Strange Week - young butterfliers everywhere!

Long story but a positive thing for the butterfly community.

This has been the most strangest of weeks for me!!! I get home one day from work and a neighbor's 4th grader in my front yard looking over my plants and he's carrying one of those mesh cat houses. Interesting!

The boy runs back to his father when he sees me driving up into my garage. I stop to get my mail from the community mail box and walk over. The dad is standing in his driveway and holding a small cup that comes from one of those American Lady caterpillar kits.

Hmmm...what have we here? Aha! A new convert!!! Woohoo!!! I can't remember the dad's name...but we always wave hello when we see each other - they live four houses away. Anyway, dad tells me his son got interested in caterpillars as his school had a project where they raised and released American Lady butterflies.

Ah, they're after my own heart! Of course I'm thrilled to come across these new converts!!! The dad tells me he's noticed all the plants and vines around my house and the butterflies over the years. (The neighborhood mailbox is in the corner of my front yard so everyone gets to look at my yard!)

I tell him I raise and release butterflies and moths and the son is at my side like a rapt puppy :o) He was wary at first thinking I was going to scold him for being in my yard...but now he's telling me how he raised six butterflies and found a caterpillar and put it in the Painted Lady cup and that now it has formed a cocoon...which he proudly shows me :o)

I stand there listening with mail in hand and realized one of my packages looks very much like a butterfly book I'd recently ordered. I open up the package and it is...so I had it to the child - who quickly sits on the driveway and starts looking at the pictures. The dad says I'm now his son's "bestest" new friend...ROLF!!!

I tell the dad I haven't seen any caterpillars lately but will collect them and let his son raise them...and they are both welcomed to look around my yard for caterpillars...but to make sure they take cuttings of whatever plant they find them on and to tell me about it as soon as possible or leave a note on my porch so I can make sure they have the correct larval host.

I found three Gulf Frit cats in my back yard this morning and have set up a nice cat cage with a jar lid set up with wet floral foam to keep the cuttings fresh etc. Will walk them over when I get home from work.

I also got a great deal on the recent Kaufman Focus Guide book off of ebay and ordered several copies. Will give one to the boy when they arrive.

...then at work two days ago one of the women comes up and hands me a note as I'm researching some anti-dumping violations with another department. The note says come see her before I leave. Rut roh!? I rarely deal with the department she's in but I am curious. I go over and she said she heard my voice and remembered someone mentioned I raise butterflies - okay.... turns out her daughter's school also had classroom project where they raised and released American Lady butterflies and now her daughter wanted her to buy three (!?!) of those meshed cat cages - and that they cost $29 or $39 each...can't remember. I give her my website and tell her to make her own out of rubbermaid containers and to check the local grocery store for similar pop-up hampers that will do the same job.

Then yesterday, one of the guys on my team tells me his daughter found a smushed butterfly on the grill of his car and she was mad at him. So now he wants to show her how they can raise and release butterflies!!!

FREAKY!!!

I passed along my website and the sites to our local NABA chapter as well as other related sites to all of these folks. Am still reeling from having all these folks come to me the same week. Am glad to have new folks interested in conservation!!!

I have my work cut out for me in the coming days. Will be showing all of them how to make their own cat cages, how to upkeep them, research larval host plants and pretty much monitor the whole life cycle of whatever butterflies they plan to raise.

WOOHOO!!!

~ Cat

...and this is the species that seems to bring them all around!

How wonderful! I have gotten into thinking more about BG since I found this site

Good for you Cat. Sounds like you have your hands full with the butterflies and new enthusiasts. A wonderful thing to get more people involved. I have people up here at work that are always making cracks about my butterfly raising. So the other day a rep came in and brought it up and I got a little defensive, not really, and he said seriously he was wanting some information because he thought it would be a neat thing for his kids to do. So I told him all I knew about it as I am still pretty much a novice but have some experience. When I was finished I had an audience of about 6 people listening in and seeming very interested. I think it is a great way for kids to learn and fun too.

Oh and why they pick on me too is that I always yell at a guy in my office that it does me no good raising butterflies when they just end up on the grill of his truck. He thought that was pretty funny and now tells me he cleans his grill before he comes to work. I know he cannot help it but is just something I hate to see happen.

Leslie

I'm going to mention this over in the daily thread too, but today I brought my Orange-Barred Sulphur chrysalis to work because I could see it was going to eclose. After it came out, I went to show it to another lady who is very into butterfly gardening. Of course, dangling a butterfly off your finger will always get you attention. So then one of my employees and our Buyer mention how next Thursday is "Bring Your Child to Work Day" and could I bring my caterpillars and give the kids a talk? I'm so excited and so glad people are interested in this. I'm also going to talk about why native plants are important and how they help save water. Yaaaay for all of us!

Melanie

Am so glad everyone can relate to this topic.

Hey LostInTexas - I'm the only female in our office and used to hear all those remarks last year like 'Hey Cat, I saw a butterfly on the way to work...if you want to see it, it's on the grill of my truck!" too.

Then one day a couple of years ago I had several Queens that were about to eclose so I took my cat cage to work - needless to say I had several men hovering over it like mother hens. When the butterflies started to emerge they forgot about doing work!!! Even the dispatchers coming in to our office were fascinated. Allowing them to put their hand into the cat cage so a butterfly could crawl onto it just about brought them to their knees! It's amazing how big tough and gruff men turn into a kittens when they experience that.

Like Mellie said...having a butterfly perched on your finger gets you all the attention! Allowing the men to come that close to butterflies (which are viewed as elusive) was the turning point for them. I know walking outside to release the butterflies perched on their fingers and being surrounded by other men eagerly watching the event is something they will all remember. (it was also a nice change of pace to have them receive the brunt of the wisecracks after that!)

My department has new team members this fiscal year so I'm back to the jokes...but they are learning. Will eventually take butterflies ready to eclose to work and let this new batch of men watch and experience that too.

~ Cat

ps. Glad you found our sight Pdoyle!

Mellie --- Great idea...let's start a national trend. Bring your caterpillars to work!!!

That is how it works isn't it? That is such a great story because now they know about the butterflies where as before they never noticed them.

I get the kids here in the neighborhood that way-when they come in they want to know what I have in all those cages! So after I show them and show them what they will look like after they are done with a book I have you have a convert!

The parents ask me about it and then what type of plants they should buy to get there own butterflies, I love it!

The way I look at it is at least they see them now...they know what a wonder they are~

Aggie

ps...ya'll should keep a watch out on ebay or amazon - I've been able to purchase the latest edition of the Kaufman Focus Guide to Butterflies of North America for anywhere from $1.00 to $2.95 plus combined shipping. I recently purchased several more. They make great gifts for those budding butterfliers!!!

~ Cat