What is Your Mission?

  1. Find milkweed. Go outside and look for milkweed. It can be wild as well as cultivated milkweed. Learn how to recognize milkweed and where to find it at Mission Monarch.
  2. Survey the area for Monarchs. Carefully examine milkweed plants, looking for monarch caterpillars. They can be on or under leaves, in flowers or on fruits. It is important to look the plant over carefully. Keep a count of all the milkweed stems you examined. It can be only one stem or a hundred; it’s up to you! Of course, you count each Monarch egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult you find. It is important to report even if you don’t find any! You can learn how to identify the Monarch’s different life stages at Mission Monarch.
  3. Write down your observations.To compile your observations, you can use the field observation form from Mission Monarch.
  4. Sign up and submit your data at Mission Monarch. If you don’t already have an account, join the community!

Mission Materials

  1. Field observation form
  2. Monarch identification sheet
  3. Milkweed identification sheet
  4. Commonly confused species identification sheet
  5. Guide to other species living on milkweedDownload the entire mission kit!