The Monarch Project
On July 21, 2022, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature placed the migratory monarch butterfly on its Red List of threatened species and classified it as endangered. The main factors affecting the Monarch’s decline include habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use.
Providing a more suitable habitat for Monarchs in more places can help them tolerate these stresses. So how can we get involved? We can plant nectar-rich flowers and milkweed. And facilitate the survival of Monarch larvae, or caterpillars, by raising them indoors where their chances of survival are almost 10X greater than if they’re left outdoors.
I started with a single milkweed plant in my yard two years ago. I now have about a dozen plants. I scan them during summer months for eggs (which are white) or the black, yellow, and white striped caterpillars. I can often find the baby caterpillars by looking for holes in the milkweed leaves where they’ve eaten. I bring them indoors and place them in a Tupperware container with a moistened paper towel at the bottom. I add a few milkweed leaves. Then I clean their containers by changing the paper towel every day or two because they are voracious eaters (and poopers).
They stay in the caterpillar stage for about 10 days. Then they crawl to the top of the container and hang upside down in a J shape. They secrete a silken material that forms a jade green chrysalis around them. They’ll stay in the chrysalis for about 10 days. You can tell they’re about to emerge from the chrysalis when it begins to thin and you can see the striped wings of the butterfly.
When the adult butterfly emerges, it hangs from the chrysalis for three to four hours while its body fills with fluid. After this time, I take the butterfly container outside and encourage the butterfly to sit on my fingers. I then transfer it to a flower and it flies away after a few minutes.
I raise Monarchs because it’s something I can do to help an endangered species. But the truth is it’s fun! It can also be a cool thing to do with kids to encourage their love and care of nature.