanize, they don’t suffer this way, and you just cannot release an unhealthy one out into nature because you feel sorry for it, the disease or parasites will only spread to the healthy ones out there.

    Back to them depleting my milkweed supply, I read from another website that if you are running out of food, that the caterpillars will eat pumpkin and organic cucumbers, I was wondering Tony if you ever ran into this and had to use these types of food and how did it work out for you?
    Well I thank you for your valuable site and constant dedication to the cause, and for sharing you love and knowledge. Have a great Fall!
    Sherrie T Satterfield
    Port Richey, Florida

    1. Hi Sherrie,

       congrats of a successful season! an even more amazing feat with all the potential disease issues in Florida because of the continuous growing and butterfly seasons!

       This season, I’ve heard from a couple people that monarch caterpillars really like butternut squash, and it stays fresh longer than cucumber. I’m not sure of potential effects on monarch development, but I would definitely use it for a monarch emergency.

       1. Are they eating the squash leaves or do you cut open the squash and they eat that?

          1. Hi Jo, I believe they only eat the actual squash, based on the “orange frass” photos I have seen. I have heard from several reliable sources that it seems to be their milkweed alternative of choice.

82. Hi Tony,

    This, my second year of raising monarchs, saw over 4 times the number of eggs laid in the garden than last year. Didn’t expect that many and I was a bit overwhelmed. Tally so far: 109 migration butterflies released with 15 chrysalides to go. 120 third generation butterflies released. Did not have any first or second generation monarchs here. Total of 110 males, 115 females so far.

    The total does not include 5 chrysalides I gave to a local day care that was really excited to show the kids butterfly metamorphosis. I figure there’s no harm in planting the seeds of monarch conservation in a new generation of kids.

    Did have a major OE outbreak at the end of August which dropped my success rate to 83%. I think over crowding was the issue; wasn’t prepared for the large numbers I got this year.

    AND…just when I thought I was done…I found a few more eggs after the long, hot Labor Day weekend we had here in central Indiana. So now I have 7 small cats that won’t be adults till mid-October. Sorry to hear all of your post-Labor Day eggs were duds. I think the weather really confused some female monarchs.

    Looking forward to expanding the garden this fall (less grass to mow) and, hopefully, even more butterflies next year.

    1. Hi Steve, spectacular results in your second season! Sorry for the OE outbreak, but those can be invaluable learning experiences going forward.

       Summer seems to be lingering, so my guess is you’ll have no problems releasing your late migrators. We have one instar 3 that we’ll be releasing around the same time.

       I’m not sure why dud eggs occur, but it’s a common late-season occurrence…but never gotten that many at one time!

       Maybe that’s the result when a male mates with a sexually immature female?

       Good luck with your expanding garden!

83. We had a busy Monarch summer this year. We grew more milkweed this year because we almost ran out last year. Well, the more you grow, the more eggs you will find! Over 100 Monarchs eclosed here. We lost two – one in “j” turned black and found one chrysalis had fallen and broken open. We use a cardboard box with flaps cut off and clothespin netting to the open side – set up on-end so we can see inside. We use a mini whisk broom to clean the poop while changing the food supply. We moved the cat operation into the garage as I read somewhere that keeping them dry is important to prevent disease. Cuttings are placed in glass vases with plastic wrap rubber-banded around top and poke holes for stems. We do not use tape. (The one time we used tape, a few BST cats got fatally stuck to it.) There were 41 Monarchs in this last round, the last one eclosed on Tues. Sept 15. We have had several visitors stop by our Zinnias.

    1. Hi Ellie, happy to hear your raising system is working for you…congrats on a successful season!

84. I’ll be posting my results later. I’m waiting on several chrysalides to eclose, some 5th instar caterpillars to pupate and 2 hatchlings to grow up (which may not be possible this late in the season considering the frost date here in Missouri is October 15th) but a migrating Monarch stopped by the other day while I was in the garden taking some milkweed cuttings and gifted me with 2 eggs. I couldn’t resist bringing them in. I also found an injured 5th instar caterpillar the other day and rescued it as well. It had dirt on its head and 1 antenna had been ripped off. It wasn’t moving its head at all and could barely crawl and has only eaten 1 tropical milkweed leave over the last 3 days. When I got up this morning, it had somehow managed to climb to the top of the container during the night and had formed a chrysalis. Not sure how this is going to turn out. I will say, this being my first time for raising Monarchs, I’ve certainly been presented with several opportunities for on hands experience I didn’t anticipate. My first 5 chrysalides had to be removed and relocated. Talk about nerve-wracking!

