I had the incredible privilege of raising and releasing SIXTY monarch butterflies this year. Beyond my own experience, I have spent hours researching the monarch butterfly species and how best to care for them in enclosed conditions. The intention of this post is to act as a guide, sharing the knowledge I’ve acquired in the three years I’ve spent raising butterflies (2 years raising monarchs).
MULTI-GENERATIONAL
The monarch’s migration is multi-generational. Approximately four generations that happen throughout each year. The first generation migrates from Mexico to the southern U.S, second and third generations emerge and lay eggs in the north but don’t migrate. The fourth generation makes the trip back to Mexico.
The first monarchs emerge (where I live, zone 6B) in mid to late June. The eggs laid will live only 2-6 weeks compared to the 8-9 months of the fourth generation in Mexico. They live much longer lives because hey don’t use energy to reproduce, and cooler temps slow their metabolism, allowing them to live longer.
It takes monarchs one month (approx) to go from egg to adult butterfly, with temperature greatly influencing the time it takes to go through each instar.
Why Raise Monarch Butterflies?
Only 1/20 eggs laid will survive in the wild through the full life cycle to butterfly transformation.
Declared an endangered species in 2021 (the year I started growing milkweed) I raise monarchs to attempt to make it so 20/20 have a fighting chance at survival and to ensure that I am even able to continue raising them in years to come to achieve the unique generational journey this species relies on for it’s own future survival.
Eggs:
Monarchs can lay around 300 eggs a day. My dms are always filled with questions asking “is this an egg?” but once you spot your first monarch egg you’ll never get confused about what it looks like again. Oval in shape and flat at the base.
Sometimes it’s tip will be black if its near hatching.
At this stage it’s best to keep the leaf with the egg on a hydrated paper towel. It will hatch in 3 days, so you want to keep the leaf hydrated and alive. If it starts to dry out the egg might not survive.
1-3 instar:
The monarch caterpillars are incredibly tiny and most vulnerable at this stage. They should have fresh milkweed leaves daily and enough for the amount of cats you have. They won’t eat a lot at this stage, change their leaves anyway. At least one leaf per cat is fine during this stage as long as you’re changing them daily.
At this stage it’s best to keep them in a smaller enclosure, and separated from other cats as much as possible as I said earlier, they are most vulnerable during these instars.
4-6 instar:
Hungry friends! Prepare to have lots (and I mean LOTS) of milkweed on hand for these guys. One whole plant for every 3 cats. Grow a lot of milkweed, and if you must forage from a wild area never take more than 20% of what you find.
Try to keep these guys separated as much as possible, if they twitch or ooze green fluid they’re bothered and in the wild cats are never piled on top of each other. Be mindful of the condition of your cats every day, optimal health is import to ensure a successful life cycle. They will get quite large at these stages.
Throughout the entire caterpillar stage the caterpillar will come off the milkweed at the end of every instar and molt it’s skin. It can stay off the milkweed plant for up to 24-48 hours. Leave it alone, it will make it’s way back to the milkweed when it’s ready. They are vulnerable each time they molt so it’s important not to bother them during this process.
“How do I move the caterpillars from old leaves to new leaves?”
I will take the leaf the caterpillar is on (the old leaf) and place it on layered on top of a new leaf and let it find the new leaf and once it’s completely on the new leaf I’ll remove the old one.
Pupation/Chrysalis:
The cats will do what their thing, they know what their doing, its important to only observe and try to intervene as little as possible. They will finally come off the milkweed when they are ready to pupate. They’ll crawl around the enclosure endlessly finding the perfect spot. Once it does it will tie a silk and hang in an upside down “J” formation for hours waiting for pupation to occur. It’s skin slices and molts for the last time and the chrysalis stage begins lasting up 14-20 days depending on temperature.
I would never move a chrysalis unless it looks as though it’s in a vulnerable place or at risk to predators.
If you must rehang a chrysalis the most secure option is microfibre cloth. I cut little squares and it sticks and holds with no risk to the chrysalis or butterfly.
Microfibre iss sturdy and reliable and I have personal experience using it to hold and release a perfect monarch butterfly. You don't have to add string, or anything additional, making it the optimal choice.
Enclosure:
It’s important to have space for your butterflies to emerge, and hang to dry it’s wings, keeping in mind always the amount of butterflies you’re raising. You don’t want it to be too crowded.
