Raising Hope for the 2018 Monarch Migration

377 Comments

1. My husband, George, and I raised and released 16 Monarch butterflies, from August through October of 2018. The first ten of the butterflies we raised were found as caterpillars on the milkweed plant in our yard. We use no pesticides or fertilizers. Sadly, one of our first caterpillars died, but thankfully, this is the only caterpillar that we lost. After raising all the caterpillars from our own milkweed plant, my husband visited one of our local Monmouth County parks (across the river from where we live in New Jersey) and found four Monarch caterpillars in a milkweed field. (I found out from the park workers that no pesticides are used in the park, so we were happy about that.) Upon bringing home the cuttings with the four caterpillars, my husband also found a tiny caterpillar and an egg on two of the leaf cuttings. We raised all of these also, including the egg. We held onto our last butterfly (the one from the egg) until a late October nor’easter had passed, and we then released her on October 29th. Since all the butterflies have flown away, our butterfly cage is now being occupied (from time to time) by a new occupant—our cat, who, at least once a day, walks in through the open door all on her own!

2. Lessons learned in western MA (the Berkshires): Spraying bleach water onto a cage at the kitchen sink seemed to sicken cats in a cage in the dining room, so the mist from the sink was able to waft across the room and into the next (much farther than I would have expected !).
   My milkweed, which is mostly in the shade, can get a black coating on it when it rains a ton, and the cats won’t eat it and the mamas won’t lay eggs on those leaves, but it can be cleaned off when no healthier leaves are available. No Oe (I tested all my butterflies before releasing)= Yay!! But did find a big cat with tachinid. 🙁 Was also surprised to learn that a cat that fell off a plant I was bringing to a summer camp could pupate in my car! 🙂

3. Hi Tony,
   This was my first year raising monarchs and successfully released 85 from Mount Sinai, NY on the north shore of Long Island. I always admired all the butterflies in my gardens, but only started collecting eggs and caterpillars in late August. I was admiring the beautiful caterpillars one day and the next day they were gone! Horrified, I was now on a mission to save them. My husband and I cannot thank you enough for your website!! It was so very helpful and such a great resource. I ultimately had 2 big and 2 small cages going along with my tupperware hatchery. It really became a labour of love. It was exciting to come home everyday and see the progress in the cages and go egg and cat collecting on my milkweed. I did retrieve additional milkweed leaves on 3 occassions in some open fields by me. I was thankful to find it. I would cut the leaves, wash, dry and refrigerate them. I also cut some long stems, pods & leaves and would keep them in water in the refrigerator. This definitely helped me satisfy their voracious appetite. I plan to plant a lot more of my own for next year and will start raising much sooner than August. I still have 2 swallowtails in chrysalis in one of my cages…HELP?? I’m not sure where is the best place to keep them. Currently they’re out in my garage, but the temperatures have been in the 30’s this week ! I’m open to any suggestions or recommendations. Should I leave them out there? Thank You again for your website! I’m looking forward to next season. Cheryl

   1. Hi Cheryl. I just read your report and question about swallowtail butterflies you still have in chrysalis. I just wanted to tell you that I’ve learned that late in the year Swallowtail chrysalises usually stay in the chrysalis over winter and hatch in the spring. Congrats on raising 85 Monarchs!

4. 134 Monarchs raised here in Plains, Pa. My best year ever. Raised on common mw from a wild patch close to my home. As well as tropical that was grown in my yard. I had one that failed to pupate. One that was unable to free itself from its chrysalis.3 unexplained caterpillar deaths.. One escapee that pupated under the table that held my pop ups. Walked in and saw the butterfly on the floor….all was well and flew off with no problem. Already planning to plant blue and pink tweedia. And some showy mw next year. I tagged 25 Monarchs and hopefully one will be recovered in Mexico. Tony thanks for all you do….#lovethishobby #monarchmomma

5. I have had a very good year raising Monarchs. I live in a large condo complex along a golf course in Laguna Niguel. I had planted one milkweed plant towards the beginning of spring and saw caterpillars on it. It was so cold, so I started the inside raising of Monarchs. Of course I have many Milkweed plants now, and have managed to place them up and down the condo community. Everyone knows now that I am the ‘butterfly mama’ and they knock on my door to tell me these are the first Monarchs they have seen in years. It is funny how they seem to swirl around our unit, as if they are greeting me or know this is where they were born.

   Thankfully our association already has qute a few nectar plants for them to feed on. I let my last one go on Halloween. It is amazing how attached you get to each and every one of them.

   I had two cats with the tachinid maggots and at least one that seemed to have OE. I started only brining in eggs and hatching them inside, that seemed to solve the problem. I wound up having two cages going, and needless to say, my local nurseries made a lot of money off of me trying to feed my cats! Oh well, it was worth it.

   I did find that if I cut a card board box with a lip on it and put it in the cage, it became a favorite place for some of the cats to form their chrysalis. Some of the large cats would seem so agitated on their day to go into a J shape, but once they found that ‘safe’ spot, they were happy.
   I also found that some of them absolutely love the seed pods at the end of the season. Others did not. A very rewarding hobby, thanks for all the info! I am making a trip to Pismo beach in December, one of the migration spots.

6. I live in Harpswell, ME on the coast near Portland. This is my 3rd year trying to raise Monarch Butterflies. I released my last 7 Monarch Butterflies on November 7. The total number of Monarch Butterflies since the first ones were released in early August was 241 all healthy butterflies mostly all from eggs and tiny caterpillars mostly all from my milkweed seedlings of Poke and Common Milkweed that I didn’t get to plant yet. Also a few late caterpillar stragglers I found. Once the females found the seedlings, they kept laying lots of eggs on the tiny leaves up to about September 10. When I finally got to plant the many seedlings they only had a couple leaves left on them from eggs taken in on the rest of the leaves. The roots are more important later in the year anyway. I know the last butterflies were released late but I gave them all a chance. I lost some due to different causes like deformed wings, caterpillar deaths and others but I didn’t keep track of those. It happens and I try not to take it personally. I was just focused on raising healthy butterflies. I’d probably estimate maybe I had around 85-90% success rate using your methods Tony but I don’t really care about the numbers. At one point, I had 4 big cube cages and two baby cube cages going. Some lessons learned were to always have enough Milkweed to use or have some 100% non-contaminated back up sources. I got to pretty much just use my milkweed but I had to use some others late. Some milkweed that should have been fine caused some caterpillar deaths. I mostly my Common Milkweed in my field but I had to use some of my Swamp and Butterfly Milkweeds when the Common Milkweed totally faded and most leaves dried out. I wasn’t planning to raise this many but we may move next year so I wanted to try to do what I could. Another lesson is that I have to set a strict raising deadline because it got so much harder and extremely stressful to release them past early October due to lower temperatures and bad ridiculous weather with only a few good days of any sun to release and the bad weather continues. I did it but it was so much stress to continually watch the weather from day to do to try to make a decision for each release. I ended up holding inside groups of butterflies up to a week and sometimes longer. They all made it and I fed them plenty but it’s so stressful having to make them stay inside for long periods of time. I guess I’m proud of myself for doing a good job. Lastly, I guess I need to limit the number to raise because most days I would spend hours cleaning and having to go out and pick milkweed and prepare cuttings. The 5th instar caterpillars go through them like crazy!

7. 62 healthy monarchs in San Diego! Tachnid flies are a big problem so I brought the caterpillars into the mesh cage as soon as they hatched.

8. Slow start in June, but very good year, all in all. Released over 50 butterflies by seasons’ end. Too many trachinid (sp?) fly infested caterpillars this year. I kept the deceased infested caterpillars and the emergent pupae in a baggie in the freezer and discarded them in the garbage collection. This was the first year in 20 years that we saw 8-10 Monarch butterflies sipping nectar from our Butterfly Bush blossoms each day during the fall migration.

   1. This is our 1st year gathering eggs and raising the Monarchs in captivity here in Northern Kentucky. We lost several cats to zipper accidents in the beginning and a few seemed to be sick and died later in the season. One Monarch emerged and its wings did not develop properly. We released 75 healthy butterflies and still have one to emerge that we brought into the house. It takes a lot of effort and water to grow the varieties of MW and supporting plants and keep the cats fed. Of the flowers we grew, the Mexican Sunflowers were the favorite of the Monarchs by far.

      1. I almost had a zipper accident as well. One particular cat (I named him Zip) just insisted on crawling along the tracks all the time so I got in the habit of looking first to make sure it’s all clear, lol.

9. This was our first year at helping with monarchs. We had a flower bed that thankfully got overgrown and was filled with milkweed. We were happy to see the Monarch butterflies enjoying the plants we had let go. My husband did some research and saw that we could possibly help raise the population by raising some indoors. Initially he found three eggs on a couple leaves so we brought them in the house on August 4 to see if they would hatch. Other leaves we brought in to help keep the first three fed also had eggs on them. We ended up with having ten caterpillars hatch. Of the ten we gave to friend to help raise. Of the other nine only one did not make it to chrysalis as it kept falling off the leaves for some reason and then ended up dying. The first of our butterflies we released on September 4, just one month after we brought the first egg indoors. We released our last three butterflies on September 15.

10. We raised 18 butterflies from 18 eggs – all caterpillars healthy – still not sure of sexing butterflies so no breakdown that way. Last year we raised 8. All eggs rfrm our milkweed patch in the garden.

11. 2018 is my second year raising monarchs. I raised and tagged 94 healthy adult butterflies. I had 5 fatalities – 1 deformed chrysalis, 2 eggs squished by my own hand on accident and 2 tiny caterpillars went the same way. And 1 adult with deformed wings. So a 94% success rate, which would have been higher if I had been more careful with the tinies. I haven’t ever seen OE on any of my caterpillars and no tachnyid flies either. I live in NH. I collect both eggs and caterpillars of all sizes to raise and only rinse with water.

12. This was my fifth year, and my second year with an established milkweed patch. I had one unexplained caterpillar ? death and three chrysalis issues. The rest emerged as healthy butterflies. We released 70 in total, and about 45 of the migrating generation. We are in Asheville, NC. Thanks for all that you do, Tony! 🙂

13. Hi from Central PA: It was by accident that we successfully raised 14 monarch butterflies in August and September. I had planted orange butterfly weed for the first time to attract butterflies. One day when I went to water the plants, I found monarch caterpillars eating all the leaves off.

    Remembering how we raised a monarch butterfly when I was in 4th grade (I’m now in my 60’s), and how amazing it was to release it, I decided to gather up the ‘cats’, put them in a jar, clipped some fresh milkweed near our place, and brought them in the house. In the meantime, I went on your website and bought a small cage, the tubes and tube holder.

    After successfully raising and releasing these 7 beautiful butterflies, I wanted to do it all over again. So my husband and I gathered more ‘cats’ we saw on milkweed near our place, and we successfully raised and released 7 more.

    During the day I was like a mother hen keeping the cage clean until they went into the chrysalis stage. Finally the ‘poop’ ended. The most enjoyment was being there and watching at the exact moment, when the caterpillar was going into the chrysalis stage. Even more exciting was watching the beautiful monarchs emerge AND, filming it all on video, plus taking many photos. One morning we had 4 butterflies emerge within minutes of each other.

    It was a great experience watching the whole process and anxiously awaiting for them to emerge. Sharing our photos and video clips with family and friends was also great to do. BUT releasing them back to nature, and watching them take their first flight, was the rewarding end result.

    We are looking forward to doing it all over again in 2019.

14. It was my first year raising them and I thought I did pretty well. I had about 5 generations minimally and I raised a total of 65, lost 13 to disease and two to a skunk that got into my habitat . Bad skunk!!! Released 42 in total over the whole season

    1. wow….a skunk? That’s a new one ? congrats on a successful first year!

15. In Evansville, IN I raised 26 monarchs and 4 swallowtails (two black and 2 pipevine). It was my first year and I was really glad I got one of your butterfly cages for Christmas. The last 2 I had to hold in the cage for a week because of cold and rain, but they seemed fine when I released them. Looking forward to reports of their arrival and next year.

16. This is my 3rd year raising Monarchs. My husband said I needed a goal and suggested 200. I get eggs off the milkweed I’ve planted around our yard. My total for the year is 515. I learned a great deal this year. It became a full-time job keeping them fed and cleaning frass. My biggest lesson was that they are very social! I also believe that no matter how many times you see the process it is awesome and miraculous. I also raised 3 Milkweed tussock moths and was thrilled raising my first Eastern Swallowtail. The swallowtail was exciting because I planted more host plants and it did indeed work! My success rate is very high because of beginning with eggs. Thank you for the wonderful information on your site. It was excellent especially in the beginning to feel more confident in getting started! I am considering tagging next year and reducing the number. I live on Cape Cod, MA and we just had a gang buster year. To give you a comparison, last year I raised 60.

17. This is my first year and I raised 3 monarchs. I had a hard time finding the cats and did not find any eggs. I’m hoping for a better year next year. My grandchildren enjoyed helping raise them.

18. I raised 1,115 monarchs this year in Kittanning, PA.

    The biggest thing I learned is to check milkweed carefully before bringing it indoors. This was my 3rd year raising, but the first time I’ve ever had a tachnid fly get in my house.

    It managed to get inside one of my nets and parasitized over a dozen of my caterpillars. I’m still not sure how it managed to get in, but can only guess it rode in on freshly harvested millweed!

19. Greetings from Plymouth, MA (yes, the one with the rock). This was my first year raising monarchs, and although things were a bit chaotic due to inexperience and over-protection, I had few serious problems and released 35 monarchs. After releasing my last one, I had actual withdrawal – I had become so accustomed to daily eclosures and seeing beautiful new creatures off into the world. I have learned so much and am so very thankful for the support of Tony and the wonderful people in the Facebook group. I harvested milkweed seeds and have planted and planted and planted. Looking forward to next year!

20. This was my first year raising Monarchs, I released 5 males and 3 females and can’t wait for next year! One big concern of mine was knowing when to release the butterfly after it eclosed but came to realize that the butterfly would let me know by fluttering all about, this was usually after 3-4 hours after eclosing.

    1. Sorry, I forgot my location: York, PA.

21. We released two vibrant, healthy males, the last one just last Friday (November 2nd). Our first attempts. Beginner’s luck we think! I had 3 big caterpillars on the plant at one time and in the morning they were gone. We think something ate them. I found another one my milkweed but covered the plant with a mosquito net. That’s the one we released last week. We learned a lot and are suffering from a bit of empty nest syndrome!

22. Eldersburg, MD. Raised and released 25 caterpillars. All were found on my ONE small poke milkweed plant that had (maybe) a dozen leaves in total. I found some milkweed growing wild and would harvest it every 3-4 days for the caterpillars after work. The monarchs were brought in as eggs (inadvertently) and as instar 1-2.
    Years ago I had as many chrysalises on my siding and more than half were parasitized. So when I found all of these monarchs, I knew I had to help them. This was my first year.

23. Hi Tony,

    This was my first raising year. I released two beautiful Monarchs. We live near Portola, California, at 5700 ft elevation. Only saw 2 caterpillars, though I have about 5 Milkweeds blooming. One cocoon fell down in the cage – I’d bumped it I think, and didn’t discover the cocoon for maybe 8 hrs! Thankfully I knew what to do from reading your site. I used dental floss and super glue, and carefully attached it so it could hang properly.
    Then I worried about things going wrong…however he emerged perfectly. Thankfully.

    I’ve learned some things: When the first one emerged, I was so thrilled. He was so still for so long, like 24 hrs, that I came to the conclusion that he was dead. So I removed the other cocoon to another habitat cage. Left the zipper open on the cage the dead one was in. Returning to the room I realized the dead butterfly wasn’t there anymore! He was alive, and in the sunny window! So happy, and I pushed the screen out right then, and she flew up and over the roof.

    Next year I look forward to saving another few caterpillars to raise the migration. Thanks for all the great info on your site. Couldn’t have done it without you.

24. Here in Southern Ontario we raised 30 Monarchs, we had one death which isn’t included in our count.

    Most were raised from egg, some we captured from the milkweed plants in our garden and brought indoors. We had a horrible aphid infestation which encouraged ants, wasps and hornets. I refused to spray due to potently harming the Monarchs. Best advice is to keep eggs and 1st instar caterpillars in a paper towel lined sealable container and mist twice daily, I moved them to a second contain to transform from to 2nd instar stage is a different paper towel lined container and fresh milkweed was given once daily, once large enough they were moved to the butterfly cage again lined with paper towel for debris and given fresh milkweed once to twice daily and cleaned the cage 3-4 times a week by replacing the paper towel.
    We were able to video the transformation from egg hatch, and chrysalis formation, and emergence. Beautiful experiences this summer!

25. I am in Lawrence, Kansas and released 340 monarchs this year, tagging 200 for the migration. I had great success other than that many of the caterpillars I brought in that i found after they were already growing had T-fly. It was a lot of work and overwhelming during peak season but I was happy with my year over all. I did have 4 monarchs I found late season that grew slowly and pupated slowly.. They were in chysalis for 19 days!!!! They just eclosed Saturday, missing the windows of decent weather we had up until then. I am keeping then for now and was hoping to find someone they could hitch a ride with down south, but haven’t had luck yet. I don’t know what to do. I really don’t just want to keep them in a cage for their whole lives! Any ideas??

    1. I had two butterflies that couldn’t migrate due to wing damage. One fell just after eclosing, so her wings were crunched up because I didn’t find her in time. Also had a male that went into chrysalis on a leaf while his buddies were still feasting. I found his chrysalis while changing out stems for fresh stalks. He was still soft, but I managed to hang him up. When he eclosed, his right wing was smaller than the left, so he was only able to fly in circles. These two became my pets. I fed them Welch’s Strawberry Kiwi juice daily on cotton balls in a soda bottle cap. They did quite well. Baby lived for 41 days, and I’m happy to report that Buddy is still doing well and was two months old on Nov. 4. He still likes to come out and play a little and soak up some sunshine when available, but he is only fluttering now instead of circling my livingroom. Did you know that you can actually pet a butterfly? Buddy seems to like my attention.

26. I released 4 males this year. I’m amazed how fast they fly away in the free air! Great project for our grandkids to see too.

27. This was my first year knowing anything about Monarchs. And this was the first year since coming to Vermont (it’s my 10th year here) that we had several Monarchs in the gardens, which was thrilling. I witnessed my first caterpillars! Then one day I noticed a chrysalis on the siding of my house in late September. Not even knowing what it was, I researched it and then learned about how people raise Monarchs indoors. Since it was getting cold, I hunted down a butterfly cage locally here one Friday evening and brought the chrysalis in for the night. Thus started my journey… waiting… and then one morning I had a butterfly! And it was cold outside here in Vermont. So trying to figure out what to do, I bought a larger cage, found an organic milkweed plant on Etsy, learned how to feed her honey water, and then in mid-October I drove her to Charlottesville for a wonderful release! The weather was beautiful and Miss Monarch left the cage and took off like an airplane headed southwest. I was very happy to be able to release my girl on her way. Thank you for all the information on this website that helped both of us on our exciting journey together.

28. I didn’t start raising the cats until late July but managed 26 releases with just 3 milkweed plants. 1 escape, no deaths. Looking forward to a full season in 2019. Interesting fact… a friend called me to rescue 8 large cats on a vine at her house. They were infact eating the vine with zero milkweed on the the property! They went into chrysalis 2 days later. I have a picture but no where to post.

    1. Might have been Honeyvine milkweed which is a food source for monarchs.

29. I am in SW Ohio, 45430 and I raised 24 males and 27 females with a 98% success rate. I only lost one that I accidentally injured when I was trying to move him/her. I lost zero to disease or parasites. I work in a hospital and always clean all leaves with water thoroughly, at least twice. I use vinegar between batches and only use bleach at the end of the season. I had activity from May 18-Sept. 26th when I released the last one, and was no longer finding eggs after mid-September. My lessons learned were to make sure I identify at least 2 back-up supplies of milkweed before you need it. When I needed some, that had been growing by the roadside had been demolished by a road crew, but I found more further back from the road, and it had not been sprayed. I also discovered the milkweed vine in my yard since 2017 and the cats loved this as much as swamp. I also got my neighbor to start growing milkweed from my seeds, and she had a wealth of “wild” cats & butterflies this year.

30. This year is my first, and it started out with not knowing I was going to do this. Luckily, I had been reading this site for a short time. My sis called me up after growing some milkweed, and decided since we both had purchased the gear here, it was time for ME to come over (she didn’t have the time, yet either) and grab some cats she found and milkweed plants! I wasn’t really ready, but after carting some milkweed, and 3 cats back to my place I hurriedly put it all together and even got up earlier than usual to clean and spray water in the heat. It took a little time to adjust to what what would be an organized cleaning effort, but I pretty much got it after about 3 days. I started to run out of the plants and my sis picked up 3 from a nursery. I hope they were the right kind, because I couldn’t tell if they were the type without pesticides. The 3 cats survived their upbringing here with the lengthy high temps this summer in Southern Calif. I was really relieved to find that raising them pretty much stops after they build their chrysalises. It was a joy to see those jade green cocoons. After I put everything away, I found an almost full grown cat on one of the plants about 2-3 weeks after the first round of releases, so I got one more chance to spoil another Monarch all by itself. So I’m 4 for 4! Yea!
    Thank you for all your help….which I WILL be needing next time!!

31. From: Alan, Tami, and Tammara in Land O Lakes Florida ( Monarch Way Station “Pretty Gems Bed and Breakfast” #17938).

    In our 2nd year, we raised over 800 Monarchs!

    While we enjoyed ourselves, there were some stressful times during Milkweed shortages. (Caterpillars love to eat)

    3 valuable lessons we would like to share:

    1. Remove Caterpillars and eggs quickly from you garden before the predators get to them.

    2. Remove all food sources from under chrysalises. When Butterflies emerge, all the liquid that comes out will contaminate your food sources. Move chrysalises if they form on plants, leaves, or branches.

    3. Buy and prep Milkweed around 2 weeks before needed. Most if not all Milkweed is sprayed with some type of pesticide. Even “Natural remedies or oils” can devastate your “Herd” of Caterpillars.
    The only Nursery we trust will tell you that they set aside Milkweed specifically for Caterpillars, have not sprayed anything on it, and has been this way for approximately 10-14 days.
    You still should prep the Milkweed by replanting it in fresh soil and thoroughly washing and watering it to remove contaminants for about 5 days.

    The best way to tell if you have uncontaminated Milkweed is to look for signs that Caterpillars have eaten some leaves AND there are live Caterpillars on the plant AND they are in all sizes from tiny babies to the medium and larger sizes.

    Good luck on raising next year’s crop and for helping to repopulate the Monarch Butterfly.

    Alan, Tami, and Tammara
    “Pretty Gems Bed and Breakfast” (#17938).

    1. I’m spending the winter in Florida. Can you tell me how long the season is here? I have started growing some swamp milkweed I brought from my Michigan home.

       1. Hi Diana, central and south Florida have a year round population

32. I learned one important lesson this year, my first year- importance of water for the monarchs and cats.
    I live in Southern California- Marina del Rey, a mile from the ocean.
    I have a few milkweed plans in the front yard and let my monarchs live free. I provided water for the butterflies but learned the cats want water too.
    I water about every other day during the summer. I have a third tray for water down on the ground. One day there wasn’t much water in it but there was one of the cats crawling along the edge headed for the water. I was afraid he might drown so moved him to the nearest milkweed. I watched and he went back to the water. Lesson learned.

    1. I am in northeast Illinois. This was my first year of raising and I didn’t really get started until early June. I had 100 % success rate. About a month into it we got a large cage and I’m so glad I did. I felt they had more freedom in it, and most of them climbed to the very top edges to form their chrysalises – they seemed to WANT to be near each other, and near empty ones as well. I plan to get a smaller cage for the smaller cats, as I witnessed many “fights” between small and larger sizes even with plenty of milkweed to go around.

       I raised a total of 27: 10 females and 17 males. Approx. 8 of them would have been considered migrators.
       Can’t wait until next spring !!

33. Hi Tony,
    I raised 67 this year. I did lose two 1 instar caterpillars. They were in a plastic container with 6 other 1 instar cats, and then they were gone. The lid was tight with a nylon stocking for air. All I could think of is that another cat ate them???

    Also I had 2 cats who pupated on the bottom of the rack so I just turned the rack on it’s side when I saw they were ready to come out and they both emerged just fine. I also had 2 cats who pupated so close to one another that they were actually touching and they also came out fine!

34. Rosemount, MN 55068 This was my first year raising monarchs “with a plan”. Last year I raised and released seven in a haphazard way. Then I learned of this site and decided 2018 would be the year to get serious and get it right.
    This year – 2018 – I raised and released 102 healthy monarchs, 65 females and 37 males.
    I tagged 25 of them between August 26th and September 11th (Monarch Watch tags). 21 tagged monarchs were released in Walker MN as we were on vacation; the butterflies had an additional 200 miles to fly for the migration.
    I began testing for O.e. in late August; happily, all 29 tested were negative for the parasite. I will test all butterflies in the future.
    The first eggs were gathered May 25th, even before I ever saw a butterfly. The first release was June 23rd. The last butterfly was released September 23rd.
    Approximately 110 “eggs” were gathered, about 10% didn’t hatch (may not have been eggs). 6 cats (newly hatched) were raised.
    4 cats did not successfully mature, two were euthanize, two were found dead. One cat had an unsuccessful pupation and was euthanized.
    Average length of pupation was 10.25 days, ranging from 9 to 12 days, the majority were 10 days.
    I have 3 Baby Cube, 1 Tall Baby Cube and 1 Large Cube cages. The busiest time was mid-July when 40+ cats were instar 5- lots of milkweed was washed, fed, consumed, and pooped! I will limit egg and cat gathering in the future, so that no more than 15-20 are at the same stage simultaneously. The last two eggs were gathered Aug 25th and eclosed Sept 22nd and 23rd.
    The most unusual situation I encountered was a cat that lived as an instar 5 for more than two weeks before it died. It was gathered as an egg with 16 others Aug 10th & 11th. The entire group of 17 molted to instar 5 approximately Aug 25th to 26th. They began pupating Aug 28th and 16 pupated successfully by Aug 31st. The 16 successfully eclosed between Sept 10th and 12th.
    This cat wandered the cage, continued to eat milkweed and grew to 50+ mm in length. It stopped eating Sept 11th. I kept the milkweed fresh for this cat and kept him in a cage by itself; cage cleaning slowed to nothing by Sept 14th. I found it dead Sept 19th. I posted on the Facebook page about this strange cat several times; everyone suggested that I just “wait and see”. I hope the cat was not in distress the last days.

    1. Palo, Iowa – Raised and released 230 Monarchs. August was a tough month – – fatalities due to OE but thrilled to have more than doubled my releases from last year.

35. On this, my third year of raising Monarchs in Southeastern CT, I released 79, euthanized 4 adults. First cats were given to me as stage 3 instars to raise, on Memorial Day (a record for early arrivals!) and I released the last one on October 18 just 1 day ahead of a hard frost cold front. Here is a breakout of my stats.
    36 males, 39 females, 4 released without noting sex.
    6 cats failed to thrive/died before pupating (these were ‘wild-caught’ cats)
    2 pupae injured by accident 🙁
    4 weak eclose (fell, couldn’t climb) I had one of the weak ones tested for OE by a local high school science teacher who works with the OE project in GA. she said it did not have OE.
    Saw absolutely no evidence of tachinid flies. (would love to hear if anyone in CT has. . .)
    In addition to my releases, I helped rescue dozens of cats from two neighbors who had only a few milkweed plants that got eaten to the nub.
    I did not find a single chrysalis outside this year. . .although I was so busy with my indoor ones I had little time to look. Saw plenty of cats. didn’t bring them all in.
    Learnings from this year: Tropical is still the favorite egg laying plant in my garden, where I grow 6 species of milkweed (in next order of preference, incarnata, syriaca, purpurea, tuberosa, verticillata). Tried wintersowing in 1-ltr seltzer bottles first time this year. Big success, even with the tropicals. I had loads of extra seedlings which came in handy, to feed my hungry hordes. I had only intended to raise and release about 30, the rest was because I kept finding eggs and baby cats when out picking milkweed. I probably have 40 mature milkweed plants, not quite enough for all the action I had. Fortunately I have installed two Monarch habitats nearby at local community gardens, both safe from spraying, so I was able to supplement my supplies. This was the first year I :
    1. used little plastic tubs with lids for the 1st-3rd instars – worked really well and saved space; allowed me to spot the sick ones before they were out in the cage with the others
    2. raised mostly from eggs. (had nearly 100% egg hatch rate)
    3. sick ones seemed to be coming from the cat ‘rescues’ not my egg-raised ones.
    4. separated the chrysalides in batches from the cats so no Monarch eclosed over cats
    5. bleached cages between batches of releases, e.g. no cats placed in a new cage till it had been bleached, rinsed and sundried
    6. rinsed eggs and leaves thoroughly. No bleaching of eggs, though, might try it next year.
    7. tried misting daily as Tony suggests but was getting mildew; decided that there was sufficient humidity in the air and on the washed leaves
    8. released butterflies at 3 different habitat gardens around town besides my own, am wondering if this will result in more Monarchs visiting their gardens next year

    An absolute banner year for Monarchs. Most I have ever seen, from early till late.

    Next year I may try tagging.

36. This is my second year raising monarchs in Anaheim Hills, California and I have learned a lot. Last year I released about 88 with a survival rate of about 85%, this year after learning about bleaching eggs and leaves I released 105 butterflies in perfect health with a 99% survival rate. I am very pleased with the results and can’t wait to continue to enlarge my butterfly garden and host plants and for new season to begin!!

37. Hi Tony,
    Reporting from South Yarmouth on Cape Cod and this year we released 153 Monarchs:

    Released Females Males Totals
    From 8/7-8/22 27 18 45
    From 9/4-10/19 58 50 108
    Totals 85 68 153
    Survival Rate = 93%

    Last year we released 5!!

    This was the third year developing our pollinator and butterfly garden and as we released the butterflies they stayed around our garden which was great to see. Also, in addition to the main milkweed garden, continued to start and keep milkweed in pots which I placed around the garden, especially in sun to partial sun areas. I watched females as they moved from plant to plant to attach their eggs. When I harvested eggs, the job was easier because I could pick the pots up and tilt the plant to locate the eggs.

