How to Catch a Butterfly With Your Hands

Admire the patterns of a butterfly, if you manage to catch it.

Having the desire to catch a butterfly floating around the garden is not unusual. Perhaps you have wondered what it feels like to hold one, or whether you could look after one as a pet. Maybe you just want to take a closer look at its attractive wings. Before that happens, however, you need to catch it -- and that is no easy task. Normally, professional butterfly keepers use nets to gently catch butterflies. If you have only your bare hands, you will need patience, persistence and agility.

Things You'll Need

• Sugar
• Water
• 2-liter bottle
• Piece of paper
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Cut the neck off a 2-liter drink bottle. You'll use this to hold the butterfly after you catch it.

2. Mix together sugar and water, then rub a small amount into the palms of your hands. Butterflies will be attracted to this sweetness as they are looking for nectar.

3. Find a butterfly to catch. This will be easiest during the day and during warm summer months, because this is when butterflies hatch from their cocoons. Search around brightly colored flowers, ponds or wooded areas.

4. Watch the butterfly. Be quiet, still, and observe it in its natural environment.

5. First, try to catch the butterfly by slowly stretching out your sugary hands to see if it takes the bait. If the butterfly comes over and lands on your hand, then quickly use the other hand to cup it in your palms.

6. If the sugar water method does not attract the butterfly, wait until it moves onto a flower to feed, or settles on a stem or branch of a plant. You know it is resting when it stops moving and flapping its wings.

7. Approach the butterfly cautiously. They are sensitive creatures that startle easily if disturbed.

8. Hold out your hands in an inverted cup shape, and then quickly wrap your hands around the butterfly. Do this softly to avoid damaging its wings. It cannot leave your hands unless it can fit through a gap, so leave space for the height of its wings between your palms.

9. If you are unable to cup your hands around it, capture the butterfly by holding its wings. Gently use your thumb and index finger to lift it from the flower or branch. Do not tug it or bend its wings.

10. Immediately put the butterfly into the clear plastic bottle, and cover the opening with a piece of paper, so you can look at the butterfly up close.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful not to crush the butterfly in your hands. It is delicate and fragile. You can observe it but make sure you release it undamaged back into the wild.

References

• Andy Camper: Build a Butterfly Net