Raising Two Daughters and 1,000 Monarch Butterflies
Are you interested in raising Monarch butterflies? Read on for advice from a Reflection Riding volunteer, Elle Muliarchyk, who has years of experience doing just that!
My monarch butterfly-raising journey began as a love letter to my first daughter, Henley. As I was I laying my newborn baby to sleep I put my ear to her chest and listened to the miraculous sound of a tiny heart beating inside - so powerful and so brave. The sound made me think of the about-to-be-born butterfly beating its wings to break through the chrysalis.
Days later I was reading a book about raising children so they develop the awe and the love for nature. I learned about the amazing 6,000 mile round trip flight of the monarch butterflies and that their population had declined by 90% in the past decade. I ordered 100 milkweed plugs and planted them in a small sunny patch at our house in Greenwich, CT. I spent many hours every day (and night - when Henley was asleep- with a flashlight on my head) gently removing aphids by hand.
The plants grew beautifully... Then, (oh, joy!) the first butterfly discovered our milkweed and lay many eggs. What happened next was just like having the first child - I did (almost) everything wrong! I want to share my experience with the others who are working hard to help save monarch butterflies.
Check for toxins in the environment.
We had our yard treated for ticks and mosquitoes with cedar oil that the manufacturer claimed was safe for bees and butterflies. It was treated on a day with not even a breeze, and I covered the milkweed with old bed sheets... AND I made sure the spray area was at least a hundred yards away from where the milkweed grew.... Even with these precautions, tragically, all of the 100 caterpillars died the next day. Find out if your neighbours do large treatments in their yards because it will likely contaminate your milkweed. Make sure your hands are clean (no soap residue, lotion etc) before handling milkweed or caterpillars.
Raise the caterpillars is outdoors in full sun.
In the first year, I raised them in cages on the screened-in porch. Many caterpillars were sick and either died in the caterpillar stage, or the butterflies came out deformed. They were infected with OE, which is a bacteria that affects butterflies that live in Florida or California who just feast on the flowers year round and don’t migrate to Mexico. Basically, the more challenging the environment the healthier the butterfly. We used a microscope to screen our butterflies for OE infection. As soon as I moved the cages out in the direct sun (and rain) the caterpillars grew strong and healthy and none of them died again. I strongly believe that they are supposed to be in full sun (to replicate their natural environment) because the sun will kill any bacteria that are in excess.
Harvest eggs with great care
When I harvest leaves with eggs on them I put each leaf into a floral tube and stick them into an egg carton. This is the most work—to refill the floral tubes every day until the caterpillar hatches. But I use a medical syringe and it makes the job much faster! Once they hatch I move them onto the tall stems of milkweed that I cut from the garden. Then I make sure there are no spiders etc and put the stems into bottles with narrow necks and wrapped the opening with plastic wrap so the baby caterpillars don't drown in the bottle. I like Kombucha bottles. Raising them on the plant stalks keeps the area clean of frass and gives them a good exercise climbing up and down Vs just laying leaves flat in the cage. This way you don’t even need to clean the cage at all! Then I put a few bricks into the cage to stabilize them against the wind. I place the cages directly on the grass so the water drains. Once the caterpillars form chrysalises at the top of the cage, bring them in the shade.
I read some scientific research that showed that the butterflies that are raised indoors lack the internal compass that directs them to their overwintering forests in Mexico. They believe the sun and the fluctuating temperatures develop this skill in butterflies.
Enjoy your monarch way station
Seven years later, we had an official monarch butterfly way station with 600 milkweed plants. We raised close to 1,000 perfect butterflies. Henley was a part of this journey ever since she was old enough to sit up. She would spend hours helping in our butterfly garden. Now she is the one who does most of the work!! And my two-year-old Grace is the Soil-Mixer-In-Chief as we plant milkweed in our new garden here in Chattanooga.
I would recommend this to every parent if you have a backyard to plant milkweed. It's an amazing way to teach your children about the cycle of life, to have a deep appreciation for living things, and to understand death. We do leave some caterpillars out in “the wild” to observe and learn, but only less than 1% makes it into the butterfly. I still sob when I see a caterpillar being devoured by ants or wasps, but Henley and Grace comfort me, saying that that's how life is supposed to be. They remind me of the amazing fact from our favorite insect book “Buzz, Sting, Bite” that if a pair of fruit flies was left without predators for a year, there would be so many fruit flies that if you compress them into a fly-ball its diameter would be the distance between Earth and the Sun!
Yes, that’s just some of the amazing stuff we learned on our butterfly journey. And now, every time I watch a new butterfly being born, I remember listening to my daughter’s heart and I ponder that each one of us is a butterfly in the process of metamorphosis, fighting with its wings to become something beautiful.