This year Bayer Hawaii launched its fifth annual Monarch Butterfly Sweepstakes, awarding butterfly kits to 14 lucky winners in partnership with Sharing the Butterfly Experience. The sweepstakes aims to raise awareness about the importance of the Monarch butterfly, which plays an essential role in the growth of healthy flowering crops.

Each monarch butterfly kit includes everything needed to nurture a monarch caterpillar as it develops into a fully-grown butterfly: 10 live caterpillars, a 24-inch by 12-inch habitat to protect the caterpillars from predators, a picture book on raising monarch butterflies, a bag of food, detailed care instructions, and a crown flower plant. Crown flower plant is one of the most commonly found milkweed plants found in Hawaii and is the main source of food for monarch caterpillars here. 

One of the 2022 winners, Susan Fukumoto, will be sharing the kit with her 10-year-old daughter, Rukia. Rukia first became interested in butterflies when she was 6 years old, after noticing caterpillars outside near her home. Soon she began giving them names and watching as they grew, learning about them along the way.

Rukia and Susan have watched many monarchs emerge around them over the years and have also seen the occasional gulf fritillary butterfly – a species that is similarly in its coloring but ultimately very different from monarch butterflies. Susan explains, “They were so different-looking, and that cued much research and learning for us.” 

Through Rukia’s curiosity and Susan’s guidance, their backyard became an interactive science lab. “It’s been quite an adventurous and educational experience,” Susan shares. “Who needs a classroom when all this is in your backyard?”

And there’s so much to learn about when it comes to these amazing creatures.

Monarch butterflies on the mainland travel about 3,000 miles each year from northeastern United States to Southeast Canada all the way to the mountain forests in central Mexico, pollinating crops and other flowers as they go. There they find the climate conditions they need to hibernate from the beginning of November to mid-March. Each adult butterfly lives only about four to five weeks, and a female in the wild can lay up to 500 eggs on milkweed plants throughout that short lifetime. Hawaii Monarchs are here all year...there is no reason for them to leave our beautiful weather.

The butterflies that are released typically stay and repopulate in the area that they are released in. Thank you for helping to repopulate the Monarch butterflies in Hawaii!

To learn more about pollinators, meet the rest of our winners and ensure you’re the first to know about future sweepstakes, follow Bayer Hawaii on Instagram.