    Lynne

    1. Hi Lynne, congrats on an exciting first season raising monarchs! Don’t worry too much about caterpillars missing filaments, because those will not become the butterfly antennae. We look forward to hearing your results!

85. Hi there!! I became interested by watching my sister raise. When milkweed happened to start growing in my garden, I went out just to see and was happy to find eggs for the first time! I brought them in, and have released 13! I have had a great first year, I did not lose any. Definitely due to wonderful websites and my sister answering any questions or worries I had! Can’t wait for next year!

    1. congrats Suzie on your first (and first perfect) perfect season raising monarchs…WOOT!

86. So glad that I planted milkweeds last year down here inTucson. They are flowering. But the most exciting thing for me is that I have seen 1 or 2 monarchs around the plants. Very exciting for me. I inspected one large milkweed just now and was horrified to see aphids on it, I got rid of them, and now as I type this a monarch brushed by that milkweed. WOW.

    1. Hi Sheila, how exciting…it sounds like something wonderful is about to happen in your new butterfly garden!

87. I just released the last 6 of 22 big, beautiful Monarch butterflies–not many compared to some people posting here but more than the 4 that launched from my milkweed-rich Chicago native plant garden last year. And no losses, due to a combination of Luck, Look, and Lots of advice from this wonderful site. Here are my “lessons learned”–and a question.

    The Look Principle: Look first before doing anything. I Looked before moving caterpillars into my new mesh butterfly enclosures and saw the 5 inch gap where one of the walls wasn’t sewn into the frame. (I sewed it up before escape-prone caterpillars found it.) I Look at the inside of the zipper before unzipping the door; sometimes there’s a caterpillar in the track. Look before lifting a milkweed-cutting container; is there a caterpillar on the side? Look at (and manually remove and inspect again) any fallen leaf bits on the enclosure floor before vacuuming, in case there are caterpillars on them. My mesh enclosures are black–so before vacuuming I slide a piece of white paper under the bottom (from the outside) to Look for any bottom-dwelling caterpillars.

    Milkweed Cutting Holders: Glass jars (like jam jars) with metal lids make good holders. I poke a hole in the lid with a Phillips head screwdriver (assisted by a mallet), crisscross two pieces of sturdy tape over the hole, and poke a hole the exact size of the milkweed stem through the tape with a sharpened pencil, ensuring that caterpillars can’t fall into the water. Between uses, I remove the tape and wash the jar and lid in the dishwasher on the “sanitize” cycle.

    Enclosures: My original raising enclosures were styrofoam coolers without tops, with several layers of cheesecloth tied or thumbtacked over the top–materials I had on hand when I found my first-ever caterpillar. Next I tried styrofoam coolers with tops, cutting out the domed centers of the lids and thumbtacking (stapling would be better) window screen to the frame that was left. The screened lids were easy to remove for enclosure-cleaning and butterfly release. The caterpillars pupated on the window screen top; I could moved the top-with-chysalides to an empty cooler and replace it with another top so butterflies wouldn’t eclose above milkweed-eating caterpillars (per Tony’s advice). I used mesh enclosures this year, but the “cooler system” was handy for transporting caterpillar-occupied milkweed cuttings to my sister’s house when I went out of town. The mesh enclosures don’t have rigid bottoms and thus don’t work for this. I’ll keep the coolers for transport or as isolation wards if needed.
    The mesh enclosures are great, but if you order some, check for defects (see above) before using. I use clothespins or binder clips to clip the door to the frame when I unzip it for cleaning or butterfly release so it doesn’t get in my way.

    Chrysalis-relocation drill: I practiced moving chrysalides (with tape on the silk or dental floss around the cremaster) with the empty chrysalides after their former occupants had flown. I haven’t had to move any occupied ones yet, but I feel fairly confident that if could if needed.

    And a question: Does anyone know the percentage of successful hatches from Monarch eggs? I had great success (close to 100%) with eggs I retrieved immediately after seeing Monarchs oviposit them but a very low rate of hatches from eggs I found in egg hunts. Maybe because they’re old?

    Thanks again for all you do for the Monarchs and their fans, Tony. You deserve an award.

    1. Hi Diane, thank you so much for posting the details of your experience and what you’ve learned. I guarantee the info you posted here will be helpful to another raiser going forward.