I was fortunate this year that while my enclosure is not very large, I have multi-generational cats that evolved at different stages and were moved from different enclosures throughout their instars.
I never had more then 13 cats at a time in my outdoor enclosure, and less in my smaller ones.
The timing of each butterfly was certainly on my side.
Your enclosure should be outdoors, and mesh enclosed.
There should be no glass or plastic siding.
Air flow is important for development through each stage and we don’t want to create a sun oven situation.
Nectar Flowers/Feeding:
If you follow my instagram you already know I’m going to tell you to plant some Mexican sunflowers. Beyond raising my own monarch butterflies my yard has been filled with monarchs, swallowtails, question marks, hummingbirds and bees because of this ONE PLANT. It’s actually the only one I’m going to focus on because I believe it’s that powerful at drawing pollinators to your yard. MEXICAN SUNFLOWERS.
Seriously though all other nectar plants like cosmos, dahlias, zinnias are monarch faves as well!
Release:
Approximately 24 hours before the butterfly will eclose the chrysalis will begin to turn transparent revealing the monarch forming inside. This is the first indication that the butterfly will emerge soon. It usually happens in the early morning to early afternoon, again depending on the outside temperature.
The chrysalis will open at the bottom and the butterfly will pull itself out of it’s chrysalis and hang its body from the top of the enclosure. This is a crucial moment, and the butterfly having a place to stabilize during this process is important. It will hang while the “blood” flows through it’s body and wings and it’s systems are still forming. Leave the butterfly alone, UNLESS it has fallen and it unable to hang it’s wings. It’s imperative that you get something (a stick works best) to help the butterfly crawl onto and hang it back up. It will hang for several hours before fluttering it’s wings. Trust nature, it’s all part of it’s process.
It’s so important that you don’t have eclosing butterflies over milkweed or caterpillars. This is because they leak a blood like fluid called mucose and this fluid can be harmful to the caterpillars if ingested off the milkweed.
24 hour wait period before release:
I wait 24 hours minimum before releasing my monarchs. The reason for this is that they are very vulnerable to predators throughout their first 24 hours after enclosing. In the wild monarch’s normally won’t feed for their first 24 hours and will only fly to a nearby resting point (normally tops of trees) for the 24 hour period while all of their systems fully develop and form. In my enclosure they crawl to the top of the enclosure and stay there for the 24 hour period before I release them, occasionally they are active at that 24 hour point and eager to go…
You want to release your butterflies on a day when the sun is out and high. The sun is an essential part of the monarch’s process, as it can’t fly without first charging its wings in the sun. The first resting point your monarch will likely choose will be somewhere in the sun where it can charge for a few hours. If its a rainy, gloomy day: provide nectar flowers in your enclosure and release the following day. Don’t stress about this, they will be fine!
What can go wrong?
Sadly there is a lot stacked against our friends as caterpillars and butterflies. The main focus to protect your caterpillars is you want to prevent bacteria formation. You do this by ensuring they have a clean enclosure, disposing of their frass (poop) hourly, ensuring they have adequate space, and observing your cats for signs of discolouration or abnormalities. OE is a bacterial infection that some monarchs are prone to. Luckily, the maonrchs I raise in the North are less likely to have OE. If you are going to raise caterpillars, I do encourage you to do some research about OE, and how to test for it.
Butterflies are prone to predators such as birds and wasps, especially during the initial 24 hours after emerging from their chrysalis. This is why the 24 hour wait period is so imperative. You want them to be able to fend for themselves against predators in the wild.
Weak butterflies make easy prey for wasps.
Additionally, when a butterfly emerges they have to stabilize in order to dry their wings. If they fall after emerging, or are unable to dry their wings properly it leaves them vulnerable to tears.
#14 this year fell shortly after emerging and his wing was torn very badly. I hand fed him for 3 days, and let him take short flights around my yard.
On the fourth day, high in the sky he took off. You will be very surprised what they can endure and survive. I would never consider euthanizing a butterfly over a broken wing.
They just need practice adjusting their flight to the brokenness and will be on their way.
See below #14 high in the sky broken wing and all!!
I tried my best to include as many details in this post as I could, if you have additional questions or clarification about monarch raising I invite you to reach out to me! I am always prepared to help other successfully raise their own monarchs/butterflies. You can contact me at: thelittlelovewitch@gmail.com OR through DM on instagram @thelittlelovewitch
Blessed Raising!
~ Cassandra xox
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