Now Is The Time To Raise Monarchs For A Healthy Fall Population

(Rock Island, IL) -- Experts say those starting to raise monarch butterflies right now will lead to healthy generations by the fall.

Janet Moline, an instructor at the Black Hawk Historic Site Tells WQAD News 8 that if you have 50 caterpillars, about half of those are female, and each lays about 500 eggs, then there's a good chance of helping the monarch population increase.

She says about five percent of monarch eggs will survive in the wild, but when raised properly by people 95 percent will survive.