       I especially like what you wrote about learning to transfer chrysalides by practicing on empty ones…you’ll be a seasoned pro before you begin!

       As for your question about eggs, it really depends on which monarch predators you have lurking in your yard. The trichogramma wasps lay eggs inside the monarch egg so those eggs will turn black and wasps will emerge. Other predators will drain the egg, but it might look viable when you bring it inside.

       At the end of every season, there are always a few blank eggs and I’m not sure why this is. This season was a record. I had 60 eggs oviposited on Labor day and almost all were blanks. Did the female mate? Were the eggs not viable because it was too late in the season for the monarchs to complete metamorphosis? Another reason?

       And, the short answer would be, the average survival rate of eggs goes down the longer they are outside, but most people don’t know when the eggs were oviposited unless they see it happening…

88. Hi Tony I live in Pasadena Calif. and have be raising Monarchs for 2 years but have never had a large amount to release. I have lots of milkweed planted and several in pots. This year so far I have released only 5. I have a lot of aphids this year.Do you think that this affects the eggs? I just heard now that you should take in eggs as soon as possible. Do you leave them on the leave and put them on the floor of the castle? Do you have to keep them moist? Thank you for your reply. PS. I do have a lot of butterfly plants in my small garden. Also do you only find eggs on the milkweed plant?

    1. Hi Debbie, there’s a lot less info available about where the western monarch population goes each summer, so I’m not sure why your numbers are so low. I do think monarchs avoid milkweed infested with aphids so it’s good to prevent large infestations if you can:

       Stop Aphids from taking over your milkweed

       Here’s more info on bringing in monarch eggs:

       hunting, gathering and protecting monarch eggs

    2. I am in Thousand Oaks up north of you. Started in January with 45 releases in late January and was panicked about my milkweed supply. Slowed down thru the spring and summer. I just released 30 in the last 2 weeks and have 30 more to hatch. Just collected 25 more eggs. Weird season, but we had unusually cool summer nights. They sleep in out Italian cypress trees. Had people contact us about the lack of butterflies this year. I tell people they were out there, but dined at another restaurant. I gave a friend only 6 plants 4 weeks ago and she will have over 60 releases with the eggs from these plants. Go figure. We had alot of aphid also. What they say is true, regrowth on existing plants do have a lot less aphids.

    3. Debbie…I am located in Duarte -about 13 miles east of Pasadena. This is my second year of raising Monarchs. Some difficulty with Tachnid fly problem but that seems to have dissipated. I have 3 cats inside trying to get them to chrysalis stage. Would like to connect and share information.
       Ginny Belba

89. Brought in 17 caterpillars 16 hatched & were released. 1st year, thanks for all the great info & encourgement! Looking forward to using all I learned again next year!

    1. Hi Barbara, what a fantastic first year you had, and I’m happy to hear you will continue supporting monarchs next season!

90. Here in St. Joseph, MN, I successfully released 70 Monarchs with only 8 (not included in my count) that succumbed to disease. I also gave away 20 more Monarch eggs and caterpillars to friends who had never raised monarchs. The biggest struggle I had were the rabbits (or deer) that completely destroyed several patches of my milkweed. I always thought milkweed was poisonous to other animals. Apparently that is not the case. But I successfully collected several seed pods from both my river (swap) milkweed and my regular milkweed, so will plant the seeds prior to our first snowfall. I am in the process of creating my first butterfly garden. Starting small with 1500 square feet of flowers and native grasses. I cannot wait for next spring!! It was a great season this year for the Monarchs and am still seeing a few migrators here and there. Truly enjoyed all your tips and learned a great deal from you Tony! Thank you!!

    1. Hi Joni, congrats on a successful season! We had the same “rabbit” issue as you in June this season, and put a rabbit fence around the entire back yard fence….have not had a rabbit in the back yard since, and the garden really made a nice recovery.

       I agree that milkweed is probably not as toxic as we’ve been taught to believe. There is a growing list of milkweed pests and monarch predators that say otherwise….good luck with your new butterfly garden!

