Growing up in the twin cities I spent my summers playing in the fields and woods of the southern metro. Monarch butterflies were just part of that and being a curious kid that loved nature, I occasionally raised a few monarchs in glass jars.

Now as a middle-aged man I seem to be a kid again and I started once again raising monarchs. I live outside of Duluth in the woods and am growing several varieties of milkweed. I can’t yet understand how monarchs can find my milkweed since I’m surrounded by woods, but they do. And boy do they.

Monarchs are a living miracle. By the time they reach northern MN, they are a fourth generation butterfly for the season. This generation flies all the way to a very small area of Mexico where the spend the winter and then start the cycle again.

Perhaps this is the year you consider raising monarchs. It’s easy, extremely fascinating, and it helps the population. Milkweed is the only plant they eat and it is common through most parts of the country in many different variety’s. They eat it all.

I can only handle about 75 a year since they eat a lot and their season is short so I have to keep those things fed. I get so many caterpillars on my plants that they strip them clean and I have to import leaves daily on my commute from work.

All you need is some milkweed, and something to grow them in. They are already arriving in Texas and will slowly make their way north as spring moves on and the milkweeds start growing. If you have kids, it will be a complete thrill to watch the process.





Tom

Do you start your milkweed from seeds every year?
Are they in a pot or garden area?
More info please.
The ditches were full of milkweed where I grew up in SW WI. Dad would send us kids into the fields and cow pastures to uproot and burn any we could find.
I have a ditch embankment across from my house that might be ideal for a little surreptitious seeding.

Great message Tumblehome! My wife and I have been raising Monarchs for several years and find it very rewarding. A little background: Monarch butterflies have been on the decline for several years. Thirty years ago the estimated population in North America was in excess of a billion. Today that estimate has decreased to less than fifty million. A decrease of over 90%!

A few of the reasons for this massive decline involve climate change, and the loss of critical habitat. The primary cause is from the use of neonicotinoids, which are recently developed synthetic insecticides. Glyphosate is a neonicotinoid and the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.

We can all help to make a difference through habitat improvement. Monarch caterpillars require milkweed to survive and adult Monarch butterflies require nectar plants as a food source. Native plant gardens can be a lifeline for these beautiful and vitally important pollinators and to a healthy ecosystem. Refrain from mowing road ditches and other areas that might be a food source and of course limit or stop the use of chemicals that are so deadly to so many of our important pollinators.

Great job and great hobby Tumblehome! Every little bit helps for the Monarch population.

Tumblehome, My wife is all about the Monarchs. We live in Central Missouri and have already seen a couple Monarchs this year. We have 5 different varieties of milk weed growing naturally at our farm which is on a small river (Common, purple, butterflyweed, swamp, and whorled). We gather some of the seeds every year and grow them in pots around our home. We often share these seeds with others who are interested in helping out a struggling butterfly.

My wife and daughter work at our local elementary school. They provide caterpillars and milk weed to teachers that want to raise some Monarch's for the kids in the classroom. They buy a cheap laundry basket type netted container at the dollar tree, give the teachers a half dozen milk weed leaves with eggs, and keep them supplied with milk weed until they form their chrysalis. Lisa (wife) will keep an eye on the chrysalis's and if one starts to show sign of a problem she will secretly replace it with a healthy one so that the kids get to release as many Monarchs as possible. It is a great teaching tool for the young kids.

Helping out can be as simple as mowing or bush hogging around the milkweeds on your property.

they also make for some great photo ops!

As a hunter I've been making it a point to grab milkweed pods here and there and take some time to separate the fluff and seeds (the fluff makes an excellent "wind indicator" if you keep it in a bottle) and will look for various open sunny spots to plant the seeds. This year I have some left over and plan to plant them closer to home this spring in hopes that the kids will get a chance to see the caterpillars this year.

Now if it would just stop snowing. We've had like 170" of snow here this year and it's snowing even today as I write this...

We have so much milkweed it's almost out of control, so I'd love to have more monarchs around. It appears I have some research to do. Has anyone purchased larvae to raise?

The US Fish and Wildlife Service planted around 1/2 acre of my property with native grasses and forbs north of Detroit Lakes, MN. I have some Milkweed plants in that seeding. It is fun to see all the species that come in to play and eat. I also practice 'No Mow May" there has been a huge increase in fireflies since and others insects since I started practicing this.

Telco: "We have so much milkweed it's almost out of control, so I'd love to have more monarchs around. It appears I have some research to do. Has anyone purchased larvae to raise? "

Monarch Watch.org sells kits to raise Monarchs and this organization is a great source of information. Personally, we just take a little time to find eggs or caterpillars on milkweed plants and provide them with a safe place and fresh food until the metamorphic transformation to a butterfly is complete. The release of a healthy butterfly is truly special. Something that is a must to be shared with children.

Fantastic post!

Freddy: "

Telco: "We have so much milkweed it's almost out of control, so I'd love to have more monarchs around. It appears I have some research to do. Has anyone purchased larvae to raise? "

Monarch Watch.org sells kits to raise Monarchs "

Monarch Watch Link

Thanks everyone!!

I intentionally left a lot out about raising them since I would otherwise drown the board with an excessively long post.

The short answer is no I don’t start plants from seed. They are actually pretty hard to sprout (for me). They are a perennial so they come back every year and multiply too. I have several varieties and dug some up from around town. The roots grow deep so getting them early helps. Some other varieties I bought from a native plant greenhouse in Duluth. Monarchs go bonkers when they find plants and some varieties seem to be like cocaine for them.

