Our real life butterflies story begins with a “ugly-to-beauty” famous fairytale starting with the usual, once upon the time, a maleficent witch transformed a handsome prince in a frog and cursed him to remain such till a gorgeous lady princess, from royal blood, would be brave enough to kiss him!
The poor thing waited for an eternity for that to happen as, you tell me, will you kiss a frog, ever?!
Well, that guy was lucky enough and, at the end, a really brave and gorgeous princess willing to take the disgusting lip-to-lip step came forward and the froggy prince returned to his handsome human appearance!
They lived together loving each other ever after!
Funny but true, the “kiss-the-frog” fairytale has been attracting lots of supporters and plenty of ladies willing to pic a froggy boyfriend with the hope that sooner or later it will suddenly transform in a handsome guy!
However, majority of people will distance themselves from these jumping animals, with many even running away from frogs, widely looked at as “disgusting animals”!
In contraposition and finally talking about butterflies, if you close your eyes and imagine, for one minute, to walk in a beautiful park, with fresh air and smell of flowers all around you when, suddenly, you see a bunch of beautiful butterflies!
Most of us, automatically and in contraposition with the above story, will extend the arm with an open hand hoping for a butterfly to come and rest for a while on it….
Worldwide, butterflies are looked at as beautiful creatures often remembering us fairytales’ images of a tiny flying fairy, the Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell kind of. I’m pretty sure, not many of us remember the ugly “root” of butterflies.
Yes, you’re right a caterpillar! Luckily there is no “kissing need” to witness the miracle of a “ugly” mutating into a “beauty”, only matter of time.
As a matter of fact, butterflies have a short life cycle which goes from caterpillar (larva) into chrysalis (pupa) and finally to the beauty of a butterfly with colourful wings allowing the delicate and happy flying from one flower to the next one contributing to the essential regenerative cycle of mother nature, pollination.
All this may take from as short as 30 up to a maximum of 200 days and it is a great example of regenerative life cycle where butterflies are born as green leaves eaters or caterpillars scientifically called larvae. Once ready for the mutational process the caterpillar self-mummify itself and in 9 to 14 days it becomes a butterfly!
As they can fly, butterflies become an essential component to the growth of crops as pollinator while also being an important diet component to several predators’! Birds, spiders, lizards, frogs and many other small animals are constantly hunting butterflies.
Butterflies are, since the first fly, looking for a mate allowing them to generate and lay eggs, normally on plants or flowers leaves. Once eggs have been deposited, the life span of a butterfly comes sadly to an end.
Looking for some interesting stories on butterflies, with a fun-educational purpose, I have selected the following “fun facts” on them.
Not a young specie
Butterflies are not a young inhabitant of our planet. Recently discovered fossils, in 2017 and 2018, showed that moths and butterflies have been on our planet for at least 200 million years, read here the full article. Interesting to know, there are plenty of stone-age butterflies descendant still flying around, making them one of the oldest species on earth!
Butterflies are…..really a lot!
They are the second most abundant specie of insects in the world, after the beetles and, besides Antarctica, butterflies are everywhere else on our planet!
A Natural Ecosystem Barometer
Scientists use the presence or absence of butterflies to measure the health of specific ecosystems. Butterflies’ adult and larval forms are extremely sensitive to pesticides and climate change. The latter impacts them as temperature changes and rainfall amounts may alter butterflies’ migration timing and patterns. Ecologists, through studies on butterfly behaviours, have been determining the impact of all these environmental issues.
A Great Tourist Attraction
As much as Zoos, all around the world, have since ever attracted adult and children so did Butterfly Houses. Many cities around the world, leveraging on the fact that butterflies are really everywhere, are having small, medium, big and in some case famous Butterfly Houses. Online tourism platforms, such as TripAdvisor, are recommending tourists visiting Malaysia, for instance, to drop by two very famous butterfly sites in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
Butterflies Help Our Mental health
We have been publishing previously an article on mental health, a concerning threat in these troubled times. According to charity Butterfly Conservation a short amount of time spent in doing odd jobs to help the species in nature can alleviate stress and make people feel happier and more energised.
