Raising Monarchs

The monarch butterfly needs our help. By taking the initiative and raising your own monarchs this year, you are helping to ensure this species’ survival.

Monarchs have been quite the poster child insect for the last few years. Classrooms are raising them, libraries are raising them, and some people are doing it at home too. While scientists have been voicing concerns about the monarch’s future for many years, not enough has been done to safeguard their populations and migration routes. Monarchs were officially listed as an endangered species in 2022 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

There are several things you can do to assist the monarch butterfly at home. Less than 10 percent of monarch eggs will make it to adulthood in the wild, so helping to increase their survival rate even a little bit can make a big difference. 

Monarch population decline

Monarch populations in western North America have declined 99.9 percent (from 10 million to 1,914) since 1980, and in the east by 84 percent between 1996 and 2014.1 There are several reasons for this, including habitat loss, pesticide use, and extreme weather events. The western and eastern monarchs follow separate migration routes, with eastern butterflies travelling the farthest from eastern Canada and the northeastern United States to the oyamel fir trees of Central Mexico. The western population travels from northwest Canada to the southern California coast.  
 

Monarchs and Milkweed

Monarchs are completely dependent on the milkweed plant when they are larvae. It’s the only food they can eat. Eggs are laid on the underside of the leaves so that food is available immediately to the newly emerged caterpillar. For decades, milkweed was on the noxious species list in Canada. This meant that not only was it forbidden to sell and plant in your garden, but it also was mandated to be removed and destroyed. Luckily, it is no longer on this list in provinces other than Manitoba and Quebec. Except in Minnesota, milkweed is not listed on the U.S Federal Noxious Weed List either. Because of these legislative changes and the awareness campaigns around Monarchs, milkweed seeds and plants are now given away and sold through many organizations.  

Monarch Migration Patterns

Monarchs migrate up to 4000 km to get to their breeding ground in Mexico from across Eastern Canada and the United States. The round trip takes multiple generations, so if you release a monarch this year it may be their great great great grandchild that returns to your garden in the future. Their migration instincts are not entirely understood but probably rely on the earth’s magnetic field, the position of the sun, and other environmental cues. New research is discovering that monarchs raised indoors lose their ability to migrate, so it is important to set up your rearing station outdoors where they are exposed to light, temperature fluctuations, and breezes. 

Fun Fact: The average lifespan of a migratory monarch butterfly is six to nine months, whereas non-migrating individuals in the summertime only live two to six weeks
 

Steps for Raising Monarchs

Please note that in California you require a collection permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

1. Find and collect eggs—First, locate a healthy patch of milkweed and then gently turn the leaves over to examine the undersides for a small white/green dot—that is a monarch egg. Remove the whole leaf that the egg is on and bring it home with you (wrap a damp paper towel around the stem to keep it fresh). Place this in a container or bowl and check it every day so that you know when it hatches into a caterpillar. It will take 4 days from the time it was laid. 
2. Once your caterpillar hatches it will be eating voraciously—Provide a fresh milkweed leaf every day for each baby. Over the next two weeks, the caterpillar will molt into new skin as it grows too big for the previous one. It has 5 stages of growth called instars.
3. Move your caterpillar to a large lidded container after two weeks—This should be well-ventilated and easy to clean. 
4. Clean out the frass (insect poop!)—This should be done every 1–2 days to keep your set up clean and to reduce potential disease transfer. 
5. Keep feeding—Continue to provide a new leaf every day for each caterpillar.
6. Ready to transform—Once your caterpillar is big and fat, it will climb up to a high protected spot and hang upside down, slowly curling up into a ‘J’ shape. It may hang this way for a day or so before starting to weave its cocoon around itself. 
7. Chrysalis—Now that you have a chrysalis in your care, you can sit back and admire its gorgeous green hue and gold highlights. It will stay this way, as a pupa, for 1–2 weeks. Just before the butterfly is ready to emerge, the chrysalis will blacken and then turn clear. Once your butterfly emerges, it will need to dry its wings for a while before it is ready to take flight. It’s best not to touch it for at least 5 hours while its wings dry.
8. Clean up—Sterilize all your containers with an eco-bleach solution, if you plan on raising another generation. There are a few all-natural bleach products on the market.
    

Helping A Monarch's Habitat

As with many species at risk, loss of habitat is a critical part of the picture, so ensure you are also addressing that. While milkweed is critical to the monarch's lifecycle for laying their eggs and feeding the caterpillars, the adult butterflies require many other species for nectar to sustain themselves—see the Spring 2023 issue of EcoParent: ‘Creating A Butterfly Sanctuary’ for guidance. Plant milkweed that is native to your area (there are over 100 species in the world). You can also plant other native plants that provide rich nectar for the adult butterflies, as well as places for them to build their cocoons. Make sure you don’t use any herbicides or pesticides in your garden and encourage your local governing council to do the same. If you want to share your observations with researchers monitoring monarch populations, there are several citizen scientist organizations you can reach out to.

My mother took the initiative to start raising monarchs this year with her grandchildren. We learned the ropes mostly from Mr. Lund Science, which has a whole series on raising monarchs on YouTube, from finding eggs to releasing the adults. There is still a lot we don’t understand about these butterflies, so keep your ears open and keep learning. The new findings on the importance of rearing them outside to ensure migratory capacities are evidence of this.

What is most important is to engage your children in the wonders of the natural world, and teach them to care for it. Watching an egg the size of a poppy seed turn into a minuscule caterpillar and then a chrysalis and finally, a gorgeous butterfly is awe inspiring, to say the least! And to know that you had a part in ensuring its survival is priceless. 

For references and more information visit ecoparent.ca/EXTRAS/SUMMER23