This Wednesday my morning was spent at the HMNS, as always. For the first hour, I was spraying down plants, trying to remove the bugs. There is a type of fly, called whitefly, they lay their eggs on the back of leaves and it looks like a mesh white material (ill put a photo below). I sprayed the plants with a mix of water and a tablespoon of soap, this liquid covered each individual leaf making it slide off. While this was my first time doing this activity, the museum has to do it at least once a week, because if the eggs hatch they will eat all the plants. Due to the fact that they can't use any chemicals that immediately kill bugs, there is no way to ever get rid of the white flies.
After, I went up to the containment room for the very first time and gathered the butterflies that had hatched. It was such a neat experience, I had an idea to as of how the butterfly life cycle worked but seeing it happen was a very different experience. After the come out of the cocoon their wings are still wet and all crumpled up. Once they dry their wings open up and they can then fly. Sadly they do not all make it, but they have a much higher survival rate living in a center rather than the wild.
Once they were all collected, I got to bring them downstairs and release them!
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