A suburban Chicago woman’s home-raised monarch butterfly makes it to central Mexico, 2,000 miles away: ‘What are the chances?’

An Orland Park, Illinois, woman who raises butterflies in her home hit the monarch migration jackpot: A tiny tag affixed to one of her 2020 butterflies was recovered in the mountainous region of central Mexico where Midwestern migratory monarchs spend the winter. The female butterfly, listed as ACBM486, flew about 2,000 miles from Orland Park, in suburban Chicago, to the El Rosario nature reserve near Ocampo. “I was super, super excited,” said Debbie Kostolansky, 62, who grows butterfly and hummingbird gardens, and has raised monarchs for five years. “I just kind of felt like I did something g...