Basics of Butterfly Farming

This isn't the ideal time of year for this topic, but it's a good place to with the hand-raising of butterflies and moths. Great success may be achieved with no investment. By using many recyclable household items, purchasing supplies will become unnecessary. Just remember: "Grow before you throw." You will find that many discarded items will serve as wonderful breeding chambers.

For the novice, there is nothing better than a good field guide. The best is the Golden Nature Guide's Butterflies and Moths, priced around four dollars. It is excellent in identifying caterpillars and in determining the gender of adults. Food plants and territorial ranges are also covered quite well.

But we can sidestep the book using some simple techniques. Hold a butterfly by the wings and as close to its body as possible. With the legs facing upward and the head away from you, examine the tip of the abdomen. Many of the males exhibit a set of claspers which are used in mating. They are not pinchers and cannot hurt you. If it is a male, set it free. We are interested only in the females to obtain eggs.

Pennsylvania has seven silk moths, six of which may be as large as some birds. They are quite beautiful and extremely exciting to rear. To determine a female, examine the antennae. Both sexes have antennae resembling tiny feathers. The females will have a uniform width, and the male's antennae will be much wider at the center than at the ends.

If there is a problem in sexing your new pets, simply request a paper bag next time you are at the grocery store. These are great little egg factories, and free too! (That is, if we overlook the $94.15 it took to fill it with groceries.) However, if you have a likely female moth, place her in the empty paper bag. Fold the top over just enough to protect against escape and secure it with a clothespin. If the host plant is known, include a sprig or some leaves inside the bag and leave it overnight. Leaves are not always necessary for success. The next morning, open the bag and allow the moth to go free. Examining the inside walls may yield countless eggs. A female is capable of laying hundreds of eggs.

With a butterfly, the method is different. Your best success will come with the use of the host plant. A potted plant will work the best. A plant cutting placed in a recycled soft drink bottle will do nicely. Next, place an empty paper bag upside down and cover the plant. (It should be completely inside). Reaching inside, place the female on the plant and quickly remove your arm. Fasten the opening against the container with a rubber band or drawstring. Once again, allow it to sit undisturbed overnight. If she does not lay eggs in this period, place the entire contraption in the refrigerator for a few hours. When removed, leave it at ambient temperature. This tricks them into thinking winter is on the way, and will force egg laying.

If the 2-liter bottle setup or paper bag approach aren't appealing enough, you may decide to search for wild laid eggs in the field. In that case, don't worry about paper or plastic...concentrate on pennyroyal! It won't make your female lay eggs, but it could keep you from developing those pesky little bulls-eye-shaped sores that mean LYME disease. Pennyroyal is a natural repellent of ticks that cause this affliction. Maintain a patch of it in your garden. Before any trips into the field, walk in the pennyroyal first making sure to get it on your pants cuffs. It's good protection and only takes a few seconds. It wouldn't hurt to give old Fido a roll in it also.

Any female collected in the wild will probably be fertile and already laying eggs. Female silk moths can easily be fertilized. Simply place her in a net cage overnight. Many have the ability to attract males from miles away. Pheromones, the emitted scent of the Cecropia moth, can be detected up to seven miles away. Mating may take place through the net walls of the cage, and great numbers of males sometimes collect. This often happens in the wee hours of the morning.
Eggs become caterpillars. At first, they may be smaller than half an eyebrow hair. When your eggs are ready to hatch, they may be placed directly on the plants in your garden. Here they could fall prey to predators and parasites. For the best results, they should be started in petri dishes. However, petri dishes cost too much, and there are plenty of other items that work just as well. For very young larvae, any airtight plastic deli type of container will do. Place a small piece of leaf or paper bag containing a few eggs in each container. If your eggs are on paper, supply a small portion of a leaf for food. They should be changed daily.

When caterpillars are very small, they may be transferred from one leaf to another by one of two means. With some species, hold a leaf containing the young larvae above the new leaf to be used. Only a few inches of space is necessary. Gently blow across the leaf surface and they will begin to lower themselves down. They will resemble miniature cliff rapellers descending on silken ropes. Allow them to come in contact with the new leaf underneath. Wait a few seconds and, making a circular motion with the old leaf, wind the excess silk web around the newer one. Then snap the thread free, and the transport is complete.Other species are a bit more ornery but can still be moved easily. Place the tip of a #2 sable artist's brush underneath the head of the larva. Rolling the tip in a circular motion away from the larva, slice it underneath the abdomen until the caterpillar is completely on. Transfer it to the new leaf and repeat the procedure, rolling in the opposite direction. Once again, when the larva is free of the brush tip, make a circular motion with the brush around the leaf and snap the silk.

