Before the freezing temperatures occurred (around Christmas), we brought 15 Monarch Chrysalises indoors. All but 3 of those Chrysalises were hatched and released.
Because of the extreme cold, I didn’t feel it was warm enough to release the last 3 hatchlings. The cold weather allowed us to master the art of hand feeding Butterflies. The technique is as follows:
- One small lid
- Cottonballs
- Grape Juicy-Juice
- Toothpick
What we did to keep the Butterflies alive was to soak the cottonballs in the Juicy-Juice and place them on a small lid. I would gently hold the Butterfly while Leecy would use the toothpick to extend their proboscis. Once the proboscis was extended into the Juicy-Juice, the Butterflies would naturally start sucking up the nectar. This method enabled us to keep these Butterflies alive for over a week indoors.
Back to the title of this post.
One particular Butterfly was very anxious to be released as he was constantly flying around his enclosure (the enclosure was indoors and positioned towards the sun). In his over-excitement, he tore one of his wings and could no longer fly. There was no way I was not going to make some attempt at helping this Butterfly since he had endured so much already.
What I did was grab some super glue and baby powder. While I held the Butterfly, Leecy applied the super glue to the torn wing with a toothpick. After she smeared a small amount of super glue to the torn wing, she dabbled on a little baby powder so that it wouldn’t stick to the opposite wing.
Surprisingly, this “Butterfly Wing Repair” actually worked and the Butterfly was able to fly with no problems!
While I still didn’t think it was warm enough to release the last remaining Butterflies, I decided to let them make the decision. I brought them outdoors to get as warm as possible (the temperature was around the upper 40′s). I also gave them some additional Juicy-Juice (they knew how to use it by now). After about 10 minutes in the sun, the Butterfly with the torn wing flew high in the sky! He didn’t just fly a short distance, he flew for as long as I could see him.
Fortunately, I did decide to dust off the camera (I haven’t been taking many pictures lately) and take a few photos of the repaired wing. Looking down at the Butterfly, it’s the left wing that was repaired.
Monarch Butterfly With Repaired Wing
by texdr
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