How to Raise Monarch Butterfly

Get the caterpillar food ready first. You can order milkweed plants just about anywhere on the web. A few aclepias varieties they love include asclepias incarnata &asclepias tuberosa, but just about any asclepias variety will work. Young plants are best because they love the tender leaves. You need about 2 small plants per caterpillar.

Order your caterpillars. You'll find various online sites that carry eggs and caterpillars. They run about $2-3 a pieces.

You'll have to sanitize your terrarium or containers with a clorox wipe. Each caterpillar should have their own home separated from others, so if one gets sick the others won't.

Now set up their food right inside the terrarium OR you can place small jars of water in the containers, then place milkweed clippings in the jars. But, if you use the jar method, you'll have place some plastic wrap over the jar and poke a small hole in it to stick the plant it. The plastic covering will prevent the caterpillar from falling in.

Each milkweed clipping needs to be soaked in a bleach mixture of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. Rinse with water and wait 20 minutes before offering it to your caterpillar. Monarchs are not very resistant to disease and bacteria so this ensures their health.

Let the caterpillars have a go at the leaves. They'll shed their skin 5 times before pupating into a chrysalis, so they'll eat and sleep for about 14 days before pupating.

Once they pupated it'll take 9-14 days, depending on the temperature, to eclose into a butterfly. On the 9th day you'll begin seeing symmetrical black designs inside the chrysalis, these are the legs. The day before they come out, the chrysalis will turn black.