Monarchs-And-Milkweed.com

(Rose Franklin's Perennial & Butterfly Farm)

Monarch Eggs, Larvae (Caterpillars), and Pupae


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Monarch Eggs and/or Caterpillars available June - Sept.
 
Usually available from June thru September, our Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars (larvae) are great for home or school rearing projects. Butterfly rearing is educational and rewarding for youth and adults alike and Monarch butterflies are easy to raise. In just 25 to 32 days, Monarch metamorphosis [life stages: from egg to caterpillar to pupa to adult butterfly] is completed. And no matter what your age, you will be fascinated by the process!
    Sporadically, throughout the summer, we might also offer Black Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail, Painted Lady, American Lady, or Red Admiral caterpillars. When, and if, these caterpillars are available, you will be able to order them from this page (just scroll down the page until you see them listed). The USDA governs which states we are permitted to ship each butterfly species to, so unless you live in one of the states we are permitted to ship that particular caterpillar to, do not place an order. We will not ship your order and will charge you a $2.00 service charge to cancel your order and refund your payment. 
    We do not sell butterfly eggs and caterpillars (larvae) which were taken from the wild. Our eggs and caterpillars are gathered from our butterfly rearing facility located inside our greenhouse. Inside our rearing facility, we closely monitor the butterflies to assure that their environmental and nutritional needs are being met. They are also protected from the predators and diseases which lurk in the outdoors.

We do not accept phone orders or purchase orders. 
All orders must be accompanied by payment.  No payment = no shipment.

Important Note: Do not consider ordering Monarch caterpillars (larvae) unless you have access to at least twelve fully grown Milkweed (Asclepias) plants. Your caterpillars will require much more milkweed than we will ship with your order. Indeed, the caterpillars might need fresh milkweed leaves immediately upon delivery to you. Aside from Milkweed plants, you will also need a suitable rearing  chamber (a 10 gallon aquarium with screened lid or a Popup, like those offered on our 'Popup Cages' page).

If you do not have a supply of Milkweed plants but you still want to rear Monarch caterpillars later this summer, please order Tropical Milkweed plants from the 'Milkweed Plants' page of our web site. The Tropical Milkweed plants should be received at least a month before you place an order for Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars so that the plants will have time to grow larger before the caterpillars arrive. Eight of our Tropical Milkweed plants should be enough to feed 10 caterpillars, so long as you receive the plants a month before you order the Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars.   
If you are going to use our Tropical Milkweed plants as caterpillar food, I suggest you keep the plants in pots (not plant them in the garden), repotting them into larger pots as their root systems require. You could keep the plants potted individually (repotting each plant into a 6" pot) or you could plant two or three of the small plants into 10" - 12" pots. Keep the potted plants in full sun and water as necessary (which might be every day once the plants grow larger).  Then when your caterpillars need Milkweed, put a potted plant into the Popup (or whatever you are using as a rearing chamber). You might want to pull a plastic bag up over the pot and wrap a twist tie around the bag near the stem/soil line of the plant. This way you can lay the plant down if necessary and not have to worry about soil spilling from the pot and on to the floor of the rearing container. Because the leaves of Tropical Milkweed will wilt fast if cut off the plant, it is best to keep the leaves on the plant, putting a whole potted plant into the Popup.

Before you place an order for Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars:

Do Not place an order if you do not have milkweed plants to utilize as food for the Monarch caterpillars. For every 10 Monarch caterpillars you order, you should have the equivalent of at least twelve mature common milkweed plants.

Orders are filled on a first come, first served basis. Depending upon supply and demand, your order might ship within an hour of being received or it might no ship for two weeks or so. We have no control over demand and obviously cannot ship orders until we have the eggs and/or caterpillars to ship them.

Do Not place an order unless you are willing to accept Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars of any size. Some weeks we have only eggs and some weeks we have only caterpillars. For this reason, we do not allow customers to choose between eggs and caterpillars. 

Do Not place an order unless you will be able to receive the Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars on any day Monday thru Saturday in the next 3 weeks. Do not place an order and request that shipment be delayed for any reason. If you are going to be away, please place your order when you return home.

Do Not place an order and then ask us to change the shipping address. Be sure the shipping address is correct before you finalize the order.

Orders are shipped via USPS First Class Mail or USPS Priority Mail. Please be sure the address that comes thru to us via PayPal is the address used by the U.S. Postal Service.

Do not place an order and request that shipment be delayed for any reason. If you are going to be away, please place your order when you return home.

As stated below, your Monarch caterpillars might be shipped on a potted milkweed plant OR they might be shipped on cut milkweed foliage. You do not get to choose whether you receive a potted plant or cut milkweed. 

Do Not place an order unless you live in one of the states we are permitted to ship Monarchs to (those states are listed below).

If you place an order and then request that it  be canceled for any reason, there will be a $2.00 service charge to cancel the order and refund payment.

If you are a teacher and you do not want your order shipped until school begins in fall, please print our online order form, fill it out, write on the order form "Please ship my order the week of      (a Monday date)    or the week of    (a Monday date)    and mail the order form to us with payment (check or money order).      If you are a teacher and you want to use our online shopping cart to place your order (so you can use your credit card for payment), please: (1) place your order and then (2) immediately send an email to MilkweedLady@aol.com requesting that we hold your order until school begins in fall. In this email you should provide two things: (1) the name of the person the order is being shipped to, and (2) a first and second choice of the weeks you would like your order shipped. The email should say this:  "My name is __________. Please ship my order the week of      (a Monday date)    or the week of    (a Monday date)   ." In the subject line of your email, type "Hold Monarch Order". We will then email you to let you know we received the email asking us to hold your order. If you do not receive an email from us within 24 hours stating that we received your request to hold your order, please email us again. If we do not receive this email requesting that your order be held and we do ship your order before school begins, your money will not be refunded.
Your package is shipping to whatever address comes thru to us on the order form. We are much too busy to be editing addresses on hectic shipping days, and this year, simply will not do that. If you want the package shipped to the school instead of to your home, please be sure to edit the shipping address so it will be shipped to the school.

