How to release newly-emerged butterflies

Releasing butterflies can be a wonderful experience, the culmination of a month's journey in the classroom.

Create some ceremony! Observe what they do upon release.  Make a list of possible behaviors, draw up a data sheet, and have one student record what everyone sees.

Here's how to release butterflies...

They can eclose out in the open where it's easy to see.  They won't fly for several hours.

Don't handle butterflies for 3-4 hours after emergence.  Wait for their wings to harden.

Handle adults by their wings.  Using thumb and forefinger, pinch the wings on both sides together.  Try to include the strong leading edge of the forewing in your grip. Do not hold just by one wing on one side.  If the wings are not together, you can put your fingers below the butterfly on either side, then raise your hand till your fingers force the wings closed.  Then pinch the wings together.

You can also transfer butterflies short distances by encouraging them to climb onto a finger, Q-Tip, twig, or leaf.  This works better in the few hours after enclosure before they can fly.  But once they are quivering or slowly flapping their wings, they are ready to fly--meaning they could escape.

Transfer them to a mesh cube for holding before release.  You can encourage them to climb from their eclosure perch into the mesh cube.  They like to go upward and towards light.

Feeding them is fun for students, but only necessary if you can't release them the morning after they eclose.  Use a Q-Tip moistened in a mixture of honey and water, touched to a front foot: 1 part honey to 4 parts water.

Keep the butterflies indoors where it's warm before release.  Only release when the outdoor temperature is above 50 F if sunny, or 60 F if cloudy.  They may need to warm up by shivering or exercising their wings.

Precautions when handling butterflies

While the butterflies are pretty robust, injuries are possible.

• Don't shake or disturb a butterfly while it is emerging.  If it falls to the surface below, offer it a strip of paper towel.  Once it grips the towel, tape the towel to a place where it can hang and twist round and round, without touching anything.
• Their large claws cling to the mesh of their enclosure (or each other) very firmly, so pull them gently away from whatever they are clinging to.
• Watch out for accidents, like the butterfly (or student carrying it) getting caught in a closing door. Today, when we released many butterflies that eclosed in a hallway display case, one chrysalid located against the sliding glass door was crushed when we opened the glass.
• Escape indoors can lead to accidents.  Don't panic!  Butterflies always fly towards light.  Turn off overhead lights, so they won't go there and get entangled. They will then fly towards the windows.  If at first they are too high on the window, soon enough they will slide down to where you can catch them.
• Don't grasp them by the legs, a single wing, or by the abdomen.
• When you are finished with the mesh container that held the butterflies, place a note inside it: "This tent held butterflies.  Must be sterilized before used for caterpillars."