# help Building an indoor butterfly habitat



## jurbanek (Sep 11, 2011)

Hi,
This is my first post. 
My son wants to turn a large portion of his room into a butterfly habitat. It would include any plants needed for eating and anything else the butterflies would need. Can anyone help me? We will read up on all of the care needed but any expertise would really be appreciated. Is 3Lx2wx7h be big enough?

thanks so much
Jenn


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## Widowman10 (Sep 12, 2011)

i've wanted to do this before also!! sorry i can't help with any logistics, but i just have to say, you sound like the coolest mom ever.


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## J Morningstar (Sep 12, 2011)

There is a butterfly house where I live, I think the harder thing would be the nessasarry humidity getting to everything in their room, unless the child is an amphibian. If you mean an entierly closed unit that would be different. But I would be happy to give you a link, perhaps you could talk to one of the entimologists there.   

http://www.museumofplay.org/see-do/gardens/dancing-wings


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## ZephAmp (Sep 12, 2011)

You may want to scrap the butterfly idea and go with moths from the family Saturniidae. Sumac, a food plant of the lovely luna moth, is easy to transplant and may grow fast enough to provide food for caterpillars all year long. Plus, the adults don't feed, so you won't have to deal with growing flowers, providing nectar, etc.


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## fantasticp (Sep 15, 2011)

jurbanek said:


> Hi,
> This is my first post.
> My son wants to turn a large portion of his room into a butterfly habitat. It would include any plants needed for eating and anything else the butterflies would need. Can anyone help me? We will read up on all of the care needed but any expertise would really be appreciated. Is 3Lx2wx7h be big enough?
> 
> ...


You don't need flowers for nectar if you hand feed the butterflies. Just buy some hummingbird food, and grip each butterfly (while folded up) at the base of the wing and unroll the mouth-straw into the liquid. They will sit and drink until full. They will not drink out of a cup on their own though. The cage is plenty big, just pick the butterfly species carefully, and I would pick a dark color for the mesh so they can see it better and won't tear up their wings as fast. Good luck. 

J Mornigstar, Humidity for what? The eggs? I have never had a problem as long as I was using real plants and not artificial diet for the cats...

Edit: I would make the cage a bit longer. A Tall narrow flight cage like that would be better for a sphinx moth or something. A small butterfly might be ok but a larger one is going to tear up its wings too fast. Or you could just keep the room cooler so they don't fly as much.


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## Kruggar (Sep 15, 2011)

Would a migratory north american species be wise to keep? I mean the adults have this insane urge to fly miles and miles. Just curious..


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## Kirsten (Sep 15, 2011)

That sounds like a neat idea  I do like the idea of the luna moth instead, and maybe I'll look into that. The closest I've come to a butterfly habitat of our own is when the wee one and I did the 'hatch butterflies' kit for which you send away for the pupa. Good luck with it, and keep us posted on your project!


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## Pssh (Sep 16, 2011)

Painted lady butterflies are very easy to rear, breed, and keep. They will eat on their own, lay eggs even without a host plant, and the larvae can and will eat a chow if needed. Cabbage white butterflies are also very easy. They also feed readily, and lay readily but there are no chows that I know of that they will eat. Buckeye butterflies are also a good choice. The larger butterflies will not always feed unless they have a large amount of room so you might have to hand feed those. 

Saturniid moths are also great, but they will overwinter if you dont control the environment to make it like summer. The butterflies I listed are easier to keep breeding over winter.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Sep 20, 2011)

Cabbage white caterpillars think that an organic cabbage is acceptable chow.
Since live cabbages need bright light you should make sure that you can provide enough
light to cast a sharply defined shadow before you decide to try those.

If you prefer other butterflies that remain active all winter their babies may need extra plants...or reconstituted leaves as plant growth slows down.

If you decide to hibernate either adults or eggs it would be wise to bone up on how to do this while it is still early autumn. 

Please let us know what happens next.


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## bugmankeith (Sep 22, 2011)

What about all the butterfly waste?


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Sep 27, 2011)

Small amounts of frass may be steeped in water to feed indoor plants.
They may also be sprinkled outdoors around plants that could use the extra nutrition.

The leaf fragments that most caterpillars leave are highly suitable for composting.
Since the growing leaves that most caterpillars prefer are far more rich in nitrogen than fallen autumn leaves are they may be dried,saved,and intermixed with such high-carbon (and low nitrogen) materials as sawdust and wood chips in order to obtain a more balanced composting formula than plain sawdust can provide for you.


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## fantasticp (Oct 1, 2011)

bugmankeith said:


> What about all the butterfly waste?


The actual butterflies pretty much just crap one big one when they emerge, and not again (depending on the individual species' lifespan) if the question was about "bird droppings" vs caterpillar frass


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Oct 4, 2011)

Most "butterfly waste" comes from caterpillars.
They eat a lot of leaves whose high cellulose content generates a lot of waste.

Adult butterflies eat a lot less to begin with,and their liquid comestibles leave little waste.

That is why most "butterfly waste" does not come from butterflies.


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