How to raise monarch butterflies at home

This blog post (aside from the long-ass life story that precedes the actual instructions on how to raise monarchs) was a request from a friend seeking some help and knowledge in the area of attracting and raising monarch butterflies. I'm no expert.. I still face the troubles of disease, running out of milkweed, aphids DESTROYING my milkweed, caterpillar predation, and lack of monarchs all together just like everyone else. But one thing I do have is a variety of experience from several jobs I've had that actually included the task of rearing a lot of monarchs, and tips and tricks of the trade that were passed on to me from the many people I've met along the way of my monarch adventures.

Caterpillar Emergency! Food alternative for Monarch caterpillars

Those who know me, know that monarchs are totally my thing. An obsession maybe... a passion, totally. Ever since I was a kid I loved insects and animals of all kinds but the monarch butterfly was my favorite. Having various jobs working with different species of animals which I all enjoyed, I stumbled across (and got hired for!) a position to be a technician for the Monarch Monitoring Project in Cape May, NJ 2 years ago. After working with monarchs; catching them, tagging them, counting them, doing surveys, giving educational talks and leading teaching programs with them, growing milkweed and rearing them; I was pretty set on what I wanted to get out of my future.

Flight Behavior

One of my new year's resolutions was to read more. I'm definitely a reader but have a hard time finding the time. I've made it a goal to try to read about a chapter a night of a book I chose to read for leisure. I don't get a chance to every night, but I still have been keeping up with reading more than I used to. I want to start highlighting some of my favorite books I've read. 

Monarchs in Mexico

A few days ago I got to experience the trip of a lifetime. It has always been my dream to go to Michoacan Mexico to see the overwintering monarchs there. Having the privilege of doing research with monarchs, and even tagging one in New Jersey in September 2013 that was found there February 2014, the only thing to complete my monarch obsession was to go see them in Mexico.

Multicolored Monarch Painting

You won't ever see this variation of Danaus plexippus in real life, but I have been envisioning this painting now for a while and finally finished! It's acrylics on a recycled 29"x39" canvas.

Danaus plexippus, wings & scales photography

Photos taken by myself, of some monarch wings from my collection while making resin wing pendants in bezels. Unfortunately, the resin soaked into the wings making the finished product darker and duller. At least I got some great photos with such vivid scale, iridescent, and pigment details beforehand. I'm hoping to enlarge and frame some of these photos.. my personal favorite colors and my favorite species :)

An Ophryocystis elektroscirrha epidemic in my home

So since my incredible 2 month opportunity working for NJ Audubon as the research technician for the Monarch Monitoring Project I have been captivity rearing monarch butterflies. Out of every 200 eggs that a female lays, usually only one will survive to adulthood in the wild. In captivity, without the absence of predators, there may be only one out of a large bunch of caterpillars that doesn't survive to adulthood, making rearing monarchs beneficial if done correctly and carefully. Generally, if you're lucky, you'll have success. That's how lucky I was this fall when I was raising monarchs for the monarch monitoring project, and using them as a teaching tool for the general public. I raised about 50 monarchs during the duration of my work, and I had only one butterfly emerge deformed, and only one chrysalis turn funky indicating it may have been diseased. That's a pretty good turnover rate of success; all of the other monarchs emerged healthy, so they were tagged and released to be on their way to Mexico. If you don't know much about tagging, basically what it is is a small "sticker" that researchers and volunteers place on a monarch butterfly's wing, so that if that butterfly is recaptured or seen again, we can learn a lot about its travel. From tagging, we know today that monarchs migrate to Mexico every fall, and begin returning to the north again in the spring, where a series of generations reproduce again before their next migration. 

A tagged monarch

Anyway, so the fact I was raising monarchs all season for my job, resulted in me taking a huge tent filled with chrysalids and caterpillars home with me when my job ended on Halloween. At this point, it was actually really late for monarchs; they should have all been on their way to Mexico already, because once a deep freeze hits they won't survive. So with 13 baby caterpillars still munching at their milkweed, and 4 unemerged chrysalids, you can imagine how nervous I was contemplating what I would be doing with these butterflies as they continue emerging around Thanksgiving and beyond, a time most likely too cold to release them outside.. doing that would be basically sentencing them to their deaths.

Some of my caterpillars I raised!