    We enjoyed watching the butterflies going through their aerial acrobatics in our yard. We were fortunate to see a female suspended under a male flying around in their amorous embrace. Neighbors commented on seeing more butterflies around and three of them have agreed to plant milkweed in their gardens!

    So, lots of work but lots of memories and looking forward to next season. Thanks for guiding us through the season.

    Regards,

    George Slama

38. I’m in Summerville SC right outside of Charleston SC. I collected my first eggs in April and released my first monarchs for 2018 on May 12. Over the course of the season I released a total of 183 healthy monarchs. I had very few failures. Since I’m not sure when the migrating monarchs are released, I’m including monthly numbers starting in August. In August I released 22 monarchs, in September I released 109, and in October I released 23. The last 3 were released on October 20. Tony, I love your products. The baby cube enclosures are a perfect size for me and the floral tubes and holding racks work perfectly. I plan to order more for next raising season.

39. 164 Monarchs released in total
    88 Females
    76 Males
    Bettendorf, IA
    The last one flew on 10/16

40. Tony, this has been an exciting year for me. We bought your big raising house and it made it so much easier. I raised 123 monarchs but didn’t keep track of males and females. I have a notebook ready for next year. At the beginning of the year I lost about 12 chrysalis or caterpillars and I think it was due to a bad milkweed plant. I got rid of it and did not have any other deaths. I released my last butterfly on Oct. 18th. I had to keep it for two days until I had a sunny day with 58 degrees. Still made me nervous, however today, October 20th I saw another one headed south. It stopped for some nectar from my butterfly bush. Hopefully it also makes it. Thank you so much for all your information this year. Love your blog and this site.

41. Hi Tony, with the help of your mesh enclosures, I raised and released a total of 204 monarchs. 98 Males and 106 Females.
    I’m in Eastern Iowa.
    Thanks so much for all your instruction and knowledge. I’ve learned so much from your website.
    Peggy

42. Hello everyone, this year was my first year and I started around August 20 and released my last butterfly Sunday October 14th. My first five Catapillars were found in my yard as fat 5th instar and unfortunately all died as they were either j”aying” or a day after they made their chrysalis. All infected with T fly.
    The next 27 eggs were collected from the wild or from my own milkweed plants. All eclosed as healthy butterflys except for one that never eclosed after turning black and transparent. I also brought home three 2nd instar and mid sept two 5th instar they all were released successfully.
    I am planning next year to releae a lot more monarchs. I have learned a lot and am so excited about next spring coming!
    Thank you to all for the help

43. This is my first summer using the enclosure. I have a butterfly garden in Burnsville, MN. I decided to help the odds for the monarch and ordered supplies and started in mid August with six 1st/2nd instar caterpillars, and released three male and three female butterflies. On September 1, I brought in four small caterpillars and 2 eggs. One egg did not survive. The five cats did well until one fell off a leaf and was accidentally flattened by someone who didn’t see it; confirming the importance of using a tray for any transports. Of the remaining four, one eclosed on Oct 5 (male), two on Oct 6 (male and female) and one on Oct 7 (male). They were brought inside during the rain and cold weather of the past few weeks. I gave them orange and watermelon slices. I was finally able to release one male and two females on October 18. The other male just didn’t feed and he expired on 10/15 with wings wide open. I will definitely do this again next year.

44. I raised about 150 to 160 this summer in rural middle Tennessee.

45. Well I released my last Monarch of the 2018 season on October 11. Total count of Monarchs released is 513. I am still amazed at how successful this year was. I began with a new walk in chicken coop that I converted to hold 4 big cages from Tony’s site along with storage and cleaning supplies. I quickly became overloaded with eggs early in July and the started bringing in cats that I found on my Butterfly weed plants. We did not plan on feeding this many cats and food for them became a real challenge along with managing all of the cages. I had to expand and got 2 additional smaller chicken coops which quickly filled up with chrysalis, at one point I had in excess of 200 chrysalises in the smaller coops alone. I hesitated to bring in cats but did it out of necessity to preserve my butterfly weed plants. Fortunately I had the space to keep them separated from the ones raised from eggs but space filled up quickly.

    By early September not only were all of my coops filled to capacity but I also had all cages full and extra cages set up on plastic shelving outside to hold everything. Once the cages filled with chrysalis I moved them into my house and my dining room became a nursery.

    From a lessons learned prospective I had a major issue with neighbors who started spraying for mosquitos which caused a kill off of a number of recently emerged Monarchs and a large group of cats I had in house. I worked with the owner of the company and he changed the way they treat the property but continue to spray. Others in my neighborhood also spray, very frustrating.

    Food for the cats was also a huge issue, I had never expected to raise over 500 Monarchs and had a limited amount of Butterfly weed that was flowering and I had to preserve for migrating and newly released Monarchs. I found that I had to collect cats and eggs from my plants a couple of times a day to keep the hungry cats from destroying my plants. Fortunately I found another source of food and was able to keep everyone happy. The dilemma I face now is what to do about next year. Do I plant more milk weed for food which will attract more Monarchs and have more eggs and cats? I was swamped with raising over 500, not sure if I could do more but I need a secure source of food for the

46. I started raising and caring for my 1st beauties in late July. Started with a couple cats and 3-4 eggs, and just gained more from there. I had 2 common milkweed plants randomly appears 4 years ago and didn’t think much about them. They have increased now to 6 plants!! My first chrysalis formed in a mason jar but it didn’t take long to realize I would need more room, so ordered a small and large habitat for the next ones. The rest is history and I ended my first year releasing 26 monarachs (my goal was 10)!!

    The most interesting thing I learned is food source. Every article will tell you caterpillars eat only milkweed. My amazing story says not always. A friend was pulling weeds in her backyard and called to say she thought there were monarch cats on a vine growing in a bush. Skeptical because she said there was no milkweed in her yard, I decided to drive over to take a look. Sure enough, they were on a common vine found in Iowa that spirals around bush, up walls, wires and through railings!! Left alone these trailing vines produce pods too. It has a heart-shaped leaf and prolificate spreader. There were 8 of the largest caterpillars I’ve even seen. I brought them home to my habitats and they proceeded to eat me out of house and home consuming most of the leaves I had left to harvested! Two days later they all went into the chrysalis and successfully emerged and were released. I got a picture of them on the vine but don’t see where I can post. After reading other sights, it does appear that places with heavy monarch infestation (Texas) that can’t support milkweed have raised caterpillars on pumpkins. (their frass is orange) 🙂

    Thanks for reading my once in a lifetime story, I’ve learned so much my first year and have other friends now wanting to plant milkweed of their own.

    1. hi Lory, congrats on a successful first season. The vine you’re talking about sounds like:

       Milkweed Vine

47. This was my 4th or 5th year raising monarchs and my biggest yet. I added another swamp and butterfly weed for a total of 2 each. A few common stalks grew from some I planted in a pot last year. I cleared a patch of my garden and planted it there. I had at least 12 stalks although some did not get that big this year. I began with about 20 eggs on my common in early to mid-July. I waited until they were close to chrysalides before collecting another 20 eggs from my swamp milkweed. (I was cutting milkweed from a nearby field so as not to deplete my own.) I waited again and then collected about 20 more eggs, with a few accidentals in between that I had cut on stalks for food. I left many more eggs and caterpillars in my garden. But then, all of my milkweed was completely eaten down to stalks! I rescued the remaining 15-20 caterpillars so they would not starve and cut milkweed from the nearby field which became difficult when the cut almost all if it for hay! But we made it through. I ended up raising 7 at school with the second graders and they were so excited and learned so much about monarchs. Even the teachers learned from it. One new thing I tried this year was bleaching the milkweed and eggs before feeding it to caterpillars. I carefully soaked it in a diluted bleach solution for 1 minute (longer could liquify the eggs) and then soaked it in water for 3 min. Only a couple eggs fell off but they sunk to the bottom and I was able to retrieve with paper towel. My first few rounds of butterflies had no sign of OE that was obvious. A few eggs didn’t hatch and a couple tiny 1st instar caterpillars went missing even though I was so careful. I had a few unexplained small caterpillar deaths. 1 butterfly was heavily infested by OE and was more black as a caterpillar so I isolated it to see what it would do. It could not get out of the chrysalis. 5 chrysalides turned dark. A few had a “string” hanging. A few turned reddish brown in one area before turning completely dark. I noticed a few black “things” on the bottom of the cage that were not frass or skin. (not sure what these were) There was a small hole in a few chrysalides. These last few issues were ones that I collected as caterpillars when there was no food left. They were not collected as eggs. Most likely something was already wrong. MY OVERALL RESULTS: 43 HEALTHY FEMALES AND 40 HEALTHY MALES RELEASED! I estimate about a 90% success rate from egg to butterfly but hard to say since some were rescued as caterpillars. I also had a few dozen more in my yard. I had chrysalides hanging on flower pots, the railing, under the edge of my deck, under a table, hanging from the deck cover, on nearby plants, and even several a dozen yards away hanging from my fence. A few became dark and never emerged but most of them did well and looked healthy. This year was amazing. My lesson learned? Plant more milkweed next year!

48. I have been raising Monarchs in small amounts for 14 years with my second grade class. Two years ago I planted a butterfly garden at school. There has been a steady increase in Monarch eggs and caterpillars over the last two years. This year, we raised and released 287 Monarchs! The whole school was involved and any classroom that wanted caterpillars were able to raise them. The kids just loved it and I got a much needed relief from caring for scores of caterpillars in my house. About 90% of the caterpillars were hatched from eggs. About 5 caterpillars just died with no obvious reason. Two chrysalises never hatched. One caterpillar stopped half way into its chrysalis. Two caterpillars went into the chrysalis early, but hatched as adorable miniature butterflies in perfect condition. Two caterpillars died due to carelessness. One caterpillar did not attach well and the chrysalis fell and hardened in a deformed state. The butterfly emerged, but was too deformed to eat and had to be euthanized. Overall, it was a very successful year with about a 95% success rate!
    A lesson I learned is that 250+ caterpillars is a ton of work, but poopoo platters make life a lot easier. Limit the number of caterpillars in a habitat- they are too hard to keep track of (hence the deformed chrysalis). I wash my milkweed but don’t bleach it and had very little disease. I really try to manage the waste and keep my caterpillars sorted by size so everyone goes into their chrysalis around the same time and then I can get the cages cleaned out before the butterflies are hatching.
    And the biggest lesson- I never get tired of watching a caterpillar go into it’s chrysalis or of releasing a beautiful butterfly! And neither do the kids! It’s worth all the time and effort!

49. I started raising last year with 42 successfully released. This year I released about ten more. What really helped this year was getting another net cage and using test tubes and a test tube holder. It made things a lot easier to feed the caterpillars. I had four unsuccessful “births” of monarchs and three caterpillars that didn’t survive.

50. Tony, I’m glad to hear about the good migration of eastern monarchs. Here on the southern CA coast the western monarch season has been discouraging. As I told you earlier, I had overwhelming success, about 80%, in raising monarchs, I raised and released at least 300 monarchs. But after the spring success, almost every caterpillar I tried to raise died. Of the caterpillars I raised from eggs the deaths were from primarily Black Death. Of the few I’ve raised from caterpillars found in my garden, almost all deaths were from tachinid flies with some from Black Death. I’ve talked to other monarch raiser in the area and most are experiencing similar results. Last year I cut all my milkweed plants back. When I raise them in my habitats I wash the plants off before I put them in the habitats. I have mostly tropical milkweeds 300+ plants, but also have other milkweeds, balloon 10 + plants, vine 10+ plants and South African narrow leaf 10+plants. I’ve had no success raising the CA narrow leaf milkweeds.

    I realize that the monarchs don’t naturally stay along the southern CA coast in the summer because it is too dry for milkweeds to survive, but in previous years I’ve had monarchs all summer. This year we did have an exceptionally dry year on the southern CA coast, only 3″ to 4 “, our normal is 11″ to 12”.

    I hope the fall migration is better.

    I have had an exceptionally good year with raising other butterflies, gulf fritillaries, cloudless sulphur, and anise swallowtails.
    Bill

51. I released 18 butterflies. I live in Pasadena, MD. I had to euthanize 3 cocoons due to the fly infestation I learned about on this site.

52. I live in central Ohio and have been doing this for a number of years but just found this blog this year! I love it. It was so helpful. I was so excited this year because I have released 120 butterflies. I didn’t keep track of how many males verses females, but I’ve got a notebook ready for next year. I lost about 12 at the very beginning but I think it was to a bad milkweed plant. I pulled the plant out and did not have any other problems. It was one I picked up at a nursery that I had never been to before. I got two more friends interested in doing this. Spend the money and get the butterfly house as it makes it so much easier to clean up after them. Tony thank you for all you do. You’ve hooked me. I also have 5 swallowtails that are over wintering. I put them in our garage so hopefully they
    make it.

53. Hi ! So, I started raising swallowtails 12 years ago, but 4 years ago, I found my first monarch Cat! I’ve been raising monarchs ever since ..my success rate has increased every year (the first year I had 7 cat deaths and was baffled ) I am ridiculously proud to say this year 100% survival rate with a total of 39 Monarchs ..21 boys and 18 girls ! I have planted 34 milkweed plants that I germinated from seed ..I have given 9 plants to friends and now their garden will produce !!!! Many friends are now involved with raising Monarchs as well !!! I love this website ! I love my emails from you ! THANK YOU SO MUCH

54. My wife and I are new to the Monarch Butterfly Garden community. We have raised Monarchs at our home in Bettendorf, Iowa, since 2013 beginning with two caterpillars obtained for our grandson through the annual Putnam Museum Monarch Program in Davenport, Iowa. Over the past six years our activities have continued to expand with 1141 releases to date. This year was particularly strong with 621 butterflies released beginning in late June. Our more recent releases are as follows:
    Sept. 1-15 – 186 (83 males, 103 females); also 4 failed chrysalides/eclosings
    Sept. 16-30 – 56 (32 males, 24 males)
    Oct. 1-10 – 48 (26 males, 22 females); also 2 failed chrysalides/eclosings

    During the course of this season we collected 575 eggs and 202 caterpillars. Our system is different than what Tony proscribes. We isolate eggs and smaller caterpillars in small plastic containers until the cats are at least the third Instar. We combine cats into communities after that until they form chrysalides. Our egg and hatchling mortality was about 14% and collected cats about 24%, mostly parasites in the larger collected cats which we had kept separate from others. We will implement many of the suggested procedures during next season to help reduce mortality.

55. My last Monarch emerged this morning. Double the amount of last years butterflies.
    I successfully brought in eggs and caterpillars which turned into magnificent Monarch butterflies from the end of July to today, Oct. 11, 2018 in Middletown, Rhode Island where we still have some beautiful weather with us.

    32 Males released (end of Aug-Oct)
    34 Females released (end of Aug- Oct)
    Common and Swamp milkweed this year. Last year, was Common only. Their tastebuds have evolved.
    I had 7 fatalities where the small caterpillars withered and died.

    Thank you for tracking. What a good feeling to have helped a species.

56. I live just south of St Louis mo. This is my 4th year raising monarchs. The first 3 I released about 20 each year. I planted more milkweed each year and now have about 200 milkweed plants. I started finding eggs and caterpillars (cats) the end of july. I put them in multiple cages. Had plenty of milkweed to feed them . End result is that I released the last one Oct 4th to make my total released 173 for this year 2018. I am sad to report that I lost about 50 cats to the tachinid fly depositing eggs in the cats before I could get them in cages. I kept my cages free of the tachinid maggots. Next year i’ll put up fly traps. I’m looking forward to a more successful outcome next year.
    Carolyn

57. I released 28 Monarchs in Central New Jersey. This was the first year I could easily find eggs and small cats on my milkweed. They were a lot so I gave many of them to a friend to raise because I wouldn’t have had enough milkweed for all of them. I also had several with problems this year that didn’t make it – caterpillars dying, misformed chrysalides, a butterfly that had difficulty getting out of the chrysalis and ended up not being able to expand its wings and a couple of chrysalides that never eclosed. Despite these problems, I released more Monarch this year than last year and when you add the ones my friend raised, successful releases that originated from my milkweed was substantially higher than previous years.

58. Thank you so much for sharing all your information. Here in Maryland, my daycare raised and released 172 monarchs – 90 females and 82 males ! We raised some from eggs and all various sizes of cats that appeared on my milkweed. The children were so excited and interested in finding the different sizes and stages of the cats. We have gained so much information from your writings. The kids can recognize milkweed in different places when we go for walks and are always excited to see monarch butterflies. Thank you for helping us with our learning experience! We will be getting ready for next year’s batch!

59. Quite by accident, we tried our hand at raising Monarchs for the first time this year. We had planted some swamp milkweed in the garden, and lo and behold, found an egg. Then another, then another. By the end, we had raised and released 20 butterflies. 10 females, 10 males. The first was released 9/8 and the last was released on 10/8. We did lose a few. One Egg didn’t hatch, a couple of cats died along the way and we had to euthanize a big cat and a chrysalis because they had parasites. All in all, I feel like we did ok, especially since it was mostly unplanned. This coming summer – we’ll make sure we’re better equipped and we’ll be sure to order tags so when we can track progress when we release.

    1. Forgot to mention we are DuPage County , IL. The Western Suburbs of Chicago.

60. This is my first year raising Monarchs in Morris County NJ. All my eggs and cats came from my own garden. Grew my own milkweed. They all eclosed between September 11 and October 12. I have one chrysalis left. Released 41 healthy butterflies. 11 males and 30 females. I had one cat die why “j”Ing. I had two butterflies that I had to euthanize. One had fallen and the wings dried curled to one side and the other was miscolored and the wings did not flatten properly. Close calls: I moved one chrysalis from a bad corner of the cage, I cut the black part not knowing I had to unravel the silk. Took me about an hour to rehang it finally taking a few microfiber strings from a towel that would grab the black waxy stem. Eclosed properly. Next was almost throwing out a chrysalis on a leaf stem while replacing milkweed. Last was when I was releasing butterflies apparently I grabbed one that was still drying. His wings bent to one side and I was horrified. Hung it back up and the next day it was fine. It has been fun but very stressful at times .

61. This was my first year raising Monarchs. I live in Vermont. Out of 16 Crysalides there were 12 healthy butterfly releases. I had one whose wings did not form properly and I sadly had to euthanize. The last 3 never emerged and I finally gave up on them today. Out of my beautiful 12 I had mostly females. 8 females and 4 males. I found it amusing how raring to go the females were and how sluggish the males were before finally taking off. I look forward to doing this again next year.

62. This was my first year raising and I started small. I just released the final butterfly today (October 11th). Stats:
    1 unexplained death (1st instar)
    2 healthy males
    5 healthy females

    88% survival rate

    Since this was my first year, I wanted to focus on learning. My main lessons:
    I learned what a healthy Monarch egg looks like, as opposed to one that is dark (probably parasitized) or translucent.
    I learned the the magnifying glass is a critical piece of equipment, especially with those 1st instars as they wander off the leaf onto a white paper towel and their white bodies blend in really well. They are really hard to find!
    I learned that if I keep them in a nice warm room they develop quickly. This was especially critical with the last butterfly I found late in the season and just released today. I was running a small strip heater to keep the room between 80 and 85 degrees to hurry her along and she eclosed on day 7!
    I successfully moved one chrysalis who pupated in a bad spot!
    I got better at recognizing the signs that a caterpillar is about to pupate, and a butterfly is about to eclose.
    I learned that I should look for signs that a caterpillar might be gearing up to molt and avoid trying to move them. I got better at recognizing the signs of impending molt.

63. My first year of actually raising some Monarchs. Released total of 7 (3 female, 2 male, 2 unknown). One unknown released when I was not home. The other one I found the empty chrysalis shell on top of a sunflower leaf! My first batch of caterpillars, I didn’t catch any of them and never found their chrysalis. The second bunch I tried to “capture” in homemade “cages”. Most of them escaped. One chrysalis was very low to ground on a trellis and we found it being eaten by ants. We also found 2 dead caterpillars on my big Common Milkweed. None of my caterpillars ate on my Swamp milkweed. I also had Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars on my dill, but didn’t capture any and didn’t find any of their chrysalides. So this was first year I ever saw a butterfly emerge from it’s chrysalis. Also, I got to see only 1 shed it’s skin to become a chrysalis, which was awesome to see. Every butterfly emerging is so exciting to watch. Next year I may get some real raising cages and want to grow more host and nectar plants in my garden for different kinds of butterflies and also maybe get certified as a Monarch Waystation! Thanks for all your great information!

    1. My first year raising near Marinette, Wisconsin.

       Total season release 245
       Females 126
       Males 119

       We have common milkweed growing wild all over. I collected a lot of the eggs from milkweed growing in the ditches along side the road here. Also rescued some from milkweed growing in the farm field next to use before the farmer sprayed it with poison.

64. This is my 4th year and we released 288 monarchs. I live in a north eastern suburb of Cincinnati, OH. My lesson is that I need to grow more milkweed. There are a couple fields that has a ton of milkweed, but they cut it down a couple times in the summer to bale. I hate to imagine how many cats or chrysalis’ are mowed down.

65. In Northern Michigan here! I found this site in the spring and it rekindled my interest of releasing monarchs! I purchased all my equipment, planted a milkweed and nectar garden, and released at least 15 monarchs myself (I didn’t keep a very good record. I’ll do better next year!). I sent six chrysalides to my son’s school for his class to release. I had one case of OE and one accidental death. A smaller caterpillar made its chrysalis right next to one that was close to emerging. As intrigued as I was to see how the small chrysalis would turn out, it’s neighbor eclosed and ripped the small one while it was still soft. 🙁
    I did learn that common milkweed keeps very well in vases! I only have three swamp milkweed in my yard, so I had to go out to public land and gather cuttings. The problem was, I couldn’t do this daily, so I had to find a way to keep them fresh. My wide-mouthed vase was the perfect solution! Even after wilting a bit on the drive home, they perked back up after an hour or two in the water.
    Thank you so much for the wealth of information you provide on this site! It was so helpful all season whenever I had a doubt or a question!

66. Last year I found caterpillers on my milkweed – about 35 and they all disappeared overnight one day. Could never find a pupa so don’t know if they hid or got eaten. This year I bought a tent and successfully released 28 healthy monarchs (we even went through Hurricane Florence and survived). Had one born disabled – it was all curled up and never straightened up; other one found dead in tent before release. Biggest problem was feeding caterpillers – was left with 3 that did not have enough milkweek; I tried all suggested alternatives but they would not eat, so they died. Next year I plan to raise some extra milkweek in a covered greenhouse setting (so more eggs don’t get laid on them) so that I will have plenty to feed my caterpillers.

    This was very exciting for me and I might have gotten some friends at work interested in raising monarchs next year.

67. Hello! I have just finished a fabulous year. This was my 4th year raising and releasing. I released my last Monarch, a male, on Monday October 8th. This year I released 413 Monarchs. 191 were female and 222 were male. I am in Northern Illinois. I have learned alot in these 4 years and continue to do so.

68. Hello,

    Thanks to this website I was able to successfully raise 25 male monarchs and released 24 of them. 1 passed away in my hands and didn’t eat as a butterfly at all because his front leg was working properly. I released some on October 3rd, 5th and the 6th from my home in St Mary’s , Georgia .

69. It is Oct. 10., 2018 in Bryan, Tx. There are 3 caterpillars and 1 monarch butterfly in my yard today. A caregiver and 7 preschool children came walking by my yard on an outing so I went out and gave kids a lesson about monarch caterpillars, milkweed and butterflies . Could not resist the opportunity! I have not seen near as many caterpillars or butterflies this year even though there in plenty of milkweed available in my yard and also nectar plants.

70. Hello!
    This is my second current year raising, or really my first (last year I only had one). I live in eastern Long Island, NY.
    In college, years ago, I worked in a caterpillar lab doing research studying parasitism in caterpillars of all types, and I gained a healthy respect and a lot of tips on rearing at that time but didn’t re-instate my rearing abilities as an adult until last year.

    This year I released a total of 103 healthy monarchs and 40 black swallowtails from rearing inside. (143 total butterflies)
    Some other monarchs were reared outside but the survival rate was really terrible and I lost track of both them and their survival rate.

    Breakdown:

    Monarchs – 87% overall success rate inside
    103 healthy releases
    Lost a total of 15 – 8 to disease, 3 which failed to form proper chrysalides, and 4 to unintended accidents.

    Swallowtails – 83% overall success rate
    40 healthy releases (one is still chillin’ in his chrysalis although it’s still very warm here!)
    Lost a total of 8 – 3 to wasp parasitism, 5 to unknown disease (all 8 were brought in from outside after hatching)

    Not sure I learned anything new this year other than to see for myself how many die in the wild. It was very sad to learn but a reality.

    Alison

71. West Allis, WI. My daughter and I raised and released 236. We outdid our expectations as this was our first year. Everything we know was learned from the internet. We used 4 ten gallon aquariums with covers and numerous sized plastic containers along the way. My daughter became an expert at finding eggs. I became an expert (lol) at constantly keeping milkweed leaves in their habitats and frass removal. We were exhausted by 10/1/18, our final release. What a wonderful experience this was. Thanks, Tony, for all your helpful information and encouragement.

    1. I agree with you it’s a big responsibility , I just released 26 and when they go into chrysalis I feel like I am on vacation !!!
       The hardest part for me is to keep the milkweeds from wilting at the end of the season when it starts yellowing and falling from the plants. It’s a second job ….but it’s all worth it !

72. Bob from Newark, Ohio my last release was 10/7/18. 2018 was my second year of raising Monarchs, 35 first year. This year was great with 311 released. 143 males and 168 females. Success rate was not tracked but the results were good till late September when 15 to 20 crysallis did not hatch. I have 20 swamp milkweed planted as well as my wife’s butterfly garden. The farmer who bales a couple of acres for hay put a snag in my plans this year. I had transplanted several milkweed from the field close to our house for ease of feeding. But this year he cut very late while the milkweed were almost done. He baled but never returned yet for the bales. Very hard to walk through field. Fortunately the females found a patch of common milkweed and laid their eggs. This is where the bulk of my eggs and small instars came from. I was greatful for the common it does not take near as many leaves to feed the critters since the leaves are so much bigger. The cats retrieved later in the season had a small dark spot, I learned not so quickly to leave those in the field. I must admit I became obsessed in trying to collect every cat I found. The amount of time in collecting and feeding became extensive. I think at the end of the season I was not as careful in washing the milkweed. Lesson learned. Also I had two tall and two cubes full with cats in various stages. I used Lipton’s sweet tea bottles for my feeding milkweed. So I left them on the floor of my butterfly house , a 6 by 10 metal frame with three mesh windows and a zipper door. I lost control of the caterpillars. I began finding chrysalis’s everywhere. Very unique places. It was very good season. I had to euthanize at least three deformed wings. I think Tony is correct in that quality is better then quantity. I enjoy hearing from everyone. I need help in control the tachnid fly issue. I do not recall seeing any but the chrysalis turned black and tan and did not hatch. Glad for any comments. It is so calming and seeing Mother nature at work up close.

73. I raised 127 monarchs this year.
    I had a caterpillar loss and a few butterflies that were slow to fly away, but they set on the zinnias flower and eventually took off.
    I learned that instead of floral tube I can use Mac Donald/DD clear plastic cups take out the straw and put one or two cutting of milkweed to make clean up easier.
    I also recruited a friend to do it and she raised 137 monarchs.
    I gave a quick demonstration at my garden club about raising the migration and recruited 2 more people for next year.
    Thank you Tony.

    1. It’s funny but at the end of the season in October when I released 3 butterflies they were very slow to take off.
       I put them on my giant zinnias , I monitored them they took 3 hours to take off. I was worried it started to get a little cold . The following week it was super hot I saw 2 butterflies around the second week of October flying and drinking from my zinnias , I still had beautiful zinnias I planted later in the summer . It’s so rewarding when you see them coming back drinking nectar from your flowers …they are beautiful , so gracious !

74. Hello,
    This is my third year raising monarchs and Eastern Black Swallowtails. This
    was a good year overall but I did have some tragedies

    Overall I released 209 healthy butterflies. 75 were Swallowtails, 28 males
    and 36 females, raised on my carrots and parsley and 134 were monarchs
    Of the monarchs there were 53 males and 51 females
    My super generation, starting sept 18 was 28 males and 26 females.

    I evacuated due to potential hurricane Florence flooding (that didn’t
    happen here in Virginia) and a friend who cared for myvtents released 11
    Swallowtails and 31 monarchs which are counted in the 209 healthy releases.

    In addition to those successful releases I lost 15 to tachnid flies, 1 to a
    broken wing during release, and about a dozen to OE. These were rescued
    from diminishing milkweed supply outside and raised inside in a tent well
    separated from my other 4 tents on milkweed from a nearby grower. Looking
    back on it, I was surprised that there weren’t more mature cats on her
    milkweed so it may very well be contaminated. I won’t use it again.

    I’m planting a wide variety of nectar plants as well as Syriaca, Incarnata,
    and Tuberosa milkweed as well as carrots and parsley at two nearby schools
    from seeds I collected from my plants in addition to multiplying what I
    grow at home. I used large galvanized planters to help control the area of
    the spread of the common variety in particular.

    This year I also planted a second vegetable garden with tomatoes, kale,
    cabbage, carrots, and parsley well away from what I plant for me so I can
    treat mine and keep beds covered with nets but can provide safe food for
    the hawk moths, cabbage butterflies and others. I have my garden and they
    have their garden. ?

    This was a lot of work but seeing all the new butterflies every day filling
    the sky made it well wort while.

    I also have 8 Swallowtails that seem to be overwintering. I had 11 of those
    last year that I released in April.

    I’m treating all my beds with Revitalize and Actinovate for fungus and
    other contaminates. Is there anything else I can do to make my food source
    safer?

    Thank you for keeping this data. It is exciting to know there are so many
    people contributing to the populations of these lovely creatures.

