As a gardener, have you ever considered butterfly pets?
Technically speaking, butterflies are not traditional pets in the sense that you can hold them, walk them, or frolic with them in the park.
Butterflies should optimally be kept in large glass or plastic aquariums with ample ventilation or in backyard greenhouses if possible, which makes them a perfect addition to any garden.
You can catch a caterpillar in your local park, or search for butterfly eggs stuck to plant leaves, put them into an aquarium tank, and watch it slowly transform into a butterfly over weeks or months.
One vital thing to remember is that you should strive to release any butterflies you own back into the environment when they become adult butterflies. Adult butterflies live to roam, pollinate, search for mates, and propagate their own species.
Make sure that the butterflies you collect locally are native as well.
Indeed, instead of calling them butterfly pets, you could consider yourself more of a butterfly shepherd, protecting them and then releasing them to be a beneficial aspect of your flourishing landscape.
How To Start Taking Care of Butterfly Pets
While taking care of butterfly pets is relatively easier than taking care of cats and dogs, it is still a responsibility that you must take seriously. There is a lot of preparation and maintenance work involved in caring for butterfly pets.
For example, you should never try to touch or pet your butterfly pets.
Butterfly pets are extremely fragile and you will probably end up stressing it or damaging its fragile physiology.
The most important thing to remember is that you’re there to support their natural growth, metamorphosis, and life cycle.
The first thing you need to do before procuring butterfly pets is to find out if it is legal or not for you in your state.
How To Take Care of a Butterfly
Once the butterfly emerges from its pupa or chrysalis stage, its wings will be weak and damp. It would adapt better to these conditions in the outdoors and adjust accordingly, but since you’re collecting butterflies in a habitat, you should help the situation.
You may want to consider carefully transplanting your butterfly cocoons to a larger tank habitat or a larger screen mesh metal cage or enclosure so that your butterfly pets will have room to fly and flutter about unencumbered. Adult butterflies like to fly about and crawl on things.
Butterflies won’t be able to crawl on the glass or plastic walls of an aquarium tank. If you do keep adult butterfly pets in a large glass or plastic tank make sure that you have small plants with branches inside to mimic the aesthetics of nature.
What To Feed Butterflies
Butterflies can have up to six feet and they taste flavors with their feet.17 They usually eat from a straw-like mouth called a proboscis from which they slurp up food, but they taste flavors from their feet.
You could set a cotton swab or sponge fragment soaked in a solution of sugar water or honey-tinged water into the habitat for your butterfly pets. You can also place the flowers of plants that contain a lot of nectar in the enclosure as well.
Make sure to replace this food daily.
What Do Butterflies Eat?
One of the most uneasy facts about owning butterflies as pets is learning that the majestically beautiful butterfly is capable of eating some truly disgusting things, not just sugar water and the nectar from flowers.
Butterflies have no problem eating rotting fruit matter, raw tree sap which can contain harmful bacteria, and animal dung.4
(Image: Игорь Левченко (Stergo)19)
Additionally, butterflies also eat urine, blood, decaying animal flesh, the nutrients from mud water, tears, blood, sweat, and fecal matter.15
No one is saying that you have to feed your butterflies any of these things, but if any of your butterfly pets ever lands on your arm or hand, it could be using its feet to taste the trace remnants of bodily fluids on your person, like sweat or tears, more than be being friendly.
Can You Keep a Butterfly as a Pet?
Butterfly pets are a real thing and are a great way to ease into traditional pet ownership slowly, learn about the importance of butterflies, their life cycle, and their role in the global ecosystem, and help sustain their populations in nature.
Keeping butterfly pets is also a much cheaper hobby to maintain than caring for a traditional pet.
You should also keep in mind that unlike owning a cat or dog or even a goldfish, it might be illegal for you to catch butterflies in the wild and raise them in captivity. Some butterfly species are listed as endangered species and have rapidly diminishing or fluctuating population numbers.
Depending on which state you reside in, like California where the Monarch butterfly is an endangered species, you need to apply for a permit to raise a butterfly in captivity.1 Believe it or not, raising butterfly pets in captivity is actually a controversial topic amongst endangered species conservationist experts.2
Some experts believe that keeping butterfly pets impedes the butterfly’s ability to adapt to nature once they are released.2 Additionally, the practice has the potential to be harmful in areas where certain butterflies are endangered.
