Welcome to the first issue of 'Butterfly Farming and Breeding' in 2008.

This newsletter focuses on raising butterflies primarily as a butterfly breeder/farmer, a teacher, for fun, or other reasons. We won't discuss butterfly gardening as that topic is covered in our primary newsletter Butterflies! Most of the discussion in the newsletter will be focused on indoor rearing of butterflies in large numbers.

Please feel free to suggest topics for future issues. We will discuss release methods, rearing containers, rearing methods, pupae handling, adult handling, parasitoids, parasites, disease, and more.

If you are subscribed to this newsletter and would like to unsubscribe from it yet still receive Butterflies! please contact us or un-subscribe and re-subscribe to the newsletters you prefer out of those that we offer.

We are sharing what we have personally learned in the past eight years of farming as well as what other farmers, pathologists, and entomologists have shared with us. Your experience may be slightly different or greatly different. No two farmers/breeders do the exact same things all along the line. But if you're new to farming, please don't lock yourself into following any one person or farm without regard to your personal experiences and climate. Experiment first on a small scale and find out what works best for you.

Teachers, please share your experiences if you would like to do so. We will start a newsletter for teachers soon; focusing on classroom rearing. If you have links or photographs of your classroom set up or other related photos or links, please share them. If you would like the information to be shared throught the new teachers newsletter, please let us know.

New farmers/breeders are dismayed when they accidentally kill pupae when removing them from the rearing container or sleeve. It's a normal mis-happenstance. We all learn the hard way - by losing a few.

A few tips and a bit of practice makes removing them easy and safe.

How do butterfly farmers recommend removing pupae?

• Gently loosen the silk with fingernails, dental picks, or other tools
• Gently cut the silk with a razor blade or knife
• Water; dampen the silk and gently pull it loose
• Tweezers; gently pull or cut- the silk pad with tweezers
• If the pupa has a silk girdle, cut the girdle first or loosen the silk; the girdle can tear into the pupa and kill it

Experience teaches:

• Gentle; never handle a pupa roughly
• Wait; let a pupa dry for 24 hours before trying to remove it
• Tools; when/if using a tool, use it slowly and carefully
• Water; if using water to loosen a pupa, allow a few seconds for the water to loosen the silk
• If unusual resistance is experienced, stop and double-check for the reason for that resistance

One tip we always include in Shady Oak's seminars is to expect to lose a few pupae as you learn. Don't let the loss of a few stop you or cause you to lose sleep. Remember that only 2% of eggs in the wild live to be an adult. If you lose a few while learning, you're still far ahead of nature's ratio of pupae survival. After the short learning process of experience, you'll rarely lose a pupa due to a mishap while removing pupae. If you continue to lose pupae for over a week, slow down and re-evaluate how you are removing pupae. Ask questions! We're always glad to help in any way we can.

Mass Release Boxes are wonderful; but butterflies do not all fly at once when mass release boxes are opened. This delay is fantastic for the times when brides wish to have photos taken of the release. If the bride supplies disposable cameras for her guests, they can snap photos during the release. When the box is opened, a few will fly. Most tend to linger. The bride (or butterfly person) gently slips his/her finger under the feet of each butterfly, lifting them into the air to fly. It's photo time!

But some brides wish for the effect of all her butterflies flying at one time. Thanks to a butterfly farmer in Hawaii, an accordion box was created! Marc and Colleen Panton took the idea and went a step further to create the beautiful box pictured above. This box holds 50 butterflies safely and securely, all 50 flying vigorously when they are released.

If you wish to make your own box, choose a nice box, cut wrapping tissue paper a hair wider than the box, fold it accordion style, again a hair wider than the box. If there is a gap between the tissue and the box, butterflies will wriggle their way into the gap; not a great idea! Layer one to four butterflies per layer of tissue. Simply cool then before packing them into the box; this calms them long enough to move them while they are a bit dormant. The easiest way to transfer them is to make the transfer in a dark cool room.

The box pictured above is available wholesale and retail. But if you prefer to make your own box, do so! It's a great release whether you buy Marc and Colleen's boxes or make your own.

If you have any questions about this box or making your own accordion release box, please email us. We'll be glad to answer your questions.

Disease is a fact of life, no matter whether you are plant or animal. Butterflies are no exception.

Many who raise butterflies are determined and set in their mind that they will NEVER have disease problems with their larvae. It would be nice but nature is dead set against that mind-set.

Mankind has spent trillions of dollars on human disease study, prevention, healing, and control. But disease is still rampant in mankind. How can we expect disease to be eliminated in butterflies if we can't eliminate it in mankind after putting so much work and funds into studies?