    Diane M- Hampton VA

75. I live in Northern KY just south of Cincinnati, OH. I raised a few monarchs last year and got hooked. This year, I successfully released 86. I wish I’d kept track of genders, but my sense is that they were mostly female. I tagged the last 30 and they were definitely mostly female. I released the last one yesterday, Oct 8, 2018. I got 3 swamp milkweeds to grow from seed plus about 10 tropical milkweed. I will try more from seed for next year. I lost around 12 cats. Several were to tachnid fly and others to whatever causes the chrysalis to turn to mush. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process. I learned that this is about the maximum I can manage and to be sure and wash my hands thoroughly after handling milkweed. I know that I am lucky there are a couple of good milkweed patches close to me or I could not have managed the ones I did.

76. Only 3rd year or so of raising the caterpillars/butterflies in McHenry County, IL. But we have learned so much. And the monarchs showed up early (may) this year, instead of July when we usually see them, which made for an exciting summer. With the early arrival, our milkweed wasn’t mature enough, so, thankfully I knew other places that had more mature milkweed. So, lessons learned:

    1. Know of safe places (no pesticide) to get additional milkweed if needed. Friends, family, businesses (in my case Church)
    2. Have a medium towel as a door cover, if you are alone and have more then one butterfly to release. And instead of zipping, use the towel as a temporary door cover.
    3. Dont just fill vases/pics. change water every day.
    4. Cleaning the cages, vases, cuttings can take a while; 2-3 hours. We have 3 large cages and 1 baby cage.
    5. Nothing quite like a butterfly crawling on your hand/finger 🙂

    Now on to results.
    Bad:
    Probably lost 20-25 larva. Not sure why, just some didnt make it.
    2 were unable to complete chrysalis transformation
    1 black chrysalis
    2 butterflies struggled after hatching.

    Super good:
    114 males
    108 females
    For a total of 222 successful raisings and releases.
    Overall around a 88%-90% success

77. I’m from NE Ohio and this is my first year raising monarchs. I released over 50 this year and 10 deaths due to tachnid flies. Anyone with ideas on repeling the flies,???
    After reading about bringing in the eggs my success rate was 100%. Ive already planted more milkweed to get a headstart for next year. This is such a wonderful experience.

    Tony, thank you for all the info you send us.

    1. We live in Oklahoma and had real problem with tachnid flys. They would even try to get in our house to get them. Every caterpillar I found outside had already been infested. We heard about Rescue fly traps and got some. They really work well but I did have to cut one open to get jumping spider out.

78. I live in Corunna, Michigan and this is my first time raising monarchs. I planted butterfly weed a couple years ago and found my first caterpillar this year. I released 8 total – 4 boys and 4 girls. 🙂 next to our property is a field that was full of goldenrod and I saw lots of butterflies over there. It was so amazing to watch the progression to a beautiful butterfly.

79. I live in Broken Arrow, OK, near Tulsa. This year I released 50 female monarchs and 25 male. I lost two caterpillars to OE, they turned to black goo when they formed their J and melted. So very sad. Also, two caterpillars were unable to for chrysalis; only the head changed at all and the rest of the bodies just hung there.
    I released about 20 of my monarchs after September 17, so hopefully they were some of the ones to migrate.
    I had to stop collecting caterpillars and eggs in mid-September because I was running out of milkweed and didn’t want to get to the point of being unable to feed any more. I saw quite a few cats on the milkweed I did have left, but did not see their chrysalis. I had many monarchs in my yard all summer long…..what a joy. My neighbor across the road, one down the road, and one in a nearby city also took to planting lots of milkweed and had butterflies galore in their respective yards.
    I had tried putting complete plants into my enclosure, but found it difficult to keep the poop cleaned off the dirt. I then tried putting my tubes into sand in a small pail. Again, hard to clean the poop off the sand. I settled on filling styro foam egg cartons with sand and then poking my tubes through the lid and into the sand. I made sure to keep tubes in all holes to make sure the cats didn’t crawl into the cartons. This worked very well as when I cleaned the enclosure, I could bring out the egg cartons and just rinse off the poop with the hose. The sand in the cartons kept them from tipping over from the weight of cuttings and from our pretty strong winds. I also noticed that many cats hung from one particular side of the enclosure, so I started turning my enclosure every few days, and then they were all around the top instead of just crowded on one side.
    This has been a truly wonderful experience for me this year and I look forward to doing the same next year, but with far more milkweed.

80. This was my first time rearing Monarchs and thank goodness for your blog and web info… Released 119. Things I learned….
    1) have plenty of milkweed on hand.
    2) Wash hands thoroughly before handling milkweed or cats.. Lost my first batch of eggs and small cats due to flea and tick meds on pets.
    3) Wash milkweed before giving to cats.
    4) Use diluted castile soap to kill aphids.
    When hurricane Florence was headed towards us I rushed to bring in large cats outside and put in my butterfly cages where I had chrysalis. Ended up with 18 that were diseased and unsure if they would have fared better if I left them to the elements..
    Advise anyone that wants to raise these sweethearts to watch your VERY INFORMATIVE VIDEOS and follow your blog….. everything is there to raise healthy Monarchs..
    Thank you Tony!

81. I had 2 caterpillars that chose the middle of the floral rack to pupate. I ended up disassembling the rack and sewing the part they were attached to to the top of their mesh enclosure. They were none the wiser and hatched without issues.

82. Hi Tony, This is my first year raising Monarchs. I planted 2 Tropical Milkweed in July. I live in Aiken, SC and had not seen many Monarchs. In August I found some cats and was amazed they were there. I learned very quickly that I had not estimated how many plants I would need. That’s where Milkweed 911 became a reality for me. I purchased more Swamp Milkweed, but the cats all but 2 had gone looking for milkweed. I really felt I would let Mother Nature do her thing. Turns out she does need some help. Luckily,I found your website, purchased some raising supplies and began successfully raising Monarchs.
    I was lucky to see a female laying her eggs on the 7 Swamp Milkweed just three days after it was planted. I collected the eggs and put them in a Rubbermaid container. That didn’t go well, I’ll use the floral tubes in the future for hatching the eggs. I did find 5 cats on the Milkweed later. That boosted my numbers. Then, I went to the Nursery and they had Milkweed again and found about 12 cats on them.. I had purchased another cage so I separated them. Some of them didn’t make it. One didn’t form a finished chrysalis, I had to freeze it as it started to break apart and look really funky, probably OE.
    I think I learned not to adopt all I can find. I didn’t really figure my percentage, but it was not high.
    I released 7 males, 4 females. One I kept as a pet, he didn’t hold onto his chrysalis. I wasn’t there right away, so crumpled wings. He goes out in his cage and I keep Lantana and Aster in his cage. He really likes Hummer nectar.
    Also, I’m planning a Butterfly Garden for next year.
    Thanks, Tony for all your information on Monarchs and plant selections. Couldn’t have done it without you.

83. I have reared and released 127 Monarchs this season. 72 females and 54 males. All were healthy and most brought in as eggs from milkweed in my garden in SE Michigan. I didn’t do anything outstanding to successfully raise them…just feed and clean the habitats. I start them out in small containers and when larger more to a large mesh habitat. My friends call me the “butterfly whisperer” and my obsession has caught on to some of my fellow volunteers at the Detroit Zoo.

84. I live in southwest Missouri. First release started August 19th and last release was today October 7th. I successfully released 19 females and 12 males. Two hatched with deformed wings and had to be euthanized. While out in butterfly garden today I found one big cat on a milkweed stem with 3 or 4 leaves left on the stem. While I don’t feel secure that this one will survive I went ahead and brought it in. We are supposed to have cooler temps starting next week so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Planning on planting more milkweed and nectar flowers next spring. Also purchasing another butterfly cube as I needed more space for the cats.

85. I am from southwestern Ontario Canada and this was my first year arising monarchs. We have a well established butterfly garden. I brought my first cat in on August 12 and released my last butterfly on October 2nd. A total of 38 monarchs released successfully. I did have 3 cats shrivel up and die and 2 cocoons turn dark and not hatch.

86. This is the first year I’ve tried to raise monarchs, and although my number is small, it was successful and I can’t wait to prepare and raise more next year. I’m in Redondo Beach, CA, so I’m not sure if the ones I’ve released linger here or journey down to Mexico.

    My son and I found 3 eggs on our milkweed at the end of August. We brought them in to raise and purchased the biggest net cage. We raised them inside the cage with milkweed clippings stuck in Dollar Store containers. All three pupated, although the last of the three fell from her chrysalis and I didn’t catch her until about 15 minutes after she came out. We had a towel rolled up for padding, but she clearly broke her leg. Every day we took her outside to soak up the sun, feed on orange slices or watermelon. We continued to do this for a week. Each day she would try to fly a bit further, even though her leg was broken. One day, we took her out and she flew away.

    We found one more egg on the milkweed and brought it inside to raise. We knew it would be our final egg for the season. We released her on October 5.

    I’m still learning so much, but after seeing how the one female broke her leg, it’s worth putting padding down and to give them a fighting chance by giving them room to explore the world with a little help from us humans, because when and if they’re ready, they will take off on their own.

87. I live in Burbank CA and I was able to raise and release 5 butterflies. I had 1 caterpillar that stopped growing and died. It didn’t turn black or seem to have parasites. I feel so lucky to live in CA and right now I have 7 chrysalis and 4 cats that are my first ones I’ve raised from eggs. For the first time we actually saw the female lay the eggs and went over to our plants and found all 4 eggs she laid. Thank you for all the info. This page is like my Monarch Bible!

88. Released my last two on Thursday, bringing my total for the season to 173, 75 males and 98 females. 109 of them were released after September 1. I had three deaths in chrysalis. I didn’t count the deaths of the 1st and 2nd instars, but every year I do suffer losses of the littlest ones. I figure it’s all part of the process, as we want the strong genes moving forward. This is my 5th year raising them. I’m in Loudoun County, VA.

    My biggest lesson learned was actually from last year. I raised 340 last year, and it was too many. It stressed me in many ways and impacted my family life. So instead I planted more milkweed this year, and I didn’t bring in every caterpillar I encountered. As a result, I had many in my gardens and I enjoyed checking up on them. Yes, some died and seeing their carcasses was hard, especially those as 5th instars. And just last week I saw a spider munching on what looked like a newly eclosed monarch. But it’s not my job to save them all, it’s my job to plant the milkweed and nectar to help them along. I chose to start raising more later in the season instead of having many early on in order to focus on the migrating monarchs and also because I wanted to raise the ones laid as eggs in my own yard instead of searching elsewhere for them as in years past. So of the 173, about 150 were laid in my yard (others were rescues from milkweed going bad and some were from friends). I’ve never had so many laid in my yard, and am thrilled to have seen so many adult monarchs visiting my gardens. My yard is rather small, I live in a community where the houses are really close together, but my gardens are flourishing and every year I look at them and think “I can’t believe I grew all of this!”. I never thought I’d be into gardening OR raising butterflies. But I’m loving it!

    1. Couldn’t find where to post my report on monarchs raised this year so I clicked on reply to post. I live in southwest Missouri. Starting August 19th and ending with last release today, October 7th, I released 19 females and 12 males. I had two that had wing deformities and they had to be euthanized. While cleaning out some things in my butterfly garden I noticed one large cat on a milkweed stem that had three leaves left. I had just cleaned out my cages, but nevertheless, I brought it in on the single stem of milkweed. Keeping my fingers crossed. The temperatures next week are supposed to be highs in the 60’s so don’t know if this butterfly will survive. But I had to give it a chance. Lessons learned…..more milkweed planting and nectar flowers next year!

    2. I have learned some of the lessons you have. It’s hard to turn your back on a caterpillar but you have to be resolute and stick to your plan. I know how hectic it can get when you have a large group of what I call “munchers”. They’re the ones in the final stage before cocooning. They eat 24/7 and they eat a lot!!! I’ve found that if I go ahead and cut extra milkweed, go ahead and wash it and keep it in water it helps when I get in a time crunch. I live in Louisiana but I have relatives in Virginia Beach. I hope to visit your state someday soon. Good luck with the Monarchs next year.

89. Hi Tony! My last Monarch has headed south from Allentown, NJ. I raised a total of 190 healthy butterflies. I did have 11 additional butterflies/chrysalides that were Tachinid Fly parasitized. My family took a vacation in mid August so the cats that were infected were a result of my not being home to harvest them as eggs/first instars – just shows that you must get them early or the parasites will. My total counts were much lower than they were last year – the Monarchs did not appear in my yard until very late July compared to a very early July showing the previous year. The weather here in Allentown , NJ was very wet for a good deal of the summer so I think that may have contributed to the late showing and low numbers of eggs. Also, there is little wild Milkweed growing in our area and any that was was cut by the county or area farmers trimming weeds along the country roads. I am certain that this reduced the Monarch count in my area as last year I harvested eggs and cats from these plants and also used them as back up food for my own garden stand of Milkweed, but due to the cutting it was no longer available. It is crucial that people/communities plant and not cut this host plant. On a good note, I was very excited to have hit the “Lepidoptera Lottery” and had 5 rare OPY yellow Monarch chrysalides, all of which hatched into healthy adults. I have been raising Monarchs since I was 8 years old – 47 years – and had never seen/heard of this recessive gene condition. I reported this to you and you posted it with photos on your site. Until next year! Keep up the good work, your articles and recommendations are always on point.

90. My friend and I raised over 100 monarchs in Midwest Wisconsin. I didn’t keep track of how many males vs females we released, or what our success rate was, but we definitely had more successes than failures. We did, however, have some lost to black death, some to tachinid fly larvae, a couple due to falling after emerging from the chrysalis, and one caterpillar who ignored his leaves and ate his friend in the freshly formed chrysalis. We learned a lot through this experience and also from these emails/website. I’ve been raising monarchs for the past 8 years but have never seen the amount of caterpillars that were around this year…and I also saw the most monarch butterflies ever!

91. Total releases for the (3rd) season was (will be tomorrow or Monday for my last one, since today was cold and rainy) 363 — up from 177 last year and 8 my first year. I found my last egg on 8/27. So I don’t know if any I released after that or even shortly before that were migrants or not. Going by 9/1, the number of migrants would be 133. Going by 9/15, it would be 68.

    Even though I raised more this year, I actually felt like I did a better job keeping the cages clean and them healthy, except for the caterpillars I brought home on a store-bought plant. The garden shop didn’t spray them, but apparently the grower did. The lady who runs the garden shop and I both contacted the supplier to ask them not to treat even their milkweed cultivars, because it’s like a Trojan horse that attracts the moms to lay eggs only to kill the babies.

    It was a good summer, monarch-wise. But this really took up more of my time than is healthy, because I felt like I’d waste less milkweed if I had a continual supply of babies eating it instead of making lots of cuttings for late-stage 5th instars who are voracious until they aren’t and it all goes to waste. So the continuous care consumed my whole summer, if not in work, then my attention and how I arranged my days around cleanings and releases. (But I’m retired.) I think one thing I’ll do next year is limit myself to hunting for eggs only 1 day per week, and limit the number of eggs, while still trying to look in various places for eggs from different parents for genetic diversity, and also to boost more mothers’ babies’ chances at survival. And if I can control my impulses, I might skip every 4th or 5th week to have a vacation to pursue other interests. But time is limited, and I kind don’t want to squander my the short window of opportunity of raising them, either. It seems much easier to raise caterpillars in different stages/cages than having a bunch of hatchlings to keep track of, or late-stage 5th instars to clean up after every 4 hours. (20 make less frass than 60 do.) So I definitely want to pace things better next year.

    In mid-August I moved the cages out to my porch, so they’d get the natural day-length and temperature fluctuations, in case that’s what they need to develop differently from the breeders. I’ll do that again next year. But I’m thinking that on the colder nights, I’ll bring the cages inside and put a small blanket or towel over the cages to block out the light from the other room, because it seems to be a Catch 22 to let them experience cold nights, and have that cold slow down their development. That last egg I found on 8/27 didn’t pupate until 9/20, about 6 days later than expected. And she didn’t eclose until today, which was 2 days longer than expected for the date she pupated. I was actually hoping she’d be released by 9/28. All the ones I released in September took a long time to pupate and also to eclose. In fact, some who I thought would eclose took at least 12 hours to another day. And some came out around sunset. So I had to “wait and see” if they were just slow, or if they died inside their chrysalides when they took that long.

    I didn’t notice any difference in size. But I can only hope that everyone I released at least since mid-September, if not earlier, were truly migrants, and suspect they were since I never found any eggs after 8/27.

    (I live in NE Illinois.)

92. This is my second year and the first year with any problems. I released 15 migration monarchs. I had to euthanize 4 chrysalids. ?I learned a LOT about tachinid flies and how to spot OE. I learned that it is good to have two cages so that potentially sick cats can be kept separate from the others. Something that worked very well for me, maybe because I don’t get large numbers of monarchs here, was a clean old plastic ink refill bottle that was for an old printer. It has a needle like top which was easy to put in the floral tubes. Made it so much easier and I didn’t have to disturb the cats as often.

93. Throughout the summer and fall I raised and released a total of 89 beautiful Monarchs. In addition I shared another 40 eggs and little caterpillars with a friend, Rose, who doesn’t have a working computer at this time. So together we released 129 Monarchs. We didn’t take note of whether they were females or males. We each had an additional three which didn’t make it. Most of them were because of the tachnid fly larvae that destroyed them.
    Thanks for all you do for Monarchs and your followers. You are always so personable and helpful, Tony!
    Donna

94. I had a successful year. I released about 100. Thirty of them I found on my plants. The rest I ordered. Didn’t find
    many flying around the area where I live in northern Illinois until the migration. I have several nectar gardens
    and they love the butterfly bushes.

    Looking forward to next year.

95. This is my first year of raising. I did not try to raise from eggs but picked cats from my2 swamp milkweed pants which grew quite large in the 2nd year. I originally planted a Hummingbird garden and then went to a pollinator day at an Audubon site and became interested in the Monarchs.
    Up here in New Hampshire we did not see any Monarchs until mid-August. I was gettng very worried that I wouldn’t have any, at least I had Hummers, then one day there were a lot of Monarchs. Shortly after a lot of cats (I’m learning the lingo). My small butterfly cage was quickly too small. A large cage arrived with larger water tubs and another tube holder. The labor involved was a surprise along with how voracious they were.
    Yesterday I released my last butterfly. It is cold here and I wonder if he/she will make it. I did not keep track of the numbers but will next year. If I had to guess I’d say between 30 and 40. To feed all these beauties I had to go afield and gather milkweed from places I felt were not contaminated.
    I started many common milkweed and swamp milkweed and butterfly bush in a raised garden and have transplanted the around our property. Hopefully they will survive the winter and I’ll have enough food next summer.
    It has been satisfying to raise Monarchs, especially to see them fly away, usually to a large clump of Zinnias.
    I have learned too much to list. Started knowing nothing and now feel fairly educated.
    Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to all.

96. This is my second year raising Monarchs. I am totally hooked and I can’t thank you enough, Tony, for all your GREAT advise and emails. I’m happy to report that I raised and released 39 females and 22 males, totaling 61. I live in Clarksville, Maryland. I think the greatest lesson I learned this year, thanks to your advice Tony, was to NOT bring in large caterpillars. I wanted to save them all! Most of the large caterpillars were diseased and the chrysalis turned black. I can’t wait for next years Monarch season to begin.

97. The monarchs are still flying through here, Creve Coeur MO (west of St. Louis). So far I have raised & tagged 9 female and 3 males. I have 5 in chrysalis and feeding 1 more 2nd instar. I managed to capture & tag 4 wild monarchs. I have found them on & fed almost all of my cats with tropical milkweed that I grow in pots because my next door neighbor sprayed her new lawn with pesticides and it got to my swamp mw, causing the leaves to look “burned”. Not sure what will happen to it next season.

98. The most important thing I learned this year from raising Monarchs is to encourage others in your neighborhood to grow nectar and host plants.
    I had many people comment on how much fun it was to walk by my home and see Monarchs and other butterflies flitting around my yard. They asked how I attracted the butterflies so I showed them which plants were the best for the butterflies and gave away some easy to grow plants such as cone flowers, joe pye weed and marsh milkweed. Monarchs and other pollinators would benefit greatly if each homeowner removed a few yews or boxwoods and replaced them with a small butterfly garden.

99. Hello, Tony,
    Thank you for all your exceptional work you do !!!
    This is my first full year raising Monarchs, I purchased a Gomphocarpus Physocarpus (Dino Swan) from a local nursery.
    The plant was only one and half feet tall, planted the end of June, by the end of July it was six feet tall. I visited Monarch Watch. org and read over all the wonderful helpful ideas and comments from your regular monarch rasiers. I planted my
    Dino Swan close to my walk at my retirement home in Wyomissing, Pa. Watered the plant twice a day. All persons using door ten admired the plant and I spoke with them I told them about my mission along with Monarch Watch. My fellow seniors had fun helping me find the eggs on the plants and he second enstar cats. Six large cats crawled off to find their own safe location. From ten eggs, two monarchs were born, one female and one male. Four eggs, where not eggs, they where milk weed drops, four eggs, three euthanized due to the chalcid wasp. One egg in going into the third enstar could not lift the back half of it’s body, and not excreting fully formed frass, a light liquid green, gave it another twenty four hours, not doing well, euthanized him in the freezer. A fellow resident had swamp weed with six large cats, two crawled away, one euthanized, tachinid fly, three rescued and made it. Someone sprinkled a veggie poison on the swamp weed. Fortunately they made it into a Chrysalis, I had two females and one male able to fly away into the south.
    I used glass gallon jars, placed a white paper towel pre damped on the bottom of the gallon jars, used a small glass jar with holes in the lids. Shaved the Dino Swan milk weed to fit into the holes of the jar. Also placed grill cooking skewers into the jar to give the cats more climbing areas. Cleaned the jars twice a day, I would have a clean jar prepared and ready with food while cleaning the dirty jar. Wash the dirty jar with Ivory dish soap, rinse well, dry the jar, wipe with a clorox wipe, dry the jar, and set up for the second change of the day. Used nylon from knee high stockings to place over the openings of the jars, and fasten the nylon with strong safety clips. Dino Swan Milk Weed, cut away the stems where the leaves were devoured and add new milk weed. Rinse remaining milk weed, and pat dry if it were to wet. When the cat went into a Chrysalis would gently spray the Chrysalis with the chill off the water. I would speak to my cats from beginning to birth. My husband and his friend deep voices, when they could come around the cats, their antane would quiver, and they would quiver a little. Raised the butterflies on my balcony. I shared the stages of growth with my fellow senior citizens in the retirement center, we had a large attendance throughout, and our photographer provided pictures
    in the main lobby for all to see. It was rewarding adventuring for all of us!! Plan to raise many more next year. Our grounds crew chief is working with me to place a large butterfly garden on our retirement center.

    1. I enjoyed hearing about raising monarchs at your retirement center. I have helped our senior mealsite and several shut-ins manage some monarchs; I want to try this idea about planting milkweed at the senior residence to collect, raise and release. I think the shut-ins appreciated our project more than anyone else.

100. I live in southern Indiana I planted milkweed 2017 and only had about 8 cats. This year 2018 I have had at least 25 cats on my milkweed and have seen many more butterflies this season compared to last year.
     They are coming back ❤️???

101. I have one chrysalis left but decided to post my results. If that one is a healthy butterfly I will have released 600 monarchs this year. 291 were female and 308 were male. 372 of those were the migrating generation. I lost about 9 to the tachinid wasp. My biggest disaster was cutting milkweed at a friends house, who usually has safe milkweed. I’m guessing a neighbor sprayed trees or a lawn service got too close to her patch because caterpillars that were healthy in the morning were all lying on the floor of the cage by the afternoon throwing up green stuff. They had all been poisoned. I am now trying to increase my milkweed in my own garden but with raising 600 caterpillars I definitely need outside sources. I will be more careful next year and may wash more of the milkweed I use. I found the largest success rate is accomplished by raising from eggs. The caterpillars I lost were all brought in on cut milkweed and were already infected. Also, I used more tents this year to prevent overcrowding and that cut down on diseases. I live in Robesonia, PA.

     1. I found it is a good idea to check that they haven’t used mosquito sprays also, either direct sprays or the foggers. They do not necessarily realize if it kills mosquitoes, it can kill Monarchs, especially caterpillars.

        1. Thanks Tom. That could have happened too because with one of the wettest summers ever around here, mosquitos have been a terrible problem.

102. Hi Everyone,
     This was my first summer raising monarchs. All my monarchs 40 of them hatched perfectly. I am happy that was the case. I had another 10 that I know of were successful closing. Found wings in my garden so something got to one or two. My neighbors have spotted preying mantis on their properties. I haven’t found any my gardens but I’m sure they must have been there I left a lot of caterpillars and eggs outside. I didn’t want to over do it with milkweed getting low. After the first hateched out in my garden the milkweed had time to recover and I had plenty for outside and enough for mine inside. Overall I had a great experience and will do it again next summer

103. I fell into raising Monarchs by accident this year. I was prepping a newly planted flower garden for next year and purchased three different varieties of milkweed some time late July. I was quite shocked to later discover 11 caterpillars! In a panic to protect them, I secured the caterpillars in five-gallon paint straining bags. As the milkweed diminished I purchased additional plants and carefully transferred the caterpillars. Ten made it to adulthood and successfully launched. I discovered the eleventh one nearly pinched in half. I suspect it was either the ants or the spiders that I had been battling. Thinking that my Monarch raising was over for the summer I started some garden clean up. That’s when I found 14 more! I was unable to acquire more milkweed from the greenhouse, so I traveled our country roads in search of healthy plants. I lucked out with ten sizeable milkweeds. I unknowingly also acquired two additional caterpillars. Since then, ten have successfully launched. One Monarch butterfly has been with me for three days. It is able to fly short distances, but appears to struggle. It looks to me as though his abdomen is overly large compared to all of the others. He has been sipping the sugar water that I provided, but I am sure he needs a more natural nectar. I named him Forrest and tell him, “Fly, Forrest! Fly!” The last five caterpillars formed chrysalides just a few days ago. One caterpillar took me by surprise when it formed a chrysalis. It was nowhere near the size that it should have been. The chrysalis is half the size of a normal one and has an odd color, green but not the bright green as expected. I am really curious about its development. If they emerge it will be too cold for a launch. I plan to keep them for as long as I can, but am hoping for a long Indian Summer and a miracle! There were nine females and 12 males.

     1. I also had one male like your Forrest. He did eventually fly. He was here for days and would not fly though he seemed strong. I isolated him, and eventually put him outdoors on top of his mesh cage, where he sat in the sun for hours and finally did fly away. I wonder if these males have some particular role.

104. My final monarch, #85, having had the good sense to eclose on the one nice day between sieges of awful weather, flew off into the clear blue sky and 80+ degree temperature in Chicago on October 4. I’ve been raising eggs from the three types of milkweed in my native plant garden for about 5 years, and this has been the most prolific butterfly season yet. Unfortunately I also had more losses: a chrysalis that didn’t form properly, a monarch that never eclosed, one that couldn’t expand its wings, and one with malformed wings (success rate 95-96%).
     Lessons Learned:
     1. Easiest way to refill floral tubes for milkweed cuttings: fill an empty, uncapped tube with water. Then gently pry the cap off the tube with the cutting and transfer the cap-with-cutting to the uncovered water-filled tube. The former cutting tube then becomes your spare. It’s easier than juggling a cap-with-cutting while trying to refill the tube.
     2. I raise caterpillar cohorts in separate cages (I have 4). Eggs hatch in a covered food container. I transfer all “hatchees” from the same 5-7 day period to one cage. The next batch goes into another cage, etc. I never have to worry about monarchs eclosing in a cage with munching caterpillars, and any diseases would be confined to a single cage.
     3. I sweep cage floors with a clean 2-inch-wide paintbrush, using a piece of white cardboard as the “dustpan.” I can wash the paintbrush after sweeping and replace the cardboard frequently, and I have one paintbrush/cardboard set for each cage. A bonus of this system: if I missed seeing a stray caterpillar on the cage floor, it’s easy to spot on the white cardboard.
     4. I love cheesecloth! Drape it over the cage door opening if you have to unzip a butterfly-containing cage so the occupants don’t escape (helpful if you’re putting in cut flowers for delayed-release monarchs). Drape a cut-to-size piece over a leaf where a caterpillar has made its J while other caterpillars are feeding on the same cutting. After the chrysalis has formed and hardened, you can relocate it; in the meantime, the other caterpillars avoid the cheesecloth-protected leaf A monarch that has fallen onto the cage floor and can’t right itself or reach the cage wall can grab onto cheesecloth, which you can then place next to the wall. (This happened to 2 healthy monarchs—one because of an overly fluttery cagemate and one because of an overly enthusiastic and underly supervised young onlooker).
     Thank you Tony and all contributors to this wonderful website for sharing ideas that help us raise the migration.

105. I am in Illinois and I have been raising Monarchs for over 17 years. I have experienced every Monarch disease and predator and every milkweed disease and predator. This year in Aug. I lost all of my caterpillars, 257, to Black Death. That was the first time I ever lost so many but I still managed to release 278 healthy butterflies. I had only a 25% survival rate this year which is still well above the 3% that would have survived in the wild. Usually I have a 50 to 75 %. I keep track of every egg or 1st instar caterpillar I find and the specific cause of everyone I lose.

     My aim is to raise and release as many as I can to help increase the number of Monarchs that spend the winter in Mexico. The more there are the better chance they have to survive the winter storms and predators. It is a lot of work and devastating to see the ones that don’t survive but I try new things every year to improve their chances.

     What I learned years ago was that July is the best month with few loses but the Monarchs that migrate to Mexico are from the caterpillars that hatch in Aug. and Sept. Aug is when the diseases are at their worst. I raised them all the same way but I released 193 in July and lost 257 in Aug. Separating and disinfecting didn’t seem to help. My idea for next year is to watch the caterpillars more closely and separate them sooner. I may even try disinfecting the egg.