       1. I am so glad you said that Tony – about the “poisonous” milkweed. I am a high school biology teacher that has raised and tagged and released monarchs for about 10 years now. I immediately started noticing that there are a LOT of bugs out there that eat milkweed. And there are a LOT of things that eat monarch caterpillars. So if milkweed is so poisonous, how can all these critters eat it and be OK? Or eat the caterpillars and be Ok? We are taught in biology class that monarchs are distasteful to birds because of the toxins they eat in the milkweed. And that the birds “learn” not to eat them after trying one. Plus their red color is supposed to be a warning. Well, first of all, birds don’t have a very good sense of smell and it seems to follow that their sense of taste isn’t so great either. Secondly, I see a lot of crickets and grasshoppers eating milkweed all the time. They can decimate the plants. But birds love to eat grasshoppers and crickets. Also it seems to me that if the birds had to “learn” this through trial and error of tasting them, then wouldn’t every single insect-eating bird have to eat at least one monarch to “learn” this? Would there be any monarchs left after that many birds sampled them? It just doesn’t make sense to me. Oh, and the red warning colors? Then why are there so many red berries in nature? Birds love red berries. Sorry for the rant. As a biology teacher, I’m supposed to teach these things that have been taught since I was in high school. But it’s not what I am observing with my own eyes. It just drives me crazy. And I tell my kids not to believe everything they are taught. Sometimes good ole personal experience is the best teacher.

          1. Thank you for your thoughtful post Judy…I need to frame this one and hang it on the wall! Over the years I have come to learn that just because someone has a gratuitous supply of abbreviated titles after their name does not mean their scientific “facts” should not be questioned. Over the past few years I have learned the most valuable lessons about monarchs from first-hand experience and by networking with other butterfly gardeners and monarch enthusiasts. It never dawned on me that so much theory would be presented as cold hard fact, and it surprises me that a good % of these facts don’t hold up in real-world situations. Your students are lucky to have someone opening their eyes to this at an early age. I hope you had (or are still having!) a good monarch season…

             PS. Tell you students that a spider won’t cut a monarch out of its web to release “the bad tasting butterfly” like they showed on Wild Kratts. 😉

91. Hi Tony, I am so excited to read about your success this year.

    I wrote to you earlier in the summer whining about not having any Monarchs in my garden. I was sad to see only three all season. But today one lone female came by and deposited 27 eggs. Well 27 was the number I found. One or two always slip pass me. So I am over the moon excited to have theses. Down here in the south it will not get cold for awhile. By the time these are released it will just start to be getting cooler.
    Thank you again for this wonderful website and all of the encouragement you give to us.

    1. Hi Jackie, congrats on your late season surprise! I’m glad they finally paid you a visit and hope you enjoy your raising experience…

92. This was the first year of raising monarchs for me. My cousin in the Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior inspired me. I thought I would just study up this year and begin next but I found some cats on my yellow milkweed and decided the time was right. I collected a total of 9 cats with the last two very small – less than 1/2 inch. The others were all a couple days from forming their chrysalides. Of the nine, there was only one male, seven females and one died while a chrysalis — which was very sad. I went to gather wild milkweed plants, leaves and pods a few weeks ago. I planted 3 plants in my garden and will be starting some from seed this winter. Next year I hope to double or triple the number I release. I did purchase a pop up butterfly habitat which I used for the last three by moving the chrysalides in their the day before they were to eclose as we have had a few rainy days and I wanted them to have a comfortable place to wait for clear weather. Once they were nearly ready to fly, I moved the habitat to the patio with the top open so they could fly away when they were ready. It was great fun that I was able to share with the daughter and granddaughter.

    1. Hi Janice, thanks for sharing your multi-generational monarch experience and congrats on a successful season!

93. Hi Tony,

    Had to report that last week I had 2 Monarchs in my garden. I live in the country near the Mississippi Rivee in middle of Illinois. The one little guy seemed sooooo friendly and flew very close to me as to say hello and thank you for the nice meal he would need on his journey. He fed on the red sedum, purple cornflowers, and cosmos. He also seemed to like the black eyed Susan’s too. I just couldn’t get over how he was not afraid of me and just took his time feeding right there by me. So glad I’m able to provide the plants with the nectar they need on their journey.

    1. Hi Linda, when you have butterflies that stay in your garden for an extended period, you can often gain their trust and they’ll let you get close because they know you’re a friend with lots of fresh nectar. Hopefully, you’re on the migration map now, and you’ll get monarch visitors late each season…

94. I have loved reading and studying all of these different comments, I’m just a late season beginner. Talked to a good friend of mine that has several years under her belt. I got all excited and drove home very slow checking common milkweed that grows in the road ditches and ended up finding 3 cats. OK now what do I do, no cages no idea of what I was supposed to do but she had given me your web-site so improvise and got busy and built a cage out of old screen wire plywood and dowels. a week and a half for the cages to get here and the cats had already went to their chrysalis stage. Took the plastic lids off the containers and used a rubber band between two screws in the top of the cage and slide the plastic lids over the rubber band. It worked, released miss. Molly this afternoon and 2 to go. Next year I’ll be better prepared. I will concentrate more on egg gathering if these old eyes can see them.
    Thank you for such an informative site, really enjoy it.