All about Butterfly Farming: The Market for Live, Captive Bred Butterflies

The rearing of butterflies and moths is not a new commercial activity. The Chinese silk industry, based on rearing a moth of the family Saturnidae, has been in existence for thousands of years. The breeding of butterflies for public viewing in butterfly gardens has been a serious commercial activity only since 1977.

Interest in the lepidoptera became a serious vocation for many people in the West during the Victorian era, roughly 1860-1910. At that time members of the English aristocracy, endowed with wealth and leisure derived from the United Kingdom’s flourishing global empire, collected, identified and catalogued lepidoptera from all over the world. At one point Lord Rothschild employed over 400 explorers and colonists the world over collecting butterflies on his behalf. Lord Rothschild's resulting collection of butterflies, accumulated over a lifetime, composed the single largest personal collection of butterflies ever.

Since the lepidopterists' heyday during the Victorian era, butterflies have been the subject of great interest for thousands of biologists and amateur enthusiasts. Butterflies have been discussed in countless research projects ranging from genetics to population dynamics. Butterfly collecting has always been a popular hobby. Some collectors are serious about their pastime, properly identifying and preserving the specimens they have caught themselves. More casual collectors can fall into two groups. There are those that simply capture and mount whatever passes through their neighborhood for their own enjoyment and satisfaction. Others shop from the glossy picture catalogs provided by deadstock dealers. Such casual collectors are often disparagingly likened to stamp collectors, wantonly collecting butterflies to provide an attractive collage or complete a set of a particular family or genus.

Not surprisingly there are hobbyists, particularly in Great Britain, who rear butterflies from around the world in their backyards. They enjoy breeding what for them is a new species of Malaysian Papilio, watching a Morpho emerge from its chrysalis while eating their breakfast cereal, or acquiring a perfect specimen for their collection of mounted butterflies. Through clubs such as The Entomological Livestock Group, these people who number only about 2,500 in the United Kingdom, buy, sell and trade their prized commodities acquired from a handful of part time suppliers from southeast Asia. It was through the informal and low key marketing channels of this small group that allowed for the creation of today’s thriving butterfly exhibit industry.

In 1977 a man living on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel was concerned about the sagging tourist industry. Though Guernsey has always been a popular destination for the British tourists, there was little they could do during inclement weather other than sit in their hotels. At the same time the tomato industry on Guernsey had become bankrupt and consequently acres of idle green houses covered the countryside.

It was this individual’s idea to acquire a vacant greenhouse and fill it with tropical plants to recreate the essence of a tropical jungle. To add interest, color and movement, he thought to import some live butterflies acquired from Asia through a member of the hobbyist’s association previously mentioned. The resulting enclosure, complete with waterfall and meandering brook was publicized as a butterfly exhibition and opened to the public. Needless to say, the project was an enormous gamble. Not only was there no notion of how the public would respond, but there were a lot of technical unknowns. No one had ever shown live tropical butterflies to the public. How should a butterfly exhibit be arranged? Which plants should be acquired and from where? What would the ideal temperature and humidity setting be? Perhaps one of the most serious questions was how one goes about acquiring live butterflies. In 1977 there were no professional butterfly farmers in the tropics. There were only amateur hobbyists who were rearing and selling a few dozen butterflies at a time. The challenge of acquiring a thousand healthy, live tropical butterflies was a daunting one indeed.

To many people’s amazement, and in spite of all the initial problems, this man’s butterfly exhibit was a commercial success. In fact, as other exhibits were established in Guernsey’s wake, the butterfly exhibit concept quickly acquired a favorable reputation in the venture capital circles. They were seen as businesses that could produce a return within a relatively short period of time. From about 1980 until 1988 the live butterfly exhibit industry exploded in the United Kingdom. A dozen or more new butterfly exhibits were established every year. Many were stand-alone butterfly exhibits that had little else to offer the public. Other exhibits were part of wealthy estates while still others might have been an addendum to a separate business like a garden center, an appendage to attract traffic.

Typical of a fast-growing novel industry, the butterfly exhibits attracted a broad range of entrants. In the absence of industry regulation and a self-policing mechanism, the industry was fraught with shoddy exhibits. While some entrepreneurs invested with the aim of maximizing the public’s enjoyment and seeking long-term profits, others developed their exhibits with minimal investment to maximize their short-term gains. One example of the latter approach is the exhibit owner who would pin dead butterflies onto the flowers in the interest of economy. Fortunately, as the industry has evolved and matured over the past 20 years, the fly-by-nights have largely disappeared.