Unfortunately, both these nature sanctuaries have been hardly hit and are risking to be forced to close due to lack of revenues as international tourists have been disappearing since March 2020 when the first Malaysian lockdown, or MCO 1.0, was enforced. Since then the butterfly parks, as many other touristic destinations, have been hardly meeting their monthly dues and might be soon raising their white flag.
While there is little that could be done for many of the touristic destinations, we can definitely offer a little helping hand to the Butterfly Parks and drive that minimum quantity of oxygen, metaphor for revenues, which will help them walking through these very trying times.
Paying a visit to the Butterfly Park with our families, once our vaccination cycle has been completed, will contribute to get close and personal with butterflies and fully understand their importance for an equilibrated and sustainable ecosystem. Eventually, some of the young visitors, might be falling in love with these real-life fairy tales and wish to have butterflies always flying around them.
You would be surprised to find out that is actually not a difficult thing to do, for those living in landed properties as condominiums might be having the challenge of hight as these flying beauty are rarely seen looping up in the sky. Point is, butterflies love flowers and, unless you go on a mountain, it’s hard to see solo flowers standing out from clouds.
How to create a Butterfly-house in our garden.
Looking at how butterflies could be attracted to visit first and maybe settle down later in my own garden, I’ve read few interesting articles. The following are few simple and easy to D.I.Y. tips which shall help attracting them to your house. I’m going to try them out in the next few weeks and et you know if any of them, eventually, works.
Choose a Sunny Area Within Your Garden
Butterflies really adore sunlight! As all insects, butterflies are ectotherms, meaning their body temperature is not controlled by an “internal thermostat”. Butterflies depend on the sun’s energy to warm-up their bodies and get them to work.
No Wind Please
Butterflies’ wings are covered with a “magic dust” which allows them to fly but, it’s also very sensitive to wind and even breeze could disturb them. Arrange the flowers and various nectar sources checking where the wind and breeze are less strong or better absent.
Butterflies Love Flowers
The more flowers, in terms of both varieties and quantity, it is possible to plant in the garden the best and faster result we will have in terms of butterfly arrival. I’ve read that also leaving some fruit on the soil helps attracting butterflies but, of course, please be ready to see armies of ants and other insects paying a stopover visit in your wonderland garden, in this last case.
Several more smart tips and news on butterflies can be found in this interesting article.
As all fairy-tale stories have a happy ending, I want to close this butterflies “fairy-tale-fun-informative” blog with a happy tone and a call for support.
The happy tone first, we all know how challenging has been and is to put our hands on a place that we can call home isn’t it?
Not to mention having it nearby amenities such as the KL Butterfly Park, the Zoo, Batu Caves temple and many more!
Close your eyes and imagine, for a minute, to be able to own it for less than RM377k*, in a quiet yet near to the city centre location which will place you within less than 10-15 minutes’ drive to most of the above destinations. Not too high density, with full facilities and multi-tiers security making it an ideal place where you will be able to happily grow your family.
A brand new condominium designed with families in mind as its orientation, windows are all facing north or south, will allow all owners to enjoy the full light of the day without being exposed to the heat of the sun!
Now you can open your eyes and stop dreaming, this place really exist and is there to welcome you for a long happy journey together! You can get more information on The Birch here, give us a call or drop a note to us here. Our sales consultants will revert and answering all your queries! Almost forgot to tell you, it is also a freehold property.
The call for support, of course, goes in favour of the KL Butterfly Park! Let’s join our efforts in offering a helping hand to the KL Butterfly Park, I’d like to see you all sharing the information and the invite to visit the park soon in all of our respective social media. I will definitely do it on both SCP’s and mine own ones.
Remember to tag us at @SCP Properties when you will share this butterfly story, do not forget to drop a comment below and follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest news from the market!
*Net value after Bumi Discount