The most important aspect is to ensure that the habitat you create is reflective of their natural ecosystem, that way when the adults are released, they can do the job nature intended.
To start with, here is what you need to know about butterflies, their basic physiology, and their behaviors to help you become better equipped to handle them as butterfly pets. You probably have all the tools you need to keep butterfly pets at home right now, but you also need to know a little bit about them before you start.
Butterfly Pets (Butterflies 101)
The butterfly is a winged insect that lives out a life span of several weeks or over a year.3 Most species of butterfly can completely live out their lifespans over several weeks or a month or two, but some species of butterfly can live for up to 18 months.4
Butterflies are winged insects whose aesthetics are synonymous with the cyclical nature of the seasons and the fragility of ecosystems. The butterfly is aesthetically noticeable because of its abstract and vibrantly colored wings and haphazard-looking fluttering flightpaths.
There are over 18,500 butterfly species located on every land mass in the world except for Antarctica.3 The butterfly comes from the scientific order Lepidoptera which it shares with moths.5
The butterfly as it exists today probably evolved from ancient moth species over 200 million years ago.3 Butterflies live out their life cycles in the forms of eggs, larvae, pupa, and finally butterflies.
Butterflies lay eggs that are covered in a sticky substance that adheres to the leaves of plants. Butterfly eggs are tiny and kind of resemble vibrantly colored oval or round-shaped caviar clinging to leaves in nature.
Butterflies lay their eggs on plant leaves so that the young caterpillars will have something to eat after emerging. Caterpillars emerge from the egg and eat constantly and voraciously.
During the pupa or chrysalis stage, the caterpillar will hang from a leaf or branch and form a silk cocoon or translucent skin to slowly begin the transformation process into a butterfly. Caterpillars can become either butterflies or moths after finalizing their pupa or chrysalis stage.
Butter Physiology
Butterfly physiology mainly comprises the head, antennae, thorax or body, stomach, and wings. Have you ever wondered how many legs do butterflies have?
Most butterflies have up to six legs and they taste food with their feet but they eat with a straw-like mouth called a proboscis. Butterflies are natural wanderers of their local ecosystems.
Butterflies are social creatures that enjoy looking for and flamboyantly and publicly courting mates. Most female butterflies are calculating and reserved and patiently look for desirable mates in nature.
The butterflies that you see fluttering and flying about in nature the most are probably male butterflies. The colors on butterfly wings are actually the abstract convergences of scales creating such colors and designs.
Some longer-living butterfly species, like the endangered Monarch butterfly, are well known for living up to a year and migrating hundreds or thousands of miles to mate, lay eggs, and just wander in new environs.6 Caterpillars, eggs, and butterflies operate by day and sleep at night.
They also prefer warmer climates and do not hibernate but enter a stasis of sleep called dormancy during winter months. Some butterfly species also prefer specific plant species, known as host plants, for sustenance and for planting their eggs before hatching.
It is important to understand these cursory basics about butterflies, their physiology, and their behaviors so that you can efficiently collect and care for butterfly pets.
Can You Legally Own Butterfly Pets?
Some butterfly species are considered endangered or environmental pests according to municipal and state governments. For example, while the state of California and some state parks consider the Monarch butterfly an endangered species, it is not considered dangerous on the federal level.18
You are technically supposed to get a permit if you want to capture a monarch butterfly in the state of California. Even then, you would really have to go out of your way running around with a white net in a state park or designated conservation areas trying to collect endangered butterflies to get in trouble.
Even though the monarch butterfly is listed as endangered, some experts actually recommend conflicting information about keeping monarch butterflies for educational value and to appreciate nature more.7 While some experts believe that harboring butterfly pets inhibits their ability to operate in nature organically, others believe that they will adjust after being released back into the wild.7
(Image: Suzanne D. Williams20)
It is illegal to try to buy and transport live butterfly or moth specimens across state lines according to federal guidelines.8 The United States government does not want people or businesses transplanting massive populations of animals and insects from one locale to another to prevent pest invasions, population disturbances, disease, and so on.
Still, these designations are rarely enforced legally unless you step on state-protected areas. As of 2021, the IUCN Red List listed the monarch butterfly as being in the “least concern” status relative to its endangerment status.9
The IUCN is based in Sweden, so its designations are for public awareness purposes and are not legally enforceable. While the American government does consider the monarch butterfly as a potentially endangered species, the government is prioritizing the protection of other species, so it is not listed on any federal endangered species list as of this publication.10
Visit your local government or state websites to determine the legality of owning butterfly pets. However, due to nebulous and often legally unenforced conservation laws, it should not be a problem in most circumstances.
