Texas Discovery Gardens is home to a two-story tropical Butterfly House. On any given day you can find 300-1000 individual butterflies and around 40-70 different species. Something you won’t find roaming free in the Butterfly House are caterpillars. So, if they’re not being bred in the Butterfly House, where do all these butterflies come from?
Our butterflies are from butterfly farms that are located all over the world – El Salvador, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Kenya! These butterfly farms use local resources to raise thousands of butterflies. The people in charge, butterfly farmers, have lots of responsibility. They have to raise caterpillars into healthy butterflies. That means feeding the caterpillars the right host plants and having plenty of nectar plants for adult butterflies.But there’s a lot more that goes into raising butterflies.Next Saturday, July 22, local butterfly farmer and founder of the Dallas County Lepidopterists’ Society, Dale Clark, will have his annual “Fascinating World of Butterflies” class at Texas Discovery Gardens! It ends with a field trip to his farm, so you can go behind the scenes. See his space and find out what it takes to be a Butterfly Farmer!