Monarch eggs, caterpillars, larvae

10 Monarch eggs and/or Caterpillars (larvae) -  $27.50 

If you have a suitable rearing chamber (example: a small aquarium with screened lid or better yet, a popup cage like those shown on our 'Popup Cages' page) and access to at least a dozen lush, green milkweed plants (Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, or Tropical Milkweed), you might want to order our  10 Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars (sorry, no choice between eggs or caterpillars). Your eggs and/or caterpillars will be shipped on a potted Milkweed plant OR on fresh cut Milkweed leaves (our choice, not yours). Rearing instructions included with order but please also refer to the 'Monarch Life Cycle' and 'Raising Monarchs' pages of the web site for more information.

We
are permitted to ship Monarch eggs and/or caterpillars to the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. If you live in one of these states your eggs and/or caterpillars will be shipped on either a potted Milkweed plant or cut Milkweed. Our choice, not yours.
Do not place an order unless you live in one of the states we are permitted to ship Monarchs to.
Your order will not be shipped and we will charge you  a $1.00 service charge to cancel your order and refund payment.

We ship USPS First Class or USPS Priority Mail. Once you place an order, please watch your email closely for updates on the status of your order.

 


If you have never raised Monarch butterflies, please visit the 'Monarch Life Cycle' page and also the 'Raising Monarchs' page before you place an order. I highly suggest that you also download the PDF (a slide show) entitled Raising OE-Free Monarchs from the 'Raising Monarchs' page. Within the slides of this PDF, whether you're a beginner or a pro at raising Monarchs, you will likely find some tips that will improve your rearing operation and increase your success.

Monarch pupae, chrysalis

Monarch  Chrysalises (Pupae)    5 for $35.00

You don't have access to Milkweed plants but you would like to see a newly emerged Monarch butterfly (maybe even see the butterfly emerge from its chrysalis)? Then this is for you! You will receive Monarch chrysalises (pupae)--- from which should emerge five majestic Monarch butterflies in just a few days. When the butterflies are able to fly, just release them outdoors.
Upon delivery, you should put the chrysalises in a container (a plastic or cardboard box that is at least 5" high) lined with paper towels and covered with window screen or tulle (available in fabric stores).  You could also lay them along the bottom edges of a small Popup Cage (shown on the 'Popup Cages' page) or similar mesh, screen, or netted container.

We
are permitted to ship Monarch chrysalises to the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. 
We are not permitted by the USDA to ship to other destinations. Sorry, no exceptions.
Do not order Monarch chrysalises from us if your state is not listed above. We will not ship  your order and will charge you a $1.00 service charge to cancel your order and refund your payment.

When available there will be a shopping cart button right here.

 Sporadically throughout the summer, we might have these larvae (caterpillars) available for shipping:
When available, a shopping cart button will appear to allow ordering. No shopping cart button = cannot be ordered.

10 Black Swallowtail Caterpillars - $27.50

The caterpillars will be shipped on parsley, rue, dill, fennel, or rue (potted plant or cut foliage, our choice, not yours). You will need lots of extra parsley, dill, fennel, or rue to feed to the caterpillars. If you have no host plants, please do not order the caterpillars.  

We
are permitted to ship Black Swallowtail caterpillars to Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,  North Carolina, Ohio,  Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont,  Virginia West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
If you do not live in one of these states, do not place an order for the caterpillars. We will not ship  your order and will charge you a $2.00 service charge to cancel your order and refund payment.

Orders will be filled in a first come, first served basis. Depending upon supply and demand, your order might be shipped within hours of ordering or it might not be shipped for two weeks. 

 July 19 update: I am sorry to say that we will not be offering Black Swallowtail caterpillars this year. After three weeks of extremely warm weather, we are worn out from trying to keep our 2,000 potted plants alive (having to water them 3 times a day on all those hot, humid days) and we simply do not have the time or energy to to do more than Monarchs this year.

Some American Indians believed that for a wish to come true, you had to capture a butterfly, whisper your wish to it, and then set the butterfly free. The butterfly would carry your wish to Heaven, where the Creator could decipher the message and grant the wish.

Two ways to order: (1) Utilize our on-line shopping cart or  (2) print our online order form, fill it out, and then mail it to us, along with your check or money orderWe do not accept phone orders. Some of the features of our online shopping cart fail to work correctly with some Internet Service Providers. If you have problems using our shopping cart, please print our order form, fill it out, and then mail it to us. Sorry for the inconvenience. 
 Quantities are limited. Orders will be reserved to fill orders in the sequence in which orders are received.
Monarch eggs, caterpillars, larvae, pupae, chrysalises, rearing kits, butterfly farming

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Rose Franklin's Perennials
107 Butterfly Lane      Spring Mills, PA  16875

(814) 422-8968   
During our busy shipping season (April 15 thru September 30), please do not call. Email instead.      
 
Email:  MilkweedLady@aol.com

Copyright © 2002-2024.  [Rose Franklin's Perennials]. All rights reserved.
Revised: July 19, 2024