Monarchs and Milkweed: a relationship to understand before raising monarch caterpillars
Living in the Midwest, you can often find yourself surrounded by cornfields. To some this may be a burden, “There’s nothing to do around here, just corn”, but monarch butterflies can use these fields to their advantage. The ditches surrounding cornfields can serve as a refuge for monarch nectar and a nursery ground. Here’s how!
Ditches that surround cornfields are sometimes left to grow wild. These ditches can be home to many insects who use wildflowers for food and refuge. The host plant (a plant that is relied on by another organism for survival) for a monarch butterfly is the milkweed plant (Genus: Asclepias). This means that without milkweed, monarch butterflies wouldn’t have food or a place to lay their eggs since they rely on the plant for survival. .
There is a downside, however, to having your home right next to corn fields. Most large factory farms use pesticides to keep their crop free from disease and critters. So those ditches of wildflowers and milkweed can become covered in pesticides, contaminating the plants that insects use for food. This can lead to early death or disease in insects. This is one reason why I always recommend washing your milkweed before feeding it to the monarch caterpillars you are raising.
Milkweed used to be able to grow between field crops, but with the increase in pesticide use by farmers, milkweed is usually killed off to produce the monoculture of crops that most farmers aim for. This has led to the decline in the milkweed plant and thus the decline in the monarch butterfly. This is super important to understand when thinking about raising monarch butterflies.
Now let’s dive into how you can start raising monarch caterpillars this summer!
What to know before you start:
Materials: the amount of materials depends on how many monarch caterpillars you want to raise
Important note: You will have to do one of three things:
The step by step guide to raising monarch caterpillars:
Step 1: Find your monarchs. Hunt around milkweed plants for eggs or caterpillars. Gather what you find (I recommend only keeping 5-10 to keep it manageable). Look out for both eggs and tiny caterpillars (images shown below).
Step 2: Set up and place them in your containers. Prepare your containers by first laying down a paper towel for easy cleaning later. If you have both eggs and caterpillars, place them in separate containers to keep the caterpillars from eating any eggs (they eat their own egg once they hatch and sometimes eat other eggs). Once they have all hatched you can keep them all together.
Step 3: Feed your caterpillars kids. Gather milkweed from outside or place a store bought plant inside the cage. You can choose to cut a stem off the plant and place it in a small cup of water with plastic film covering the top to ensure there are no drowned caterpillars later on to keep the leaves healthy longer (use cation with this). You can also use a damp paper towel or a spray bottle to keep leaves moist.
Note: make sure you wash your leaves that you gather from outside with water to get rid of predators like spiders or aphids (add photo). Make sure to completely examine your leaves for tiny baby caterpillars before washing.
If you want to place the milkweed stems in water you can also use one of these water tubes that greatly reduce the chances of having drowned caterpillars!
Step 4: Perform daily maintenance. Change out the paper towel on the bottom of your cage everyday. With a smaller number of caterpillars you can clean the cage every two days but it is best to aim for cleaning the containers daily. Poop (aka frass) will gather on the bottom of your containers. Also, change out any milkweed leaves that are not fresh (this will be done every 1-3 days depending on how long your leaves stay). Watch out for any caterpillars that may be on the materials you are cleaning or disposing of (for this reason I always recommend to count your caterpillars everyday).
Step 5: Watch the lifecycle stages. Eggs typically hatch in 3-4 days. It typically takes 10-14 days for the caterpillar babies to grow to its full size. Between these stages the caterpillar will molt or shed its skin. You may see shed skin in your container and think it is a dead caterpillar but no worries it is just dead skin! And some caterpillars will eat this.
Step 6: Chrysalis stage. The chrysalis stage typically lasts 10-14 days. The caterpillar will climb to the top of the container and begin attaching its butt to the top of the container with a silk-like substance. Then it will dangle there upside down hanging from the ceiling. He will hang like this for a few hours until his outer skin splits and a green chrysalis emerges. It takes the chrysalis a bit to harden so it is crucial to avoid accidentally touching it.
Optional tooth floss method: Once the chrysalis has fully hardened (in 1-2 days) you can opt to carefully detach the stem of the chrysalis from the top of the container with a knife. Then you can wrap dental floss around the stem creating a lop for the chrysalis to hang from. This method makes it easier when raising multiple monarch butterflies at once. It is more durable and also allows you to move the chrysalis stage caterpillars to a different container than your other containers so your butterflies are not intermingled with your caterpillars in the future. Find a detailed step by step process here.
Step 7: Emerging butterflies. After about a week the butterfly will emerge from its chrysalis. You can tell the butterfly will emerge when the chrysalis is transparent and you can see the design of the butterfly’s wings. Let your butterfly’s wings dry for about 4 hours before releasing your butterfly. The butterfly will start flying around the cage and this is when you know it is ready.
Step 8: Release your butterfly. To release them, bring the cage your butterflies are in outside. Put your hand in the cage and let the monarch climb on your finger (avoid touching the wings). This may take awhile. Then carefully move your hand out of the cage and wait for the butterfly to fly away or place it on a flower. Watch it fly into the world and send it away with love and protection. It is important to release them so they can reproduce or carry out monarch butterfly migration in the early fall.
Note: Insects cannot move when temperatures are as low as around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure you release your butterflies when it is warmer out so it can fly. Also if it is raining, wait for bad weather to pass before releasing them. Doing so will increase their chances of survival in the wild.
Step 9: Spread the word. Raising monarch caterpillars is only a step in what we can do to help our monarch butterflies. As of July 20, 2022 monarch butterflies are endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Spreading the word about the importance of planting native milkweed for our monarchs can help increase their chances.
Potential health related issues than can occur while raising monarch caterpillars:
Frequently Asked Questions:
Still release your butterfly. Prop the butterfly on a flow if you can so it can feed. It will have lower chances of survival in the wild but still may be able to reproduce and benefit the greater monarch community.
Nope. No need to add water in your containers.
Completely clean out your containers that are infested. Save the caterpillars that are still healthy and keep on chugging along. Maggots can happen, it’s not your fault and nothing you can really do about it.
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