About

MY STORY

I live in Bossier City, Louisiana — right in the heart of the monarch migration corridor. A few years ago I noticed the numbers were dropping, and I couldn’t just watch. I started rescuing eggs from milkweed patches, raising caterpillars on my back porch, and releasing healthy adults into the garden.

What began as a weekend experiment became an obsession. I built rearing enclosures, planted dedicated habitat beds, and started documenting everything I learned. That documentation became this site — and eventually a book.

 

“Monarchs don’t need saving by experts. They need neighbors with milkweed, patience, and a little space on their back porch.”             — Hugh J. Pinckard

THE METHOD

1. Rescue:
 Find eggs and tiny caterpillars on outdoor milkweed before predators or weather take them.
2. Raise:
 Bring them indoors into a clean enclosure, feed them fresh milkweed, and watch them transform through 5 instars into a brilliant jade chrysalis.
3. Release:
  Once wings have hardened, set them free into a garden full of nectar — ready to continue the migration.

The book cover has a bright orange background with a large central photograph. In the photo, an older adult gently helps a small child interact with a monarch butterfly on blooming orange milkweed flowers in a lush green garden. The title at the top reads “Rescue, Raise, & Release:” in large black serif lettering, with the subtitle “Create Your Own Monarch Butterfly Experience” in a smaller italic serif font beneath it. At the bottom, the author credit reads “By: Hugh J Pinckard” with “Monarch Butterfly Wrangler” in quotes underneath, also in black serif type.THE BOOK

Rescue, Raise & Release: Create Your Own Monarch Butterfly Experience

A complete guide to raising monarchs at home — from sourcing eggs to building enclosures to releasing healthy adults.

 

Have a question, a photo to share, or a monarch sighting to report? I’d love to hear from you. MonarchButterflyWrangler@PelicanProse.com

Hugh Pinckard

Hugh Pinckard as Monarch Butterfly Wrangler holding a Monarch Butterfly to be released on BlackEyeSusies in the background

Hugh Pinckard is a self-taught and self-proclaimed
“lepidopterist,“ (a person who studies or specializes in butterflies
and moths, which belong to the order Lepidoptera in entomology).


He is a father and grandfather as well as a lover of all things outdoors: gardening, landscape design, wildlife observation, camping, fishing, hiking, and many more activities. Thus, his progression to the cause of the monarch butterfly is an easy and logical step.


Upon learning of the predicament that has engulfed pollinators -specifically the monarch butterfly – he launched himself into the cause of “Rescue, Raise, and Release” of the monarchs.
He attended a Monarch Watch symposium at the University of Kansas, where he established friendships with and enlisted the assistance of the Monarch Watch (MonarchWatch.org) staff.

To date, he has release well over one thousand (1,000) healthy monarch butterflies back into the wild and is listed as a Monarch Watch “Certified Waystation” and a National Wildlife Federation 
“Certified Wildlife Habitat.”