106. An “accidental monarch mom”, this journey for us began six weeks ago when my husband found a cat 5 and I quickly brought it in to raise. Though a novice, with all the great information found online, it didn’t take long to get it the groove. That first cat went into chrysalis 48 hours later, and we were in love! Lesson 1: Finding more cats, we very quickly purchased an additional two habitats so as not to overcrowd. Lesson 2: Wow, can they eat! We started a native prairie in the fall of 2017, and so had plenty of common milkweed and butterfly weed. When all was said and done, we raised and released 17 beautiful, healthy monarchs, seven males and 10 females. No losses! The first eight were released within six hours of eclosure. However, due to a cold and rainy weather pattern here in east central Wisconsin, the last nine were kept inside for sleep-overs anywhere from two to five nights while we waited for a break in the weather. Lesson 3: Patience is a virture! After watching Mr. Lund’s video on feeding adult monarchs, on Wednesday, October 3, we spent 10 to 15 minutes nectaring each butterfly with a six-to-one water-honey mixture. We happily released all with full bellies to begin their migration to warmer climes. Not only beneficial for the monarch population, we personally found this fun and educational. In the last half of our eighth decade, we believe we’re never to old to learn! Many of our cafe customers followed the story on F/B and we are now preparing an educational PowerPoint program to be delivered next year to groups in our vicinity.

107. A difficult year but released 12 & had 11 die from various problems. I really enjoy your group on Facebook & will be ordering some supplies for next year. I have swamp & common & I only had cats on the swamp. I have a lot more common but never found any cats on it.

108. Total of 97 eclosed. 57 of those were late August or later. 2 had mismatched and crumpled wings One in July fell, so I figured that was cause, but my last one of season (in late September) also had messed up wings and I have no idea why. ? One Caterpillar died mysteriously…was afraid it was black death but no others were affected. ? Lessons learned…I bought low power vacuum that helped with cleaning A LOT and also learned the value of having some small plantings off away from the major milkweed stands because these solitary plantings (often in semi shade) were magnets for egg-laying females. So, 98% healthy Monarchs…I’m happy happy! I am also excited that I have helped many others to join the fight to help our Monarchs and raised awareness about pesticides, herbicides and loss of habitat for MANY people.

109. This is my 4th year raising Monarchs and Eastern Black Swallowtails. I raised 99 Monarchs and had 2 deaths, one kept wondering around and deflated and the other one never came out of the chrysalis. the main thing I learned was , plant more Milkweed in the shade. My milkweed fell out of the garden in early spring and was covered with every bug known to man . I had to go to parks and find milkweed all season and the MW found in the shade was healthy and fresh and no bugs. I did not count males to females . I did however have large healthy butterflies and I wash my cages in a front loader washer and I raise them in side in their own room with the AC blocked off . I only keep about 6-8 in a cage . I clean the bottom of the cage every morning. It has worked very well for me . This coming year we are planning on raising spice bush swallowtails too. Adding spice bushes to our yard this fall. This is a very rewarding hobby and this year my daughter started to raise monarchs too and that made me feel really good . Thanks for all of your advice and your great website and your booklet helped me very much.

110. This was my third year raising monarchs, and it was all good! I lost track of numbers, but would guess 70 to 80 released and 25 tagged..
     I was away for most of the last 2 weeks of September, so gave my remaining cats and chrysalises to a friend who also raises them and who released the the butterflies for me. Convenient to have a willing caterpillar sitter!

     Last Sunday, September 30, I was on Monhegan Island, a small island off the coast of Maine, about 14 miles from the mainland, and saw dozens of monarchs all over the island, mostly nectaring on wild asters. I even saw some flying over the water as the boat approached the island. There are large patches of common milkweed, so many of the butterflies I saw may have hatched there, but at some time, butterflies must have flown long distances over the ocean to get there. This is a popular stopping point for migrating birds, and maybe for the monarchs too. Very interesting discovery!

111. Raised and released 216 butterflies. I am on Marco Island, south of Naples, Florida. I am still raising them but the majority of the eggs I find now are diseased so am about at a 20% rate of egg to caterpillar. It is getting hard to find milkweed and mine is getting very straggly. This is my first year; I am tearing out my backyard landscaping and grass and turning it into a butterfly garden. I have enjoyed this so much over the summer but some days it took 2 hours to care for all the cats!

112. My wife and I raised 109 cats from eggs and small cats that we found in our gardens. We were able to release 91 with tags. So interesting to us to see the difference in the size of the wings between the two generations of butterflies here in the mountains of western Pennsylvania

113. I’m in Baltimore, MD and have raised and release many Monarchs this year. This past month, and up to yesterday, has been quite warm and wet. I’ve cut back many of the finished milkweed that have lost their leaves and now I’m noticing new milkweed plants popping up. Along with new milkweed plants, I’ve just noticed a load of newly laid Monarch eggs!!! It’s October 6th – I’m not thinking that these guys have a chance of making it to adulthood and being part of this year’s migration, as I’ve heard that the weather is supposed to take a turn for the cold in the next 2 weeks. I also thought that all Monarchs eclosing in August and beyond (especially in September) are in sexual diapause. Thoughts?

     1. hi Constance, it it probably too late for them to make it, but last year there were still monarchs migrating through the northeast in early November. Depends on the weather… PS…there’s no way they will make it left outside because cold temps will slow down metamorphosis, but the eggs and caterpillars will serve the ecosystem in other ways.

114. I’ve had lots of common milkweed, swamp and Oscar but my problem is the flies and wasps are killing them. Several have made it to the chrysalis stage but I’ve had to get rid of them :>(, I’ve had over 100 monarchs this yr. . We’ve only been in the house 5 yr. and the first 2 yr I had great luck with the monarchs. I guess the flies and wasps finally found us.
     Short of bringing the inside (don’t want to do this) any suggestions?
     the chrysalis turn black!!!
     I live in NE, Oklahoma!

     Love this web sight. Thanks for helping us!!!

     1. Hi Carlene, sorry to hear the predators have been a problem this year. Please check out this post for some ideas:

        Monarch Predators and Helpful Solutions

115. Hello I am in Gillsville Georgia, this is my first year raising Monarch Butterflies. I had 13 caterpillars, I released 10 butterflies, 2 chrysalis turned black and 1 caterpillar died. I enjoyed raising these butterflies and if a females leaves eggs on my Common Milkweed next year I will do it again.
     Thanks
     Jim

116. Hi Tony. This is my 2nd year doing this. I live in southeast PA. I had a total of 50 that eclosed and were successfully released. However two of those I don’t think will survive to migrate as they had wing issues causing trouble flying. Another one I had to euthanize as it stopped trying to fly as just stayed in same spot for over a day and a half, as it also had a bent wing.

     I had at least two females that hung around laying eggs the first three weeks of August. I only found one chrysalis outside near one of my mw plants that eclosed but there might have been a couple of others as there were about 5 monarchs all hanging around that one area on the same morning. I continue to see adult monarchs flying around my garden just about every day.

     I had swamp, tropical, tuberosa, and poke milkweed plants. I created several groupings in five different locations in my yard to spread them out.

     I was surprised to find many of the eggs laid on my butterfly weed (tuberosa). I thought I read this isn’t their favorite mw plant to lay eggs on.

     I was plagued by aphids and black fungus disease on many of my plants. The aphids like the tuberosa and swamp milkweed the most. and the black fungus was mostly on my swamp milkweed. I tried spraying the peroxide mixture recommended which seemed to help a little.

     Lessons learned.

     1) A nice garden of milkweed and flowers is great for attracting and raising butterflies but it also attracts many predators. You must be vigilant in keeping away using the safest methods so as to not harm the good insects. I manually squished aphids and I relocated some praying mantis to nearby park. Got to get aphids when first seen or they quickly get out of control.

     2) Be careful walking around your milkweed plants, I almost stepped on a few cats as they were on the ground, I guess looking for another mw plant. You can find a cat just about anywhere. I found one (about a 3 instar) in a small evergreen shrub I bought still in the pot.

     3) Bringing the cats inside in a safe environment seems to be the best way to avoid the concentration of pests and diseases outside to allow you to successfully raise to adult and release. I left many cats outside, only to find many gone in short periods of time. I waited most of the time to bring the larger ones in around the 4-5 instar.

     4) I only had one chrysalis go black in my tent and two cats that died in it.

     5) I know some people are against tropical mw for norther areas where it is non-native , but I still have these plants blooming for me and providing food for the adults released or passing through. I bought seedlings from a person in Arkansas and they really worked out well.

     6) I’m definitely going to get several more butterfly weed plants as a perennials as they are both great for the cats and they have pretty flowers until the cats eat the whole plant. :-).

     7) Make sure to clean the cage daily. These cats sure do make a lot of frass. And you should really wash all mw leaves you bring in.

     This coming year I intend to buy another tent or two. One small one for transportation to outside or just for extra space . And maybe one tall one just to be able to raise more without running out of room.

     I think each year we should all try to break our records from previous years for number of successfully raised monarchs. However, I see some people really are already raising quite a few. I’m going to shoot for around 100 to double what I did this year.

     It really is quite rewarding to see your newly released monarchs flying gracefully around your yard. Before I planted milkweed, I rarely saw any monarch in our area. There must be a lot of other people now raising them in my area or I’m just seeing ones migrating through.

     Thanks to everyone for raising monarchs and I wish you all great success for next year!

     1. I have been raising Monarchs for about 8 years. I am located in southeastern MA. This year I released 46 tank-raised Monarchs. I grow mostly swamp milkweeds, & allow it to self-seed. The females usually lay eggs on the young volunteer plants, which stay alive for the caterpillars to strip if the roots are placed in small plastic bag filled w/water in the tanks. I re-plant them in pots after the caterpillars strip them & either replant in fall or give them to others. I remove frass daily & switch out plants as needed. Yellow jackets are the worst of the predators, tanks give me a 90% success rate. This summer was the best year in New England in many years.

117. I raised and released 59 beautiful Monarchs this year. The last one eclosed 10-4-18. 36 females and 23 males. Quite a few eggs never hatched. I had a newly formed chrysalis that fell. Other than that there were no major issues aside from the endless rain that kept me from releasing some for days after eclosing.

     1. We live in Michigan. We released 25 male Monarch’s and 58 female Monarch’s and 3 unknown for a total of 86 Monarch’s. We started releasing the end of August and the last two were released September 29th. This is our first time doing this. We really enjoyed and plan to do it again next year.

118. Total releases was 108. Sex was evenly split – 54 males, 54 females. I lost two young cats, 2nd instar, cause was unknown. This was my second year raising Monarchs. I learned a lot this year: I started hanging my chrysalises, one pupated on the cage floor, I had a damaged chrysalis that was soft & newly formed when a big cat walked on it (it survived!). The biggest thing I learned was to not raise more than I can handle. There was a few weeks in the summer when my life revolved around milkweed, cleaning cages, moving chrysalises and I didn’t have time for anything else. Our hearts our big and we want to help them all, but we need to find a balance between our passion and living every day life.

     1. That was my big mistake last year, raising too many. Even this year, I was spending up to 4 hours a day caring for them. That’s crazy!

119. In Nashville, TN – we gathered only eggs after problems experienced in the spring, and released 31 butterflies (with the help of a friend when we went on vacation). Returning from vacation, we just took in more eggs on September 30th, but only 10 have hatched – the others are turning black. We also found a beautiful chrysalis in the yard, but now it is turning black. Flies have been worse this year.
     Tips – we cut our common and swamp milkweed back because we suspected pesticides caused a problem in late spring, and ended up with much better, greener milkweed for the fall migration. We don’t use tropical milkweed because it blooms here through December which seems unnatural.
     Question – do you try to wash leaves with the eggs on them?

     1. Hi Betsy, we do lightly rinse over the egg and have not had any issues doing this…

120. I’m in Illinois. I was able to raise and release 33 monarchs this season all but 2 from eggs. I did lose one chrysalis due to an accident and 1 1st instar by accidentally touching it. I do have a 34th butterfly that had a curled lower wing after it dried and was not able to be released. I only have common milkweed in my yard which was good for feeding the caterpillars but now I know I do not have nearly enough nectar plants. That will change for next year. I also know there were many other eggs and cats that were eaten in my garden. I tried to save as many as I could. Many of the late season eggs looked hollow and did not hatch and I had 2 eggs that had the wasps inside and were destroyed. The male/female ratio was about 50/50 with just a few more males than females.

121. I’m in Illinois. I was able to raise and release 33 monarchs this season all but 2 from eggs. I did lose one chrysalis due to an accident and 1 1st instar by accidentally touching it. I do have a 34th butterfly that had a curled lower wing after it dried and was not able to be released. I only have common milkweed in my yard which was good for feeding the caterpillars but now I know I do not have nearly enough nectar plants. That will change for next year. I also know there were many other eggs and cats that were eaten in my garden. I tried to save as many as I could. Many of the late season eggs looked hollow and did not hatch and I had 2 eggs that had the wasps inside and were destroyed.

122. I raised and released 147 monarchs this year, just released the last one yesterday, Oct 3, 2018. I learned this year I need to keep track of how many eggs and caterpillars I find and how many male/female butterflies I release! These were all harvested from the small patch of milkweed in my yard in a Chicago suburb in Illinois!

     1. I’m near Chicago too. Many people in my area are raising them and more importantly planting for them. I have some friends that heard what I was doing and want to plant milkweed too.

123. I live in the mid-Atlantic and often do not see monarchs until August, So, mowing a stand of milkweed after June bloom, adding a little fertilization and water and you’ll get monarch-attracting new growth for egg laying and blooms for all butterflies and bees. Here’s a stand of June-mowed milkweed in the first week of Septemberthis year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icWE9EvpAwc&feature=youtu.be&t=168

     1. Great idea. I will try this in New Hampshire!

     2. managed mowing is a real boon for having fresh food supplies and egg-laying sites in the later part of the season.

124. Hi Tony,
     This is the 2nd year for raising Monarch butterflies in Lafayette, IN. Although it was a bit frustrating, it has definitely been interesting, as well as rewarding. We had not seen any butterflies early in the season, but on May 20th I began finding the first crawlers. Out of 5 different groups, I had 81 eggs & caterpillars go across my kitchen counter. We suffered a terrible loss on the 2nd group due to the Tachinid fly maggot. Out of 21, we lost 9 caterpillars & 2 chrysalids in a couple of days.
     Out of the 5 groups (only 7 were eggs), I was able to release a total of 46 butterflies. 32 were males & 14 females. It was great to see them all take off & fly away. The last ones were released on October 1st. I tried to take pictures of each of them, & then I put a name for each of my family members on the picture. They seemed to think that was a nice idea. We even invited some of our neighbors to come for coffee & doughnuts & watch the first ones eclose. I’m now being called the ‘butterfly lady’.
     In this raising season, I’ve learned:
     1. Always take clippers & a container to the garden, when going to check out the milkweeds.
     2. Use a small art brush to move the tiny crawlers, instead of using fingers. It even works on the larger ones as well.
     3. If larger ‘cats’ are found, be prepared to find they have been compromised by the Tachinid fly or something else.
     4. Common Milkweed can be harvested from the “NO mowing, or SPRAYING wildflower areas” along the highway.

     Thanks so much Tony, for all the information you provide. I look forward to reading everything you provide.

125. Hi, I live in Edmond, OK. I raised Monarchs for the second time. I ended up with 21 total. 11 females and 9 males. I gave a friend some milkweed this year and she ended up releasing 6 monarchs, 3 male and 3 female. I think it was a pretty successful season. I learned more this year that I will take with me next year. It seems that my Monarchs don’t really lay their eggs until the end of summer on my milkweed. I planted tuberosa this year and they liked it. A second group of 11 liked the tropical milkweed that had seeded and grew much to my surprise. I think my favorite part of this experience is giving some of my chysallides to children who get to experience the emerging monarchs. I have people already asking me for one next year! I also have a few friends that have asked where to purchase milkweed so they can raise the caterpillars themselves. It has been such a fun, learning experience. Thanks again for all your help! Your website is such a great resource!

126. Hi, I live in Edmond, OK. I raised Monarchs for the second time. I ended up with 21 total. 11 females and 9 males. I gave a friend some milkweed this year and she ended up releasing 6 monarchs, 3 male and 3 female. I think it was a pretty successful season. I learned more this year that I will take with me next year. It seems that my Monarchs don’t really lay their eggs until the end of summer on my milkweed. I planted tuberosa this year and they liked it. A second group of 11 liked the tropical milkweed that had seeded and grew much to my surprise. I think my favorite part of this experience is giving some of my chysallides to children who get to experience the emerging monarchs. I have people already asking me for one next year! I also have a few friends that have asked where to purchase milkweed so they can raise the caterpillars themselves. It has been such a fun, learning experience. Thanks again for all your help! Your website is such a great resource!

127. Help! I wasn’t sure if our last butterfly was going to emerge, but today it did! I think today will be our last beautiful day in Rochester MN. But the wings are still wet. What should I do? I’m so worried about this little lady getting to Mexico.

     1. We released four north of you today…they fed, but I’m pretty sure they’re still here up in the tree tops. Tomorrow will be cold but SUNNY, which makes a big difference as they start riding those north winds south. I would put her out in the sun tomorrow morning, and she will do the rest. congrats and good luck!

128. Hi Tony: Ever since I planted my passion vine I have been inandated with Gulf Fratillary butterflies. They now outnumber my Monarchs 10 to one. I now have less Monarchs do you think it’s territorial?

129. Last year my wife and I ( who live just outside Toronto Ontario ) successfully raised and released 246 monarchs, this year we raised the bar because we were not able to travel like we normally would like to do. We planted a milkweed garden in our back yard to aid us in feeding the monarch caterpillars that we would inevitably be feeding and used an are roughly 8 ft by 4 ft to do so. As it turned out, even though we live in a subdivision where monarch butterflies are rarely seen we were able to attract many egg layers….in fact we collected 346 eggs so we never did end up using the plants we grew to feed our caterpillars. Most of the monarchs we raised were from eggs. We collected eggs from a variety of locations however our favorite was from a local park which definitely saved their lives. You see, monarch butterflies cannot resist young milkweeds approximately 3″ to 6″ tall for egg laying. The park cuts the grass short 8 feet on either side of their roads so these irresistible young milkweeds will grow there, attract egg laying monarchs, and before the eggs can go through the one approximate month cycle to become butterflies the park workers recut the grass killing them all. In all we have so far successfully raised and released 1194 monarch butterflies.
     It was a tremendous amount of work and we will tone it down next year.

     1. Congrats on your efforts. That truly is a remarkable accomplishment. Especially since they would have been doomed!

130. Hi Tony and fellow Raisers! I live in Reynoldsburg, Ohio (a suburb east of Columbus) and this is my second year raising Monarchs. Last year, I got started late and released only 6, which I found as caterpillars in my butterfly garden. I knew enough to bring them inside where they made chrysalis and all emerged healthy and beautiful. This year was quite different! I saw and abundance of Monarchs flittering around the garden, and immediately began checking the leaves for eggs. I really wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking at, even though I’ve seen pictures hundreds of times – which by the way, do the eggs no justice! But regardless, I brought in 27 eggs one day, and 22 the next. I had already found and brought in 18 caterpillars at different instars. I keep them in fish tanks covered with screens. There is a section of my living room partitioned off just for them. I learned some valuable lessons this year: 1) Don’t put too many cats in each tank, 2) Clean/sanitize the tanks at least once a day (every day), 3) Never run out of milkweed!!, 4) Be sure to keep the milkweed fresh (and washed). I released a total of 59 butterflies, 31 were female and 28 were male. Two butterflies emerged but wings were deformed and could not fly so I had to euthanize them. One chrysalis was only partially formed, so it was euthanized. I lost 5 cats due to tainted milkweed, that I had to run out and buy because I had used up all of my own. I was thankful that I only lost the five to tainted milkweed, it could have been much worse. As soon as I realized what was killing them, I immediately destroyed those plants and bought more from a different nursery to feed the remaining cats. I released my last butterfly (a male) this morning! I am soooo looking forward to next spring when I can start raising again, it is so rewarding! By the way, I purchased both of your digital books – which I can’t read too many times. I bought the LED magnifying glass so that I can find more eggs, and the butterfly tote bag (which my granddaughter has already claimed as hers!). I wanted some mesh cages but you were sold out. I can hardly wait until you get them back in stock – I will keep checking your site for them! Thank you for all of the information you provide – I quote you quite often to my neighbors! 🙂

131. This year I successfully released 208 monarchs. Had two deaths in chrysalis form and 3 caterpillars die due to unknown causes.

     Lessons learned:
     1. Carry a clippers around with me in the car so I can go out and cut down milkweed when I see it.
     2. Be careful about how many eggs you want to find – I had a lot of caterpillars mid to late July and making sure they had enough to eat took up a lot of time.
     3. Since I had so many caterpillars at different stages this year I had to keep them separated so large ones didn’t eat smaller ones

132. This is my third year raising Monarchs in thunder Bay, Ontario. I released 36 healthy butterflies with the last from mid to late September. I found 2 dead butterflies and 3 dead cats in the flower bed. I bring the eggs in and keep them in plastic containers. When the cats are large enough they are moved to a bird cage covered with screen on the outside. I keep fresh milkweed in the cage for feeding and have had no problem with them going into a chrysalis hanging from the top of the cage. I have had up to 6 at a time doing this. The cage is kept outside in a sheltered area. I have bought a couple more cages at the thrift store for next year. When they emerge I let them dry their wings for a couple of hours and then put them on an echinacea flower and they will hang around for a little while before taking off. It’s such a delight to see them fly for the first time and they seem glad to leave their bulky bodies behind and soar in the sunshine. There are 6 milkweed plants in my flower bed and I was able to harvest seeds to start new plants for next spring. What a great hobby.

133. Hope this gets to the right place…Second year raiser in Pittsburgh suburb. Last year was beginners luck, 36 adults and 6 losses. This year 50 adults but probably 35 chrysalis casualties. Lessons learned (1) Only bring in eggs, almost all cats found outside already compromised even the tiny first instars…? (2) never enough milkweed! (3) don’t move ?when waiting to moult (they can lose the silk anchor that holds the old skin?), (4) wash milkweed even if you know you haven’t sprayed it, in case…

     Very discouraging to have so many chrysalids discolor and have to freeze them. None showed the speckling that seems to be characteristic of OE, all discolored and then developed very dark spots, one turned completely black and began to disintegrate before I froze it.

     One adult fell from chrysalis shell and had to be destroyed as could not even fuse proboscis; another had fusing difficulties but managed to “get it together” overnight and was able to fly next morning. Natural controls are necessary or ?would defoliate the world, but it’s a tough object lesson on checks and balances. The flip side is the cheering for every southbound traveler!

134. We collected 332 cats in Otsego, MN / 323 Successfully Released 🙂

     2 Tachinid Fly
     1 Trouble emerging and wings were not expanding after 15 minutes – euthanized
     1 Chrysalis went ‘dark’, but didn’t emerge
     2 Anal prolapse
     3 NPV

     Tested a few – no OE

135. Hi Tony,
     I am down to 4 chrysalids and 1 cat. I live in Houston and not too worried about cold weather, just stormy! We are having a very wet season. I have been fascinated with the raising of these monarchs. I have had some losses with one cat not being able to go into a full chrysalis and another not eclosing totally. I also had one who had somehow broken part of its wing and even though I tried repairing and feeding it, it did not survive. Big lessons learned. I have had quite a few successes and am really glad to have helped in a small way with growing the monarch population. My question is; I have purchased two cages from your site but can’t quite figure out how to get on the closed facebook group. I thought I followed the instructions but I get nothing. I really would like to join but can’t figure out the right combination. Also, when do you think you will get more baby cages (15X15X15) in? It still says sold out. Thank you!

     1. Hi Dawn, there’s info about joining the group on our instructions page

        We will have all cage sizes back in stock by the end of October…

136. I live in Wildwood, Missouri and I have released 202 monarchs this season! Like my sister, I would have had 30 more but these were lost to disease/tachinid fly issues. The most important thing I learned this season is to never overcrowd my habitats.

137. I am posting for my sister, who lives in Danville, Illinois. She successfully released 158 monarchs this season! She would have had 30 more but those 30 were lost to disease/tachinid fly issues. So her final number is 158.

138. This year the biggest problem with the Monarchs was the dreaded tachnid flies. What worked was putting plenty of the Rescue traps for flies out. These smelled so horrible that I switched to using the glass wasp traps which I baited with magno nectar. They worked almost as well as the smelly fly traps. What was the most fun was using an electric fly swatter! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Such a satisfying sound! Just be careful to only get flies and not pollinators.
     I shared the eggs and caterpillars from my garden with my sisterand 2 friends children (8 years old) who did excellent caring and cleaning for their beauties. We raised well over 200 healthy Monarchs with 80 of them being our “Mexicans”! Great job ladies!

139. We are beginners and had six cats/chrysalises, five of which resulted in monarchs emerging between September 4th and 15th (4 females, one male). It didn’t look like the wings on the sixth developed in the chrysalis, so we euthanized it when it hadn’t emerged by 48 hours after it should have. It was a great learning experience and we will definitely participate next summer!

140. I brought in 6 eggs in mid-August for “Raise the Migration.”. Two succumbed to OE (I think). One was attacked by an unknown predator while sunning in the garden – only wings were left :(. Three butterflies we’re successfully released – 2 females and a male.
     Lessons learned:. OE is a real threat. I need to do more than a cursory rinse off milkweed leaves, perhaps sanitizing with bleach.

141. Richmond, VA
     My friend Bob is really who raised the monarchs. This is his 2nd year. He released a total 143 monarchs.
     He had 1 unexplained death.
     Disease issues with 4.
     Accidental deaths 5.
     Lessons learned: If I find a chrysalis outside the “nursery”, move it immediately, don’t delay a second, birds are FAST.
     Amazing thing that he did:
     Bob had one butterfly that fell as his wings were drying. His wings were damaged & he couldn’t fly. We tried for 3 days. Bob found a pair of fore wings from a long ago deceased butterfly & glued both wings on with contact cement! He flew away in about an hour. It was awesome to watch!

142. This is my first time raising monarchs. It started on Aug 4th when I found my first instar 1 cat on butterfly weed. I brought it inside my garage and put it into a plastic tote. My wife has really enjoyed watching me and then joined me finding eggs and small cats. I eventually released 33 monarchs -12 F and 21 M. They were a combination of eggs and small cats found on my butterfly weed plants. I only had 5 plants but I had an abundant source of regular milkweed growing in the ditches along the roadside and a large field also. I had one chrys with OE and 1 chrys was damaged by it falling from the side where it made it chrys. 1 cat grew lethargic at about the 3rd instar and eventually died. I used 8 totes of different sizes as the cages and jars of different sizes covered with saran wrap and a rubber band to hold it in place. It took up a lot of time to clean and resupply them twice a day. I’ve ordered a large cage and a bunch of floral tubes and the holders to put them in to make it easier next year. Thanks for this great website and all the info you give and reading about everyone else’s problems and successes.

143. Hi,
     I seem to have difficulty leaving my 2018 results. I have had the worst survival rate in the years of raining monarchs. I collect caterpillars in the wild on plants spread randomly over 38 acres. I live in south central Michigan. I have had a 60% survival rate this yea,r compared to 80% in previous years. I have had every problem imaginable from black death, anal prolapse, failure to hatch, monarchs with crooked wings, and death of caterpillars with no understandable reason. I have collected many more caterpillars this year and have seen many more monarchs than in the past, but am sad at the loss of 40%.

     Thank you for your great emails, and hope you continue.

144. Fred and I (Connecticut) raised and released 83 healthy Monarchs this summer ——51 females and 32 males. We had to euthanize one female because of a deformed wing and inability to fly. We did not have much luck with eggs found in our garden but when we harvested leaves we found a huge increase in the number of cats found this year. I learned which flowers to add to my garden and attracted many more Monarchs. Kudos To Tony for all his helpful information. We added zinnias (most popular flower by far) and Giant Milkweed as well. Whenever I had any question I knew the answer would be there on Tony’s website. Thanks, Tony, for all that you do!!!

145. Time to give the final tally 2018. This is the second year to raise the butterflies in Elmvale, Ontario. Last year started late and only had 5 enclose and one that failed to pupate.
     This year I was looking at maybe 20 – 30 but my grandsons had other ideas, They scoured the milkweed daily and I was presented with at least one a day. We also managed to raise 6 from the egg stage.
     Total of caterpillars found were 115. We learned the hard way not to put large and small cats together and unfortunately had one eaten, a second caterpillar just stopped eating for unknown reason.
     We had 112 caterpillars form a chrysalis. One formed on the bottom of the cage and chrysalis was flat. I did hang it when discovered but it never developed. 2 of the chrysalis went through all the stages, green to dark to transparent but no butterfly emerged and they eventually turned black.
     First butterfly emerged on July 7th and the last on September 18th for a survival rate of 95.6
     The best part of this was watching the grandchildren’s interest. They brought them to school for their class to watch so raised awareness there. I have made a video with stills and clips so that they can see the whole process.
     The sweetest part of this was my 20 month old granddaughter. She was entranced with the emerged butterflies and was very gentle when we placed one on her hand to let it fly away. Every time she sees a butterfly or a picture of one she puts out her hand as if she wants to hold it.
     Eagerly awaiting next spring.

146. This was my first year raising Monarchs. I thought I had brought in 9 cats on two potted milkweed plants, but I actually had 20.. Five of them formed chtysalides within two days of my bringing them inside. I did not have a cage yet, so four of them were under the basement bathroom vanity. One was under the vanity stool. All but one eclosed in 9 days. The remaining chrysalis never produced a butterfly. One chrysalis was hidden and I saw only the telltale caterpillar skin under where it should have been.
     I looked everywhere and never found it. I released 10 healthy butterflies on September 23rd, my birthday! I released one more on September 24th, and two more on September 29th. I have one more that eclosed today and will be released tomorrow. I had one caterpillar stop eating and die, and one butterfly that could not get fully out of its chrysalis. I did not realized what had happened until I found the dead butterfly. One more chrysalis never opened. I have two chrysalides remainig, which will ptobably eclose next week. So far I have released 13 healthy butterflies. I hope to release the last three this week. I had one chrysalis that got knocked off of where ever it had attached. I glued it to a chopstick and stuck the chopstick in one of the flower pots. That is the one that eclosed today. Early on I ran out of milkweed and could not find any anywhere. I feed the cats organic zucchini and they did just fine! Next year I will plant more milkweed and pay closer attention to the plants. I found my cats completely by accident as I thought it was too late for Monrchs and had quit looking for eggs. I live in Kingsport, TN.

