The butterfly release
We’ve experienced a new product release, have read of prisoner release, but a butterfly release? It drew a blank from family and friends.
It’s not something we planned to participate in, but it was great. The butterfly release was part of Ocotillo Blooms which the IV Desert Museum hosts annually. If it rains in January and the weather is just right, there is more likelihood of desert blooms. Blooming desert wildflowers have made a minimal show of it this year, but the Desert Museum has a lot to offer. There were short hikes and games for the kids, food, and vendors. Vince was selling his special reserve Myer lemons-lemonade, loofahs and plants. There were hot dogs and Cokes, and the museum’s great exhibits.
The main event was the butterfly release. David Breeckner, the museum’s director, filled me in on the arrangements. “The company we used (is the) aptly named Butterfly Release Company.” You can check them out online. Butterfly release is big now at weddings. You can’t throw rice because the pigeons get too fat so the alternative is to launch butterflies. Why not?
According to David, “The company overnights the butterflies by FedEx in an insulated ice chest.” The purpose is to keep the Painted Lady butterflies dormant. Timing is essential, and one hour prior to the event the ice packets are removed. In essence, the butterflies are taken off ice so they slowly awaken. Each butterfly is enclosed in an envelope labeled according to the requester, in this case, “IVDM Ocotillo Blooms” and the date. It could read Lucille and Sydney Forever (or until a lawyer does us part).
The butterflies in envelopes are distributed to the guests. At the Desert Museum, attendees were asked to make a contribution to receive a butterfly. IVDM is a nonprofit. We were instructed to gently warm the envelope in our hands. We could hear the Painted Ladies awakening, fluttering their wings as if asking when they’d be let out. The signal was given and envelopes torn open. You have to understand that these butterflies have been iced for a couple of days so they were slow to respond.
But then they began flying away. The crowd was thrilled. The butterflies, while evidently glad to be released from a chilly confinement, were not entirely awake. Flight was short, and they’d touch down for a rest and maybe to get their bearings. As they warmed to the environment, they flew further. I suppose birds in the area might prey on the Painted Ladies, but otherwise they seemed OK.
This experience got me thinking about beneficial insects. I went on line and found a marketplace of vendors selling everything from ladybugs to aphid parasites. I could order a bag of 1,500 live ladybugs from Brooklyn, no less, on eBay. Cheap, too. But no returns. I thought that maybe if you were unsatisfied, you could give the ladybugs an address and they’d fly back to the sender, but no such luck.
An interesting aspect of the ads for beneficial insects is the thumbnail photo of an attacking wasp sticking an aphid or a cute little ladybug about to crunch some unwanted harmful insect. Bugs in action. It’s probably been featured on a Nature TV program. More than I want to see, but we should have proof of the product’s effectiveness.
Some vendors even included ladybug food, Ladybug Lure, to spread on Popsicle sticks in your garden area. This keeps the ladybugs around. So does a handmade “ladybug loft” so the bugs will move right in.
I figured I’d start small, so I ordered a bag of 300 ladybugs. My garden looked great with all of these tiny beneficial bugs eating the bad guys. But then I heard feint singing: “Ladybug, ladybug fly away…” And before I could say “beneficial nematodes,” my ladybugs were all in my neighbor’s backyard. Maybe next time I’ll build a wall.
Richard Ryan welcomes comments at rryan@sdsu.edu