Florida Native Butterfly Society finds new home at the Shell Factory Nature Park
The Florida Native Butterfly Society has found a new home at the Shell Factory Nature Park in North Fort Myers at which to create a butterfly garden and educate the public.
When the doors officially closed for the Butterfly Estates in downtown Fort Myers in July, curator Sherri Williams said the Shell Factory took their koi and the conversation about the possibility of a butterfly garden began and took shape.
“We are very excited about having a place to build a garden and grateful for the Shell Factory for allowing this to happen,” she said, adding that they began establishing the garden on Aug. 15. “We have about 20 hours under our belt taking care of the garden.”
Before leaving Butterfly Estates, they were able to take all the potted plants from the glass conservatory, which will be added to the new space at the Shell Factory.
As of Monday, Williams and a few volunteers have been weeding the area, as well as planting some milkweed and passionvine host plants for the butterflies.
“Right now we are trying to get host plants in the ground and figure it out from there,” she said.
Butterflies are also being released at the garden, which included three atala butterflies due to coonties, its host plant, already being established at the park.
“We are hoping to start another colony,” Williams said. “It took about three years to get a colony going at Butterfly Estates.”
In addition to releasing the atala butterflies, Williams said she is also placing atala chrysalis at the Shell Factory to begin another generation of the butterfly at the park. The hope is once they become established, they will be able to have people bring their coontie to the park for the atala to lay eggs on and bring back to their garden, a program they began at Butterfly Estates.
Shell Factory has also given an onsite building to Florida Native Butterfly Society, which is a work in progress.
“That is going to be our educational room,” Williams said. “We are looking for volunteers to educate. I can’t be there every open hour to educate people. We are looking for people that we can teach and then teach the public.”
After providing education in the screen-enclosed room, they will walk through the garden and point out plants and butterflies that are present.
“The more butterflies that we release there, the more, of course, we will have,” Williams said.
Instead of releasing butterflies into a conservatory as they did at Butterfly Estates, the butterflies will be released into the outdoor garden at the Shell Factory.
“The butterflies will be outside, which I kind of like,” Williams said.
As of Monday, in addition to the atalas, they also released 13 white peacock butterflies, and will release malachite and queen butterflies on Tuesday.
Like before, if anyone has caterpillars and is running out of host plant food in their own garden, they are more than welcome to email Williams at fnbs321@gmail.com and she will meet them at the Shell Factory gate.
“We will raise them and release the butterflies into the park. We are still taking them,” she said.
To help start the new garden, Florida Native Butterfly Society has a wish list of items needed, including including dirt, mulch, trellis, chicken wire and a butterfly shaped bench for people to sit on. Other items include nectar plants, such as pentas, cone flowers and zinnias. An Amazon wish list will be posted to their Facebook page, Florida Native Butterfly Society.
Williams said they are still in need of volunteers who would like to give a helping hand pulling weeds and planting plants. Those under 16 years old are more than welcome to come as well, accompanied by a supervising adult.
The volunteer hours currently are from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. She said they are trying to get as much done as possible during those four hours before the sun becomes too hot. Those interested in volunteering can email fnbs321@gmail.com.
The Shell Factory and Nature Park is at 16554 N. Cleveland Ave.