    Dale

    1. Congrats on your successful first season Dale. I am glad your makeshift cage worked out. Yes, if focus on bringing in monarch eggs, you’ll typically have a higher survival rate. Good luck with your final monarchs!

95. Hi Tony,
    So far this year I have released 15 monarchs (10 females and 4 males and 1 unknown) and I have 5 that just formed chrysalis today. I live in Houston, Texas and we seem to have monarchs here all year long. I just started this summer trying to collect eggs and raise caterpillars. It has been such an amazing experience and I would not have known how to start without your book and advice on your website. I now have 16 tropical milkweed plants in my backyard and many native nectar plants. I have even convinced my neighbors to plant milkweed and native plants. I ordered seeds according to your recommendations and I plan to add several native milkweed species to the backyard in the early spring.
    Thanks so much!
    Laura

    1. Hi Laura, congrats on a successful first season raising monarchs. It sounds like your garden is really coming along, so hopefully you will have even more monarch visitors next season! Enjoy your extended season in Houston…

96. I have been raising and sometimes tagging monarchs in Wisconsin for many years. Many years ago I had one of my tagged ones recovered in Mexico.. This was a great year for me ,raising 46. Sadly 2 fell after they emerged from the chrysalis, were then misformed , and could not fly. I put them out of misery in the freezer. One unexplainably never came out of the chrysalis so 43 of 46 is good. I have never had wasp parasites in my monarchs as I had in swallowtails. Once I was given a gravid cecropia moth so raised them too. Those caterpillars ate and pooped for almost 3 months so the monarchs are easy peasy compared to them. More males than females survived. Might I suggest pounding the end of the milkweed before putting them in water to feed the caterpillars. It works to keep the cutting from wilting or drying out, much like you do to get lilacs to last awhile. I thoroughly enjoy your site. Thank you.

    1. Hi Pam…a 93% survival rate is a highly successful season! Unfortunately, there are always some factors out of our control or unexplained issues that occur…but as long as your surpassing the less than 5% survival rate, you are making a positive impact on the monarch butterfly population.

       I’m not sure what pounding the end of the milkweed does, but if you use a sharp pruner or knife to take the cutting, you shouldn’t have any issues with wilting. It’s the dull ones that cause the problem uptaking water…Have a wonderful fall!

97. Hi Tony,
    This was our first season of butterfly raising. My grandson and I have been able to not only raise and release 8 beautiful Monarch butterfly’s but were able to start a very nice butterfly garden. We are in SE Michigan and planted three types of milkweed and other host and nectar plants. I really appreciate your newsletters. I really look forward to a bigger and better season next year. Thank you so much!

    Thank you, Theresa and Skyler

    1. Hello Theresa and Skyler,

       congrats on successfully raising and releasing 8 healthy monarchs. I’m glad to hear you are working on your garden too. It’s such a joy when they continue to stay around for awhile or when when other butterflies stop in for a visit…I look forward to hearing about your growing garden!

98. Hi Tony,
    This year I raised 122 monarchs. 55 females and 65 males and two that were not sexed as they were released by my husband when I was not home. I released my last female today.
    Thanks for all your help and advice through the season. It really makes a difference.
    Pat

    1. Hi Pat, what a great season we had in Minnesota! I’m glad you are finding the advice here helpful and having so much success. Keep up the good work down south! 😉

99. Hi Tony, this has been the first good year in many, here in Syracuse, NY. There were Monarchs laying in our field over a two week period in July. Before I found your site, it never occurred to me to bring in the eggs. I did bring in 5 larvae and had a 100% success rate. The last beautiful female joined during the migration on Sept 17th. All monarchs were released while we had daily sightings. The migration is very encouraging this year. Thanks for all your knowledge and advise. I want monarchs to be around for my great great grandkids, and there great greats, too!

