Have you ever raised Monarch Butterflies?

She Said It
Jul 24
2 min read

I love summer -- blue skies, fluffy clouds (Anna misses seeing fluffy clouds, as she doesn't see them in Berkeley), flowers, birdsong and butterflies...I just love watching butterflies - they are just so whimsical. Anna paints a lot of butterflies to be used in our She Said It art...we all just love them! But, as you're probably aware, the beautiful Monarch Butterflies are endangered.

One of my new butterflies - photo from a couple of summers ago.

Three years ago, one of my neighbors told me she had a huge patch of milkweed, that just appeared, and she was collecting caterpillars and placing them in cages. This allowed them to develop into the chrysalis stage and finally emerging as a butterfly. Well, I jumped on board. My husband built me a cage and by the end of the season, I'd "raised" 12 butterflies! The next year, we did it again, and I released 22 butterflies.

It's kind of addicting - and I get strangely attached to my little caterpillars. It's really something to see them grow from these tiny little things to a caterpillar the size of my pinky finger (and a little messy -- they eat a TON of milkweed and what goes in does come out...). But I now have a system and it's pretty easy to manage...

This tiny little caterpillar will grow to the size of my pinky finger in about 10 days.

Sadly, last year, we didn't have any Monarchs. Did the mosquito stuff that people spray hurt them, did they get caught up in a different wind pattern when flying north?? Who knows??

But, this year, BUMPER CROP!! I have 3 chrysalises, about 40 caterpillars and a bunch of eggs. We have a tiny patch of milkweed and the Monarchs keep laying eggs on about 4 milkweed plants. There is no way these few milkweed plants could support the number of eggs that are being laid (why has our house become THE place for Monarchs to lay eggs??). So a couple of times a day, I take a quick peek at the milkweed and usually find 4-5 itty bitty caterpillars. If I see a caterpillar, I just can't leave it -- we have too many birds.

We have so many caterpillars this year that my husband built a second, extra large cage. The caterpillars seem to like it - they are happily eating and growing safely - away from the ants, spiders and birds that would gobble them up in a heartbeat.

This caterpillar is nearly ready to head to the top of the cage to turn into a chrysalis.

So, if you've ever wondered if you can raise Monarchs, the answer is yes. It just takes a little time, attention and a lot of milkweed. They are really fascinating little creatures and seeing them fly out of the cage is really rewarding.