This will be our third year rescuing monarchs and our second year rescuing and tagging them. In last year’s Saving Monarchs 2022 post, we had set out to make a goal to create a Monarch Waystation, and this year we made it happen.

In addition to the Monarch Waystation with Jason’s hard work and talent, we were able to build a Monarch rescue hut to raise the monarchs in an outside environment where they would be better acclimated to the weather and outside conditions that they will be emerging and flying into.

 This year we were able to tag 97 monarchs with Monarch Watch tags. 31 reared and 66 wild from our home. 101 total.  We had three losses and one deformed wing that was not included in the data. We were able to provide five monarchs to our cousin to use as a lesson in the school she volunteers. Four were successfully reared and one had a deformed wing. Our cousin and her friend named this monarch Oppossom and made it a habitat where they fed him honey water. She said his wings vibrated with excitement when she took him out to play and eat. He is a picky eater! They tried honey water, nectar from flowers, banana puree, watermelon juice, and orange juice and would only choose the honey water.

(How we tag the monarchs for Monarch Watch)

This year our area had a few weeks with no rain and wildfire smoke from the Canadian wildfires that seemed to have impacted the monarchs. We noticed a delay from last year from when we first saw our first monarch of the year in past data. Another hindrance this year was the state mowing over milkweed that had eggs on the milkweed in a state forest we live near. We were thankfully able to rescue several eggs from the milkweed before the rest was mowed. It was so dry one day that Jason found a monarch caterpillar wrapped up in a butterflyweed pod that was closing in around him. We moved it to the monarch rescue hut with fresh milkweed and it started eating right away.

We are excited to update our data to Monarch Watch to see if any of our tagged monarchs will be found in Mexico. Last year one of our tagged/wild female monarchs migrated all the way to El Rosario, Mexico sanctuary.

We also want to make note that we do not ever encourage purchasing monarch caterpillars online just to raise them for captive rearing. The XERCES society has a wonderful article that goes into more depth on this topic you can read it here. We rescue monarchs that need our help and create habitats, water sources, and shelters to encourage safe havens for them and other pollinators. We feed them so they can feed us.

If anyone has questions on how to rescue monarchs please leave a comment below or send me an email at steph@brewingwisdom.com

Some photos of us releasing the monarchs. This was our nephew’s first time seeing and releasing a monarch. We released five with our grandmother, sister and her husband, my niece and nephew. Very special moments.