Monarch caterpillars 2025

Over the course of a few days, we found seven monarch eggs! There have been a lot of them in Chicago recently, so many that they laid eggs on our milkweed! this is their story so far. I have named them Ralf, Yell-o, Sassy, Nat G., B O B, Wow-wee, and the youngest is Oi-oi.

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Eclose (noun): for an insect that goes through complete metamorphosis to emerge from the pupa or hatch from the egg. In this page, we only use eclose in reference to the chrysalis.

July 2nd. Final egg found a few days after the others hatched.

July 2nd. Very young caterpillar

July 2nd. Raising setup.

July 5th. The final egg hatched! first photo of one in the very beginning of caterpillar-hood.

July 7th. Oldest ones are nearly in their final instar. We had to start moving them to bigger containers 'cause there wasn't enough space under their leaves to hide. 1st instar: after hatch. 2nd instar: after first molt. 3rd instar: after second molt. 4th instar: after third molt. Final instar: after fourth molt.

July 10th. The monarchs are starting to climb to the tops of their containers to become Chrysalides!

July 11th: caterpillar in distinctive "J" position right before molting the final larval skin and turning into. a chrisalis.

July 11th: fully-developed chrysalis. unfortunately, a few days after the 13th, we lost B O B to a disease that kills chrysalides. (similar but not the same as OE [Ophryocystis elektroscirrha]. This disease killed the chrysalis before it eclosed). Shortly after, it took Oi-oi, the youngest. We think it transferred via shared leaf with B O B. While there's no saving them once they get it, you can save other monarchs if you raise them by making sure they don't share leaves and other things like that. Thankfully, no other monarchs were lost. We knew there would be casualties, and they still have a significantly higher survival rate in captivity. While it is sad, we will persevere.

July 12th: partially developed chrysalis.

July 13th: Oi-oi shortly after shedding skin. Also before chysalizing

July 20th. Yell-o is our first butterfly. We've released all five surviving monarchs. We release them at a local park so they have as many flowers as possible and milkweed to lay eggs on. We keep the bins they hang out in for 24 ours after they eclose separated by opaque barriers so they don't become aggressive. (Particularly the males). We place towels over the bins to block out sunlight when they start flapping. We made cardboard lids with extra notches so they don't slide around. We poked holes so they get out and placed shish kabab skewers right next to the hole where the chrysalis goes in. There are trays with cotton balls soaked in nectar (3 parts water & 1 part honey) so they can feed.

July 21st. Monarch Yell-o right after release. The following three photos are the release process

Carefully remove the lid off of the container.

If the butterfly is on the tray like this, lift it up like this. If they are on the floor of the container, gently nudge their wing until they fly off.

If they are on the tray, place them near a flower after lifting them out of the container. Then patiently wait for them to crawl/fly onto the flower. You may have to gently nudge their wing to get them to crawl/fly off.

Me pointing at Yell-o (very top, hard to see and obscured)