🖤 Swallowtails UPDATE🌿🐛 + Raise the Migration '25 RESULTS 👩🏽‍💻

Happy Saturday Royal Raiser,

fall has finally arrived after an extended summery reprieve…we haven’t had a killing frost in the bold north, but we flirted with freezing temps a few nights ago.

The monarchs have all left the garden, but one stray male monarch was here until Thursday. Going by his leisurely pace, he’s most likely not part of the migration generation, though he looked fresh enough to make it. 🦋

Yesterday, I saw a monarch with wrinkled wings crash land on local pickleball courts. I picked him up and attempted to place him on a nearby bush, but he took flight and was hopefully able to survive for at least one more beautiful fall day…

Meanwhile, the swallowtail caterpillars continue their race against the clock….🌿🐛🥶

Raising Report 

Our eastern black swallowtail caterpillars have grown a lot in the past week and are all probably 3-4 instars…the two largest possibly 5th instar:

Caterpillar Instar Info ⬅️ (similar for black swallowtails)

When I found these small caterpillars they were completely spaced out across the curled parsley:

But, over the past week, 3 of 5 have found their way to each other:

It’s surprising (and hopeful!) to see how much they have progressed in such a short period…do you even recognize them?

Over the past week, we kept them inside for two days because:

• one night was close to freezing (which could have killed both swallowtails and parsley)

• roofing project (loud and debris flying around)

We were simply able to roll the entire raised bed cart into our kitchen.

Having the right raising setup (the same we use for raising monarchs outdoors) has been the perfect solution so far…

Outdoor Raising Setup

We removed the container plant from our deck railing and placed it directly inside the outdoor cage:

Three additions not seen in the photo above are:

• 4' x 6' heavy duty tarp (secure this to top of cage to keep chrysalises dry from overhead precipitation that could make them fall...if cage location protects them from rain, you don't need this)

• Four 36" bungee cords (2 linked together on each side to secure tarp)

• I stuck branches directly into the container soil that they can crawl up to form their chrysalis on. They tend to crawl around a lot before they do this, so who knows where they will end up? 🤷🏽‍♂️

It might be late to utilize this set up in 2025, but this could make an amazing holiday butterfly gift for 2026! 🎁🎄

Please join 66 other community members and post your Raise the Migration 2025 results and lessons learned raising forward…

Raise The Migration 2025- Share Your Experience! ✍️

This is an opportunity to post what you've learned this season, what raising challenges you faced, and anything new you'll be doing to improve your raising process in 2026.

You can fill out the comment box at the bottom of the linked page below.

Please do not post questions in the comment box as blog comments are not a good platform for ongoing discussions. This is specifically to share your 2025 raising experience including any helpful tips you think will benefit others in the community. Thanks in advance for sharing! 😊

You can share your experience here:

Share YOUR 2025 Raising Results and Experience ⬅️ (scroll down below the last comment to post your experience)

Coming Soon?

More swallowtail updates and overwintering tips 🌿🐛💡

Happy Raising,

Tony G