Garden Vlog: Raising Monarch Butterflies

Garden Vlog, Raising Monarch Butterflies. Whew, it's a long vlog today!!! Hey guys! Just a peek into what's happening in the garden and our hobby of raising monarch butterflies. It all started with one tropical milkweed plant in our garden, we noticed the monarchs loved it and we loved them, so we planted more. Before we knew it there were tons of caterpillars everywhere... but we were running out of milkweed and it's the only plant they eat. So while we're waiting for our milkweed regrowth and planting more, we started bringing the hungry caterpillars inside and going out on milkweed runs to find more around the island. When you bring in other milkweed that you didn't grow, just make sure it wasn't sprayed with chemicals. One sign of good safe milkweed, is if there are other fat healthy caterpillars already eating there, along with other bugs, aphids, etc.

By raising monarchs from eggs in a safe controlled environment, they have a 90% chance of survival, completing their life cycle and making it to a healthy adult butterfly. In the wild, fighting to avoid oe spores, parasites and predators, their chance of survival rate drops to 10% or less.

Once the monarch eggs and caterpillars turn into healthy adult butterflies, we release them outside. :)

xo,
Christine