But we can do much to prevent, control, and eliminate disease. The photo above is of a moth larvae in a patch of their host plants in the wild; hairy indigo. Dozens of dead caterpillars were present, clearly dead from disease, running wild in nature.

Lepidopterian disease is 'manufactured' into 'worm control' for farmers, gardeners, and forestry divisions.

When we first ran into disease problems, we visited Dr. Dryon Boucias (insect pathologist) at the University of Florida. He laughed and asked, "You want me to tell you how to keep your larvae from becoming diseased? Don't you realize that we are the ones who take these diseases to create sprays and dusts to kill larvae?" Dr. Boucias has since (we all had to quit laughing first) been of great help to us and other butterfly farmers.

In the following newsletters, we will discuss disease. We'll cover tips and methods to prevent, control, and eliminate disease from our rearing operations.

Our first and most important tip; don't give up when disease hits. It IS coming. You're dealing with nature. There are several reasons we aren't as aware of disease in nature. One reason we don't notice it in nature is that weather, predators, and scavengers remove the bodies fairly quickly. Disease is one of the reasons that only 2% of all eggs laid in the wild live to become an adult.

Milkweed sap in your eyes is an extremely painful experience. Even if a bit is on one's forehead and sweat runs it into the eyes, the pain is terrible.

Use gloves, especially if there are children around. If an emergency happens with a child, you need to be able to strip off disposable gloves and immediately tend to the child. Milkweed sap can linger on skin unless it is scrubbed off your hands.

Glasses or goggles are great. Bending a stem to cut it can cause sap to spray into your eyes full strength.

If you have been handling milkweed and your eyes start to hurt later, remember to mention milkweed to your doctor. Many (if not most) doctors are unaware of the pain milkweed sap can cause. Sometimes when we have experienced milkweed sap in our eyes, we did not experience pain until hours after sap entered our eyes.

Insect Rearing Workshop "Principles & Procedures for Rearing Quality Insects"

After attending this workshop at Mississippi State, we can only speak highly of it and recommend it to anyone who rears insects.

Although this one-week workshop is not directly about raising butterflies, the principals taught in the workshop are directly about raising butterflies. You'll learn about rearing practices, the importance of healthy insects, disease control and identification, artificial diet, insect rearing systems, diet, and so much more.

PS There are at least three butterfly farmers in the above photo from three different butterfly farms. In this photo, Amanda Lawrence is teaching and assisting workshop attendees in the pathology laboratory. (Stephen is the one closest to the camera.)

Bright green frass or larvae regurgitation - a frightening sight in a rearing container.

Two common causes of this bright green fluid are:

1. Insecticide
2. 'You make me sick!'

1. When larvae have been exposed to insecticide, they often vomit bright green. Sometimes they completely recover! Sometimes they die. If you add leaves to your container (and it isn't overcrowded) only to see this bright green stain the next day, chances are that the plant was treated with an insecticide. They don't have to even eat the plant; they can simply be exposed to it.

2. 'You make me sick!' Larvae, when bothered enough, often regurgitate (vomit). When people handle larvae, they often see this bright green fluid. A close inspection reveals that it is coming from their mouths. It is thought to repel predators.

If you suddenly see this bright green stain in your rearing container when you have fed a new plant to your larvae, we recommend taking the larvae out of the container and feeding them plant material that you are positive has not been treated with insecticide. Before reusing the rearing container, clean the one you used by washing it thoroughly.

Even 'over-spray' can kill your larvae. If you purchase your plants from a nursery, they may tell you honestly that they have not treated the plants with insecticide and it be the total truth.

There are a few things that could have happened:

1. The nursery may have purchased the plants within the last eight weeks from a nursery which did treat the plants.
2. The nursery (or the nursery from which you purchased the plants) could have treated other plants with insecticide which drifted to the plants you used.
3. Mosquito spraying by the county or city could have drifted to the plants IF they are near the road. Sprays usually do not drift too far but a windy day can carry the spray a good distance.
4. Not probable; a pet with fresh Prevention or Advantage brushed against the plant.
5. After petting a pet with fresh flea and tick preventative, someone touched the rearing container or caterpillars.
6. Insect spray was used in the room.
7. Insect spray was used in the building and heater/air conditioning ducts drew the insecticide into the larvae rearing room.

Shady Oak offers seminars and internships. We are currently holding one-on-one seminars. When the date for a group seminar is set, we will share that date through this newsletter.

In the above photo, LaToya checks Monarch butterflies for OE.

Until next time, Edith, Stephen, Ester, Michelle, and Christina