When I started gardening in 1999, right off the bat, I wanted to support butterflies. I had a good mentor that helped those first few years. She helped me make the plant list and lists of the other elements that make a habitat. The problem is that I was not planting milkweeds or native plants at the time so I was not having any butterflies visit.
Once I got more experience and information I started planting a few natives and milkweeds.
Milkweed- check.
Nectar flowers-check
Caterpillars- missing!
I started with swamp milkweed and saw tiny caterpillars but I would always come back and check in a day or so and they would be gone. I didn't quite put together what was happening until I saw a stink bug sucking the life out of a fat healthy caterpillar. Gasp! All I was doing was raising food for the predator insects in my garden!
It took me another few years to start raising caterpillars. Again I was lucky enough to find a mentor to help me and teach me how to raise caterpillars at home.
The first lesson I learned was that collecting the milkweed leaves with the eggs on them is the key to success. The next crucial piece of advice I can give is sterilize everything! This prevents diseases from killing your cats. while they grow.
Why do I do it? Well first, I am a hobby-aholic and I can't resist learning new hobbies and collecting all the accouterments that go along with it. I do feel like I am making a little difference. I raise butterflies for my summer education programs in small batches. I think it is important to be able to show the life cycle to the public to get them to care more about nature. hard to care about something if you can't experience it. At least I think it works better.
I started out very slowly but raised about 275 in the second year. I could not believe how well they did. In order to help the monarch you need not raise as many as I do. Raise one at a time, raise five or ten and it will help. It is more important to raise just a few for the experience and so you can observe the life cycle than it is to raise 100's.
2019 is my 11th year raising the monarch cats. A few years ago my husband, who is a hobbiest woodworker, made me a caterpillar house. I am lucky to have this piece of equipment. More on that later...
Getting Started: Before the season starts, collect the supplies you want to use. I use plastic 12 qt. boxes to hatch the eggs, a five gallon aquarium to care for the cats once they are in the fifth instar. Bleach water in a spray bottle, lots and lots of paper towel. A tiny paintbrush is useful and a mesh habitat. Aquariums are not hard to come by, used. Ask your family first, someone probably has one in the basement or garage. If you can't get one that way, then the next stop could be a salvage shop or Goodwill. Last resort- buy new. They are not that expensive but I wholeheartedly believe in reuse, reduce, recycle.
Yes you will be collecting eggs, tho they be tiny! Once you get used to seeing them, they are not hard to find. Go out to your garden starting the third week of May in Chicagoland and check the plants for eggs. The eggs are layed by the female monarch butterfly usually on the bottom side of the leaf. However, sometimes, you will find eggs in the top of the plant, flower buds, newly emerged stems of milkweed and seedpods.
After you collect the eggs by taking the leaf or cutting a portion of a large leaf, you will bring them inside and make sure there are no predators on the leaves. I collect my eggs and take them in the house right away. Don't allow the leaves to wilt outside. Eggs then go into a sterilized 12 qt. container. Lay paper towel in the bottom of the container in one layer, spray lightly with clean water. Make the paper towel slightly damp . Lay the leaves with the eggs in a single layer, egg side up. Put the top on the container. You will check on the eggs every day to see if they have hatched. When they hatch, use the tiny paint brush to move the newly hatched cat. to a brand new leaf in a different container. The cats. will then spend the next 10-12 days eating and pooping. You must clean out the boxes everyday. To clean the containers take out the cats. and place them in another clean container with new paper towel and new milkweed leaves. Then clean the old container, make sure you use bleach water (10% solution) to do it and rinse well.
In the past few years I have had some caterpillar disasters and this I feel is due to overcrowding them in the containers and not having air vents in the containers. This spring (2017) my husband and I will be gathering up all the containers we use and cutting vent holes in the sides. Then I will hot glue vinyl window screening over the opening. The openings are going into the sides of the containers because I stack them. So screening in the lids would not be as effective. You can also make sure you limit the number of cats. in the boxes. I keep the number in my flat 12 qt. boxes to about 7-9. This is where taking lots of photos can be helpful. Instead of trying to remember what you did last year and wondering how you can improve, look back at your photos and make a new plan. I will post a photo when we get started.
Raising late season/ migration monarchs: As of 2019 it has been recommended that the migration generation should be raised out in as natural an environment as possible. This means using mesh sleeves, mesh habitat and if you can, a caterpillar house. Raising them on a porch or a three season room is ok.