Acquire Your Butterfly Pets
Butterflies frolic in nature and lay their eggs on plants in the spring, summer, and fall months. You should be able to find butterflies, butterfly caterpillars, and butterfly eggs clinging to plants in your garden, local public parks, shrubs, trees, long grass blades, flower beds, and nettles.
You could try to trap butterflies in soft nets or grab them, but you could end up damaging them unintentionally since they are quite fragile. Remember, butterflies have a four-point life span where they emerge from eggs as caterpillars, cocoon themselves as dormant pupae, and then transform into butterflies.
Even if you safely caught a butterfly, it would only live for a few days or weeks in most circumstances. You might find the experience of owning butterfly pets more enjoyable and educational by finding local butterfly activities and then looking for butterfly eggs clinging to plant leaves or butterfly caterpillars before they cocoon themselves.
These are monarch butterfly eggs sticking to the top side of a milkweed plant. Notice how small the butterfly eggs are next to the finger.
If you didn’t know to look for it or follow local butterfly activity butterfly eggs would be easy to miss in nature. Monarch butterfly caterpillars have a slug-like appearance and are known to crawl on the host plants they like to eat and leave eggs on; in this case, it’s the milkweed plant.
Look for caterpillars crawling on or around fauna wherever you see butterfly activity. You can then observe their transformation in captivity over the next few weeks or months.
While some American states have more native butterfly species relative to others, about seven distinct species of butterflies can be found in all 50 states.11 These include the Monarch, Morning Cloak, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Spring Azure, Variegated Fritillary, and White Admiral butterfly species.
Here is a little more information on the monarch, painted lady, and spring azure butterfly species which would make great pets.
1. Monarch Butterfly
The monarch butterfly is typically the aesthetics we imagine when we think of the word “butterfly.”12 Its wings are usually orange or a dark-hued yellow with black-colored vein accents.
The species is endangered or dwindling in population depending on who you ask and is famous for migrating thousands of miles annually.
(Image: Kaarina Dillabough21)
They are known to be active and frequently mate during the colder winter months when most other butterfly species are dormant. If you don’t happen upon a monarch butterfly, you might spot this one.
The easiest way to attract butterflies is to have a well-tended backyard garden that attracts them. Once you have butterflies, butterfly caterpillars, and butterfly eggs in your garden, acquiring butterfly pets becomes an easier task to accomplish.
Habitat Requirements
As previously mentioned, butterflies are intelligent insects that like to mate and court publicly and flamboyantly. Butterflies are natural wanderers and some species will flutter and fly about for hundreds or thousands of miles before mating and laying eggs.
Butterflies also enjoy warm weather, sunny skies, and being surrounded by plants and nature. In the same way that it damages the health of dogs and cats to keep them as shut-ins in tiny apartments or homes without taking them for walks, you must consider the potential cruelty of constricting the movements of butterfly pets in inappropriate containers or habitats.
If possible, try converting a room in your home with a lot of plants and sunlight access into a suitable habitat. The next best substitute is to use a backyard greenhouse as a habitat.
While not as efficient as bees or birds, butterflies are also excellent pollinators. At the very least, you should have a large aquarium tank that you can repurpose as a habitat.
Make sure that the tank has access to sunlight, and shade, and has a wire mesh screen as a roof to allow plenty of ventilation and fresh air. It may be a better idea to use a converted large animal cage or a large, rectangular enclosure made from wire screen mesh to allow for plentiful ventilation.
The habitat length should be three or four times the length of the caterpillar or butterfly. The smaller the habitat, the more difficult your job of maintaining your butterfly pets will become.
You should line the bottom of the habitat with soil, gravel, coconut coir, sand, or paper towels to imitate the natural environment for your butterflies to explore. Caterpillars and butterflies like moisture and eat a lot, so you should clean the habitat for your butterfly pets daily to prevent waste buildup or the proliferation of disease and pathogens.
The habitat should be relatively warm in temperature and you should mist it gently from time to time so that the environs do not dry out. It is a good idea to keep your butterfly pets near a window or in a greenhouse so they can acclimatize to night and daytime hours.
