DeKalb County School Gardens

Monarch butterflies are facing dangers to their populations on all fronts. From habitat loss to climate change, these insects are up against many challenges. Fortunately, schools can and do support monarch populations through planting pollinator gardens and raising and tagging monarchs in the classroom.

Monarchs accomplish the amazing feat of migrating between Mexico, the United States, and even Canada every year across several generations. Teachers at all grade levels are using this incredible journey in several aspects of their classrooms, incorporating science, social studies, language arts, math and arts.

Pollinator gardens are a necessary first step toward raising monarchs. Monarchs have a special relationship with milkweed plants. They are the only kind of plant a monarch caterpillar can eat. There are four native species recommended for Georgia (butterfly weed, clasping milkweed, redring milkweed and whorled milkweed). Milkweeds have a sap that is poisonous to many insects, but monarchs have coevolved with milkweed to sequester the poison from the sap in their bodies, making them distasteful to birds and other predatory enemies without suffering from ingesting the sap themselves.

Milkweeds often grow in agricultural fields, and the advent of RoundUp Ready crops and the accompanying increase in herbicide applications has decimated milkweed populations. Schools can make a difference to monarchs by planting milkweed in the schoolyard.

Milkweed is an example of a host plant--a plant that supplies the larval life cycle stage with food. Adult monarchs have different requirements, so along with milkweed, successful pollinator gardens will require abundant nectar sources as well as water and shelter. This presentation includes resources for planning and maintaining a pollinator garden.

The strongly recommended way to raise monarchs in the classroom is to use monarchs from the schoolyard pollinator garden. Although it is possible to order monarch larvae from various labs, it is not recommended for several reasons. In short, releasing lab-sourced monarchs into the wild can negatively impact local monarch populations.

Once your school has established a pollinator garden with plentiful milkweed, it's only a matter of time until monarchs show up. It could take anywhere from one to four years. After monarchs find your schoolyard, they typically return every year.

Recently, I interviewed Stephanie Spencer, STEM Lab Teacher at Sagamore Hills Elementary, about her process for raising monarchs in the classroom. Spencer has been recognized by the AJC for her dedication to teaching, and is a volunteer and board member for Monarchs Across Georgia.

Spencer says that raising monarchs is time-consuming, but worthwhile for many reasons. From learning about the first grader who explained the entire tagging process to their parent (more on that later), to seeing the light bulb light up when students start finding caterpillars in the garden and finally understanding the entire butterfly life cycle, Spencer stays inspired to do the necessary work so her students can continue to experience this process first-hand.

Stephanie Spencer's tips for raising monarchs in the classroom:

Before you begin:

Attend a Monarchs Across Georgia workshop if possible. Visit Monarchs Across Georgia for a wealth of resources; workshop information can be found under "Events."
Find additional curriculum at the University of Minnesota's Monarch Lab.
Start a pollinator garden.

Next steps:

1. Make containers for keeping the caterpillars in the classroom.
Use plastic 24 oz deli containers, with the top cut out and vinyl screening hot-glued to the lid for air flow. If the containers have been used, disinfect with a bleach solution.

2. Collect eggs and larva from your school garden milkweeds.
Find eggs by observing monarch females visiting milkweeds or scout the underside of leaves. Eggs are harder to raise but less likely to have OE, a disease organism (parasitic protozoan) that can kill or weaken monarchs. Monarch caterpillars grow in 5 stages, or instars. The first instar (see tiny caterpillars below) can crawl through the screen, so keep in a container with a solid lid until they are big enough to stay put with the screened container. Feed very small pieces of leaf at first so that the leaf doesn't start to mold before it gets eaten. Once the caterpillars are in the larger containers, keep only one caterpillar per cage if possible to avoid the spread of OE. If there are multiple caterpillars in one container, make sure they are similar sizes to avoid the risk of competition between them. To avoid harming caterpillars, do not touch them with your hands; use paint brushes to move very small caterpillars, and leaves or twigs for larger ones.

Eggs and 1st instars

1st instar on piece of leaf; the large catepillar is 5th instar

Dime added for scale

3. Feeding and Cleaning Cages
Caterpillars eat a lot. Which means they poop a lot. Caterpillar poop is called frass. Spencer feeds her caterpillars twice a day, adding just enough to get to the next feeding, in order to cut down on waste. The paper towel at the bottom of the cage gets changed once a day. These are student jobs during the week, but on the weekends the cages come home with Spencer. Some weekends she takes home 40 containers. It takes about 30 days to complete the life cycle from egg to butterfly (about 12 of those days are pupating, with no extra care necessary)

The black objects are frass, which must be removed daily

Leaves from common milkweed stored between paper towels. Common milkweed should not be planted, but if you know of existing stands, they are great for harvesting large quantities of leaves.

Layers of milkweed leaves stored in plastic bag, will keep in fridge for a couple weeks.

4. Tagging and releasing butterflies
When caterpillars are ready to pupate, they hang in an upside-down J-shape. At this stage, they need to be left alone until they form their chrysalis. If the chrysalis falls down, it is ok to use a piece of thread to tie it up to the screen. Tie the thread around the little stem sticking up from the top, called the cremaster.
Tagging butterflies
When the butterflies emerge, apply tags to their wings and record information on data sheet, all supplied through MonarchWatch.org. Buy tagging supplies at the end of the school year to have on hand for the following fall--they sell out quickly! Researchers record tagged butterflies found in Mexico as part of a multi-national citizen science project. It's possible that researches could find a tagged butterfly from your classroom! Once tagged, release butterflies where you originally collected the eggs or larva.
Testing for OE
UGA hosts a citizen science project testing for OE levels from monarchs around the country. Find out how to participate in Project Monarch Health.

Caterpillar getting ready to pupate

Newly-emerged butterfly

Applying tag to butterfly; 5th graders can do this

Using tape to test for OE

Card of OE tapes to submit for testing

5. Teaching moments
Spencer weaves in standards-based lessons throughout the entire process of raising monarchs, and the activity is celebrated throughout the school. Spencer created this document to outline k-5 connections to standards. Pictures from her lab and the school hallways demonstrate this school's total participation in the project.