The exhibits in Europe are mostly supplied by butterfly brokers. Whereas in 1980 there was only one full-time professional distributor of live butterflies, a company outside of Birmingham, England called Entomological Livestock Supplies, today there are many in Western Europe. These people import butterfly pupae from around the world and then mix and match the pupae to supply the needs of each of the exhibits they supply. Because butterfly pupae are highly perishable --a typical pupa will last about 10 days before the butterfly emerges-- time is of the essence. The pupae are transported by door to door courier service from the country of origin to the distributor and then repackaged and shipped within hours.

The world’s leading producers of butterfly pupae are Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Kenya, Madagascar, United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

In recent years the butterfly exhibit industry has flourished in North America, fueling the bulk of the industry’s growth. More than a dozen major exhibits are operating today and several more are planned or under construction. North America’s largest butterfly exposition, The Niagara Parks Commission’s (Ontario) Butterfly Garden, is a $15 million dollar facility and was opened in December 1996. During one weekend in January it received 20,000 visitors.

It should not be overlooked that another growing market for live butterflies is for butterfly releases. Increasingly, people of means are purchasing large numbers of butterflies for release at weddings and other special occasions. In Costa Rica, members of the country’s legislature recently took part in a butterfly release as part of a fund raising event for street children. As each legislator released a butterfly, he would call out aloud the name of a child. The butterfly he released represented the life and aspirations of that child. One could perceive the collective hearts of all those present fly up with each passing butterfly.

All about Butterfly Farming: How a Butterfly Farm Works

The daily operation of an established butterfly farm has many components. Principally, the entomological facet of breeding the butterflies, the horticultural duties of propagating the appropriate food plants and flowers, and inevitably the accounting and other paperwork. We will concentrate on the breeding process here. Although there are no lack of variations of methodologies in breeding butterflies, the following is one example of a typical procedure in Costa Rica.

A butterfly farm should be managed in a way that allows it to function symbiotically with the indigenous butterfly populations. An ideal habitat should be created by planting flowers and food plants in abundance on the farm and in the vicinity. With the development of these plants, the farm should become a butterfly sanctuary of sorts by providing food and nectar in abundance.

Female butterflies, caught from the wild or from captive bred stock, are released to fly freely within large enclosed structures that house the required host plants. As each butterfly species requires a specific host plant for its survival, the farmer must anticipate the species that he or she intends to breed by planting the necessary plants well in anticipation. In Costa Rica a typical flight area measures about 25 sq. meters by 3 meters high, though there are no optimal dimensions. A fresh female can typically lay upwards of a hundred eggs. Some species will lay their eggs singly over many days. Others lay gregariously in a few sittings.

The ova must be removed daily from the flight areas and placed in a secure location where predators (ants, spiders, wasps, parasitic wasps, lizards, etc.) cannot get to them. At Costa Rica Entomological Supply, the ova are placed in small, parasite and predator proof plastic boxes.

Searching for hundreds of tiny butterfly eggs in a large enclosure stuffed with foliage is not necessarily the exercise in tedium that it would seem.. The females of all species will lay only on their respective host plant. Furthermore, each species will have a preference as to where the females lay their eggs. While one species will lay on the underside of old and dried leaves, another will lay only on the tendrils of the freshest new growth. With some experience, a person will quickly discover the best places to look and make quick work of collecting the ova.

The collected ovae must be checked daily. The first instar larvae should be removed with care and place on potted food plants which in turn are placed inside cages. During the larvae’s first two weeks, of first three instars, the caterpillars eat very little. After their third instar, the larvae become voracious. It is imperative that the farmer have planted with months of anticipation sufficient food plants to feed the larvae in their latter stages. Because of the increased volume of food plant that each lava consumes, it becomes impractical to feed them on potted plants. Rather, they must be fed on cuttings. Generally, a fistful or two of the food plant will be cut from each cage. The stems will be placed in a jar of water to preserve the foliage’s freshness for twenty four hours. The larvae are then placed on the cutting to feed as they wish.

The cages must be cleaned daily. This entails removing the stems of the devoured food plants from the previous day; removing the excrement from the floor of the cages; inserting new, freshly cut host plant; and returning the larvae on to their plants. The importance of cleanliness and diligence must be cannot be overly stressed. Failing this, even for one day, the larvae are likely to die from and assortment of diseases, viruses or starvation. When rearing just a few or thousands of larvae, cleanliness and attention to details are indisputably a key success factor for any butterfly breeding operation.

