Raising monarchs inside Raising monarchs in aquariums Why do
this? For one thing, of course, it's fascinating! For another,
though, it's a way to maxmize the number of eggs that actually
turn into butterflies. I've read estimates that only 5-10% of
the eggs laid survive to butterflyhood. Parasitism, predation,
weather, even milkweed latex all take their toll. Of course, low
survival rates are common with insects—we'd be overrun if every
insect egg laid actually survived to adulthood. But the current
situation is not normal. Most of the problems monarchs are
encountering are new and human-caused: loss of habitat in
general, loss of milkweed specifically, climate change, as well
as illegal logging and general turmoil in Mexico's overwintering
areas. Here's more on how we raise monarchs. Here are the total
numbers of monarchs we've raised and released: |2007||104
(51%)||99 (49%)||0||203| |2008||53 (51%)||50 (49%)||2||105|
|2009||58 (55%)||47 (45%)||5||110| |2010||112 (50%)||111
(50%)||1||224| |2011||109 (54%)||9