Raising Hope for the 2026 Monarch Migration
Raise The Migration 2026 Results
Raise The Migration is an annual North American challenge to raise monarch butterflies to release for fall’s annual 2026 monarch migration. The time has come to share your raising experience and raise it forward…
The raising season is coming to an end, so we’d love to hear how many butterflies you released for fall’s annual 2026 monarch migration…but more importantly, what lessons you’ve learned through this amazing raising experience?
If you’ve still got some raising to do, raise on! But please post in the comment box at the bottom of this page after you’ve released your last butterfly.
Every year, I start Raise The Migration in July, but monarchs raised at that time aren’t actually migration generation butterflies…they’re the parents to that amazing generation of travelers.
There’s no way to tell whether butterflies will mate or migrate, but one telltale sign of a migration generation butterfly is its size, which is dependent on how much milkweed the caterpillar eats. The first super-sized caterpillars start to form chrysalides around the first week of September in our northern region…
In the garden, you can tell non-migratory butterflies by their worn out wings. Non-migratory males are also more aggressive, chasing off potential competition while seeking out female companionship…migratory monarchs are in sexual diapause and only interested in stocking up on nectar for the long journey ahead.
So how did our Migration Monarchs fare this season and what lessons did we learn raising forward? Find out below, but first…
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Here are Raise the Migration results from the past thirteen seasons:
2025- 93% Survival Rate
2024- 100% Survival Rate
2023– 89% Survival Rate
2022- 100% Survival Rate
2021- 86% Survival Rate
2020- 82% survival rate
2019- 81% survival rate
2018- 93% survival rate
2017- 100% survival rate
2016- 96% survival rate
2015- 96% survival rate
2014- 90% survival rate
2013- 100% survival rate
As you can see from the results, this raising system is consistently producing healthy monarchs to help improve our raising experience while also helping to support the struggling monarch population.
Raise The Migration 2026 Results
In 2026, we raised 19 migration generation monarchs that were released starting in late August.
Here’s what happened with our 19 monarch guests this season…
Unexplained Egg Deaths
For the first time in the history, we lost an egg that wasn’t parasitized. We brought this egg in around August 31st and it looked like a perfect specimen. Another egg we brought in the same day hatched on September 1st.
We kept the unhatched egg in a sealed food container for two weeks and checked it daily. The egg never darkened, but by day 14 it started to look like it was imploding so we discarded it. There was no visible sign of damage to the egg when we examined it with a magnifying glass. It seems unlikely the egg was unfertilized because we have had many monarchs in the region. This will be one of my all time great mysteries from Raise The Migration. 🕵🏽♂️
Caterpillar Escapes
Coming in September…
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths
Coming in September…
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites
Coming in September…
Accidental Deaths
Coming in September…
Chrysalis Problems
Coming in September…
Butterfly Eclosure Issues
Coming in September…
Final Results
So how many monarchs survived to reach butterhood?
__ healthy butterflies were released from __ to __
? accidental deaths
? disease or parasite issues
1 unexplained deaths
? chrysalis problems
? healthy males
? healthy females
___ survival rate
Lessons Learned in 2026
We raised both indoors and out this year, but the lessons this year are mainly from our outdoor setup
Bungee Cords: I use these to keep the tarp over the outer cage to prevent rain from taking down chrysalides in the inner cage. I had been using one bungee on each side, but that still allowed the tarp to partially blow off the cage when there were strong winds. If you connect two bungees on each side (one by each corner of the cage) your tarp will never come loose exposing monarchs to extreme wind and heavy rain.
How to Encourage Monarchs to Pupate on the cage roof?
This is the preferred way for monarchs to pupate because it means you won’t have to worry about rehanging if leaves don’t last through the chrysalis stage. Roof pupation should be the goal whether you’re raising indoors or out.
There are three ways to encourage this:
- More space– spread out the milkweed so it doesn’t create a dense forest effect in the cage. (accomplish this by raising fewer monarchs or using a larger cage)
- Leaves touching wall– make sure milkweed is touching a mesh wall so the caterpillar can easily crawl over to it
- Towel/cloth over cage roof– I’d recommend something in a nature shade of green that blocks the direct sunlight. Placing green handles overs the cage roof is less effective in an outdoor setting.