147. I too am from Northwest Ohio and it is both very exciting and daunting to see how many hundreds of successful releases people have had. I just released my first yesterday. I saw three cats, instar 1 or 2 – still learning. By the time I thought I knew enough to bring them inside, they disappeared. Maybe a week later I found one that looked like instar 3 and brought it inside. After about a week, it formed its chrysalis and it took 15 days before I saw it hanging and drying its wings. Tony guided me to release it yesterday. It took off and soared into the sky. I truly feel like my kid has fled the nest. I, too, hope to get more milkweed plants and pot some inside the butterfly habitat. Hopefully, I will do a lot more. I think I’m hooked. Thanks Tony for this wonderful, informative site!

148. I feel insignificant after reading a lot of the posts. This is my first year of raising Monarchs. Everyone is saying how they’ve released 300, and one released 900+! WOW!! That’s dedication!! I released 4!! 3 males and 1 female. I raised them from 4th instar and they must have been (born) the same time because they did everything at the same time!! I was SO thrilled to have 100% success in releasing these sweet things!! And I believe this is because I did everything I learned from this group! Next year I plan on raising them from the egg stage. I don’t know about raising 300, but however many I raise, I hope it to be another 100% success!! I’m from NW Ohio and I released them 2 days ago.

     1. O’Fallon Missouri – This was my 1st yr raising caterpillars from eggs to butterfly. Previous years I would plant tropical milkweed, watch the caterpillars and let nature take it course. This year, a rabbit cut off one of the milkweed stems and I noticed a couple of monarch eggs. After a google search, I found this site and started raising in the beginning of August. I have successfully released 160+ and have an additional 30 chrysalis waiting to enclose. I had an additional 30 caterpillars that I put back on my milkweed plants because of a vacation conflict. I haven’t found any chrysalis from them so I don’t know how successful they were.

        I only had 6 tropical milkweed and 4 swamp milkweed plants so I had to spend a lot of time collecting milkweed from abandoned fields/lots. It took me a couple of hours a day to collect the milkweed and clean the cages.

        I had 3 chrysalis turn black and found one caterpillar die while pupating. 4 butterflies died while enclosing, 3 had deformed wings.

     2. Don’t ever feel insignificant just because your numbers aren’t sky high. Everyone helps toward the effort. Thanks for your part and keep up the good work!

149. Hi,
     This was my first year growing milkweed (bought at a local small perennial nursery on recommendation from local ‘ butterfly lady’)
     Hi.. great resources on this site!
     I saw 5 5th instar cats at the end of July, but did not collect them. Aug 2nd brought a 3rd and 4th instar in to mesh cages. A male and female from first two cats. Had a total of 21 cats go into chrysalis, 18 eclosed, the last one on Sept 18, a small male. Final tally was 11 female and 7 male. 3 chrysalis turned black, one only half way.

     One thing I learned was to CAREFULLY check leaves to put into cages. Found several 1st and 2nd instar cats that ‘magically’ appeared. And also learned to SEPARATE those eggs and tiny babies, because I think several were eaten by ravenous 4th/5th instar cats.

     My ‘set-up’ included two plastic containers, one a Laffy Taffy, and a pretzel tub, with lids cut out and cheesecloth. And two of the larger mesh butterfly cages for the larger cats. One for chrysalis and one for larger cats.
     Instead of floral tubes, I used small containers from the dollar store, about the size of a pudding cup.

150. I released 28 this year. It was my first ever and loved it. I had 3 not eclose and 4 caterpillars just died. Not sure why. I have two of your 3ft cages and one all screened reptile cage. I too pick flowers and put them in the water tubes to keep available for them until they are released. I plan next year to grow milkweed in a pot and place the plant in my cages. I will be planting more plants this fall and have planted several butterfly bushes around. Can’t wait for next year.

151. I live in south central PA and I successfully released 83 monarchs this season and I thought that was a lot until I read some of the other posts! It kept me busy cleaning cages and finding milkweed! About mid September I actually moved some cats to different milkweed areas outside because their plant was stripped of all leaves, but I just couldn’t take anymore in my cages. I use large plastic snack containers (about a gallon size) with holes drilled around the top , lined with a paper towel and covered with nylon net. I cut a large hole in the container lid and snap it over the net to make it secure. No more than 6-7 cats per container at about the same instar. those that are ready to pupate are put in a large screened cage. Then when I clean the cages, I can move the cats to a clean cage and keep the process going. I learned that weather makes a difference in the butterfly cycle. The 90 degree days had things moving along quickly with 10-12 releases some days. We had cold rainy weather last week, so I actually brought my last two containers indoors so the butterflies would eclose. I’d put them back in the cage until a sunny day for release. One actually hung upside down for three days and I thought he’d died; however when it warmed up he started to flex his wings and fly in the cage so was successfully released. I learned about OE disease which is highly contagious and destroyed 3 chrysalises for that reason. Also saw my first cases of tachnid fly and destroyed 2 chrysalises with that. I had no accidental or unexplained deaths. I learned to distinguish males from females and kept records to some extent, but when it got busy I wasn’t good about checking and recording!
     I really appreciate this website both for its new information as well as problem solving and confirming my observations. This is my 4th year of raising monarchs and I’m learning and raising my count each year. I’m surprised at how many adults can not even identify a monarch or it’s caterpillar, so I’m also devoting time to education and speaking to children about this.

152. I raised 28 Monarchs this year – 16 females and 12 males. I had a lot of fatalities in the first instar – reasons unknown. Also for the first time since I’ve been raising Monarchs (6 years now), I had a “J” turn completely black and die. I raise them in individual clear plastic cups covered with a paper coffee filter, so each one has their own “condo” and I limit any spread of disease. It is very intensive, and I must consider a butterfly cage for next year.

153. This is the first year I’ve attempted to raise monarchs naturally (after many years doing it as a ‘science’ experiment with kindergartners using kits and mesh cages). I planted five milkweed plants mid-summer here in the Raleigh, North Carolina area and waited. What a great surprise to see about 40 + caterpillars grow and devour the plants! But then…..Hurricane Florence hit our coast and we had torrential rains and winds here in the central part of the state. I’m not sure if all the fat caterpillars crawled away and found safety to continue their growth and I’ve seen no signs of chrysalis or butterflies yet either. Any thoughts about this are welcome; sure would like to see that some survived !

154. Ypsilanti, MI: I released 625 healthy Monarchs this season and I believe half of them migrated to Mexico. I released my last one Sept. 26th. It was a very busy summer to say the least. I had a good supply of milkweed this year, including lots of common MW, tropical, Cinderella and Balloon. I like the tropical and balloon milkweed for late in the season raising, because it holds up when the weather starts to get cold at night. All of my milkweed I started from seed. It took a while to get my common milkweed established, but now, I even get sprouts coming up in my lawn (not a bad thing).
     Since I had a lot of Monarchs this year, I can’t say that all went perfect. This was the first year that I experienced the tachnid fly disaster. I lost 2 chrysalids and 2 caterpillars to this dreaded fly. I also lost one, and only one to the OE. I have a vet- grade microscope and used it many times to check for OE. I wondered why I wasn’t finding any OE on my butterflies since there is so much going on about it. I wasn’t finding any football shaped spores on my butterflies (I used the clear tape method on a slide to check). Then, my very last caterpillar that I found at my daughter’s house eclosed from a healthy looking chrysalis. When it came time to release the butterfly, it could not fly. I did the tape test and found it loaded with OE. That was the first time I experienced OE. I DID LEARN something!! Early in the season, I lost eggs here and there that didn’t hatch, and some newborn cats for whatever reason. I also had my first accident by catching a caterpillar in the mesh cage zipper (boy, did I feel awful about that). Talk about confessions! Just to clarify, none of my losses are counted, only the good healthy monarchs that are successfully released are counted. I had maybe 6 eggs that were deposited on the tropical milkweed I was growing in pots, that were on the trunk of my car (in the garage). I just brought those plants in for safe keeping. Because I had so many cages to deal with, and I did, I lost track of days. Before I knew it, I did have a few escapee caterpillars. They went into their chrysalids somewhere, but I only found them flying around the house. Those beauties were also healthy and successfully released.
     Tony, I wish you could sell some of those hand held microscopes that they sell on Livemonarch.com. They would be useful to so many of us monarch raisers, especially with this OE that pops up. It is quicker to use than the full microscope that I have. I wanted to post a picture of it, but I couldn’t. It is reasonably priced.

     1. I forgot to mention one observation I made. I wondered why some cats string up in the same corner. It is my guess that they do this to make their silk stronger. When I was removing the empty chrysalids, all of them came down together at once on one sheet of silk. So I think their idea of grouping together is for a more secure silk base. It makes sense to me, other than thinking of it as safety in numbers.

155. Overall, it was a huge monarch season here in Urbana, Illinois. It was my 2nd year raising cats, and I really wen overboard. The final total was 152 healthy monarchs released, 77 males and 75 females – pretty even. Early in the season, there were slightly more females, and later into mid-September the males were slightly dominant. All were fed with common milkweed exclusively. Biggest days: Sept. 14 (11 released), Sept. 20 (10 released).

     Overall about 75% success rate (hatching to release). Most losses were at 1st-instar (possibly from trying to move them), but I lost a few large cats, too, especially toward the end of the season.

     4 released August 10-12 ( 3 male, 1 female)
     27 released August 17-23 (12 male, 15 female)
     18 released August 25-Sept.1 ( 8 male, 10 female)
     37 released September 3-10 (20 male, 17 female)
     27 released September 12-16 (14 male, 13 female)
     36 released September 18-23 (18 male, 18 female)
     3 released September 26-28 ( 2 male, 1 female)

     152 total (77 male, 75 female)

     Eggs: I found more than 200 eggs in my yard and surrounding areas. Most were on small climbing milkweed plants, some just a few inches tall and growing in our lawn. I collected 15 eggs from 1 plant alone! Our small common milkweed was also popular. The monarchs absolutely love the small white flowers of the climbing milkweed, which peaked in late July/early August.

     Milkweed source: I had very good success feeding the cats common milkweed from a local park. I once gave them milkweed collected by the roadside (near a cornfield), and suddenly several of them took ill and I lost some big cats and chrysalises. I strongly suspect the milkweed had traces of herbicides or pesticides. Lesson learned: NEVER take milkweed from near farm fields to feed your cats!

     Hydration: I don’t mist the leaves, and think that this is a bad idea – causes mold growths, etc. Properly hydrated leaves will provide plenty of water for the cats. To allow the cuttings to draw up more water, I crush the stems with pliers and/or score the stem sides with a knife.
     The color/wetness of the frass tells me that the cats are well-hydrated.

     Chrysalis formation: The cats tend to form their chrysalises in big groups close to each other. After they all eclosed, I removed the chrysalis shells and saw that all of the silk pads were interconnected. I think they like using each others silk for more reinforcement. It’s common for the cats to crawl over the other chrysalises while looking for their spot; this appears harmless. Social butterflies from the start!

     Problems:
     (1) I had two chrysalises form (at nearly the same time) which did not drop their skin. I gently removed the skins with tweezers, but one piece of skin was embedded into one chrysalis, forming a dark line. The butterfly eclosed and looked perfectly healthy as it flew off.
     (2) Several cats made their chrysalis in inconvenient locations: one on the cage zipper, one on the floral tube holder latticework. Both were relocated successfully.
     (3) I observed several times a 1st-instar cat cannibalizing another egg. With multiple eggs on a leaf, is there any way to prevent this?
     (4) The caterpillars on the cage roof like to crawl around and over the existing
     chrysalides and J’s. One cat crawled onto a J when it was getting close to making the chrysalis, it was fighting back with wild gyrations and the J became injured, with greenish liquid oozing from his thorax region. It didn’t survive.
     (5) One emerging monarch got a wing caught up in silk of a neighbor chrysalis, and I had to free it gently; it then developed normally and was successfully released.
     (6) Very late in the season, after Sept. 15, I had more issues with large cats and chrysalides than earlier. some just stopped eating for no apparent reason, and a couple of chrysalisdes turned dark after 1-2 days (disease?), and 1 butterfly did not eclose properly (wings never expanded).

156. I am slowly building a mostly native garden, and trying to incorporate as many host and nectar plants as possible for our native butterfly species. But, I find the monarchs very much prefer to lay eggs on the honeyvine milkweed that I have always tried to eliminate because it’s so obnoxious. I let it grow this year, and had more caterpillars than ever. I have removed the seed pods so it won’t disperse. I know I couldn’t keep the vines from growing back even if I wanted to.
     We only brought in three caterpillars (one by accident), just so our daughter could experience it and learn. The smallest instar fell in its chrysalis during a storm and did not develop properly. The other two were perfect, and it was a thrill to see them fly away.

157. Westborough, MA. This was my second year of raising monarchs and third year of raising milkweed for environmental organizations. I released 52 monarchs (26M/26F) between 8/4 and 9/27. Tagged with YBG225-YBG241 were 9M and 8F.

158. I raised and released 25-15in the spring, and 10.in the fall. Central Alabama. I can never tell when they will.show up. The females seem to slip in, lay their eggs, and slip away without being seen.

159. Hi, We live in New Orleans and this is our first year of raising monarchs. We got started the first of June and have thus far released 32 (22F, 10M) with 26 chrysalis still hanging, 7 caterpillars, and more eggs on the milkweed. We’ve had 5 chrysalis fail to develop, 2 caterpillars who just died, and one chrysalis that got accidentally squashed when trying to relocate it. Keeping these voracious critters in milkweed has been a challenge but so far, so good. While I’ve been typing this we’ve had another emergence! It is a boy. When the last one flies, I’ll update our progress. What fun!

160. Monarchs are on the move in the Texas hill country. This week has added billions of monarchs to the journey. Interestingly, they are trending east from the hill country, could they be headed to south Florida instead of Mexico? Wherever they are heading, it pretty obvious that windshields all through the south will all be the same until they exit the area. Its like a storm serge of Newbees headed to where nature tells them they must go. Some will not venture far and grow to become a major contribution to our home grown pollinators. No doubt there is a bit of a challenge for these Newbees to maintain their instinctive orientation against our naturally trending southeasterly breezes. Still, the cold fronts continue to find their way south and will aid another years migration to their seasonal transfiguration zones.

161. Forgot to mention this with my earlier post. I was devastated earlier this year when they cut the hayfield which is full of common milkweed in June. I was questioning whether there would be enough milk weed for our fall cats. To my surprise each plant produced two new stalks doubling the amount of milk weed that we had. If you can take the risk, cut your plants down to the last four leaves on the stalk. The new shoots will start from the top leaf buds and grow from there. It takes about 3 weeks for the new plant to be as big as it was before you trimmed.

162. We have happily released 85 (42F/43M) Monarchs this season. We released the last 2 eclosing F into a local prairie conservency here in Blue Mounds WI, where a happy M joined them. We lost 2 to flies & 1 I am going to mark as lonliness. There were 3 cats in the cage, the first 2 became Chrysalis but the 3rd was several days behind in age. It followed the other 2 to the top of the cage, attached itself right with them but it was significantly smaller & never fully molted and died. Suggestions for a happy raising: use tall cages ( it gives you room to work without disturbing the chrysalis attached to the ceiling), get one with a drawbridge door ( so you can open the cage when a chrysalis is on/right next to the zipper), bud vases w/ plastic wrap rubber banded over the opening to hold large clippings. The clippings will hold up for days!! We use a baby cube w/tube rack & tubes for cat 3 and younger. We bring in 80% of our monarchs as eggs or cat 1, not that we pass up any chance to bring one in. We also purchased square trays for the cage bottoms to collect frass. Makes cleaning SUPER easy. As for plants, we are spoiled with a hay field filled with common across the driveway, however, we have several large butterfly weed with orange flowers, where we counted up to 30 cats at one time. Plus 20+ Mexican milk weed or blood flowers. They are annuals in Wisconsin so we seed them in the house starting in January and transplant them outdoors in May. We usually find multiple cats on them throughout the summer and they start blooming early September. Our monarchs overlook all other flowers when these are blooming!

163. I had 100%good results but I only raised 2 from eggs. I figured for my first try 2 would be better than 0. Two females. I didn’t realize what they looked like when they first eclosed and I thought they were deformed. Glad after a few minutes of drying they are both perfectly healthy. The mesh cage was the key for me! I can’t say enough about how helpful Tony was! He answered every question. I plan to raise a lot more next year. I am in Cape May to release them both today. One eclosed 3 days ago and the other 2 hours ago.

164. Small-time operation here. Central Maryland. Collected a bunch of eggs (some of which were given to a friend 25 miles away; she has 13 chrysalises. Will try to get a report from her). Not all were viable. I raised 10 cats (a few brought in as 1st-2nd instars, and one honking large fatty I had totally missed); one fell to the floor when someone left the enclosure unzipped, and one chrysalis was faulty (not t-fly, just oddly shaped), and eventually euthanized. There were 8 beautiful butterflies, 2 females. 6 males. They were all released in breaks in the horrid weather we’d been having. NOW it’s sunny. Eclosing time frame: Sept. 11-Sept. 17. Last year’s 4 butterflies (my first ever) were a full 2 weeks ahead of the first of these, and the last ones my friend has are just about ready to eclose now!

165. I raised 27 monarchs to healthy release. (the last two will be released today). I left about 7 cats in the garden.

     We had one caterpillar death (maybe injured when my bad cat knocked over the enclosure). I am figuring out a bad cat-proof space for next year.

     1 butterfly hatched, but its front let was fused. It couldn’t hang onto the chrysalis and fell, damaging a wing. I put it in the garden on a sunny day.
     (sometimes it is difficult to watch mother nature do her work)

     1 chrysalis became a goopy mess.

     1. I live in northern Virginia and in the Spring I planted a tropical milkweed bush in my flower garden, not knowing monarchs laid eggs on anything other than common milkweed. I learned otherwise and read articles about the monarch population being endangered so I decided to help.

        This was my first summer attempting to raise monarchs and as of today I have released 185 with 1 remaining chrysalis that will eclose within the week.

166. We live in northern Wisconsin. I released 204 butterflies this summer. 94 females and 110 males. My last butterflies were released the first week in September. I had 4 caterpillars with parasites and 2 chrysalis that did not hatch. All in all I had a successful year.

167. We raised and released more than 225 monarchs from eggs found in the wild. Here on the south shore of Lake Superior, we have very little farming, so very little herbicide or pesticide use, and we have LOTS of milkweed. Even with plentiful supplies of food and four 2x2x2 cube enclosures, it still takes about an hour a day to raise that many caterpillars in a clean environment. It was well worth the effort as far as we’re concerned. Our female:male ratio was just about exactly half and half.

     About the Xerces Society article: Raising monarchs raises consciousness, too. Everyone I know who does it also has put in either a butterfly garden or is growing more butterfly-friendly plants in the garden. Milkweed patches are encouraged instead of mowed. So whether or not our monarchs make it to Mexico, wild as well as captive-raised butterflies benefit from our efforts. The word spreads among friends, neighbors, churches, via newspaper reports, and so on. I believe the author meant well but is being too narrow in his view.

168. This is my second year raising Monarchs. I had a lot of issues with parasites and disease. I only kept count of my releases, which were 11 females and 8 males. I should have had over 40 but chrysalis after chrysalis died. It was upsetting but I’ll just have to figure out what more I can do to help them next summer.

169. I released 50 healthy monarchs this season, 28 males and 22 females. I had 6 chrysalides that did not develop, 2 “J” cats that die, and one tiny baby that was accidentally squashed. (about an 86% survival rate.) I found very few as eggs, bringing in most of the cats at a small size. Again, this year, I enjoyed my “mothering” experience. I took them to 3 elementary classrooms to share the Monarch Experience with the youngsters. The children really enjoyed seeing them. I am seeing quite a few adults on my butterfly bush this week.

170. Easily feed your butterflies if bad weather postpones their release. –
     ————————————————————————————
     1. Cut squares of cantaloupe.
     2. Spoon out small hole with 1/8 to 1/4 inch metal measuring spoon.
     3. Warm in microwave for a few seconds so they are lukewarm to touch.
     4. Make the 9 – 1 water to honey liquid. Heat to lukewarm in microwave for a few seconds.
     5. Place cantaloupe in cage. Pour liquid in cantaloupe holes.
     6. Grab butterflies and place on the edge of cantaloupe squares. Watch them drink.
     7. They may well return later and feed more. Yet, you can grab them again if they don’t.

     It’s ALL in the foothold. They must feel secure. Do not use soft and overripe fruit like an overripe pear. It doesn’t work. It must be firm and ripe. I’ve found cantaloupe to be a favorite for the foothold. They drink from flowers that give them that foothold. We can offer the same feeling of safety. Feeding can be totally stress-free and satisfying for us and them as they wait for release.

     PHOTO : https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/3NU3loIpHTm9Bl5iFOMviHmNbnXitVEaw4C7vEHd0XL

     1. Thank you for the great advice and picture!! I will definitely remember this next year.

        1. Thank you.
           One FYI.
           Make sure the cantaloupe pieces are far enough from each other so when the contented butterfly unfurls its wings while feeding it doesn’t come into contact with another piece of cantaloupe. One of mine did and lost a tiny bit of wing when it got stuck to the neighboring cantaloupe piece. Had no effect on flight, but now I just add a bit of space between and have had no more accidents.

171. Hi, I was weeding my NJ Tea and after I already pulled out the plant, I noticed a monarch chrysalis on the underneath of one of the leaves. I put the branch in a bucket of water to help the branch stay green(with a board over the bucket so it would not fall into the bucket) and put the bucket under the eaves of my house behind an Alberta spruce. In about a week, the monarch butterfly emerged, I took a pic, and hopefully it is on its way!

172. I’m in Hampton, Virginia and have 11 in a cage waiting for them to come out of their pods.
     My neighbor had 10 in her cage that have come and gone about 2 weeks ago and 2 more in her garden .
     Not sure how to tell if they are male or female.
     Been rainy the past week or so, but sunny weather coming!

173. Wausau, WI. My 2nd year raising Monarchs. I was just hoping to double my numbers from last year which was 57. I have just released my last 2 with a final count of 284! 122 males and 162 females. With 3 jobs it was an exhausting but fun and magical season! I’ve found that many eggs must not be fertilized because they never hatched, just shriveled up, approximately 35% of my eggs were this way, I had collected a total of 431 eggs this season. Last winter I made a few more enclosures from mesh fabric used for paint and paint stir sticks. The mesh is nice because the teeny tiny babies can’t get thru it but it still allows a lot of air movement. Can’t wait until the numbers are released in Feb/March! Hoping they are up. A really big positive is that I have really made an impact on a lot of people in my city that have been purchasing specific butterfly plants and milkweed. It’s fun being an advocate for something that is so important!

     1. This was my first year raising monarchs. I released 166, the last one on 9/27.
        Location is southern New Jersey.

174. This was my second year actively raising and rescuing Monarch. I live in Newmarket, an hour north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Last year, I released (with the help of grandchild, family, friends, neighbours and local schools) 66 Monarchs, 33 females, 33 males!
     This summer, I released 314 Monarchs (159 males, 155 females), well above my goal of 200. Cats were plentiful, I ‘harvest’ them well away from “civilization” from fields in the middle of rural conservation area forests, and also harvested pesticide-free fresh young milkweed plants and leaves from areas also well away from agri-chemicals, to ensure good health. As an added measure, I gently washed all food leaves in purified water to remove any chemtrail fallout, vehicular exhaust fall-out or other harmful toxins.
     Even so, I lost 24 pupaes to “black death” parasites or other virus/bacteria. Three Monarchs were born with deformities such as accordion-folded top wings, or missing or deformed legs. After 2 days, I put the two Monarchs with deformed wings onto the faces of my sunflowers. When I checked back on them later, late in the day, one had obviously been attacked by a bird or mouse, it’s abdomen largely eaten. I mowed my lawn before sunset, and a gust of wind blew the second Monarch with deformed wings under the blade of my lawnmower! I was HORRIFIED when I saw pieces of the wings spew out from under the lawnmower. I turned the mower off, and bawled my eyes out. I took the combined pieces of wings from both, and gave them a proper, respectful burial in my milkweed garden patch.
     The third Monarch, with permanently folded in legs, survived 8 days that I handfed it honey/sugar water 10 or more times a day. From the time it eclosed, it could not flap its wings strongly, so it was pretty much paralyzed. It died in my hand the evening of the 8th day, and again, soft-hearted me cried my heart out.
     My goal is to release 500 Monarchs next year. I’m largely housebound with Lyme Tick Disease (10.5 years), and this project virtually kept ME alive, as I’ve outlived my doctor’s prognosis by 7.5 years now. I spent my summers in the late 50’s through the early 70’s in Leamington (near Monarch migration resting ground at Point Pelee) where, during tomato picking season, I still have early childhood memories of millions of Monarchs flying overhead and resting on the trees at Point Pelee before leaving for their flight over Lake Ontario, toward Monterrey, Mexico.
     I have gotten my 4 year old and 16 month old grandchildren involved, and I donated 4 pupaes to his Montessori Elementary school for their Monarch eclose-watch and release. When the first to eclose was released by the kindergarten class, the Monarch made a U-turn, landed on my grandson’s head, THEN took off to the south! It was caught on video! I guess the Monarch was saying “Goodbye” to my grandson!
     So looking forward to the 2019 Monarch butterfly season, and I hope to hear that the numbers in Mexico are way, WAY up!

175. My first year at this. Raised and released 13 monarchs – 8 male, 5 female. Location – Cheboygan county, Michigan.

176. This year alone, I raised and released 279 healthy Monarchs. It’s my second year of raising Monarchs. I live in Southern Wisconsin. My last release was on September 23.

177. Pam from Metro Detroit. First year and released 125 monarchs. Lost estimated 15 cats/non-fliers (tachinid flies and OE?) Really great fun but challenging. Lots of Learning points:
     – Large stand of common milkweed in garden did well after 2 years. Need to prune, prune, prune aggressively with more spacing and staggered blooming. Stretch out season. Trouble with air circulation.
     – Grew bonus crop of slugs! Use sluggo bait next year early on (supposedly okay for pollinators, dogs and kids?)
     – Tachnid fly infestation with some cats brought in.
     – Constant maintenance requirements can’t be underestimated. Only bring in eggs next year, and leave caterpillars to fend for themselves. Don’t overdo it.
     – Washed every leaf in water. Next year do 20% bleach soak.
     – Learn how to bleach eggs?
     – Monarchs really need the sun to take first flight. Time releases better with weather and don’t be afraid to hold on to new hatches for days.
     – Monarchs not attracted to my tropical milkweed? Weird. Bought as plants for a container from local butterfly habitat.
     – Swamp milkweed had fungus all year- very disappointing. Maybe not enough air circulation?
     – Getting ready to “advertise” free milkweed seeds to neighborhood association, with Tony’s tips for successful fall planting
     Ideas for Tony and group to address:
     – Design specs for outdoor “cage” for cats to be moved into, placed over grown milkweed plants.
     – How to bleach eggs (they are so tiny!)
     – How to recognize OE early and preventative tips for cage raising
     – Tagging – should we be doing this?

178. This will be my third year helping the monarchs. I’m in Indiana and this too was the biggest year for me, however my number is not as impressive. I had 3 early summer and then about 20 later, and still have two in chrysalis’s. In the space in between I was surprised by some funny caterpillars on my parsley plant and discovered they were swallowtail butterfly so I raised 11 of those too. My milkweed this summer was ambushed with Japanese beetles and then I have discovered tiny wasps that lay eggs in my caterpillars; yuck! I didn’t want to spray anything on the plants and only used the beetle traps but it was almost a loosing battle. Short of having to hose down and flick the bests off; which would be an all day job, I wasn’t sure what to do. I love being able to experience the process and this year was my first year of finding eggs and raising from egg to butterfly. I also was able to capture a pair of butterflies mating as well. So now I have the whole cycle documented!

179. It’s the first year for me on raising butterflies ! This was a big commitment . It started with one caterpillar that I found on my milkweed , i identified it with the help of you tube . I watched Mr. Lund vidéo this was very helpful . I released 26 butterflies . I brought some eggs inside , it was not easy to care for those little ones . They are hard to find , after I let the caterpillar hatch outside and I brought them inside when they were a little bigger . It was easier . You have to be committed . I had 2 ice ballet milkweeds and by the end of summer they looked bad , it was a fight with the yellow aphids . If someone has a recipe to get rid of them please share . In the spring of 2019 i should have 13 milkweeds and i sowed many nectar plants , I redid my entire front landscape for butterflies , they are beautiful and they need our help. I also planted rue and linden benzoin spice Bush for the Spicebush swallowtail . I order my native seeds and plants through prairie moon nursery and prairie nursery . I don’t buy plants from any nursery if they are not native . I order non gmo organic seeds through another company . I don’t plant a flower just for the color I plant it with a purpose to help the wildlife . We has customers can change the way we garden . I have always been an avid composter , recycling nature , birds, mammals any species are welcome in my garden . This was a truly amazing experience I did it on my own !

180. I have had 43 healthy monarchs this year, which was an increase of 23 from my first year. I had my first loss this year. One was from a t-fly, one did not pupate fully, and the other turned dark and just never came out. I had a horrible year with the milkweed though from all the rain. But I ended with 31 female and 12 male.

181. Hi, there! This was my first year raising monarchs. I began way late, which I blame on the lack of awareness and my need to learn. After seeing so many eggs on the milkweed in my garden, I collected the leaves and let the fun begin. Since this was not until August, I didn’t have the opportunity to raise as many as I’d have liked. My goal was 50, and I’m ending right around 35. I did begin with 50 eggs, and through my learning experience and observation, I attribute the loss of the 15 to the following:

     I bought four milkweed plants from the local nursery to feed while I was out of town for the weekend. It was not until after that batch, that I noticed some cats that looked ill. I believe these plants must have been exposed to pesticides and/or OE, as here is what I noticed within that batch of sickly cats- vomiting, failure to thrive (simply curling up and wilting), incomplete formation of chrysalides, blackening, and oozing. I quarantined any others from this batch, after such an unfortunate experience. I disinfected everything and began again. Fortunately, the rest have been strong, healthy-developed Monarchs that have flown away immediately.

     This frustration led me to learning that next year, I will only feed with my own grown milkweed. It is the only way I can guarantee their food will be clean. I have invested in the tubes and racks so that the leaves will not wilt after cutting.

