Welcome To Magical Monarchs!

This site is for all things related to monarch butterflies.

First of all, a quick disclaimer. I am not an expert, so anything I say is to be taken as information that I have learned from my own research and experience from raising monarchs with a good deal of success for quite a few years in Florida and North Carolina.

I know that there are those who say that ordinary people should not be raising monarchs at home, that we should let nature take its course. My feeling is that we’ve left it up to nature and now we are seeing a decline in populations that is severe enough to warrant “red listing” these beautiful and beneficial pollinators as an endangered species.

I am also not breeding them. I do not keep captive pairs in little boxes and sit around watching them procreate in my home. Every day during monarch season, I hand gather their eggs from my milkweed plants where they are vulnerable to wasps, ants, stinkbugs and more.

I rear the monarchs from those eggs. Sometimes more, sometimes less, it just depends on what kind of year we’re having. I rear them with care and caution. They are kept in large enclosures with good air circulation, they are not overcrowded and they are fed copious amounts of clean, healthy milkweed grown in my own garden without pesticides of any kind.

I keep their lighting as natural as possible. They are collected and released in the same area. Any caterpillar that doesn’t look “right” is separated from the others. Any butterfly that looks even remotely abnormal is check microscopically for OE before it is released. I do not sell or ship any eggs, cats, or butters.

I welcome questions and comments as I have learned so much from other people. Please keep any comments respectful, or they will be deleted. Now that all of that is settled, we can move on to the fun stuff!

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