Raising Monarch Butterflies
Our journey with raising monarchs began as a pandemic project. At the time, Jacob was in kindergarten and Jonah was getting ready to enter pre-K. The whole process is super simple and literally embodies the philosophy, If you plant it, they will come.
To start a butterfly garden all you need are:
Milkweed plants (native to your area)
Polinator- friendly flowers (We prefer marigolds and daisies.)
A habitat (optional)
During our first year (2020), we released a total of 76 butterflies. We ended up skipping 2021 because we were in between houses and living in an apartment, but 2022 brought us to a total of 137 butterflies released.
Step 1: Shopping for the Plants
It is important to select milkweed plants that are native to your area. We live in Central Florida, so our local nurseries carry tropical milkweed. Our favorite is Lukas Nursery in Oviedo, FL. We usually get 6 - 8 plants per year to rotate through the habitat. We also grab some polinator-friendly flowers. Last year, we got marigolds and daisies. The marigolds need to be replaced each spring and fall, but our daisies are still going strong, even with the freeze warnings and coldest Christmas we’ve had in 30 years.
Before we started our garden, we joined two Facebook groups for a little bit of research and confidence:
Step 2: Arranging the Plants
One struggle with tropical milkweed is that Florida’s humidity makes them susceptible to Ophryocystis elektroscirrha or OE. This is a disease that affects the monarch caterpillars and butterflies. To help cut down on how much you battle OE, it is recommended to space out your milkweed plants (18 - 24” apart). If you do find the black spores on your plant’s leaves, it might mean cutting back the plant(s). Spacing the plants out will prevent the spread and allow your garden to continue feeding the caterpillars, if you do have to cut affected plants.
Thankfully, the University of Florida is currently studying monarch rearing in central Florida and the affects of OE on the species. Here’s a link to some of their work.
Another obstacle to healthy host plants is aphids. This challenge is easier to address. We’ve released lady beetles (lady bugs) who eat them, or a simple solution of soapy water to wash them off the plants also works. Marigolds are known to deter aphids, so we included these in our butterfly garden planter.
Since butterflies are attracted to yellow and orange flowers, it is recommended to include brightly colored florals in your butterfly garden to help mama monarchs find your host plants. This is another reason we chose to plant marigolds and why we added daisies.
Step 3: Filling the Habitat
Obstacles and challenges aside, it is SUPER easy to get started with raising monarch butterflies. Once you have your milkweed and flowers planted, you can begin looking for monarch eggs. Once they are laid, you can expect your first caterpillars in 3 - 4 days. The eggs are usually laid on the underside of leaves and are a pearly white color. We usually get really low to the ground when hunting for eggs.
Once the caterpillars hatch, they eat the egg and part of the milkweed leaf. These are easier to spot, especially when looking down at the plants; look for small holes in the leaves. You will most likely find the caterpillar (some as small as a grain of rice) on the underside of the leaf. Another easy place to find the smallest caterpillars are on the flowers at the tops of the tropical milkweed plants.
Monarch caterpillars are tracked in instars (5 total). Here is more on the life cycle of the monarch caterpillar.
The bigger the caterpillars get, the easier they are to spot. Their heavier bodies make the leaves hang perpendicular to the ground and the caterpillars like to eat them from the tip to the stem. You’ll find them hanging upside down as they gobble away.
To set up your habitat, you will need a butterfly cage and something to weigh it down (We used leftover pavers from our raised planter).
We learned the hard way that our mesh habitat should hold no more than 20 caterpillars at one time (This requires a total of 6-8 rotating plants with 2 - 3 in enclosure at any time). Because of this limit and the number of plants we have, we usually bring the caterpillars into the habitat when they are 4th or 5th instar. This limits how much milkweed they need before they chrysalize.
Not bringing the caterpillars in as eggs is controversial. Some believe this is one way OE spreads. Once a caterpillar eats OE spores, they are infected. The OE spores remain throughout the transition into a butterfly and then spreads to others through reproduction. Scientists are currently looking whether there is a causal relationship between monarch rearing (specifically the spread of OE during the raising of monarchs) and the declining population size.
There are ways to test caterpillars to see if they are infected. This is something we are looking into before beginning again this spring.
Once the caterpillar is ready to begin its transition, it will begin to make its silk button. This is what the caterpillar secures itself to before it pupates. After the button is ready, the caterpillar will grab onto it with its hind legs and then hang upside down into a J shape. We’ve found our caterpillars like to transform into the chrysalis just after dawn. Watching the transformation is mesmorizing.
The chrysalis will remain still for 10 - 14 days (depending on the daily temperatures - the warmer the weather, the faster the process). The chrysalis gradually darkens. When it becomes translucent and you can see the colors of the monarch’s wings, you can expect the butterfly to eclose that day. Our butterflies tend to make their appearance anywhere between breakfast and lunch.
Step 4: Releasing the Butterflies
We’ve found our butterflies need time to rest after eclosing before being released. Their wings need to dry, which they do by flapping them slowly. When the butterflies become restless, seemingly bounce around the habitat, and flap vigorously, we know they are ready to leave.
We don’t like to keep our butterflies more than 24 hours, so we usually release them before dinner (especially if the weather is sunny and dry). When the weather is wet or too windy, we do keep them overnight, but usually put an orange slice and some flowers in the habitat to help them keep their strength.
To release the butterflies, the boys take turns slightly cupping their hand and sliding it along the mesh in front of the butterfly. Gently scooping the butterfly up, they bring it to the opening of the cage and then open their hand as they extend their arm.
Since we’re Floridians, we do prepare an alphabetical list of names (similar to the hurricane names list released each year) and work our way down the list with each release.
Nature has its patterns. You’ll know the butterfly is a male when you spot the two dots on the lower portions of the wings.
The monarch butterfly follows a multi-generational migration pattern. A neat fact is that the butterflies tend to come back to the same place their ancestors were born, so we’re anticipating more butterfly mamas this year and more releases (provided we can keep our milkweed plants healthy and OE-free).