Backyard Butterfly Migration Station

If you love butterflies and want to help preserve them with your own backyard butterfly oasis, check out the Monarch Migration Station manufactured by Frame it All. This ingenious butterfly enclosure system will provide a safe place for monarchs and other butterflies to lay their eggs and a front row seat to for you to observe the life-cycle of these enchanting creatures.

The system includes a seed mat to grow milkweed and nectar plants that monarchs require, thus providing a welcoming habitat for butterflies in your local region. The greenhouse enclosure, with a roof and mesh sidewalls, is easy to assemble and will protect your butterfly habitat.

How does the Monarch Migration Station work?

Did you know that butterflies find their nectar plants by scent rather than sight? The concentrated scent of nectar plants in the Monarch Migration Station is dispersed through its pest-resistant mesh walls drawing the butterflies in through semi-circular windows that can be unzipped. Once they are in the station, it is very easy for the butterflies to find their favorite plant food.

The Monarch Migration Station provides a safe haven for butterflies to deposit their eggs on host plants. Once this occurs, it is only a matter of time before you will be able to find eggs and caterpillars. When you see caterpillars, the windows of the station must be zipped closed to protect them from parasites and predators.

For about two weeks these caterpillars will stuff themselves with host plant leaves growing longer and plumper through a series of molts in which they shed their skin. One day, the caterpillar stops eating, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and forms a shiny chrysalis (its protective casing). Within the Monarch Migration Station, many of the caterpillars like to form their chrysalis on the fabric seams of the lining in the walls and roof.

When a butterfly is ready to emerge from the chrysalis, the adult is easily seen through the transparent chrysalis. Avoid touching your newly emerged butterfly because its wings can easily be damaged. Give your butterfly a day or so to dry its wings and feast on the nectar from your Monarch Migration Station flowers. The next day, you can unzip the windows and set your butterflies free. This is how you become a backyard butterfly conservationist!