raising monarchs

[jeanhannon]

For the past two years, I have been bringing in monarch eggs on my butterfly weed to protect them from solitary wasps that also love butterfly weed. When the catepillars get large I put them in the butterfly pavillion. This year I am tagging them before letting them free. Should I consider these monarchs hand raised or wild?

Jean Hannon
Dartmouth, Ma.

[Jim]

If you check out your datasheet, there is a section that explains this:

(R)eared / (W)ild
Indicate whether the tagged monarch was (R)eared from the egg, larva, or pupa stage or captured as a (W)ild adult butterfly.

So, in your case, the monarchs should be considered (R)eared.

Happy Tagging!