    1. Hi Barbara, congrats on your perfect season. As our community grows and more people raise and plant for monarchs, I’m hopeful they will be around for generations to come…

100. Hi Tony,
     I look forward to your newsletter each week! This year I raised 56 Monarchs here in SE Michigan. 27 males and 29 females. I have one that just went into chrysalis yesterday – will it eclose in time to release ? Do they overwinter like the swallowtails? Thank you so much for sharing your valuable information!

     1. Hi Andrea, congrats on your almost-even split of 56 monarchs! You should be fine with an early October release in your region. It’s getting a little late, but there should still be plenty of 60+ and sunny days, that make optimal conditions for release. good luck!

        PS…monarch’s don’t overwinter as chrysalides like swallowtails

101. Hello Tony,

     I could not have even attempted to raise a Monarch butterfly without your book, e-mails and forum! I have learned so much.
     This was my first year. I’ve read the posts of those who have raised so many. A big ‘thank you’ goes to all of them.
     I released eight beautiful Monarchs with the last one flying off today in 81 degree weather in Western North Carolina.
     I purchased four milkweed plants that had not been sprayed with any pesticides. Two of those plants went into the ground this past spring. The other two were brought home recently when I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough for my hungry caterpillars.
     The whole process is simply amazing and life-changing. I am definitely not the same person I was before doing this and you made it possible, Tony!
     In the midst of taking care of an aging parent, a child and everything else that gets tossed into the mix of life, I had these adorable caterpillars to clean up after. But am I complaining? Not at all. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Your book and e-mails gave me the confidence to try to help these fragile creatures. I will forever be grateful! What a profound experience.
     By the way, the pictures in your book are just gorgeous. I shall write a book review soon.
     Blessings, Peace, Health and Joy to you, Tony.
     With Gratitude – Gloria

     1. Thank you for your kind words Gloria, and I’m glad you had such a beautiful and profound experience raising monarchs. I hope it continues for many seasons to come, and that your parent and child can experience the joy of raising with you…

102. I only saw 1 monarch and I couldn’t tell you if it was a male or female, but last year I didn’t see any. I didn’t find and cats or eggs either so maybe next year I will have better luck..

     1. Hi Helen, sorry to hear you had such a slow season. You can always try fall planting some milkweed/nectar plants in the garden and hoping for a resurgence next season. The migration is expected to be much bigger this season, so hopefully there will be more butterflies floating around next summer…

103. Released 64 here in central PA and have 11 yet to emerge. My concern is that we are taking a short vacation this coming week to Cape May, NJ – that has a good migration going. Do you see any issues with taking them along for the ride and releasing there? The alternative is just leave them in the enclosure for four days. Is that a better solution?

     1. Hi Gail, if it’s not a problem to bring them with, it would be quite an experience to release them into the heart of the migration. Otherwise, do you have a neighbor or friend in your area that might be interested in releasing them…or a close by school?

        PS…congrats on releasing 64 monarchs. You had quite a season!

        1. Just to follow up. Saw a wonderful tagging demo in Cape May and will add hopefully tag next year. The group there does wonderful work and outreach. …All survived the drive to Cape May just fine and conveniently seven emerged the day of the demo and I could share the release with all the children there. The balance emerged and were released the following day with the exception of one little guy, who made the drive home with us popped out this AM back in PA. That will make 74 healthy and released total for the year, plus one “accidental death” when I sadly tried to move /reattach a chrysalis that turned out not fully hardened. Did not keep track of how many were male/female but will next year, along with the tagging. Thanks for all your advise and support.

104. First I would like to thank you for all the information that you share….that is why I bought my first 4 milkweed plants..I was able to release 2 Monarch Butterflies…only because I could not find any more milkweed…I have already ordered lots and lots of milkweed seeds from Ebay and Amazon…Looking forward to next year..Enjoy every new bit of information from you,thanks again….toni

     1. Hi Toni, two butterflies is a great start and every monarch makes a difference during this critical time. I look forward to hearing how your garden/raising is coming along next season…

105. Hi Tony ! Thanks for your great website. I have referred to it many times as we raised monarchs this summer. It has been so much fun and such a great learning experience for us as a family. We raised 77 monarch butterflies and will release the final female tomorrow morning. It was calling for rain, so we thought it best to wait until she had some sunshine to get stronger. We, too, had more females than males (about 70/30). This was our first time raising them. We have milkweed plants that grew on their own in our backyard. For the last two years we saw eggs and caterpillars, but had a zero survival rate. This year, we decided to intervene and harvest the eggs. It has been such a joy! Thank you for the really great information on your site. It has been fun learning about and helping the monarchs. Blessings! Amy Jo

     1. Hi Amy Jo, I am happy to hear you finally got to experience the joy of raising and releasing monarchs this season. I’m glad you didn’t give up and tried some new techniques that brought you more success…Enjoy your well-deserved off-season and continued success next season!

