Grow your own butterflies

Have children or a class, or maybe just your own curiosity dictates that you grow your own butterflies this winter. Whatever the reason, it is a fun project for all ages, and increases the appreciation of what it actually takes for a butterfly to go from an egg to a beautiful insect floating from one flower to another in our back yards.

You can raise butterflies indoors this winter with very little trouble or special preparation. Next spring your efforts will kiss the earth as they take their place in nature.

Regardless of how old or young you are, it is simple fun to watch the metamorphosis from egg to beautiful butterfly.

"If you have just one square foot of space, you can easily raise 50 to 100 butterflies," Rick Mikula, butterfly raising expert says. "It's relaxing and rewarding."

Step 1: Make a butterfly aviary. Identify the host plant for the species of butterfly you wish to raise. Pot one and bring it inside.

Step 2: Make a teepee-type framework over the host plant. Cover the entire framework with mosquito netting or an old sheer curtain or panty hose. Secure the bottom of the net to the pot with a rubber band.

Step 3: Check your backyard. Find a female butterfly of the species you wish to raise. A good insect field guide will show you how to tell a male from a female butterfly of a select species.

Mikula has his own sexing tip:
"Holding the butterfly upside down by its wings, look at the abdomen tip," he advises. "You'll see claspers on a male, but not on a female.

"Almost any female you catch in your garden will already be fertilized," Mikula says. "Put her in the teepee cage and add a small piece of melon to supply sugar, or a few nectar type flowers, such as cosmos or zinnias."

Also, you can use a never-used orange pot scrubber in a shallow dish filled with sugar-water.

Step 4: Cover the entire teepee with a brown paper sack to provide privacy and keep the butterfly calm. Strong light causes her to become active and she might hurt her wings on the enclosure.

After 24 hours, begin checking the host plant for eggs. A female will begin laying eggs anywhere from one to seven days after you place her in the teepee.

Step 5: After she lays a few eggs, release her back into nature.

Swallowtail eggs will hatch in about five days, but it takes some 14 days for a mourning cloak to reach the hatching stage.

Butterfly caterpillars have insatiable appetites. They need lots of food. A monarch caterpillar increases its size some 2,700 times in just two weeks!

If the host plant looks spent after a few day, add fresh leaves for the caterpillars. You will probably have to replenish the leaves at least once a day, and maybe more often. Also, it is important to remove the caterpillars every day. They make great fertilizer for your pot plants.

In two to three weeks, the caterpillar will begin changing to the pupal stage. It climbs onto the netting, attaches itself and pupates. Keep the chrysalises or pupae out of direct sunlight or they will become too dry.

Check a reputable insect field guide to determine how long you must wait for your particular species to mature. At room temperature, a monarch emerges in about 14 days, but some butterflies overwinter before the adult emerges.

Butterfly raising is fun and a great way to entertain your children, friends, and yourself.

© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education