UPDATE: Raise The Migration 2025 🌿🐛

Happy Saturday Royal Raiser,

peak migration finally arrived in our Minnesota garden with 15 migrating monarchs hanging around in this sultry September heat. On Tuesday, it was over 90 degrees!

By far, the #1 plant they have been flocking to is our Mexican sunflowers ⬅️ which have been continuously blooming since July…they require deadheading, but during weeks like this you’ll see that effort pay off in a bounty of butterflies! 🦋🦋🦋

🎥 Monarchs on our Mexican sunflowers this week ⬅️

Raising Report 

This has been a rough week with two monarch deaths.

The first was a caterpillar I found outside that didn’t look like it had molted properly…it was small, about an instar 2. ⬅️ I kept it separated it from other caterpillars in case there was a disease issue. ⬅️

The next morning, it looked better and had eaten a small hole in the leaf it was on. Unfortunately, that was the last time it would eat. Two days later, the small, fading caterpillar fell from the leaf on to the cage floor, so I euthanized it. If you bring in eggs ⬅️, occurrences like this are rare…

Death 2 was more troubling, and something I have never experienced during Raise the Migration (or if ever that I can recall with INDOOR raising). The j-caterpillar had just formed its chrysalis and was twisting around to shake the skin off. I went to the bathroom. When I came back the skin and silk button were still attached to the roof, the chrysalis was on the cage floor, bleeding out. This seems to be a freak accident with no explanation… (there were no other caterpillars crawling around the cage, and I was no where near the cage when I left my office)

I was able to attach the cremaster to a cotton swab and hang the chrysalis, but unfortunately it would not stop oozing. The next day, it looked like this, and I had no choice but to euthanize:

On a more positive note, three healthy butterflies have emerged (starting September 14th) and all 3 have been released same-day in the sultry summer heat.

Spaced out between 3 caterpillar cages, I currently still have 11 chrysalides, and 1 j caterpillar.

Here is that final caterpillar (pre-j) finding the perfect place under the strap of protection so many choose to pupate under 🤷🏽‍♂️

My Raise The Migration 2025 won’t be finished until the first week of October, but I will continue with updates until my final results are posted…what about yours?

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 ⬅️

Coming Soon?

In the next few weeks I will be adding my lessons learned to the Share Your Experience post and also discuss the future of your Raise The Migration newsletter…

Happy Raising 🌿🐛🦋🙌

Tony G