     My advice to beginners: Be sure that if you’re growing your own to plant seeds and a lot of them. Just when you think you have enough, you’d be surprised. Sow now so that you’re ready for next season! As a rule of thumb, one cat will eat about 22 leaves. Also, be sure to have the time to devote to raising these babies! While they’re pretty independent and don’t really need us, we do have to make sure that since they’re essentially in “captivity” for safety, that we keep them clean. Bacteria is just as detrimental to them as disease. I clean all of the stage containers daily. If you take on raising, you may want to have 3 different containers: one as the “nursery” one for the “juniors” and one for the “big cats”. They vary greatly both in size and in habit, so it’s important that they have their own spaces!

     This has been both rewarding and satisfying. If you lose some, know that you’re helping more than could have otherwise possibly made it alone in the wild. Yay, fellow raisers!

     1. Well said ! It’s true we loose some but we help so many !

182. I raised 19 Monarchs in Blaine, Mn….many from eggs! Last year…ONE! Needless to say, I was thrilled! I am planning on planting some common milkweed seeds in the next week or so….hoping for even more success next year! Thanks for your blog…I’ve learned so much!

183. Live in Monticello, MN. 23 total caterpillars and eggs collected, released 21 Monarch butterflies.
     Had one caterpillar death (unknown reason, was medium to large size) and one in chrysalis that did not emerge, turned halfway black and black spots.
     Out of the 21 butterflies released , was a ~ 50/50 mix of males and females, did not keep track.
     This was my largest catch, raise and release of last three years!

184. Thanks Tony, for all equipment available and tips, which make raising Monarchs easier.

     My first of 2018 was a F on July 13th. I’m at latitude 43, in Central Ontario and had #150 & 151 eclose y’day, an ugly, cold and rainy day. I put sedum, Mexican sunflowers and lantana in flower picks and had them climb onboard. This a.m. it was partly sunny and 22C [70F] and I released them. Up they went and headed south.

     72 F and 79 M this year. In 2017, without cages and flower picks, 23 [8F and 15 M]

     August 7th was my busiest day with 15 M & 9 F. Of course it takes forever when you take them out, one at a time to the Mexican sunflowers.

     I bought Tithonia [ Torch ] seeds on Amazon and they were/are great. Hummingbirds, Monarchs, giant and regular swallowtail and bees of every type love them. I had made a butterfly garden and everything was ignored, except the sunflowers. I made a mistake and planted 2 in my vegetable garden and they shot up to around 8 ft x 5 ft…right under my clothesline.

     I had one chrysalis problem. It appeared to have a hernia but I hoped for the best. When the butterfly eclosed, the wing tip was involved and remained open and it couldn’t inflate it’s wings. It went into a container, on a flower and into the freezer…very sad.

     One 3rd instar cat died for no apparent reason. One looked iffy but I sprayed it with a fine mist and after 48 hrs it moulted.

     It has been a wonderful season and I look forward to 2019.

     Thanks again,

     Cathy

185. First year raiser, Northern Virginia, had between 20-25 successful butterflies fly off. My reflections:
     1. Should have 3 separate cages, one for eggs/new babies, one for the cats, one for the chrysalis(es?)
     2. Should let nature take its course and be patient! I was too quick to intervene instead of letting the cats do their thing. Maybe set up a camera so I can see them wrap up/emerge from chrysalis
     3. PLANT MORE MILKWEED!
     4. Find a better way to keep milkweeds in water to prevent cats drowning.
     5. Tag

     1. i used empty brown medication bottle with no top and wrapped tin foil across top and poked a hole with the stem of the milk weed then leaned them in the corner of your cage after i ran water down the stem of the milk weed to fill it.for the small caterpillars i wrapped the milk weed in wet paper towels and placed it on the bottom of the cage so they could eat at a safe place. have a great day!

186. This year I planned on taking a back seat and just let nature take its course. Except for early in the season I brought a few indoors for the benefit of my daycare kids to do some hands on observation and learning. Well, the kids learned more than I anticipated and after we released our 3 butterfly’s the kids kept finding and bringing me eggs… which I then had to raise so they’d survive. Ended up with 33 in total. One chrysalis didn’t survive and one butterfly was unable to fly. 15 males and 15 females – and 1 I don’t know (daughter released when I was out of town). Not bad for a hand off approach. Next year I need to work on more flowers. Yard was scarce of polinating foliage. Appreciate all you do Tony in sharing you experience with us.

187. 2018 was the first year that I raised monarchs. After downloading your book and reading it, I purchased one of your butterfly houses and extra floral tubes. My husband made a separate screened cage to move the chrysalis for hatching. My results: Released 17 males and 12 females. Unfortunately, I had a total of 15 die, 9 chrysalis’ turned black .and dried up, 1 female was eaten by my dog (learned my lesson about releasing without animals near), 3 males were born with deformed wings and 2 females were born with deformed wings. It is heartbreaking when the butterflies don’t make it.

     Lessons Learned: Have plenty of milkweed ( I used butternut squash toward the end of the season) I have since purchased and planted 5 more common milkweed plants. I also purchased several plants for the newborn butterflies to feast on once they are released.
     NEVER release near animals no matter how sweet they are. I made that mistake and my dog thought she could play with the butterfly. Unfortunately, no.

     I need to get information on tagging the butterflies before I release them.

     Thank you Tony for all of your valuable information! I like your website the best!!

188. Thought I would not see any Monarchs this year in extreme southeast Iowa but in late June I found three different sizes of cats on the common milkweed in the front bed. Didn’t see the first Monarch until after July 4th. Later in July all activity was in the swamp milkweed in the West garden, then activity changed to the common again. I kept a little better records than the previous three years and ended up releasing 104 Monarchs – 38 males and 66 females. Keeping track of eggs found and eggs hatched was a different story, need more work in this area. 15 cats or chrysalis died. The biggest success is that I have addicted two more families into raising Monarchs and gained a sitter/keeper when I need one.

     On a different note. Two weeks ago I was checking and cleaning up a parsley patch on the West side of my shed ( I had been looking for
     Swallowtail activity all summer) and found a Black Swallowtail cat about an inch and a half long. I waited a day to bring it in but it looked smaller, though it may be another one but did not find anything else. It died in a few days and on the same piece of parsley was a strange worm (dark on both ends and light in the middle, belted) thought it was the predator and kept it alive – much to my surprise is it started to look like a swallowtail cat must have been another egg on the plant I brought in… had two now. Checked the patch on the 25th and found another 1/4 inch bugger…have three now. The questions are. Will these make a chrysalis, overwinter and emerge in the spring and if so, how should they be kept. Right now they are inside at room temperature.

189. Dear Tony and fellow Monarch stewards,

     No stranger to raising Monarchs I have released about 100 per year between June and October in Northwestern Wisconsin. I documented the release of 39 males and 37 females I raised, but I also supplied a few dozen chrysalides to the local butterfly garden at the nature reserve near me.

     I have raised them at home in plastic zip bags as hatcheries and nurseries (until cats are 3 days old) and screen covered ice cream pails (having cut away all but the rim of the lid to hold the fiberglass screen piece in place.) I clean the tubs of frass 2-3 times a day and keep fresh milkweed always available. My success rate from egg to adult has been above 95%.

     Here is what I learned, thanks in part to you all:

     • Stick to collecting eggs or instar one cats only to avoid the heartbreak of predation and disease.
     • Milkweed stays cleaner and fresher held upright in the floral tubes you introduced me to. The result is a more sanitary growing environment.
     • Ice cream pails are not the ideal place in which to let butterflies eclose because if an ill-fortuned butterfly cannot hang onto its chrysalis and falls it cannot climb the walls. I purchased a few of your mesh cages to eliminate that sad problem. They can climb, hang properly and prosper. Also I can observe them better through the mesh.
     • I still use the ice cream pails to raise cats until their fifth instar when they start wandering looking for a place to J-up. Then I put them into the mesh cage with one or two large milkweed leaves and let them find a place at the top. I am careful to only add to that cage for a week so that butterflies are not eclosing over milkweed leaves where they could potentially drop OE spores as they eclose. While all are pupating I exchange the poo-poo platter for a clean towel to cushion a fall, should that occur.
     Thank you so much for sharing information, rearing accessories, and encouragement. Thank how many butterflies we have collectively added to the world!
     Linda S.

190. When reading my sketchy log: looks like 20 Monarchs all together. 12 eggs were brought in as very freshly laid eggs and the other 8 were not so fresh and some cats of various sizes. 11 flew away successfully… 5 died of Black Death or OE, 1 Tachnid, 1 wasp, 2 failure to fly/crumpled wings.(time range 7/20/18 to 9/12/18). I was able to sex 13 of them which were: Females 7. Males 6. I had best results with freshly laid eggs however some of those cats were obviously victims of viral and or bacterial issues possibly passed on from the mother. I had less success from the older eggs and cats of various sizes that I brought in. I wash all greens before serving, I clean my cages every day with Clorox wipes, I wash my tube racks every day with soap and water. Tony, I’d like to know what more I can do to increase my success rate.

     1. Hi Peggy, keeping a clean environment promotes monarch health, but daily cleaning with bleach could present a chemical exposure issue if the bleach isn’t rinsed out properly. We only use chemicals to clean (soap, bleach) in between batches of monarchs, and then rinse thoroughly with water and sun dry.

191. I am in Ohio. I raised 41 Monarchs, mostly females. I collected the eggs, brought them inside. I fed them from cuttings. As the caterpillars increased on my MW outside, I enclosed the plants with tulle to keep the wasps away. When they made their chrysalis I transferred the other cat inside as well. It was controlled chaos for awhile. The MW was completely gone by late August, luckily common milkweed grew nearby.
     I lost 1 cat that turned black and was oozing , a toad ate 1 butterfly and 1 had her wing torn off . Next year I am planting more milkweed, and late blooming nectar plants.

192. This has been so fun and fascinating watching them go from tiny caterpillars to the chrysalis stage ( about 8 of them). We did had milkweeds initially 2016 but nothing happened 2017. Looking forward to seeing the Monarchs in a few more days.

193. This has been our best season yet. We released our final four Monarchs last week, bringing our release total to 77 this year. We lost only five, with four to tachinid flies and one to an aggressive caterpillar that knocked a chrysalis loose and damaged the casing. Still, losing 5 out of 82 is still a far better survival rate than if we hadn’t brought them in.

     Only issues we had this year (other than the flies) involved our milkweed. Last year we had sixteen varieties in the garden, but only two came back this year – Butterflyweed and Giant Green Milkweed, but he latter came back with a super-abundance, including many areas it wasn’t necessarily desired, darn it! Judging by the number of seed pods that reached maturity, I don’t think we’ll have a shortage of it next year, either.

194. I raised 92 monarchs with 3 deaths. Your site was a big help. I did not keep track of sex, or dates. This was my first year.

195. I became interested in raising Monarchs from a friend who helped me set up my first cage, gave me milkweed and instructions. What fun it has been for our family. we released 6 Monarchs this summer, hope to do many more next year.

196. Hello,
     I raised 41 Monarch’s. This was my first attempt. I live in Ohio. I constructed an enclosure around my Butterfly Weed.(Asclepias Tuberose ) I collected the eggs at first, and brought them into the house. When the milkweed was depleted I had to get milkweed from a field near my home . As the butterflies hatched, I would bring in the other caterpillars from my enclosure. It was controlled chaos for a while here. One of my caterpillars turned black and died. Most of my butterflies were female. I also do not have any late blooming flowers for them, I will be planting more milkweed ,and late blooming nectar flowers for 2019. All in all a wonderful experience.

197. Well, I just released my last butterfly!! #117! I started out with 4 this may and then just lost my mind! 🙂 83 of these were released since August 29 so hopefully they are all on their way to Mexico! Things went pretty well I think. I lost around 4 cats for unknown reasons and they were small. I fed 4 1st instars to bigger cats “/ I really thought they were big enough not to be eaten by their brothers. 2 died in chrysalis, 1 after it fell and 1 just turned black.
     I also tagged 50 of the last 83 through Monarch Watch. That was a pretty big deal for me. I have to say, having that many caterpillars (at one point there were over 75) all at the same time is almost a full time job! I’m not sad that I don’t have to clean caterpillar poop out of cages anymore and I had to go to a friends to get more milkweed to feed them all even though I have a big patch in the yard.
     I do have one live butterfly that is 3 weeks old. I butterfly sat for a friend and I should have moved the chrysalis to a taller container but he eclosed sooner that I thought he would. His poor wings just didn’t have room to stretch out and they are all wrinkled and he can’t fly. His name is Crinkles and really likes watermelon and honeydew.

     That’s my story for the year 2018. I’m looking forward to 2019. I will be in Louisiana for the winter right in the path of the return flight so I’ll have to get ready for that when I get down there! 🙂

198. This is my first season and I’m hooked! My early attempts in June were a dismal failure: four healthy Monarchs released out of 30 cats. However, my second go around was an enormous success: 70+ happy Monarchs released in my backyard. What a learning experience!

     Question: the Monarchs I’ve been releasing are now laying eggs again. Should I harvest them this late in the season? I live in Southern California where the weather is mild.

     1. hi Kathy, like central/south Florida, your climate can support monarch metamorphosis year round. You might try asking others in your region about their experience. Check out some of the links on the: Western Resources Page

199. Rainy , cool weather here in the mid-Atlantic. Unable to release many for perhaps another 4 days. That will mean I have to keep them indoors for a maximum 7 days before release. Most are easily feeding on a peeled apple or cantaloupe slice “bowl.” Cut a slice and scoop a tiny hole but only go half way to the bottom layer of the fruit. Pour your nectar solution into the hole. (I’m using the nine to one water/honey solution). Grab the butterfly and place on the fruit with the face pointing to hole. The fruit gives them a nice foothold for security which allows them to gorge on the nectar and they don’t get sticky nectar on their bodies. (I microwave the fruit and then the solution for seconds to warm to body temperature. I then pour the solution into the fruit after placing the fruit in the cage. The warmth means there is no shock to their senses and they go right for it.) HERE ARE TWO PHOTOS: https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/VP1cGo0Now9LhNPX7bFuh4ks5HGhEPrUVo78AFEvoQt

200. 2018 was my first year raising Monarchs in Bernville, PA. I started with 5 larger cats on July 21st using a gallon jar and some tulle to keep them from escaping, and released my last 2 (males) today, September 24th. I had a total of 33 chrysalides and put 5 in the freezer (did not emerge). Through the process I spent many, many hours reading about raising monarchs and created a nice display using 6 labeled critter totes in varies sizes for the eggs and each of the 5 instar stages of the caterpillar. I happily shared my display with residents in the senior living community where I work and they enjoyed watching the cats grow through the five instar stages and released as beautiful Monarch Butterflies!

     It was awesome to have a front row seat when some of the cats transformed into chrysalides and emerged as butterflies, AND get some amazing photos of my monarchs in the four stages of the butterfly. I must say it did take a lot of time to keep the cats clean and fed daily, and I was thrilled to have the support of my husband which included taking the cats on vacation to the mountains twice (plenty of milkweed there).

     I look forward to the 2019 raising season!

201. Hello my name is Tina and this was my first year raising Monarchs, I planted milkweed in my yard three years in a row, I couldn’t get it to take the first two years.. anyway , when I walked out to my garden and saw that I had four cats I was in awe, needless to say I picked them up and put them in my small cube butterfly cage, I had to purchase a second one, the tall cage that will house 40. it was a great year and I had so much fun doing it, I will be doing it again next year too, in closing, I ended up releasing 27 out of 30 raised, all survived in the beginning, The only ones lost were cats I didn’t bring in until they were larger, I’m thinking flies got to them before I did. I released my last one the third week in September, I do hope they all made it to Mexico,

202. I used a grow light to pep up my butterflies when I kept them inside more than a few hours due to rain and gloomy weather.

203. This was the first year raising Monarchs for us. “Us” being my granddaughters, ages 5 and 7, and I. The oldest took a shine to flowers and butterflies, especially Monarchs, last summer. So, for Christmas we got her some books on raising Monarchs and a large butterfly cage to raise them in.

     We live in southern Door County, WI. We eagerly waited and watched the milkweed plants for cats, and as we found them, we brought them in to raise indoors. We successfully raised and released 15 Monarchs the first round. 13 females and 2 males.

     The next round were raised from eggs. The youngest granddaughter proved to be quite the “eagle eye” for spotting eggs. She also kept an eye on the eggs after we brought them in, and her sharp little eyes would see when one was beginning to hatch. Gramma here, needed to grab the magnifying glass to see that, haha.

     We were quite excited to have raised 11 Monarchs from eggs. There were several more in the group that had been found as cats when out cutting milkweed that we brought in and let finish up indoors.

     The gang began eclosing on Sept 10 and finished up on Sept. 21st. The first one on Sept. 10th, a female had a wing problem. She eclosed just fine. No problem that I saw as I watched her emerge. But within a few minutes, I saw she had a bead of rust colored fluid on her left upper wing. I didn’t figure that could be a good thing, and it wasn’t. That upper wing never unfurled correctly. The other 3 wings were perfect. She was unable to fly. I don’t know what could’ve caused that “hydraulic leak”. She had no interference as she emerged. Sad.

     The rest popped out and were successfully released. 11 males and 6 females.

     We released 32 healthy Monarchs. The girls and I were pretty excited with that, being our first year.

204. My love of Monarch butterfly started when a neighbor came over last year and wanted to look at our butterfly weed. He said he wanted to see if there were any caterpillars on it. Well there was and that’s where it all started.

     We ordered butterfly plant seeds over the winter and started them in the spring.( always put your seeds in the refrigerator for the suggested time). We put 30 plants in our old fenced-in veggie garden(who needs veggies anyway!) We collected caterpillars like crazy. They produced 40 males and 33 females.

     The next batch would fly to Mexico. This time is wasn’t so easy. Tachinid flies were taking their toll on the eggs which led to many, many deaths. We started collecting eggs almost as soon as they were laid.

     Finally! And so far we have release 25 males and 22 females and only 1 death due to not coming out of the chyrsalis right. There are 16 chrysalises left. I learned something else new. These caterpillars are larger. The butterflies are larger too.
     And soon it will be farewell for the winter and I can’t wait until 2019. The planning will go on all winter for raising even more Monarchs for next year.

     I do have to thank the Monarch Butterfly Garden for all I have learned. AND for the gift of two butterfly cages, a LED magnifyer, 12 floral tubes, and pick holders…See you next year!

     Linda Mack

     1. We raised three 4 Cats we found in a meadow in late August. All 3 made to heathy released butterfly. Looking forward to doing this again next year, this time starting with eggs! We’re on the Seacoast of NH.

205. this was my first time raising monarchs and I live in South Florida, so mine do not migrate. Between 8/22 and 9/20, I released 35 butterflies. I then went away for a week and came back to 10 cats on the milkweed I am growing. The biggest thing I learned was that when the cats reach instar 5, they are voracious eaters so you need lots of milkweed. I learned so much about monarch stages, habits and, I am still mesmerized every time I see one create his chrysalis and again when they eclose. Absolutely amazing. I will continue with this new hobby.

206. 2018 was the first time I raised Monarchs. We had 5 caterpillars and 4 survived and became butterflies. 3 males and 1 female. A close friend made me a butterfly house so we’ll definitely do this again next year. My boys (ages 4 and 9) loved helping me raise these beautiful creatures.
     We are located in Minneapolis so this site has been really helpful. THANK YOU

207. Glenview IL last release 9/18/18 # 93 49F 44M Season started early this year- 5/29 first eggs/cats (typically my yard sees monarchs late June). Made an attempt to raise 25 outdoors, but they were immediately dispatched by wasps. Lost 8; brought 17 remaining indoors, but 7 ended up victims of tachinid flies. Raised the rest indoors. Of the 93, numbers 49 thru 72 hatched 8/1-15th. Numbers 73 thru 82 8/16 -30.
     Numbers 83 thru 89 9/7- 15th. Number 90 9/16 91 & 92 on the 17th and final #93 on the 18th.
     Left to nature, cats do not survive storms, wasps (observed 3 different species), and tachinid flies. to summarize: 93 49f/44m live
     deaths: 8 to wasps, 7 to tachinids, 2 black death and 3 chrysalis fails (two were deformed)

208. This was my first “real” year. I live in Stillwater, MN. I had rescued just two cats in September of last year and got hooked. Over the winter, I educated myself. I had added lots of milkweed and nectar plants to my gardens in the spring. They paid off! Early in the summer I found well over 30 eggs and small cats. I kept just 8 myself and recruited two friends to get them started. One has a 5-year old daughter. She and her husband wanted her to see the miracle first hand. The other friend is a fellow retiree who saw my Facebook posts and wanted to know more. I successfully released the first 8 and didn’t hunt for more until after we finished an out of town trip. On August 15, I found 22 more eggs and small cats. I continued to check plants and bring cats inside. I was hesitant about bringing in larger cats because I was afraid they had already been compromised by predators. But that fear soon wore off and I ended up with 35 total. I had one sick instar 3 cat that I had to euthanize. And then one chrysalis didn’t form properly and the conclusion was that IF the butterfly eclosed, it would not be able to fly. So I put that chrysalis in the freezer as I had done with the sick cat. Both situations hurt. For me, raising these beautiful little miracles fills the hole left in my heart when our beautiful dog died suddenly and unexpectedly last summer. I get a lot of joy out of bringing in fresh milkweed, checking and washing it and them putting it into the cage. Watching the cats eat and eat and eat is fun. I enjoyed cleaning the nurseries for the smaller cats which were just Costco rotisserie chicken containers. I had plenty of floral tubes and vases with covers to ensure the milkweed stayed fresh until it was nothing but stems. During these last weeks we had to go to Ames, IA to help with a family situation. I took the cages and 6 lucky butterflies eclosed and were released on September 18 with a 250 mile head start to Mexico. They’re all gone now and the equipment/cages will be thoroughly washed and sterilized. I’ll collect more milkweed and Tithonia seeds and will be looking forward to next year. Thank you for the advice, suggestions, etc. I have shared a link to your site with many of my friends and members of my garden club. I believe what we are doing is helping. I saw about 20 at one time on my Tithonia last week on a beautiful sunny day. It was a good year.

209. I am thrilled to be part of this, part of the solution rather than the problem! I started raising monarchs this summer and I am so passionate about this new hobby!!!

     I have a meeting with the town this week to come up with a proposal for a butterfly garden here in Fairfield, Connecticut. I am planning on teaching my fitness classes to raise money for the town. .Would love any input anyone has.

     I’m going to get the word out in our community Through TV and articles for the local paper.

210. I released 24 this summer. Just finished with my last one. It’s my first year raising monarchs. Next year I want to tag them. I want to plant more fall blooming flowers for the migrating monarchs.

211. This has been a wonderful season! It is my fourth year of raising. I live in Central Kansas. I have successfully raised and released almost 400 monarchs! This spring I made sure to plant many more pollinating flowers so that the butterflies stuck around a lot longer. Even attracted a couple of hummingbirds! The funniest thing that happened this year was that I inadvertently raised 3 Queen butterflies because the caterpillars look so much like monarchs.
     It is such a rewarding honor to be a part of this!
     Thank you Tony for everything you do!

     1. 400?? You rock!!

212. THIS WAS MY BIGGEST YEAR FOR THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY.WHERE I LIVE I VERY REARLY SEE MONARCHS OTHER 1 TO 3 THE WHOLE SEASON, BUT THIS YEAR I HAVE SEEN ALOT AND COLLECT CLOSE TO 100 EGGS FOR MY 1ST GROUP OF MONARCHS TO RAISE AND LET GO.IN THIS GROUP MY GRAND DAUGHTER AND I SET FREE 79 MONARCHS.
     WITH OUR 2ND SET OF EGGS WE RAISED AND SET FREE 22 MORE MONARCHS.
     WAS SURPRISED AGAIN WITH MORE MONARCHS LAYING EGGS 2 WEEKS AFTER WE LET THE 2ND GROUP GO AND
     WE COLLECTED WELL OVER 100 + EGGS.
     WITH THIS GROUP EVERYTHING WAS GOING GREAT UP TO WHEN I HAD ABOUT 45 J-HOOKED AND READY TO TURN INTO CHRYSALIES WERE HANGING 1/2 WAY AND STOPPED THEIR CHANGING INTO THEIR CRHYSALIES AND COME OF THE JUST HANGING DOWN WITH A BLACKISH SPOT OF WATER UNDER THEM. THIS WAS THE 1ST TIME I HAD EVER SEEN SOMETHING LIKE IN THE MANY YEARS I HAVE RAISED MONARCHS. I BELIEVE IT WAS SOME TYPE ON BUG SPRAY OR SOMETHING BUT NO ONE IN MY AREA USES SPRAYS FOR THE ARE SO MANY BUTTERFLY GARDENS AROUND. I MAY NEVER KNOW WHAT THE CAUSE OF IT WAS BUT I AM GOING TO WASH BLEACH WASH MY MILKWEED LEAVES THE NIGHT BEFORE THE FEEDING OF MY CATS FROM NOW ON. I GROW MY OWN MILKWEEDS PLANTS. THIS YEAR WAS STILL GREAT FOR ME WITH SO MANY BUTTERFLIES I LET GO HAVE 30+ CHRYSALIES READY TO ECLOSE.

     1. FORGOT TO STATE WHERE I`M AT. SCOTTSVILLE VA

     2. HAD 35 MORE CHRYSALIES TO ECLOSE WITH 29 SO FAR DONE ALL HEALTHY MONARCHS WITH 6 MORE T0 GO.WITH THE PROBLEM I HAVE HAD WITH MY 3RD GROUP 2018 HAS BEEN MY BEST YEAR HERE IN SCOTTSVILLE VA

213. This was the first year for my kids and I to raise Monarchs. We started at the end of July and released 30 butterflies. We live in Peoria, IL.

214. We worked with both eggs and monarch caterpillars this year, and donated to local classrooms again to raise awareness. We fostered 55 cats, but lost about 10 due to tachnid flies. 44 have hatched and been released. One was born with wrinkled upper wings, so we place it in the garden by day and bring it in overnight. It is otherwise healthy. Hatching from eggs was so fun to see the teeny tiny critters grow. My son hopes to raise 100 next year. He is harvesting milkweed seeds to plant to improve our outdoor habitat. We learned a lot about helpful supplies, how to take milkweed cuttings so that they last longer, and feeding with Gatorade when you have a hatch but it is too stormy to release. We tried juices and honey, but orange Gatorade was preferred hands down!

215. I released the 30th monarch today. This was my first attempt. I purchased 10 cats and released 9 adults in late August. When cats appeared I would bring them in to raise and found eggs to bring in to raise in safety. At one point I was able to save a monarch from a spider web. This has been a great experience and I’m sad that it is over .

     I hope monarchs return to my home in Albany, Ohio in 2019!

     Dorothy

216. This was my first time raising Monarchs. This all started when a friend of mine handed me a monarch cat and said we need to help these guys lol I was like O.K. How?? So I kind of learned as I went utilizing this resource the most. I am happy to say I raised 18 monarchs from egg to butterfly and 16 were successful. Unfortunately two didn’t fair well, one had underdeveloped wings on both sides and the other which I named Molly had perfect wings on her left side but not on the right so not sure if she came out that way or fell before her wings dried. Unfortunately I was at work when this happed. I cried like a baby it was just terrible. I was definitely traumatized. I euthanized the first one but I swore I would not ever do that again so I gave her her own little garden no where near the others, if she did or does have OE I didn’t want to infect the others. I have had her for three weeks, I take her outside everyday on our field trip and bring her over to the flowers and hold her until she starts eating. Then we walk around the yard so she can soak up the sun. On rainy days I give her honey water or Gatorade but her favorite is bananna lol that’s her treat. So my question is, how long will she live for because I figured she would have died already. Also what else can I do for her?? I just Cannot euthanize her, I would rather it happen naturally in a safe way.

217. This has been best year for me so far. I have raised 47 Eastern black swallowtails, and 97 Monarchs so far ad 5 more to go. I had one baby that kept wondering off the MW and was later found deflated on a paper towel. Had great results . The main thing i learned was that all of my milkweed that was planted in the Sun , fell out of the garden, was totally covered with every Milkweed bug known to man. I had to search parks and find milkweed this year. i noticed that the milkweed that was found in the shade was heather and no bugs. so this year 2019, I am planting on the shady side of the house and in many places all over the garden. I am also sticking to Common milkweed and swamp milkweed. The other ones didn’t do so well and never bloomed . I am in zone 7 In Maryland . I still have butterflies in my garden but not to many flowers. Been putting out nectarines and sugar water(Hummingbird nectar ) on a plate and have noticed a Spice bush swallowtail on it the last two nights. One of the best things this year was that my daughter started to release monarchs this year too. She loves it , i bought extra supplies this year to give to her. its been fun to have it as a family project. 🙂 I ordered tags but never received them 🙁 Yet . So far I have never tagged one but I guess I will try that next year.

218. My first year! Lessons learned: plant them and they will come, planning on planting more swamp milkweed and butterfly weed next spring.
     Lesson #2 Don’t drop chrysalis, especially 11 times! (by accident of course) That butterfly eclosed sort of, but wings never unfurled, I was going to make him/her a pet but it died before i had a chance to feed it.
     Lesson # 3 parasites happen, crush the chrysalis when you figure out it is not good, (2 of mine i figured it out with in 3 days of going into a chrysalis)
     Lesson #4 Don’t try and move a chrysalis until at least a day after, I moved one to the final enclosure thinking it was hard enough and it wasn’t. butterfly eclosed but had a curled wing at the bottom, released, does fly but doubt it will make it to Mexico (but you never know)
     Lesson #5 tell your friends, show them pictures, videos, show them the chrysalis, butterfly, tagging, and everyone gets excited and asks that you help them do the same thing next year!
     Lesson #6 Learning and seeing this first hand, what a great experience, being a citizen scientist is a lot of fun!
     Lesson #7 learning you have empty nest syndrome ( or empty enclosure syndrome) when you released your last tagged butterfly for the season. Sent 8 tagged butterfly’s to Mexico I hope! Next year… MORE!

219. Today I found a large “cat” on a milkweed stem! My milkweed leaves are pretty pitiful looking! Will the stem be sufficient? It seems awfully late to form a chrysalis! Will there be time after the emergence for the flight south? What should I do?