Unfortunately though, I soon realized this dilemma was no longer an issue, (unfortunately), because the parasite OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha) has plagued my babies and more and more of them seem to become infected each day. Basically, OE is a spore that infects monarchs of all life stages and is deadly. It only takes one to be infected to infect all of the others. I noticed that OE made a presence in my monarch enclosure when one emerged and was stuck in the chrysalis. This is a sure sign of the disease, so I had to do what needed to be done; I immediately euthanized her to prevent her from suffering and from any more infections spreading. I checked my remaining caterpillars and as I expected, it was already too late for them too. The presence of small spots in between their bold stripes is not normal, and is a sign of infection. Looking closer, many of my chrysalids that had not emerged yet also appeared funky; partially green and partially brown. Indication of OE or parasitism of the tachnid fly, I knew it was OE from already seeing many parasitized chrysalids this fall. I knew I was dealing with something worse. Depressed and sad that I won't even have the opportunity now to be stuck with 17 butterflies in my home all winter, I have been lucky enough to have 2 emerge so far that appear healthy. With the help and expertise of Lincoln Brower, one of the most prestigious monarch biologists in North America I was privileged to have been been in contact with during my job and afterwards, I may be able to overwinter monarchs in my own fridge! So far, I have 2 and I will see if they make it through the winter. It may sound harsh, but it mimics what they would be doing down in Mexico, in a torpid state, where they are saving energy by slowing metabolic processes, but very well alive and very well able to wake up and move once temperatures rise.

As for the others? I still have 10 chrysalids in line to emerge, and it's basically a gamble on each one of whether it will be healthy or not at this point. I relocated each chrysalid with dental floss to a small quarantine enclosure, and bleached the initial tent they were housed in extensively. I had been bleaching and scrubbing it in between each infection, but it was much easier to basically douse it all when I got everybody out of it. I still need the tent to provide a feeding station for my overwintering monarchs once a week. It takes a lot of energy to survive through the "winter", even if it's in my fridge, and these butterflies are going to need food to help maintain lipid storage. Normally, monarchs would be clustered on trees in Mexico, in a preserve of forest maintained at about 40 degrees. That's exactly what my fridge is set at, and although not "nature's" refrigerator, it should do the trick. Monarchs will flutter about on warmer days, searching for water. Dr. Brower instructed me to feed my monarchs every week and let them flutter under a heated area for a couple hours, to mimic their environment in Mexico. Now that my tent is disinfected, it's all ready for that.

One of my healthy reared monarchs from this season

I can only hope for the best at this point, and if my monarchs don't make it through the winter, at least it was worth a shot. I'm hoping if they are healthy, and can successfully overwinter, that I can release them at my wedding next June! Would be the perfect timing for them.

For more information about the monarch monitoring project and what we do (well I did).. since my job is over now :( , check out the MMP blog for status reports and updates from this past season, the MMP website, and Facebook. Wish me luck in raising  the rest of my "children".. that they will come out healthy and hardy and ready to go in the fridge too!

Flight of the Butterflies

Just an FYI- if you LOVE monarchs, or are looking to learn more about them and their migration I highly recommend this IMAX film. It's currently in IMAX theaters, but as it came out in May of 2013, I can't imagine it being in theaters too much longer. There's no IMAX near Cape May NJ, so I was fortunate enough that I was able to see it with my mom in Philly at the Franklin Institute this week. If you are able to go, go.. and go soon! It's so heartwarming and touching, and very informational at the same time. Being on the IMAX big screen definitely makes it ten times better. It's also a pretty close experience to actually getting to go to Mexico to see them, and if you're like me and too poor and busy to make it to Mexico this fall you can't miss this film. Not the same as the actual thing, but an incredible simulation. Since I work with monarch butterflies, I can't help but not only love it, but want to recommend Flight of the Butterflies to everyone else too! If everyone in the world saw this movie, I think they would appreciate much more out of life, (and learn a thing or two about the phenomenal and most astounding migration of any creature). Even if you're not a "butterfly" person, or a social butterfly yourself, there is nothing not to love. I guarantee you'll be touched by this.

Monarch Manicure

I have been getting a lot of compliments on my "monarch manicure". My current job is working as a research/field technician for the monarch monitoring project for the NJ Audubon in Cape May, NJ, where I work hands on with monarch butterflies; so anything monarch related is always appropriate (and earns itself plenty of compliments!). I have people ask me every day how I did this manicure, and I'm excited to share with a step-by-step tutorial (below). This manicure is perfect for the butterfly enthusiast or nature lover who wants to stray away from the more "conservative" or typical manicure. Just be prepared for compliments! Even the most un-outdoorsy person will recognize these nails as resembling a butterfly's wing, and no one will believe that you did it yourself.