You should also feed your caterpillar and butterfly pets moistened plant leaves daily. Remove and replace uneaten leaves with new and moistened fresh leaves daily.
This is especially true of butterfly caterpillars since they eat voraciously every day in the weeks and months before they cocoon themselves. You may want to study the butterfly species native to your area and learn what plants they like to eat.
You should also include small plants with branches in the aesthetics of the habitat environment. Butterfly caterpillars like to crawl and explore: they also like to hang upside down from sturdy leaves and branches when they enter the pupae/chrysalis stage of their life span.
Why Are Butterflies Beneficial to Nature and the Ecology?
Butterflies are pollinators and organic health barometers of the natural world; the fewer butterflies you see, the more out of balance nature has become.
Some butterflies eat pests while butterflies themselves are important food sources for other creatures in the food chain of nature.
Some butterfly species live mutual symbiotic existences with other insects, like ants.
How To Take Care of a Caterpillar
Unless you harvest butterfly eggs attached to a plant leaf your best option may be to harvest butterfly caterpillars crawling on plant leaves to start your butterfly collection. Butterfly caterpillars like to eat a lot of moist leaves and poop a lot.
As previously mentioned, you should study which species of butterfly are native to your local area and which host plant species they prefer to plant their eggs on. Monarch butterflies, for example, prefer milkweed plants and stick their eggs on the leaves of milkweed so that the caterpillars that emerge are born eating it.
Caterpillar Food Preferences
Butterfly caterpillars like to munch on fresh, well-moistened plant leaf fragments. Just make sure to replace any uneaten plant leaf fragments daily.
While you should endeavor to feed your butterfly caterpillar the host food that its species prefers, you can also feed them moistened leaves from plants like dill, bee balm, fennel, lavender, lilac, mint, parsley, milkweed, zinnia, sage, and privet.
Do Caterpillars Need Water?
As long as you feed your butterfly caterpillars water-moistened leaves daily and mist their habitats as needed then you don’t need to feed it extra water. Your butterfly caterpillars will get all the water they need from the water-moistened leaves you feed them daily.
How To Care for a Butterfly Cocoon
Most butterflies secrete a thin layer of skin that encapsulates them in a transparent cocoon before they enter the pupa stage. Although some butterfly species do wrap themselves in a silk cocoon during the pupa stage, most encapsulate themselves in a silk-less cocoon.
Depending on the species, it could take weeks or even months before your butterfly caterpillar will cocoon itself and start the pupae process. If you ever notice your butterfly caterpillar maneuver itself on a branch or sturdy leaf edge upside down, then it will soon commence its pupa stage.
A monarch caterpillar begins the pupa process by hanging from a plant branch. Depending on the species of butterfly, a butterfly cocoon could remain in a dormant state for weeks or even months.
The cocoons of your butterflies will start to turn very translucent the closer they are ready to emerge. Study the species of your butterfly pets to gauge the proper humidity levels required to keep the cocoons viable.
Routinely mist the habitat to ensure that the cocoon stays hydrated and humidity levels stay acceptable. A good sign that the cocoon is too dry is if the cocoon shell stays opaque for too long.
Owning a pet is a laborious task that requires constant maintenance and can cost thousands of dollars over a decade.
Owning butterfly pets is a much cheaper alternative and can be a beneficial addition to any garden .
Frequently Asked Questions About Butterfly Pets
Are Butterflies Toxic?
Butterflies eat toxic plants so that their bodies will be poisonous or taste awful to predators as a natural defense mechanism. If you have ever seen a dog spit out a butterfly it’s eaten, this is the reason why.
Are Butterflies Dangerous to Humans?
Butterflies are not dangerous to humans in any way, although there is one variant species you should always avoid if you ever visit Brazil. The caterpillar form of the giant silkworm moth has detachable spiny hairs full of venom that cause excessive and uncontrollable bleeding and has killed several people in Brazil.16
What Other Forms of Self Defense Do Butterflies Employ?
The swallowtail butterfly, like many other species of butterfly, is known for mimicking the aesthetic wing colors and patterns of other butterflies to evade predators. This species can subtly or radically alter its aesthetics and colors to protect itself from danger.
How Many Eggs Can a Butterfly Lay?
A female butterfly can lay a few, dozens, or hundreds of eggs to ensure that viable offspring emerge and survive predation attempts. Butterflies lay eggs to increase the odds for the continued existence of their species and not for just their own sake.
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References
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