106. Where have all the butterflies gone? I live in SE Florida (Broward County ). I have the following plants/vines:
     Sky Blue, Passion Vine, Dutchmans Pipevine, Mexican Flame, Giant Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed and Fire Spike. I had many Zebra Longwinged, Monarchs and Gulf Fritilarry, but now they are all gone. Why, I’m not sure. Can you lend some insight?
     Thank you.

     1. Hi Greg, South Florida butterflies are a year-round population and don’t migrate. I hear conflicting reports from central and S. Florida gardeners. Some are seeing lots of monarchs and others are sharing your experience. It certainly sounds like you should be attracting some with your host and nectar plants, but there are other factors that can play a substantial role in local population, such as pesticide use by the city. It’s an ominous sign when all the pollinators disappear at one time. Hopefully, they will return soon…

        1. I live in central Florida. We always have monarch activity, but sometimes we have more than other times. It seems that we have a lull in the summer months–meaning not a lot of eggs seen in our garden. But somehow we still managed to find and release 60 or more monarchs through early September. (We didn’t really keep count, but it seemed that we were releasing about 10-12 every week and a half or so.) In the last two weeks, we have had an explosion of egg laying. I have 21 in various caterpillar and chrysalis stages. There have been so many eggs, that we are waiting to see how nature takes its course. (We only started bringing them in because the predators discovered our garden.) I suspect that south Florida will be seeing a surge in egg laying soon, if not already. The zebra longwings are plentiful now, and the sulphurs are back. We had a very large crop of gold rim cats on our pipevine, but I’m not sure they survived. Not seeming too many gold rims now. We had a number of giant swallowtails during the summer and a number of their cats on our citrus. Recently we saw our first tiger swallowtail.

           1. Your garden sounds like a haven for many butterflies…congrats on a successful season!

107. I planted two tropical milkweed plants which I purchased in April and planted in large pots outdoors. With all the rain they grew to 3 feet high. Just as I was beginning to think the Monarchs had not found my plants I noticed a few caterpillars on the blooms at the top of each plant. This was about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. The more I looked the more I found. All total I had 82 chrysalises which I had in cages indoors. I entrusted them with my neighbor as I was leaving town. She followed all the instructions given here and has successfully released all 82. Needless to say I am very excited about next year and several of my friends have asked me to purchase milkweed for them next year. Next year I plan to purchase tags. Thanks so very much for the wonderful detailed information here that helped my 82 Monarchs get their start.

     1. Hi Susy, from 0 to 82…wow! I’m happy to hear your raising experience was a huge success, and that the information you found on the site was helpful. I’m even more excited to hear you are getting others involved next season! Keep spreading the word and I wish you continued success raising monarchs next season…

108. Here in Michigan, it is getting close to the end of raising caterpillars. I have 1 cat left and 41 chrysalids left. So far, I have released 173 very healthy Monarchs (including the 17 that I released an hour ago). They stay around for a day or two, to nectar up, then they start their long journey. I do hope they have an amazingly successful trip to their winter site. Last year I only had a total of 30, so this year has been awesome. If all continues to go well, I will have released 214 Monarchs this season. I do admit that I did lose 16 cats (not included in my counts), due to predatory disease. I always try to bring in all my Monarch eggs as soon as I see them freshly put on my milkweeds. Sometimes I miss some, because my old eyes just don’t see every single one. I rescue all cats that I find, be it in my garden, or while out milkweed hunting.

     Most of the eggs that I found in my garden were on itty bitty 4-inch milkweed plants that I started from seed and they eggs were everywhere. All in all, I think I had a pretty good season. However, I still feel bad about the ones that didn’t make it. I was really hoping for a 100% success rate, but that didn’t happen. Those darn tachnid flies and OE. I will aim for 100% next year.

     Thank you, Tony, for your excellent advice and all the work that you put forth, to keep us all informed. I love, love, love this site.

     1. Hi Daisy, you had an amazing season and are definitely helping to raise the migration. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do about predators besides beating them to the new monarchs outside. Have a wonderful off-season and continued success raising monarchs in 2016!

Comments are closed.