220. My 1st year and loving it!! It became easier as time went on, especially with the info from your website. I only have 12 milkweed stalks in my yard, so husband and I drove around to find enough leaves to feed the gang. I released 34 so far; and 1 next week some time; 1 may have had OE. Starting with #5, we kept track of their sex: 16 females-14 males so far. Then I am finished for the year in Wisconsin. I was very surprised at how many people are interested in this pasttime! I enjoy passing the good word.

221. I raised 10 monarchs from caterpillar to beautiful Monarch. This was my first time ever doing this, tony helped me along. I first noticed 6 caterpillars on my milkweed plants, then the next day i seen a Cardinal bird fluttering around and all my caterpillars were gone. The next time I found a caterpillar I brought it inside and started reading about raising them. Then I bought 3 cages floral tubes vacuum cleaner for grass. My las Monarch emerged with crumpled wings, i was worried about him so I put hummingbird nectar on a cotton ball and watched him eat, i was very happy. After 5 days it was sunny outside and I brought the cage out and had a butterfly net with me because i figured he wouldn’t be able to fly and probably flutter around. I was amazed he flew away to next yard and flew back to our redbud tree then flew away for good! I was prepared to feed him nectar for the rest of his life!

222. My first year and released 14 healthy monarchs. One small patch of .milkweed one small nursery for eggs and babies and one large cage made by a handyman covered with screening for caterpillars and chrysalides. One escapee caterpillar and one that didn’t make it to crysalis

223. Best year yet! Gave away over 100 eggs and caterpillars, and we raised 100 ourselves. Had our first ever experience with the nasty tachinid fly…Lost 4 to that problem. Still have a handful of cats in the meager milkweed garden, but stopped bringing them in a few weeks ago due to the limited milkweed around here. True, you can’t save them all…What a busy, crazy summer. Very strange that we didn’t see many tiger swallowtails this year. We usually see a lot of them. Sterling, Virginia

224. Best year yet! Gave away over 100 eggs and caterpillars, and we raised 100 ourselves. Had our first ever experience with the nasty tachinid fly…Lost 4 to that problem. Still have a handful of cats in the meager milkweed garden, but stopped bringing them in a few weeks ago due to the limited milkweed around here. True, you can’t save them all…What a busy, crazy summer. Very strange that we didn’t see many tiger swallowtails this year. We usually see a lot of them.

225. Diane Battisti S.E. Wisconsin. This is my first partial year of raising Monarchs. I successfully raised and released 11 males and 22 females. I lost 4 caterpillars. Heart breaking. Because I am so excited about the Monarchs, I have been asked to share my experiences with 4 different groups over the winter. I will recommend this website and its products to all! I will start earlier next year!

226. This was our second season of conscious monarch raising. We successfully released 70+ monarchs. We also had a few casualties, which seemed to increase towards the end of the season. We were running very short of milkweed at the end and plan to put in many more plants next year. Our tropical milkweed was a favorite for laying eggs this year. My biggest problem was keeping the cages clean and knowing when to separate diseased cats and crysalides from the others. Hope to do better next year. Tony’s site has been invaluable in guiding us through this process. Looking forward to the next season.

227. I moved last December to a small cabin in Woodbury CT. No flowers at all but I did plant butterfly weed seeds and planted many small plant around. Before I knew it I had monarch cats eating these slender leaves! This is my second year raising them with 4 released last year and 8 this year. I was able to videotape them turning into a chrysalis and also coming out as a beautiful butterfly! I also released my butterfly’s at a well known local native plant nursery in Woodbury CT. called “Earth Tones”. It must have felt like heaven when they were released and had such a wonderful place to hangout! Tony thanks for all you do and all the great information and products you offer!

228. This is my first year of raising Monarchs! My husband and I were so happy to have released ONLY 5. But I hope for a better year next time. We just read an. Article in the local newspaper about a woman who released 600 tagged MONARCHS!!! She lives near Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine!!! I hope to get in touch with her and and get advice on how to be more successful next year!

229. I do not raise monarchs. Kudos to those of you who do. My small garden in London, Ontario, Canada is full of pesticide-free perennials and annuals all season, including many native species and butterfly weed which I propagate every year. During all of 2017 we saw only three monarchs. This year we have seen 54 so far! Right now they are seriously enjoying the zinnias. This is small compared to the fabulous results reported on your site; nevertheless, it is a very encouraging increase over last year.

230. Hi All,

     So far I have had a wonderful season! I’ve released 52 monarchs so far with close to an even male to female ratio. 50 were tagged. I’m also still finding eggs and raising cats from the field behind my house down here in Denton, TX. Last week I found 127 eggs!! Not all were monarchs, about 1/4 have been Queens as well. With all the cats I’ve raised I’ve only had 2 caterpillar deaths so far from an unknown source.

     The best system I have found that works for me is: collect eggs and put them in Tupperware. Upon hatching move the babies to another Tupperware for a few days. Move them then to a large cube cage. When they get to 3rd instar move them to another large cube cage. After pupation, move the pods to what I call a “hatch tank,” which is a small cube cage.

     Mistakes this season: I have, for the most, part successfully moved pupated cats to the hatch tank. I usually move them that day using a pin, sticking it through the silk and pulling it down making sure it is secure then hang it from the top of the hatch tank. I’ve gotten so good at this I even can move the J cats over before they make their pod! Word to the wise on moving pods. IF you try and pull them without sticking a pin in the silk first make sure you avoid breaking off the pod from it’s cremaster. I’ve had this happen twice and I can tell you it will not live.

     Down here in TX we get a lot of Queen butterflies. The eggs are darn near impossible to differentiate from the monarch. If you get Queens make sure they are somewhat separated. They are HIGHLY cannibalistic. One day when changing out milkweed I witnessed 2 cats playing tug of war with another cat, ripping it in half and chewing with abandon! They were all instar 3. This puzzled me because they had plenty of milkweed to eat! Monarchs can be temperamental as well, but not as bad as the Queens I have found.

     One thing a lot of people have contention about is whether or not to give cats water. I’ve given mine water by spritzing in the morning and evening. They love it and it’s so cute to watch them find a drop and suck it right up! In my opinion they THRIVE with this extra TLC, and I think it may mimic morning dew. Even cats I’ve brought in from the field on a hot day will drink their fill so I know they need/benefit from receiving a spritz or two.

     Glad to read yall’s posts and remember to report sightings to the JOURNEY NORTH website!!

     Happy rearing,
     Erin Shahayda

     1. Wow that was so informative! I have to say I am so jealous! haha So far I have had no success- after the cats go into J they start to turn blackish and stretch way out thin. then just hang – I put them out of their misery. I have tried everything. Also last year I had hundreds of monarchs flitting around this year the first monarch I found was Sept 7th. This is in Florida. We have paper wasps and I don’t know what else. Thank you for doing such an outstanding job!!

     2. Hi Erin, I live in SW Florida and so have year round butterflies, also quite a few Queens. I am curious: when you say you put the eggs in Tupperware – how exactly do you do that? I am having, for the 1st time, trouble getting the eggs to hatch. The leaves wither before the eggs hatch! I put individual leaves in florist tubes, but for some reason, most cuttings and leaves wither almost immediately. Do you have any tips? My cuttings and leaves are from very healthy plants (in the ground, not potted.) I did not have this problem last year.
        Thank you!

        1. spritz your collection lightly every day (use unchlorinated water, or let your water sit in an open container for half a day before using to let the chlorine dissipate. You can lay down a paper towel, spritz lightly, lay down a fresh leaf, then the leaf with the egg on top. Spritz all lightly and daily.

231. I live in north central Florida. I have learned a lot this first year of monarch ranching. I had only about 40% success rate. Chrysalids turned black and never hatched. I suspect a heavy OE infection and have started cleaning milkweed with bleach solution to protect the cats. I am also trying to raise BF from eggs only. I read that Florida has a particular problem with OE because tropical milkweed grows here and does not die back in the winter so the OE becomes more concentrated. I am hoping for better results in the future. Anyone else in Florida having this problem?

     1. Hi Genevieve,
        I live in SW Florida. I have only had the problem of black and dead chrysalis last year directly after Hurricane Irma. Also, my some of my cats were dying, just falling off of leaves. A friend who raises monarchs about 30 miles from here was having the same problem, so we figured that storm winds, and way too much moisture were causing the problem. We both sanitized our cages, rinsed all leaves carefully before using and have not had that problem again.
        I also raise mine from eggs. My plants are in the ground and are doing well. I read somewhere to cut them back to six inches twice a year so that fresh leaves come. I am doing this a few plants at a time so that my butterflies still have flowers for nectar.
        Hope this helps.

232. My 2nd year . Live in Olathe,Ks
     Outside Kansas City. Got
     late last yr and released 7. This
     Year released 39. Don’t think I’m
     In a good flight path. Did get a fellow worker interested late and he had 3 fly away.

     1. Hi, Bob! I’m in neighboring Overland Park, KS. This is my second year raising Monarchs. Last year I managed to release 90 butterflies and this year will be close to double that. I don’t have a lot of milkweed in my garden (slowly increasing that), but I am always watching for milkweed. Most of my eggs come from other patches. Since I’ve been raising them, I see a lot of butterflies in my yard and area, primarily, I think, because they love my Mexican Sunflowers for nectaring. If you have it, they will come ( it seems).
        Unfortunately, I haven’t seen migrating Monarchs, but I still have a lot hanging around my yard for me to enjoy.

        Marcia Sands

233. Charleston, SC – This year we had a bounty of yellow milkweed plants that came from the one plant we had last year. I expected to see an abundance of butterfly activity, but it really did not start until July. By then the milkweed plants had been pretty covered with the yellow aphids and then into August (after lots of rain) the sooty mildew. Finally started to see Monarchs laying eggs, but were not seeing many caterpillars. Finally realized we had a wasp problem (huge paper wast nest at the bottom of my zinnia stems). Once the wasps were dealt with, we had numerous caterpillars grow to size and at least 15 chrysalises were formed. However, I did find several cats that died en route (so sad!) and at least 2 of the chrysalises aborted upon emergence. We did however, see a LOT of other butterflies enjoying the milkweed, zinnias, cannas, salvias and other flowering plants. I feel like our success this year was not as good as previous years, but I did learn a lot about the hazards for raising Monarchs.

234. Happy to announce I am about to release #206 & #207 today and still going strong. Here in Boca Raton, Florida we have practically year-around raising ability. My only problem is keeping enough milkweed to feed them all. This is my third year and absolutely loving it! Only I wonder where they go from here?!

235. I am a first-time cat raiser, living in Minneapolis, MN. I stumbled on this website in the middle of this summer, and looking for Monarch eggs sounded like something I could do. I ran out into my yard, and immediately found 8 eggs.
     Being new at this, I thought I should start small. I kept the eggs in small food containers, and misted them every morning.

     Once the cats hatched (6 out of the 8 eggs), I cleaned the containers every morning, rinsed them with a mild peroxide/water solution, and put in new milkweed leaves. I also was careful to wash the leaves thoroughly before putting them in the containers.

     I bought a magnifying glass and was excited to find that even tiny cats have yellow, black, and white stripes! When the cats were big enough that they couldn’t crawl through the screened top, I put them in an old aquarium (on its side, so they would form their J on glass rather than on the screen).
     I bought 3 floral tubes for milkweed, and that seemed to be enough for 6 cats. The chrysalis are beautiful, like tiny jewels, and a niece told me that the cat, once it has formed a chrysalis, secretes an enzyme that basically dissolves itself. I looked that up, and sure enough, that is what happens.
     All 6 cats emerged as butterflies, and my daughter and her boyfriend happened to be in town that weekend. The boyfriend was as excited as my daughter and I, which was a nice thing for a Mom to observe!

     Recently widowed, I moved to this house 2 years ago, and am slowly replacing the grass yard with flower gardens. I love native plants (mainly because they’re so easy!), and have Partridge Prairie Pea plants, Butterfly weed, a few varieties of “plain” milkweed, and lots of Zinnias (which I have discovered that Monarch butterflies LOVE). I am in the process of saving seeds from all of them, so I can expand my gardens even more next year.
     I plan to harvest many more cats next year- I think I’ll be able to sustain them quite easily with the plants in my yard.

     Thank you so much for all the tips,and the sharing forum! I am very interested in reading your response to the Xerces piece (which I read, and frankly, it didn’t make sense to me).

236. Hello. I live in Keswick, Ontario , Canada. Last year was the first year I had mature milkweed plants and started finding caterpillars late so I only raised two. This year I have tons of different milkweed plants and with the help of my 8 year old daughter who has become an expert at finding eggs and small babies, I estimate I will have released about 80! I still have my last two in chrysalis. The only Challenges I had were anal protrusion on one, one that came out deformed, I suspect from OE, and two others that had wings a bit deformed but could still fly….not perfectly but ok. Perhaps OE again, not sure. I also had two eggs late in the season that never seemed to hatch. But overall for the second year, a lot higher numbers than last year! Those butterfly cages with the floral tubes and holders are amazing, that paired with the platter makes cleaning up so much easier. Still trying to figure how it makes the most sense to organize my large caterpillars ready for chrysalis so I ensure that when the butterflies come out they don’t infect the large caterpillars still in the cage. I have the baby cage for the small ones and once they get bigger I transfer to the large cage. What would be ideal is if I were to win a cage from the contests!! I will keep putting my name in the draw ?

     1. I also had trouble keeping my chrysalises separate from the large caterpillars. In the end I used the large plastic snack jugs with some holes drilled around the top and covered with netting to separate caterpillars of different instars only about 4-6 per container. I also cut a large opening in the lid so I could reuse it to hold the netting on the jug. I lined the jug with a folded paper towel which made it easy to clean the container each day. My last group of caterpillars actually formed chrysalises around top of jar. Then I set the jug under my screened enclosure in case the chrysalis hatched when I wasn’t home.

237. I have had a wonderful season sharing with my grandchildren the wonderful experience of the beautiful monarchs.We shared from egg to release.We have a friend who lives in the country and has a magnificent flower garden where we released all 14 monarchs.We are looking forward to next spring.we learned so much from your site.We have at least 5 older friends that have raised and released monarchs for the first time this season and they are looking forward to next spring also.We released our last monarch yesterday 9/21/18.I have all equipment for next season ready.We live in Port Gibson and our grandchildren live 5 min. away in Palmyra N.Y. which is about 30 miles East of Rochester N.Y.Have great holidays and look forward to hearing from you.Thank You Anna Lilly P.S. I have registered for a certification from N.W.F.for butterflies habitat

238. This is our first year raising Monarchs to release. My 6 year old granddaughter is very motivated to help the Butterflies.
     While she visited me in Connecticut in August, we were able to raise and release one Monarch. When she returned to Vermont, she was able to share her Monarchs in Chrysalis with her teacher. Her class released 5 Monarchs. The swallowtail in pupa never matured. We did not bring in one Monarch instar and one Monarch caterpillar as soon as her Dad found them. Possibly, they were lost to wasps. Lesson learned-Do not delay putting them into the habitat.

     Three years ago I had found common milkweed seed along a Connecticut rural road. After tossing them into an open space in my yard, they have now matured into a nice Monarch habitat. This summer my granddaughter wanted to expand to a Butterfly garden. We purchased and planted perennials at the end of the season.
     After discussions with a local nurseryman, we chose Black Eyed Susan, Budelia, Liatris, Phlox.
     The swallowtail lived on a Parsley plant.

     Thank you for all the informational help you provided in your book and online!

239. My Monarch Raising Story. I began in March during an especially windy/cold spell here in Key West. I bought a milkweed plant with 5 caterpillars on it. This time I did not have enough experience and didn’t know to bring them inside. Maybe more would have survived had I done that. At the time I did not have a proper cage and was using the actual large potted plant, which would not have fit in the cage anyway. We covered the plant with a mesh laundry basket, taping it to the pot around the bottom. It worked fairly well, but the winds & cold came from the wrong direction and I was not able to sufficiently protect the caterpillars or the chrysalis. One chrysalis was bad so I needed to destroy it. It was a disturbing thing for me, but I knew it could effect the healthy ones, so did the dasterly deed. Unfortunately only one survived to be released into the wild blue yonder.

     My second raising effort was more successful. I had proper equipment and made a place inside for the cage. I started with again 5 caterpillars, found another couple on a friends milkweed and finally ended up with 13 caterpillars. Wow do they eat and poop 24/7 eat and poop. Finally one of the first few formed the J and I was fortunate enough to watch and photograph the forming of the chrysalis. Then the waiting. It was amazing to watch it change color, til it was finally totally black. I actually sat and watched it for 3 hours. When it turned black and still nothing happened, I thought it died in the chrysalis. I’d seen the orange of the wings and the colors changing, so expected it to emerge. When it didn’t I feared the worst. I actually was ready to pinch it off the top of the cage and destroy it and I was very upset. I didn’t pinch it off, but went off to do something else, when my husband came in and said you have a butterfly. Was I ever glad I hadn’t pinched it off. But I learned that it takes a long time for the butterfly to morph and that a watched butterfly doesn’t emerge – Ha ha.

     Now I wanted to know how do you tell when the chrysalis would open, where exactly and how do you tell. So the next one that turned color and eventually totally black, I knew it was about ready. Actually two were ready at the same time. I thought one was more ready than the other so was focused (my camera) on the other when the one I wasn’t watching emerged. I got it a few seconds after the chrysalis opened for both. Wrong butterfly at the wrong time! Next one I did better. I discovered there appears a small bubble on the bottom of the chrysalis. It is actually the chrysalis splitting open, first a leg comes out and reaches around til it finds that area on the top of the chrysalis that looks like a line around about 3/4 of it. The leg catches a hold on the top area of the chrysalis, the head and wings tumble out along with the body of the butterfly.
     What a beautiful experience, I was moved to tears it was so emotional to watch the butterfly emerge and bloom into a full sized monarch, wings expanding. It twisted around and fluttered, grabbing for a better hold. At the same time the mouth kept moving like lips and a long split tongue spiraled out to the chrysalis and rubbed the moisture from the body of the butterfly and brought it to the lip like area. It was marvelous to watch and to photograph. I was able to photograph at least four of the monarchs emerging and the chrysalis being formed from the J position of the caterpillar. What an experience. I also had a determined caterpillar. There were two big leaf milkweed stems in the cage and on one of the big leaves another caterpillar had formed it’s chrysalis. Wouldn’t you know the caterpillar ignored all but that leaf and ate and ate til the first chrysalis was hanging by the silk it formed to keep it attached to the milkweed leaf. I don’t know why that leaf was delicious to the point one caterpillar ate the other out of house and home. I had to reposition it to a pin I stuck into the milkweed stem – improvise when necessary. It survived fine and emerged with no problem a couple days later.

     But next came another overwhelming experience – releasing them into the wild blue yonder. I took the cage out onto our deck, opened the flap, clipped it back and watched, of course filming too. They didn’t seem to interested or aware of the fresh air and the open doorway. One kept scratching at the clear side of the cage. I tried to distract it, but it kept scratching there. I was afraid it would expel all it’s energy doing that. I couldn’t get it near the opening. I got a stem of fake flower, got the butterfly onto it, carefully moving it outside the cage. The butterfly crawled around on the flower a bit, then off it went. Each one flying off with a piece of my heart with it. The whole experience was overwhelmingly emotional to see life form right in our home and deck. How marvelous.
     I most certainly look forward to raising more monarchs. The pictures I took I will make into slide shows and if I knew how to would post them on youtube. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, Trish

240. First time raising monarchs in many years. Have learned much through this site. Thanks Tony! I have milkweed growing in our pollinator garden and watched the females placing their eggs. Picked up five eggs, and within a few days had five teeny cats. Four were content to stay in one place, but one was very adventurous and I would find it checking out its enclosure. Eventually hatched 12 eggs, resulting in 8 females and 2 males successfully released. Funny thing, no matter where they were released, the garden, the patio, or the upper deck, they all flew right up into the trees. There was one cat that J’d but overnight it looked shrunken and had white stuff hanging from it, so it was removed. The same thing happened to a chrysalis, removed and disposed of it as well. Assume it was the tachinid fly, but not 100% sure. Sad to see, but the others grew and matured with no issues. I am in Greendale Wi, zone 5. Looking forward to next year.

241. This was my first experience raising and releasing Monarchs. My first Monarch was from a caterpillar I found in my garden. He emerged on August 12th, after that I had 2 females one each on the 13th and 16th followed by a pair (M & F) on the 18th, another male on the 22nd, another pair (M & F) on the 29th, a male on the 31st and my last Monarch (female) emerged today, September 18th. She is number 10. I had a total of 5 males and 5 females. I had one chrysalis that turned milky white and never opened. I had one caterpillar that died for unknown reason, and one that escaped. The escapee was the first one that I hatched from an egg, I apparently didn’t close the container tight and he wriggled out the top. Lesson learned – put the lid on tight. Since then the last three of my Monarch releases were raised from egg. One I even saw the female place the egg on the milkweed leaf. Exactly 4 days later – itty bitty caterpillar.

     This experience has been a ton of fun and I will miss the butterflies thru the winter. Good new is they will return next year, so I can raise more. I plan on changing my garden so that I have a “Butterfly Garden” and can provide nectar plants as well as milkweed. I’m hoping that I can get some Swallowtails and other varieties to hang out in my garden. Mean while I’ll enjoy the photos I took of all of the Monarchs that I raised and released.

     I live in Algonquin, Illinois (Northwest Suburb between Chicago and Rockford)
     Thank you for all of your help.
     Sue

242. We successfully fledged 65 monarchs this year, most of them males. We found over 100 eggs in our common milkweed along with 5 or 6 cats. I changed their jar every time I fed them, then washed the jar and water vials. It took 6 hours one day to clean and feed all the cats in the house! After last year’s black death killed many chrysalis, none died this year.

     1. I may have experienced the black death this year. Can you describe it? In the past 2-3 weeks about a dozen out of about 15 Chrysalis have turned black and then no butterflies emerging. Previous to this, about 10 butterflies emerged successfully and flew off on their journey! My counts are approximate because I raise them outdoors, naturally. Last year I found only about 2 or 3 that did not survive, out of about 30! I also found a few caterpillars that died on the milkweed plants.
        Anyone know a possible cause of this?

        1. Hi Phyllis, check out NPV and Pseudomonas Info

243. From coastal Virginia – this is my third year raising monarchs. I have tropical milkweed and a. speciosa. When the season ends I should be around 60 releases if all goes well. I presently have ten crysalides and 19 cats of different stages, mostly instar 4-5 – mostly from eggs lain on my plants, though I have ‘saved’ a few cats from wasp predators in another garden. I have lost two crysalides which turned black, two butterflies had malformed wings and lived indoors with me, and I’ve lost four cats that were puking green before dying.
     My neighbor has a wonderful garden and I’ve seen many monarchs flitting around and nectaring in their yard.
     I might try tagging the butterflies next year.

244. This was my first year raising Monarchs. I am located in Southern Maine. I released 35 successfully with a 60% Male to 40% Female ratio. I released Mister #35 this morning.

     My biggest lesson this year was to trust in nature. It is easy when you are watching them grow to get startled early on in the raising process when they do something “weird”. The head jerking in response to noise really freaked me out. I thought they were sick. Or when they start wandering all over the enclosure before pupating. I had to learn to slow down and not get worried every time something new happened. 🙂

     And most importantly, take time to appreciate the beauty in their transformation!!

245. I wanted to share the story about raising our butterflies and none of the pages would take it. My daughter had the idea of raising butterflies for a retirement community! There was much excitement and new life brought in with the butterflies. We took eggs from our plants and from the general Philadelphia area where we knew there were milkweed plants. We successfully raised 20 for the home, and 18 for our home and we have another five as a chrysalis and will be hatching them soon! It has been wonderful. We have named them all and sent them on their way, with eight being released at the time of the migration. My neighbors and grandchildren also love this project! Thanks for the news letters. Some were released at an art museums butterfly garden, some at a church’s butterfly and the rest at home.

     It has made me interested in growing a butterfly garden and having it certified! Thanks so much!

     Carol Timlin, Philadelphia, PA

246. Hi Tony,
     Raised 5 cats last year which was my first try. I learned a lot this year. We collected eggs from milkweed, and also cats we found on milkweed in our pollinator garden. The eggs developed well and we released 32 butterflies and 22 migrators this month, but all of the cats we collected were paracitized by tachinid flies. We lost all 9 that we collected. We also had 1 chrysalis that developed “Black Death”. My husband and I grew very attached to our little ones and losing them was very sad! We ended up with a 70 % survival rate. I’m a retired nurse and was careful to keep cats and eggs separated. Lesson learned? I will only bring in eggs and try to get them right after they have been layed. I also suspect that concentrating my milkweed in a pollinator garden will attract tachinid flies. I plan to plant different types of milkweed in more isolated places in my yard. I’m hoping this will help.
     Rachelle E Longmeadow, MA

247. I’m in Fallbrook, California (San Diego County). Last year was my first year raising Monarchs — my cousin in Illinois got me interested in her raising project on Facebook so I gave it a try. Raised and released 13 healthy butterflies in June, July, and August 2017. The biggest problem I had was keeping up with the needed milkweed leaves. I only had 4 plants and that simply wasn’t enough even for just 13 caterpillars. So in September I bought more milkweed — every kind I could get my hands on so I could find out what worked best. While tending plants, pruning, etc. in October I was shocked to find eggs and caterpillars! My cousin had long since put her supplies away for the year and she neglected to tell me about over-wintering California Monarchs! So I brought in what I found and kept at it. By December 31st, I had raised and released another 24 healthy Monarchs. I turned a new page in my journal for 2018 and started keeping meticulous notes. From January 1, 2018 through today, September 18, 2018 I have released 306 healthy butterflies! My friends enjoy stopping by the garden just to watch them flutter through the neighborhood. I have reports of visiting Monarchs from up to 6 blocks away. I now have about 150 Aslepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed) and about 60 Aslepias curassavica (tropical milkweed), which far and away grow the best around here, produce the best leaves and healthiest plants. All the other varieties I tried were not nearly as successful so I simply replaced them with the winners. Lots of trouble with aphids during the hottest weeks of the summer, but finally got them under control with soap (the kind with fat in it) and water. I did have a few cases of tachinid fly parasite, and a few cases of OE. Both of those diseases occurred when I took 10 days off for a vacation trip. I had purposely stopped bringing in eggs in time so that I would be able to release all my butterflies before we left, and figured the eggs, cats, and butterflies would get along in the garden without me for a few days. When we got home, I brought in the eggs I could find and as many Instar 1 and 2 cats I found. It was those outside hatched cats that brought in the diseases. Diseased chrysalides also hung from every fence post, patio chair, table, tree branch, etc. Very disheartening, I must say. Now I search more diligently for eggs and do not bring in cats that have already hatched. I watch any “wild” chrysalides and destroy them at the first sign of disease. It has been 3 months now with no further signs of trouble. Washing the leaves, meticulous cleaning of cages, and healthy milkweed plants seem to be key. I still have eggs, cats, and chrysalides in my mesh cages and expect to go until Dec. 31st before turning the page in my Journal to a new year and starting a new count.

248. This summer’s massive heat and highly intermittent rain brutalized my garden here in central Indiana, but despite that I’ve raised more butterflies than ever. The word ‘overwhelming’ actually comes to mind. Currently, I have a season total of 930; about 220 of those being migration, and just over 100 more to go in the next week or so. My one, last egg just hatched last night. Didn’t bother to count the dead ☠️ There were a lot, but not as many as I expected. I brought in a large number of cats of all instars from the wild as I wanted to give them all a chance. I raise them individually in large plastic cups so any with disease/parasites won’t spread it around. Saw mostly trachnid flies, but saw examples of most of the other diseases. It was really horrifying to see one of my babies suddenly dissolve into a brown puddle! Lessons on being a better caterpillar rancher: when I fist started doing this a few years ago I decided I would let the milkweed spread around the yard anywhere it wanted to go and I think it’s paying off now. I have noticed that females seem to favor different part of the yard at different times in the season for laying eggs. In other spots they don’t seem to like laying eggs on the milkweed at all. Helps a lot in managing the resources. I have my ‘egg-source’ milkweed, and my ‘food-source’ milkweed. The other benefit to letting most of my back yard turn into a wildflower/milkweed meadow is that I don’t spend much time mowing grass now.?

     1. Well done, sir!

249. I’m Patti and I live in Hopkins, Minnesota, a western suburb of Minneapolis. I’ve successfully raised and released 102 wild found eggs by hand rearing inside. 54 males and 58 females. Others that weren’t a success were these. I had three malformed wing monarchs: two females and a male, all due to falls off their chrysalides while still having wet wings: two were fostered and cared for indoors until the end of their lives, one was turned over to the garden for a natural ending after a day on flowers in the sun. Eight caterpillars were lost to NPV/black death. No parasites like tachynid wasps at all. And we had nine eggs black mottled and unhatched due to bacterial death.

     Several release videos and roost videos were shared as video blogs in the following public Facebook groups. Minnesota Monarch Waystations.
     https://www.facebook.com/groups/1440683596240915/

     Here’s a dream photo we took of a fall roost last week. Butteflies and the moon. 🙂
     https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214231647677545&set=p.10214231647677545

250. I live in Hecker, Il which is across the river from South St. Louis. This is the first year for me and I am so excited to say I have had 13 releases. I did loose one chrysalid, not sure why. It was black but never emerged. When I looked at it there was a small hole in it. I have learned that I need to keep better records and already plan of having a journal for next year. I also am planning to tag them next year. My 2 granddaughters have had a lot of excitement over the pictures and videos I have sent to them. Hope to get them involved more next year. I do still have one chrysalid that needs to change, it is starting o I’m sure by the end of the week will be my last release. So far I have had 12 Females and 1 male. My plan is to plant more milkweed next spring and hope to double my releases. I have read some of the comments and am so amazed by the number of releases. Thank you for all your help when I had questions and the informative newsletters you put out.

