June 29, 2004
Raising Butterflies
We freed the painted lady butterflies on a Saturday in the courtyard. (Don’t ask me what day that was. I can’t remember!) Previously Johann didn’t want to let them go. He’s been wanting a pet, which just isn’t in the budget at the moment. So taking care of the butterflies was sort of like having a pet. However, after the understandable difficulty in accepting Sasha’s death, my parents’ dog, Eric and I were worried about the butterflies dying before we could release them. Thankfully the temperatures went up and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Johann was so cute watching and chasing the butterflies as each one discovered they could get out of the top of the mesh container we had them in. One immediately sunned itself in one of the flowerbeds. One flew around to every flowering tree and bush in the entire courtyard before stopping to rest. Johann flapped his arms and ran around shouting, “Look! I can fly too! I’m a butterfly! I’m a butterfly!”
From the moment Johann saw the monarch butterfly on the show “Backyard Safari”, he’s wanted to raise monarchs too. Our friend, Lynn, put us in touch with Flutterby Butterflies. Nancy, the owner, was great. We got a tour of her butterfly room and her grounds. She had Johann help with some of the butterfly care and instructed him in how to hold a butterfly. Johann picked up one of the painted lady butterflies. He pet an Eastern black swallowtail, that was feeding and very still, because he was near the end of his life cycle. A 5” male tiger swallowtail flew back and forth between Eric and Johann. According to Nancy, the male butterfly is the only one likely to land on your hand of its own volition, because he needs salt to stay healthy and he can pick that up from the sweat on your skin. Johann giggled as the tiger swallowtail was tickling his leg. Johann loved meeting Bo, the dog, and running around her huge yard. And we were able to buy 5 monarch caterpillars from Nancy.
We spent an hour one afternoon driving around searching for milkweed to feed the caterpillars. Nancy gave us enough milkweed to get started, but we needed to get more. It’s amazing what can suddenly become important to you. We didn’t notice these plants before. Now having enough milkweed leaves that have been cleaned with a mild bleach solution, rinsed, patted dry, and stored in ziplocks has become the most important item in our refrigerator. Monarch caterpillars only eat fresh, green milkweed leaves.
So far 3 of the caterpillars have reached the chrysalid stage. Our daily routine now includes checking the caterpillars twice a day. We clean out the frass and old leaves while transferring the caterpillars to new leaves with a natural bristle paint brush. It looks like a 4th caterpillar will be going into the “J” position soon and over the course of the next day will form his chrysalis. The 5th one should follow suit in a few days. He was the tiniest one of all. We all have learned so much from our experiences with the butterflies. It’s been great fun. I’m not sure if we will do this again this season, but if we do, we’ll tag the monarchs the next time. They are likely to migrate if we release them at the end of the summer. It would be so neat to get a call that one of our butterflies was found down south!