Once completed their fifth and final instar, the larvae pupate. They may attach themselves as pupae on the ceiling of the cages or on the food plants. Care must be exercised by the staff while cleaning the cages lest they inadvertently discard pupae. Someone must check the cages and remove the pupae daily. As the pupae are usually of such short duration, only by collecting the pupae daily can a farmer be sure of the age of the pupae. In Costa Rica, a pupa should not be more than three day’s old before it is shipped.

Butterfly farming is by no means an easy endeavor. In the wild, butterflies may expect to enjoy a 2% survival rate between ova and adult. The 98% that perish along the way may be devoured by prey, succumb to virus or diseases or not be able subsist if the climatic conditions (drought, wind, temperatures, etc.) are not right. A successful farmer, by isolating the butterflies from Mother Nature’s biological controls, may with luck raise the survival rate from 2% to as high as 90%.

All about Butterfly Farming: Why Butterfly Farming?

As we enter the twenty-first century the symptoms of contaminated and decaying environments the world over are increasingly prevalent. Such issues as deforestation, fouled air and water, species extinction, soil degradation is impacting our social and political agendas with greater urgency every year. In our incessant quest for food, shelter and the raw materials necessary to maintain our modern economies and lifestyles, our short-term interests have been supported at the expense of the long-term viability of or planet. One of the challenges of our day is to discover and develop industries, economies and even living patterns that minimize the effects of our presence on Earth.

In his book, Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher advances many proposals for meeting these challenges. Among these, he recommends that business enterprises wholly incorporate the use of appropriate technologies. For Schumacher, an appropriate technology is one that is readily understood by the people who are using it, is environmentally non-destructive, incorporates locally available raw materials, is economically and environmentally sustainable, and is not dehumanizing or degrading to the people who use it.

Butterfly farming contributes to other favorable factors. These would include the generation of rural employment, thereby supporting the rural economy and stemming rural to urban migratory patterns. If placed near a forest, such as a national park, the local human population would not only benefit economically from the park’s existence, but would have a stake in the park’s integrity and survival. Butterflies certainly represent a non-traditional product for export, thereby having a favorable affect on the dependence of many countries on the capricious market for a few staple commodities such as coffee, sugar or bananas. Butterflies generate foreign exchange income for hard currency starved economies. Also in favor of butterfly farming is that it is aesthetically beautiful. Not only is the operation non-obtrusive, but it can contribute intellectual stimulation and aesthetic value to the communities its undertaken. In so far as the final product is concerned, one may argue that a country has few finer representatives abroad than its butterflies.

Aside from a motor cycle and perhaps an electric pump for irrigation, there are virtually no expensive or technologically sophisticated capital requirements. The technological simplicity of butterfly farming, therefore, minimizes the strain on a dollar starved economy to establish a butterfly breeding program. This fact furthermore eliminates the dependence of the butterfly farmer on the availability of scarce imported materials and the technical expertise to maintain sophisticated equipment.

Though many people are unfamiliar with the life cycle of a butterfly, the concept can be readily understood with a modicum of explanation. The metamorphosis of a larva into a pupa and hence into an adult butterfly need be demonstrated but once for most people to grasp.

Having described some of the virtues of commercial butterfly farming, it is necessary to stress that butterflies are not a basic foodstuff that enjoy an insatiable market. Although an activity such as butterfly farming is generally thought to be ideal for development purposes --and touted as such in the publications of many environmental organizations-- it cannot be thought of as a cure-all for butterfly-rich, cash-poor communities. With the exception perhaps of some regions of Africa, the supply of captive bred butterflies in recent years has come to far exceed the markets ability to absorb them. Consequently, and inevitably, prices are declining.

All about Butterfly Farming: Introduction

I have a series of entries that I'd like to share with all of you that gives you a decent background on Butterfly Farming, waht it is, and what it can be.

I hope you find it is interesting and thought provoking as I do...

Welcome!

This site is dedicated to Butterfly Farming and interesting topics connected with it.

I have compiled a large amount of data and will start posting it out here. You will also be able to access all of the data from my website which I will place on here very soon. Please keep coming back and checking out the new information as I post it out here.

Have a Flutterby day!

P.S. I almost forgot to mention... You can start your own Butterfly Farming Business from the information you can find here. I hope you find it helpful... There is a lot of money to be made from farming Butterflies!!!