Raising Hope for the 2026 Monarch Migration

10 Comments

1. I live in south central PA. I have been raising/releasing monarchs since 2020. I released 100 monarchs that year using the castle cages. I had 7 milkweed plants this year, tropicals and hairy balls. The cats are exposed to the wind, rains and sunshine. I monitor the cats as they grow and eat the leaves and buds. My first batch of cats consisted of 36 which moved around the garden creating their chrysalis. It was exciting finding their chrysalis and watching their progress into the beautiful Monarch. My second batch consisted of 36 more cats. Since the first monarchs arrived in early August, they have been busy producing eggs. This second batch had thunderstorms and predators to deal with. The last 19 cats were taken to the nearby community park where common milkweed were abundant. No fear of spraying there. Now, sitting in my back yard, I discover 3 more cats. Oh dear.

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2. Had six Monarchs emerge this summer, here on Long Island, New York. I create a habitat out of a shoebox and clear wrap with paper towels in the base. Easy to lift the Saran Wrap and replace the paper towels daily.

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3. I raised 64 butterflies from the egg stage in Delaware. I first saw a Monarch in late June and even though I saw VERY few Monarchs, they were out there laying eggs. All but one emerged from the chrysalis normal and fully developed.
   Felice Howell

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4. I live in southeast Michigan, and have had a very bad year. I was unaware that mice would eat caterpillars, as well as chrysalis. I hope to have better luck in 2027.

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5. I have about 20 common milkweed plants in 3 areas of my yard in Wilmette, IL I have had a very discouraging year and didn’t have any to release. Past 8 years I have indoor raised and released 25-35 monarchs. This year I brought in fresh recently laid
   eggs. For the eggs I find and don’t bring in I tear the tip of the leaf so I know that at have already seen, but not brought in. I left at least 75-100 eggs out for nature to take care of. I never saw any caterpillars larger than 2nd stage outside. I brought in around 25 eggs, fed them fresh young milkweed leaves etc., most made it to the 2nd stage. Only a few made it to being large enough to form a Chrysalis. those either died making the chrysalis, or turned black while hanging.
   No pesticides are used in our yard, and no spraying by neighbors or village. With cool months in April and May they didn’t arrive until June. Mid June we had nasty smoke and hot weather which may have factored in.
   I have around 2 dozen milkweed pods to share this fall – but don’t know if I should in case there is a problem in the milkweed. I am done for this year and will just pray for better results next year.

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6. Since we live in south Florida, we have a longer Monarch season than most areas. We’ve been doing this for over 5 years now and we average about 50 successful monarchs every season. I had to purchase a second cage because I had so many chrysalis’ and cats. This year I discovered that any milkweed I purchased from our new local nursery needed to sit inside our porch enclosure for at least a week before offering it to any hungry cats. Why? It turns out there are eggs that I didn’t notice upon initial inspection. After about a week I’ll see tiny cats on the plant and protect them from any adults I have currently in the cages. I use to harvest eggs and small cats from the outdoor garden but using this new method I have less loss from parasites and diseases. I think we only lost between 3-5 this year so we’re happy about that. I still have 7 chrysalis’ right now and another 6 hungry cats so the count continues. Thank you for the informative newsletter.

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7. My first year ever and I am a beginner in Garfield, New Jersey. I no longer use any pesticides on grass or anywhere on property. I planted swamp milkweed. Seedlings dried out and died, but gallon containers survived and thrived. Now have seed pods. Learned how to identify male Monarch by the spots. Thank you for all the tips, shares, and tidbits of valuable information.

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8. Had the usual robust milkweed. Multiple adults showed up. Only a few caterpillars found despite twice daily searches.. Have released about 7. Have 2 chrysalises, and 3 other caterpillars still eating. 1 butterfly was born weak and small and died before release. Noticed that most of milkweed leaves have multiple holes, such as those seen where eggs hatched. Work of predator? There are no pesticides or herbicides here. There weather has been hot. Some light rain. Have been raising for 5+ years. Have averaged 20-30 released per year previously. Any ideas?

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9. I raised two batches, one in June, another in August. Due to construction on my covered porch I had to raise the first 16 caterpillars on an uncovered deck. The sun hit the deck from dawn to noon. Despite my jerry rigged attempt to provide shade, only half emerged from their chrysalis. I think they just got too hot. I ran out of swamp milkweed branches and had to use common milkweed leaves. To get them into the water tubes I had to roll the base end of the leaves like a cigar to get them into the cap hole.. Somehow, one cat managed to crawl through the center of the leaf fold into the tube of water. I dumped it out and it seemed to revive and even started to resume eating. About an hour later it started to metamorphize into a chrysalis while on the floor of the cage. The process stopped half way through leaving a sad mess that looked like something out of Jeff Goldblum’s “The Fly.” For the second brood I had the covered porch available and 16 out of 16 reached maturity and happily fluttered around the garden and melted away into the neighborhood. Western Missouri here.

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10. I raised Six caterpillars and released Four monarchs , one is still in A crystallius.
    One did not make it
    Seems like there was very few caterpillars on the milkweed, and I found very few eggs that were laid.I think with all the heavy rains that we had, and the very hot.Two weeks we had something to do with not finding very many caterpillars.
    I live in southwest PA.
    This was my first year using a net enclosure that I bought offline. It was a lot better than using jars
    I’m still learning

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