The Fredericksburg Butterfly Ranch and Habitat provides Mother Nature with a little helping hand while educating visitors and giving them a thrill that can last a lifetime.
“When I first started the business I thought just children would be excited by watching butterflies,” says Deborah Payne, the head butterfly wrangler. “Happily, I’ve found that adults are fascinated with butterflies too.”
Although the Ranch sells live butterflies for release at special occasions, the main business is to teach an appreciation for the little creatures and encourage the creation of beneficial gardens. Urban development and the use of pesticides has reduced the overall numbers of butterflies that were once considered plentiful. Even small backyard patches of native plants can offer essential habitats.
Located in a historic house on Main Street, west of the tourist center of Fredericksburg, Deborah and her husband Perry operate a multifaceted business centered around the colorful bugs. The rock house, built in 1846 by German settlers, has been turned into a gift shop with a variety of butterfly-related items, from flags to gardening supplies.
Behind the cottage are the gardens and greenhouses where the Ranch’s little livestock are raised and propagated. “You know how we round up the butterflies?” Deborah asks. “We saddle up our horse flies.” Her humor is only surpassed by her enthusiasm, as the mother of four leads tours through the butterflies’ life cycles.
The guided expeditions around the grounds are designed to give visitors an appreciation and understanding for the needs of the butterfly. “Not all caterpillars in your garden are bad,” Deborah says. Besides adding a beauty to our gardens and world, butterflies are second only to bees in pollinating plants. Estimates put the survival rate from egg to adulthood in the wild at only 3%, and that is probably an optimistic number, she says.
Predators to the butterfly are everywhere — spiders, birds, wasps, lizards, and even humans. “My job is to protect the larvae from predators and keep shoveling them food,” Deborah says. The garden behind the store is full of indigenous plants, many for sale, that attract native butterflies or act as nurseries for the larvae.
From her breeding stock of native butterflies, Deborah and her crew of helpers collect eggs that are held in brood cages until they hatch into caterpillars. The multilegged worms are fed a steady diet of their favorite plants — most are very picky eaters — until they form their chrysalis.
Once the colorful winged insects emerge, they are put into the large butterfly house where they start the process all over again under the watchful eye of the family pet, Max the parrot. As visitors walk along the path through a jungle of Texas plants, many of the butterflies are camouflaged among the leaves. Often without explanation or provocation, a flock of orange, yellow, or blue wings will rise in unison and flutter around the greenhouse.
Deborah likes to tell an ancient Indian legend that says: “To make a wish come true, whisper it to a butterfly. Because a butterfly can’t talk, it will take the wish to heaven to be granted.” Rather than encouraging children to catch butterflies, Deborah recommends teaching the young ones to make a wish on the wing of a butterfly and send it off to heaven.
The Fredericksburg Butterfly Ranch has supplied butterflies for release as carriers of good wishes at weddings, birthdays, memorials, and for movies. When handled appropriately, the native butterflies are not harmed in the release, are good for the environment, as well as making for a beautiful memory of the occasion. The cost of a dozen butterflies ranges between $65 and $90, plus shipping costs and taxes.
Spring and summer is the time to add the foliage that attracts and feeds the butterflies. Deborah recommends adding more plants for the larvae than flowering plants for the adults. Popular larval plants for Central Texas are candlestick senna, dill, fennel, parsley, passion vine, hackberry trees, violets, rue, snapdragons, hollyhock, and pipevine. The milkweed, the dread of many homeowners trying to keep a nice yard, is the only host plant for the Monarch Butterfly caterpillars.
The Ranch currently raises a dozen different native species of butterflies. Deborah learned about butterfly ranching while living in Beeville near the Texas coast when she read an article about a local lady who was raising butterflies. A graduate of Texas A&M, she took a seminar on butterflies and was soon growing them in her home.
The Paynes moved to Fredericksburg a little more than three years ago. The rock house was supposed to be an office for Perry’s oil and gas company until the butterfly business took it over. Open March through October, the Ranch attracts a wide assortment of visitors, from school children to bikers. “We cater to kids three to 93 years old,” Deborah says.
Developing a backyard butterfly garden happens over time, with persistence and patience. The folks at the Fredericksburg Butterfly Ranch and Habitat can help budding gardeners get started or experienced butterfly wranglers with advice. The gift shop and gardens open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am-5pm, and on Sunday, 1-5pm. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors, and $1 for kids. The historic house is at 508 W. Main under an old windmill that still turns in the breeze. For information, call 830/990-0735 or go to www.livebutterfly.com.
Coming up this weekend …
April Foolishness Festival in Art celebrates the silliness of life with an array of events guaranteed to keep spectators and participants in stitches, March 31-April 1. The centerpiece activity will be the Mountain Oyster Cook-Off. If you have to ask what a mountain oyster is then you’ll be a prime candidate for the World’s Largest Snipe Hunt, Gnat Catching Contest, Chigger Catching Contest, Kiss My Spotted (Jack) Ass Photo-Op, or the Stupid Human Tricks show. For the rest of us there is plenty of craziness to fill our attention spans, like the Ugly Truck Contest, Slick Willie Lying Contest, Cow Pasture Bingo, and the Worst Elvis Impersonator Contest. There are three dozen events planned between 11am and 6pm each day. Art is in the heart of wildflower country 7.5 miles east of Mason on TX 29. For lodging, call 915/347-5758 in Mason or 915/247-5354 in Llano.
This article appears in March 30 • 2001.