If you have milkweed, you just wait for a Monarch to come by and lay eggs. You don’t need to buy caterpillars. But if you want to get started this year, as mentioned, they have been seen in Missouri already. I see them in MN in late May. They live from coast to coast.

This is a good picture of an egg. Usually on the under side. Very small white little bubble.

Milkweeds like full sun in open areas. Roadsides are clogged with them in July.
I even went as far as asking the MN DOT to not mow an area in Duluth where there is a grove and they complied.

They have recently been put on the endangered species list. So sad for such an incredible miracle of nature. Habitat loss and herbicides are the primary cause.

Very helpful, thank you all. Another reason to look forward to spring, whenever it gets here.

tumblehome: "They are actually pretty hard to sprout (for me)."

Milkweed seeds need a period of moist cold before they will germinate. It's called stratification if you want to get fancy. In the fall or winter spread the seed where you want it and nature will do the work for you. You need at least 30 days of cold and damp for milkweeds.

If you want more control over the process, try winter sowing in milk jugs. Lots of info out there but basically take one of the translucent milk jugs, poke drainage holes in the bottom, cut almost all the way around the jug just below the handle, put in 3 or so inches potting soil, add seeds at correct depth, water, seal jug with tape, and leave it out in winter where rain/snow can get to it (with no lid). Come spring you'll have a mini greenhouse for your seedlings. If there's no rain for awhile check to see if the soil is still damp. When it gets warm and your seedlings have at least a few of their true leaves, transplant. If you have a small garden steer clear of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) as it can be thuggish. Butterfly weed (A tuberosa), swamp milkweed (A incarnata), and prairie milkweed (A sullivantii) are all better options for small spaces.

Great post Tom! My family is now making plans to plant a butterfly garden. I look forward to seeing if can attract some monarchs.

Freddy,
This is for discussion only.
I agree with you that habitat destruction and insecticides are a major factor in the big drop in not only monarch but also butterflies in general in Iowa anyway.
Where I disagree is the insecticide. I rather blame bacillus thuringiensis in bt corn. My hypothesis is that when the corn spreads pollen all over the countryside it all spreads bt all over the corn & bean desert we call Iowa and kills a very high percentage of the butterfly and moth larva. The basis of my opinion is that I really noticed the population of moths and butterflies to drop when bt corn was introduced, and when I travel out of corn country I notice that the lepidoptera populations increase by a major factor.

We didn't get a freeze south of Houston until Christmas this year and it was a hard freeze in the mid to low 20s. We dug up a few plants that were flowering, some milkweed, and as many Monarch caterpillars and milkweed leaves as we could and stuffed them in a bait bucket. We kept them inside until it warmed up and put everything back out. At least 3 of them pupated and flew away. I'm not sure if they flew south after that. It seems like we have multiple hatches and mature butterflies all year long, so some of them seem to make it and hang around here.

If you choose to raise monarchs in any capacity (and please do!), also educate yourself about Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). There are many good sources out there and I’ll let you do your own research, but just know that monarchs with OE, despite all your efforts, should not be released and instead should be culled when you notice it- generally the chrysalis phase. Releasing them with OE can add more of these parasites to local populations and leads to an overall population decline. There are other monarch diseases and parasites, but OE is easily recognizable and manageable on the scale most hoping to help their population will be dealing with.

Freddy: "
A few of the reasons for this massive decline involve climate change, and the loss of critical habitat. The primary cause is from the use of neonicotinoids, which are recently developed synthetic insecticides. Glyphosate is a neonicotinoid and the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.

"

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the herbicide roundup, and there are studies which suggest it may be directly detrimental to insects - however it is not a neonicotinoid class insecticide.

Tim

Troska: "

Freddy: "
A few of the reasons for this massive decline involve climate change, and the loss of critical habitat. The primary cause is from the use of neonicotinoids, which are recently developed synthetic insecticides. Glyphosate is a neonicotinoid and the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.


"

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the herbicide roundup, and there are studies which suggest it may be directly detrimental to insects - however it is not a neonicotinoid class insecticide.


Tim"

I stand corrected! Glyphosate is a herbicide and not a neonicotinoid insecticide. Bottom line is that they are both having a dramatic impact on butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. I see glyphosates are currently banned in many other countries because of it's carcinogenic properties and it's impact on important pollinators.

I'm in your camp that glyphosate is a big factor. When Monsanto developed roundup resistant crops one of the casualties is milkweed. Another unfortunate fact is that common milkweeds effect on yield is minimal.

My current home's pollinator garden.

Very nice airmorse.

Very nice airmorse.

Great thread! thanks Tom.

I often dream of buying rural property to build on and where I can maintain natural plants. I would definitely get into raising monarchs. They are all but gone from the Chicago suburbs. I miss those childhood days of Monarchs, grasshoppers and then lightning bugs in the evenings.

As kids growing up in southern Minnesota, we would raise Monarch caterpillars by the hundreds. When I had kids of my own, I introduced them to the experience, and now I'm sharing it with my granddaughter. She has a great eye for spotting the eggs and caterpillars. I put a milkweed patch in the backyard 15 or so years ago that keeps getting bigger and bigger. I find it rewarding, especially watching those "super generation" butterflies fluttering away in September/October. To think that some of those butterflies could make it all the way Mexico...it's one of God's miracles!