251. i raised monarchs last year from catapiller stage, and that was a disaster- all emerged with crumpled wings! This year i started with eggs…In total i raised 55 and released 50. The 5 i lost had 2 that were paralzyed when turing to crysalis the other 3 had bent wings and could not fly. Not sure why. all in all it was a much happier season. Next year i plan on being a bit more organized…i run a full time business so raising them has its challenges..ie when they eat me out of house and home, and i have to run down to the local beach area to get more milkweed on my lunch break- but it is all worth it..I live in Toronto Canada, so no more eggs, and all are released- now i have butterfly withdrawl! cant wait til next year

252. Hi. We released 88 Monarchs this year which was a record for us. We live in Jacksonville, Florida and had two major raising periods. The first in late March/early April and the second later on in late August/early September. The majority were very healthy with less than 10% that did not fare very well. It is quite a pleasure to watch them fly and enjoy the milkweed. This has also been a good year for the swallowtail and others that visit our garden. Our most valuable lesson with raising monarchs has been to closely examine their food sources to insure that no contamination or other insects are in with them. I always wonder where they go when we release them.

253. From 42 eggs and baby cats stage to released Monarchs, I only lost 2 cats from disease. A large improvement from last year. I am in the southwest PA region. One chrysallis stil hanging. Hope it gets out before cool evenings. Next 10 days here look above average.

254. From 42 eggs and baby cats stage to released Monarchs, I only lost 2 cats from disease. A large improvement from last year.

255. We have been raising beautiful Monarch butterflies in Tampa, FL, since 2015. This year (2018) we have released 106 healthy males and 106 healthy females. We have had a few ups and downs this year with unhealthy caterpillars and chrysalis so am happy that we had 212 healthy releases. There are still Monarchs in our garden and this evening I found four eggs on one of our portable milkweed plants. Needless to say, I transferred the plant to our cage for safe keeping. The lizards are having a field day!!
     We have also had Swallowtails enjoying the parsley and dill. We released 17 Swallowtails, two were giant. We have 5 caterpillars in our cage now and are hoping for the best.
     We have plans to go to Cades Cove, TN, in October, to participate in the Tremont Institute’s Monarch tagging program. We’re praying Florence has had no adverse effects on the migration.

     1. This is my third year with Monarchs. I was able to release 15 monarchs. I live in northern Ohio. I only had one not survive. I am planning to raise a few more next year. Oh my, this sure is exciting.

256. this year we successfully raised and released 118, but we lost 18. It’s been so hot here. We stopped for now. When it cools off and they start coming this way again we’ll set up to bring them in. We do have some flying around and our milkweed is looking pretty good. We have plenty of lantana and other nectar plants. The eastern black swallowtail laid lots of eggs on my fennel and parsley, but the caterpillars ate it all. Now I need to plant more. We enjoy all the butterflies.

257. I’ve been raising monarchs for 5 years now. What started as a small salvage effort by me, has turned into an almost full time summer job. From 4 or 5 the first year, to over 200 this year. All this from my own back yard in Bloomington, MN. I actually turned my vegetable garden into a butterfly garden 2 years ago and have 4 varieties of milkweed. I’m still adding and learning. Biggest lesson learned this year is, OE is becoming a problem around here. First year I had to deal with it and it’s awful. I lost 37 monarchs this year and 36 were from OE. My problem was not having enough milkweed in my backyard to feed all the cats I got this year and had to get it elsewhere. Once I started doing that, I started losing cats. This really bummed me out and I started thinking about quitting. But then I remember the % that make it naturally and realized I’m still way above that. Yes, OE is terrible and I hope they find a cure, but we still have a lot of work to do to save these wonderful creatures, no matter what. So I’m already adding to my garden and getting ready for next year. I released my last butterfly on the 11th. Here is my grand total for the year: 286 butterflies released, 144 females and 142 males. Considering the most I ever released before, in one year, was around 65, I think I had an awesome year. My % was a bit lower, but the out come was a lot higher. I also got friends involved by just posting on facebook and they thought it was cool.

258. I live in Minnetonka, MN and started looking for Monarch eggs mid June. Fast forward to today, September 17, thanks to Tony and his precise tutorials, we have successfully raised and released 106 healthy, mature butterflies! We still have 7 in chrysalis and should be ready to be released next week. I’m looking forward to next year, however, raising this many butterflies is a huge commitment, so I may scale back a bit next year by growing even more milkweed, and enjoy nature and the butterflies outdoors at their best.

259. This is our 3rd year of raising Monarchs. We spent two years before that building our butterfly gardens to support raising. We just released our last butterfly today, 9/16. We reached a season total of 137: Males 71, Females 66. The males jumped out to a very early season lead, but the females made a bit comeback in August.

     This season also seemed to be a big one for tacnid flies. Many of the cats we brought in from outside were already exposed. Therefore mid-season we decided to restrict to only bringing in eggs as I have such a hard time losing any cats. We also started a fb page to track our progress. I have even had a number of friends express an interest in either raising or creating butterfly gardens next summer.

     I’m really enjoying reading other’s experiences through the season.

     1. Forgot to add that I am in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

260. Greetings fellow monarch lovers. I have been a gardener all my life and never used insecticides and have always had lots of butterflies visit my gardens.
     This was my first attempt at actually raising monarchs, it all started when I was weeding my gardens and noticed a horrendous amount of afids on my milkweed plants, some of which I grew from seed this year(tropical) and also on the common (invasive) type milkweed so I was snipping off the infested tops or crushing the afids with my fingers. I have never had issues with affids before and wonder if they are detrimental to the monarch eggs. Anyway so all of a sudden I think maybe I’m mistaken and I just squished a bunch of monarch eggs so of course I went in and googled monarch eggs and that is how it all began. I was out searching for eggs the same and next day and found about a dozen or so and brought them in, put them in saved yogurt containers with water in them and went from there. Out of about a dozen, 9 turned into caterpillars and I then put them in a glass tank with a screened top. I did all this before ever reading your information or finding your site. I then retrieved fresh milkweed every few days etc. Then I found your site and started cleaning the cage and putting the milkweed stems in the flower holder thingies, I had a bunch of them I had saved from floral arrangements over the years. This has been such a fascinating experience for me, learning things I didn’t know before and actually being able to watch the process from beginning to end. So far I have released 5 at different times and my grand kids are just fascinated and my adult children as well. I have 4 more crysalis left to hatch, I have no idea what sex the ones were I have already released but now after reading your info on that I will know what to look for. I am really looking forward to next season, now more aware of the best practices I hope to do much better. Today I saw at least 4 monarchs in my gardens flying around and drinking nectar. It is just such a fascinating and rewarding thing. I am very recently widowed and the gardening, raising butterflies and helping take care of my latest great grand child has helped me a great deal.
     I am hoping to try to raise Eastern Tiger and black swallowtails next year as well but I will have to get some new plants for the garden for that.
     I want to thank you for all your helpful information and advice & look forward to updating you on my progress, until then, best of luck to all my fellow butterfly enthusiasts.
     I live in Southeast Central Wisconsin.

261. This is my first year raising Monarchs. I found all these Caterpillars crawling on My flowers and didn’t know what they were so I went to my computer a looked them up–What a surprise. I quickly fixed up a cage , went a bought 3 Milkweed plants and ended up raising 25 Beautiful Monarchs, only losing 3. I also raised 3 Eastern Yellow Swallowtails and 2 Black Swallowtails. I thought I was done raising so I cleaned up all my Equipment and ready to put away . Low and behold there was 5 more caterpillars crawling in my flower garden so in the cage they went and the next day I had 4 J’s, but something got the small caterpillar. I think they are Black Swallowtails, I will know in 7-10 days.

     I live in Florida so the Milkweed is very easy to keep growing and the love the Cosmos Flowers for Nectar. Now I have a New Hobby and Love it!

262. Yes. I called HD corporate and complained last month.
     I bought two plants as I was desperate….and all cats died. I cut back and will see how next year fairs. I am very disappointed. They said as far as they have been reassured the growers use no pesticides. Do not believe them.
     I am switching to native plants only!
     I cut back all milkweed hoping to stop spread of OE on tropical MW!
     I raised and released 30+ in my small space and a few Monarchs still remain in the garden on the natives I have not cut back yet.
     Thanks for all your words of wisdom Tony!
     San Diego

263. This is my second year raising. Last year I only raised and released 5. This year I raised and released 57 here in Central Ohio since May. Released my last two males today. Lost 4 cats for reasons I do not know. Just stopped eating. 2 chrysalis fell and turned black in Sept and 1 butterfly fell when drying and did not make it. From May to Mid August I had 100 percent survival rate. Started having problems with Caterpillars end of August.

264. This was my first year of raising monarchs. I had a few failures, which truly saddened me, but I did release 4, 2 males and 2 females. I live in central east Florida and the climate here is much hotter than what I was accustomed to in Ohio. But thru my failures I have learned much and look forward to the next time. I must give huge kudos to my friend in Toledo Ohio. She has freed 117 to date with about 20 more to go! And she names every one of them. I hope I may be half as successful as she has been.

265. This was my 3rd year raising Monarch Butterflies. What started as a hobby turned into a labour of love. I have lost a few in the past few years, but only 1 this year, as a “cat” was not able to finish his transformation to Chrysalis. I released 21 females and 4 males this season.
     Each year brings a new lesson! I have some milkweed planted in my yard but rely on roadside sources as my main food chain. I thoroughly wash any milkweed that I bring in for the babies to eat and even give the babies a once over with a light spray of water when they come in on the cuttings. This year I had a female born which could not fly (not for a lack of trying) nor could she get her probiscus to uncurl for feeding. I did some research and of course came across OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha). In my heart I didn’t feel this was the prognosis for this little gem. I put her in a cage of her own, provided her with flowers and cut up fruit. I would take her out of the cage and very gently uncurl the probiscus with a pencil point onto the fruit. She rode around on my arm, fingers or hung from the front of my shirt. Everyday I watched her fervently trying to fly, she was/is a fighter. After about a week, on one of our bonding times, she spread her wings and flew like she was born to do. I kept her inside a few more days and watched her grow stronger. When I saw her using her probiscus to feed, I knew it was time to let her go. I took her outside and set her on a bloom from the butterfly bush and watched her suck from it. She flew off but circled back and landed on my shoulder where she sat for a few seconds before taking off again so gracefully and beautifully.

266. I live on Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada. I have successfully released 79 Monarchs this season. I do have one Chrysalis left but not really expecting much as it is rather deformed but am still hoping it proves me wrong.
     I had some deaths mostly due to tainted milkweed. I will not get those cuttings again. I also it did not disinfect my eggs and many of them did not survive. I did disinfect my cuttings and containers and for the most part that was very successful except for the tainted milkweed.
     The last Chrysalis was found on the beach as a large cat and formed the Chrysalis a couple of days later. Even though he looked healthy, I suspect OE. Hoping I am wrong.

267. Hi Tony, my family vacationed at Kure Beach,NC in July. I had to take my 40 cats and 50 plus eggs with me, along with a huge supply of milkweed. Eventually I ran low on milkweed and started to feed my large cats cucumber, which saved their lives. I live in Hubbard, Ohio and this is my second year of raising monarchs. Last year I released 140 butterflies and this year so far I released 280 with 84 more chrysalis to go. What an amazing year it has been! I found my first eggs on May 29th and released my first butterfly on June 24th. It has been a very long season.

268. Unfortunately, I don’t have any success story to share. I’m very new to this, only learning of this effort this year after planting a butterfly weed in my garden and finding the unusual caterpillers on it. I’ve spent all summer reading and learning about it as I watched 3 generations of caterpillers grow and leave the plant. I haven’t seen any chrysalis afterwards but there are plenty of places in the garden for them to hide and do their thing. But I have been checking the plant every day for signs of a 4th generation and haven’t seen any caterpillers at all. The plant is healthy with no problems but it seems to have been ignored as a 4th generation nursery. I do have big plans of going full force next year to help save these beautiful creatures by planting a lot more milkweed and attempting to raise some of the caterpillers inside. This site has been extremely helpful in my learning process.

269. Released 10 and lost 2. Three more to go. Live in NY. The remaining chrysalis formed under an egg crate and didn’t crawl to the top of my cage. I’m wondering if they’re getting enough sunlight.

     1. As long as there is natural light in the room you’re raising them, that should be ok. However, you alos have the option to remove/rehang:

        Chrysalis Problems

270. Hello I am new to raising Monarchs but not to caterpillars. I have raised many moth (luna, crecopia, sphinx, etc.) caterpillars as well as other butterflies. I never have found eggs. All are caterpillars , only a few where plagued by parasitic wasp/flies. So with hurrican florence coming to the carolinas. . I brought in 8 caterpillars to raise under protection. However we dont have milkweed. All of these were found on butterfly weed. They really love the new growth (small leaves, and 1 big caterpillar ate a whole geen seed pod bud just before it pupated. No caterpillars have been seen on the big oldest leaves, but there are many box elder/milkweed bugs there. Im going to try to relocate the box elder bugs after rains. Most sites say the monarchs only eat milkweed. But I guess mine are fine with butterfly weed????

     1. Hi Chelsea, I hope you, your family, and your caterpillars have weathered the storm. Butterfly weed is a milkweed. The species name is:

        Asclepias Tuberosa

        1. ok thank you. I had read that if you moved moarchs to butterfly weed from other milkweed, it wont eat butterfly weed. But these seem to like it just fine and were probably hatched on it.

271. This is my second season. Just released the last of 76. 39 females and 37 males. I lost 4 cats. 2 I know to wasp and 2 unsure. Had 3 chrysalis turn black and never open. We live in southern Illinois in a rural area. We have some common milkweed in our pasture but I rely heavily on roadways for my eggs, cats and lettuce supply as I call it. God bless

272. As Hurricane Florence is still looming over my state of NC I have 7 newly emerged monarchs I am hand feeding honey water until weather breaks Tues or Wed. This is my 5 th year raising monarchs from my common and swamp milkweed in my garden. I had really given up seeing any caterpillars but to my surprise I found my first cat on 8/22. That has grown from 10 larger instars going to chrysalis and another dozen caterpillars eating away. I ran out of milkweed in my garden but had two fields close by that I pick and refrigerate to feed my cats. This is first year I have raised from eggs I should have three releases if all works out. I will share later how many I release. What a joy this has been for me!

273. Hi, I live north of Detroit, Mi. So far I have released 213 Monarchs. I still have 20 caterpillars. Planted lots of milkweed.
     I lost three in chrysalis…one was badly damaged, two just never emerged. Last year I only had 25 releases.
     Thank you for all your advice!!!!

274. Last year friends introduced me to this wonderful work. Last fall I dedicated a raised bed to planting common milkweed and swamp milkweed. Big mistake mixing them together. When the swamp milkweed bloomed it was gorgeous but attracted bees and big black wasps = no eggs. When the flowers died off the eggs reappeared. One day I followed a female dropping eggs from leaf to leaf as fast as I could! I still have 10 in chrysalis and released about 30 so far. A few did not make it. I have a good supply of milkweed to use and was able to cut the tops off of the plants and stick them into soda drink cups from the mini mart. Kept the milkweed fresh for days and the frass easily dropped to the bottom of the cage. However, I also learned to take the cups out as the cats were getting close to chrysalis so they would not form on the leaves. A little more work but worth it. I have learned so much from this site. Thank You!

275. I live in south central Pennsylvania. This is the first year for me to see and have Monarch butterflies and caterpillars. I have had the milkweed plants but no Monarchs this year I was blessed with eight caterpillars and only was able to see one chrysalis that I found on the plant, the caterpillars ate and left. I even introduce them to the neighbor’s children who have never seen monarch caterpillars before. I am hopeful that next year will bring more. On a different note, I have been blessed with several spicebush butterfly caterpillars and butterflies

276. What a fantastic year for monarch butterflies in Ironwood Michigan the upper peninsula ! The season started in early June as usual. We had warmer then usual temperatures and not a lot of rain. Nights were warmer also. I had an abudance of eggs on my plants in my yard and my 2 places I go for milkweeds near my home. I had my large Tupperware with eggs, then my large Tupperware with tiny babies, then my intermediate cage and finally my large caterpillar cage. I was running all summer ! I had great success & very few casualties or flies & wasp problems until I got to the last big push in mid August. I realize the predators & parasites, OE & Black Death are prevalent at this time. The milkweeds have been over run and the bugs up here are in huge numbers. Since it was an early warm spring the milkweeds weren’t too good at this point. I made a HUGE mistake of bringing a bunch of cats ( 50 or more ) home for rescue and mixed them with my egg hatched cats. First mistake. 2nd mistake was to not sanitize my cages in between introducing new cats. My 3rd & final BIG mistake was to try to salvage big milkweeds from big cage and recycle in the intermediate cage ! I defibately learned my lesson ! I had a Black Death plague go through my caterpillar community. I also had many wasp & fly cats that never emerged. I had a few OE butterflies that had to be put in the freezer. All in all it was a very successful season but could have been much better. I had a 90 % success rate last year with 341 released. This year I successfully released 449 with only a 77% success rate. So please everyone listen to Tony’s advice & follow his foolproof plan. I got sloppy & tried to cut corners & lost almost all my cats at the end. My season was cut short. I’ll definately follow Tony’s plan for raising next year. Thanks for this opportunity to say I learned a lot about disease, predators, sanitation & mixing cats up too much. Thanks again to all my fellow monarch enthusiast ! See you all next year ! Fly Fly Away little butterfly !!! Teddy ?

277. This was our first year raising monarchs and we were mostly successful. About 50 were able to fly away and hopefully join their friends on their trip to Mexico.
     We had a problem with aphids on our milkweed and read to spray them with alcohol. NEVER do that! It turned brown and we had to go hunting for fresh milkweed around the neighborhood. Luckily, we were able to find plenty.
     I think the most important help you can give them is to clean, clean , clean. Those critters sure do poop! I also learned to wash the leaves before I fed them.
     We had a 90% success rate. One had a tachinid fly problem, one eclosed but its wings were crooked and we had to euthanize him. That was heartbreaking. One cat turned black and started oozing some kind of liquid–gross! We mostly found cats already emerged. Next year, I will try to find eggs earlier and treat them with the bleach solution. Still, it was amazing to see your “kids” eclose and fly away! Thanks Tony and fellow enthusiasts for all your help. I sought your guidance several times and it was always helpful. I think it helps to have a local mentor also.

278. This is my first year raising monarchs. Raised 67. Lost 3. Still have 9 chrysalis which should emerge by the end of this week. Raised mostly males. Is that normal? I did run out of milk weed. Had to go hunting for some. Found 2 patches that I had to visit often. I was amazed how much they eat. Even though I planted a lot of common milkweed, swamp milkweed and butterfly weed I didn’t take into consideration that they would be covered with caterpillars. Everything got consumed. Next year I am planning on covering some plants with netting for my food source.

279. One helpful thing I’ve learned for improving their their survival rate is keeping the tubes with milkweed at a slant so their frass always falls off. Disease was minimal, 99% were healthy. About 100 back in April, 40 chysalides currently, 10 youngins growing & surprise found 11 eggs yesterday. Milkweed is low to the ground at this point, may have to go searching for some.

280. I live in Decatur, AL so I am getting all of Tony’s that are migrating south. I have raised and released allot of Monarchs and 6 houses going strong. The only problem I have had is with Box-elder insects eating the eggs. My pest control person told me what they were. I have taken them off my milkweed and swampweed and disposed of them. Where a piece of leaf has been eaten, there must have been a baby cat, but you can’t get them all.

     1. Hi Rita, probably milkweed bugs inadvertently eating eggs if you have an infestation:

        Milkweed Bug Info

281. I live in Omaha Nebraska, this is the second year that I have raised monarchs. As of 9/15/2018 I have released 14 monarchs. Currently there are 7 caterpillars and one chrysalis. During this season I had to destroy 5 eggs which might have been affected by wasps, other than that this was a very successful year for us.

282. This was my first year raising any kind of butterfly. I was able to successfully raise and release 56. By the middle of spring the tachid fly kills 100 percent of the cats outside. I have learned that I need way more milkweed. I could have raised 156 if I had more. Most if my milkweed is in pots, so still trying to learn how much to water.

     1. Way to go! Those tachinid flies are a huge problem by me as well. ?

283. Greetings from West Michigan! This was my first year raising Monarchs & I have had a great experience! About 2/3 of my 40 released so far have been males- which surprised me a bit. I live in the middle of the woods and this past week found 2 deceased butterflies around the house. Is this to be expected? A few butterflies needed to stay in their pavilions over night before release as they seemed a bit weak the first day, but then flew away the second. I am hoping this wasn’t a sign of disease…. Any input is really appreciated! Thank you!

284. I have been raising Monarchs for 3 years with good success. I have a question: Do the monarchs need to be released in the same area where they lived as caterpillars? I always have done this but have heard of releases at schools, nursing homes, etc. Sounds nice, but is there a downside? Do they get disoriented, etc?

285. This is my first year raising Monarchs and feel it was successful. I live in a townhouse, so I planted 8 milkweed plants in planters on my deck.
     I have released 8 butterflies and have 9 more chrysalis. Every leaf on the milkweed has been stripped bare. I’ve saved the seed pods and will plant 1-2 more pots for next year and share the rest of the seeds and scatter some in a natural area nearby. It was not only fun for me, but my neighbors enjoyed watching their release as well.

286. My year started off wonderful. I’ve released more monarchs this year then last year. 215 this year and I have 25 in Chrysalis and 2 cats in last Instar. And about 25 baby cats eating and growing.I’ve learned this year to bleach treat eggs so I can hopefully avoid OE infections so I don’t have to euthanize infected butterflies

287. My wife and I started planting milkweed during the summer of 2015 when we moved to the Bethany Beach, Delaware area. By the summer of 2017, our milkweed (swamp and butterfly) was well established and we turned to monarch butterfly garden.net for info and suggestions. We purchased our first mesh “caterpillar condo” in 2017 and were off and running with 80 successful monarch releases. For 2018, we went to three big cubes. Today’s successful release of three more monarchs brings our total for the summer to 340 and we still have 20 chrysalids and 7 caterpillars.
     My advice for others would be;
     1. Set limits on how many caterpillars you choose to host. MUCH milkweed is required. We have plenty but it takes time each morning and evening to get and clean milkweed cuttings.
     2. Be careful about “fostering” caterpillars from neighbors.
     Occasionally, well meaning folks dropped off caterpillars and aphid infested milkweed.
     3. Understand and accept the fact that you can’t save every egg and caterpillar.
     4. Be sure to get on the email train from monarch butterfly garden.net.

     It’s been a rewarding and exciting summer. Thanks for all the informative updates that you have provided!

288. This was the most difficult year in 18 years that I’ve Had with raising and releasing Monarchs. I had over 200 plants that I grew from seeds I purchased on Amazon. When my plants were ready I put them outside and began seeing Monarchs laying eggs. I raised and released 16. Then the eggs began disappearing. I watched for them to lay their eggs, brought the plants in, eggs still disappeared. No more Monarchs all summer. Then about a week ago More eggs. Now have 20 cats and pupae. I don’t know what happened but I’m for the ones that I did have. Lesson learned, you can do everything right and still not have the same number of Monarchs every year.

289. I have started butterfly gardens for the Marine children on Camp Pendleton here in Calif. FUN

290. This is my first year supporting the monarchs. I started in April. I live in a condo in South Florida and have my milkweed in pots. Am pleased to report that I have released 100+ beautiful monarchs. Hope to keep it up during the winter. Released 15 just this week. I enjoy what a call the scavenger hunt looking for eggs, cats and chrisalides. Have a friends who also caught the bug. Our biggest problem here is that the lizards are on the hunt too.

291. I was fortunate to raise and release 145 monarch this year. I am from Houghton Lake MI., and have spent the last 10 years raising Monarchs. I have raised about 98% from eggs found on milkweed in my backyard, which have reseeded every year into a nice patch. I have quite a set-up to do this as I am very careful to keep everything as clean as I can. I record everyone and name them. This is all very special to me as I do it in memory of our oldest daughter who passed away in 2007 at the age of 46 with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. She was a lover of monarchs and hummingbirds, spending every summer in her flowers that she planted for them.
     I did have 14 that passed away, in the 4th instar from diarreah and vomiting of neon green liquid. I think now, that it was from leaves from another location, where we used to live. They were the only ones that got those leaves and got sick and passed.

     I thoroughly enjoy the raising of monarchs, but a person has to be truly dedicated to the work and time involved doing this. It is a beautiful thing to see God”s creation in this little creature. I am 77 years old and will probably continue growing butterflys until I fly away.

     1. What a beautiful story! Thank you for taking such good care of all those monarchs. What a great way to honor your daughter. I’m sorry for your loss.

292. Brought my huts in last week to the family room. Windy and night temp down to 52 degrees. So now I have been releasing about three a day for the last three days. Still have several chrysalis hanging. Still have Monarchs flying all around the yard but have removed pots of milkweed that they favored. Afraid it will be to cold to release as that is what happened last year. In all so far I have released thirty two Monarch Butterflies this season with a few more to go. One third were males. Most of mine were raised from eggs that I collected so I got to see the babies hatching. I have started a friend this year also and she released over thirty . We are bringing back the Mo arch’s!!

293. Dear Tony,
     Twice now I have bought a milkweed from Home Depot, and both times the cats I put on the plants have sickened and died. These plants are supposed to be raised with no insecticides, but I no longer trust them. Home Depot probably believes their suppliers do not use insecticides, but who really knows what they do???
     Has anyone else had this problem with Home Depot plants?
     Thank-you,
     Sandy

     1. Hi Sandy, this is an ongoing problem with big box stores…I’m hearing about it less, but these stories are still far too common. If you can’t find a reliable local resource, check out these options:

        Suggested Milkweed Stores

        1. I live in Escondido, Ca (northern San Diego County) – I released 6 BF’s in June, 131 BF’s in July and another 18 BF’s in August for a total of 149.
           All of these were raised in screened cages from egg to BF.
           I currently have dozens of cats in one cage and about 5 dozen eggs ready to hatch any time now, in a newly caged milkweed plot.
           This is my 4th year of raising and the biggest year (and busiest for me) yet.
           My husband thinks I’m insane, but it brings me such joy to see them flitting around the garden and knowing I played a large role in their existence.
           Tony, thanks for all the helpful info.
           We are moving to Arizona next spring and will continue this effort there.
           Have a great Winter.

     2. I have pods if you want one victoria,bullardbgv@aol.com

     3. I live in south Florida and I have purchased all my plants from home Depot with no problems.

     4. Bought milkweed plants from Home Depot (out of desperation) two years ago with all the cats eating those plants dying. I segregated the plants for two years in my greenhouse (pruning them back, fertilizing and normal water) and when aphids started to appear on them early this spring, I thought they might be safe to use again. So far, I have had healthy cats and BF’s released from the use of these plants, so apparently the pesticide does not have a long life within the plant.
        I live in northern San Diego County, CA

     5. Yes. I called HD corporate and complained last month.
        I bought two plants as I was desperate….and all cats died. I cut back and will see how next year fairs. I am very disappointed. They said as far as they have been reassured the growers use no pesticides. Do not believe them.
        I am switching to native plants only!
        I cut back all milkweed hoping to stop spread of OE on tropical MW!
        I raised and released 30+ in my small space and a few Monarchs still remain in the garden on the natives I have not cut back yet.
        Thanks for all your words of wisdom Tony!
        San Diego

294. Tony,
     My wife Catherine is the primary “rancher” in the caring for and raising of Monarch Butterflies in our family. Since Sept of 2016 to Sept of 2018 we have raised and released 952 healthy Monarchs. From maintaining the Milkweed, accumulating the eggs, housing the caterpillars, sheltering the chrysalis and release we have learned so much. From washing the individual leaves we feed them to providing other flowering plants for the nectar they need before they leave us. We thank you for the information you provide as there is ALWAYS more to learn to help us support this effort to assist in the survival of the Monarch butterflies.

295. I’m in Weston, Connecticut and this year from end of August through mid-September happily watched 12 monarchs progress from caterpillar to butterfly in my small milkweed garden. I was hands off, with the exception of creating a ‘roof’ over a few of the emerging butterflies during prolonged rainy weather, hoping to give them a fighting chance to dry their wings before flight. For next year, my goal is to plant more late-blooming native flowers for the butterflies to feed on once they emerge. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks, Louise K.

296. Is there a similar source of information like yours for the Western Monarch population?

     1. Hi Kendric…not that I’m aware of at this time. I’ve listed a few resources here:

        Monarch Western Resources

297. I agree with David. Only issue is big box stores selling tainted tropical milkweed! I purchase natives from small no spray nurseries.

     Briefly I had a very successful season 30+ released with last one probably today!
     I grow mostly tropical milkweed and a few natives of California. Due to extreme humidity all season I cut back all tropical due to aphids and fungus and will not encourage many next year. Natives only. I believe those that did not survive in garden were due to disease. I plant Mexican Sunflowers ,Buddlieas, sage, zinnias, lantana in my garden.
     Thanks for your encouragement it is such a joy to raise and see the dancing butterflies☺ this being my 4th year here in San Diego???

298. Dear Tony,

     There are mixed feelings about the benefits of non scientists raising monarchs. The Xerxes Society is generally not in favor of raising monarchs withou strict biological guidelines for a number of biological reasons. They suggest that it is more useful if people would simply support local state and federal programs, and privately financed programs, that focus on habitat protections and restoration. I’m of the opinion that all efforts should be on the table. Grassroots efforts should not be discouraged especially when coupled with planting of milkweed and nectar plants. What do you think?

     1. Hi David, the Xerces article has been creating a lot of waves in our community over the past few days. I am going to write a thoughtful post on this subject in the offseason. For now, you might be interested in this response from a researcher whose data was misrepresented in that article:

        Xerces Raising Article: Based on Facts or Science Fiction?

        1. sue dillon… stopped counting releases after 300.. still 1 big cat and 1 little one that is probably sick (not getting bigger by the day) and about 50 chrysalis… release btwn 10-15 daily… now..have been putting the habitats outside for faster drying and sun exposure.. have to keep doors closed as there are still numerous chrysalis in each cage… but I am exhausted and happy to see them go.. I am retired and have been able to keep up with the twice daily cleaning and feeding.. now all I have to do is wait and release

           Any suggestions on how to clean expelled fluid off the side of my habitats???

           1. Hi Sue, I hose them down outside which clears away most stains.

        2. Great article, Tony. Where can it be posted so that all Monarch enthusiasts can read it?

           1. Hi Rayme, it has already been posted in several butterfly facebook groups, and should be searchable through google. I will be sure to link to it again when I post my article.

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