Yes, the best way to do this is to re-install the packages inside of the new virtualenv on your droplet. Luckily, there is an easily supported way to do this in one shot. Inside of the local virtualenv, run:

(local-virtualenv) $ pip freeze > requirements.txt

This will create a requirements.txt listing the installed libraries and their dependencies. Copy that file onto your droplet. Then inside the virtualenv on the droplet, run:

(droplet-virtualenv) $ pip install -r requirements.txt

This will install all of the libraries listed in the file, recreating your development environment.

I forgot to include an important piece of information which is that, most of my dependencies have been modified (by me), and are not hosted anywhere. This is why I’m confused on what is the best way to move those over.