However, the monarch caterpillars aren’t always cooperative, even if you take the precautions listed above. If you need to rehang, here are more ideas to make this process easier…
Chrysalis Removal: When rehanging chrysalides (all of these were removed from leaves) use a needle to loosen the thread first. Only spray water to loosen the thread if you can’t loosen with the needle first. Spraying with water degrades the stickiness of their silk and can make them more difficult to rehang:
Migration Memories 2026
This photo was posted in 2025 and will be switched out for a new migration memory in September ’26:
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I hope you enjoyed reading about my Raise The Migration ’26 results and lessons learned raising monarchs through the butterfly life cycle .
And now, we’d love to hear about your experience…
Share Your Results?! ✍️
Please share your results at the bottom of this page and let us know how many monarchs you released to help boost the struggling monarch population…remember to include your location.
More importantly, please share the most valuable lesson(s) you learned about raising monarch butterflies, that you believe can help others in the community raising forward.
Thank you for helping to Raise the Migration in 2026
Greetings all, I live on the northwest shore of Lake Erie here in Lorain Ohio. I recorded my 1st monarch arrival May 4th which was 2 months earlier then normal as the migration goes here locally. I did not have another visit until early July. I am happy to report the safe release of 54 monarchs this migration.
Released my final 3 Monarchs on September 23rd. My total was 691 for 2026. Here in Central Florida the extreme heat this Summer was challenging and I had a few chrysalides dry out. It was fun sharing releases with friends and neighbors, especially the kids. Every year brings more knowledge. Thank you Tony and posters!
May granddaughter and I raised 20 Monarchs this year. All caterpillars were collected on my Waystation certified property in rural Carp, Ontario, Canada. Most of the caterpillars were found on Swamp Milkweed with a few specimens found on Common Milkweed. All specimens were large, brightly coloured and had no issues forming into chrysalids. They all emerged as healthy butterflies. There were double the number of females emerging compared to males. I watched Monarchs flying around here in small numbers throughout the summer. They loved my pollinator gardens and gravitated to a variety of flowers but particularly enjoyed nectaring on my Ageratum houstoniamum.
I released 12 females and 11 males. I started collecting cats in June and they were all females until August then half half, the last 6 were all male. Kinda different. I had 4 die from tachynid fly, 5 died for unknown reason and 4 were unable to fully form their chrysalis. First time for that. So 1/3 of my cats died for one reason or another, all organic yard but im sure my little town sprays the mosquitoes frequently and I’m surrounded by corn fields. I grew plenty of zinnias but first year no monarchs visiting my flowers on the way south. Did get video of mating monarchs in my tree though in August. Lots of swallowtail butterflies especially in the Tall Trees. This was my third year and I was finally able to spot the eggs and tiny cats all on the tender new growth in the lawn. Milkweed is so invasive. I will prune my Milkweed next year to encourage new growth later. My Milkweed was finished blooming before a single butterfly showed up. But new people are excited to help the monarchs next year after my friend showed others and posted videos, and have requested pods for their yards.
On September 18th we released the last 2 Monarchs from our 2026 project. (our 9th year)
A total of 25 Monarchs have been released. (11 Males and 14 Females) Our numbers are low compared to others, but no less exciting every year.
In the past I’ve had problems with Common Milkweed staying fresh for the August/September caterpillars, which we see more of later than in the early summer. I read where you can trim the milkweed back in June for it to grow fresher for the later months, so I only trimmed a few back to see how it would go, but first made sure no eggs or caterpillars were on the part I was cutting off. It actually worked. The stalks I trimmed are still fresh, whereas the others have really died off.
It will be hard to break the habit of checking the Monarch enclosures the first thing every morning to see what activity is going on. Looking forward to 2027 which will be our 10th year.
Diane A.
Dauphin county, PA
Released 103 monarch butterflies. Kitchener Ontario.
Surviving rate was 91%. I am looking to pickup monarch eggs very early and no later than first week of August because in September is heavy wind and rain 🌧️. An other reason to pick up eggs earlier is the freshness of the milkweed . This year could pick up eggs 2 weeks early in June 24 but at the end of July when supposed to be the peak hardly could find any. It was the Canadian forest fire making a dark orange sky in my area maybe. For 10 years made a good milkweed plantation in my neighborhood but now is time to pick up the seeds and move them because the tree are growing and is to much shade. The size of my monarch are medium big but at the end of season can see some giant monarch in my garden. Could somebody tell me how to get giant monarch.
Regards Tony Brancusi
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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