Butterfly Repair

When thinking of things to fix on your repair list, you might not think to fix that old butterfly you have laying around. However, butterfly repair isn’t as obscure or difficult as you might think, although it does blur the line between repair technician and veterinarian.

Butterflies often suffer from tears in their wings, which makes flying difficult or impossible. Butterflies need their wings to be symmetrical and, unfortunately, we haven’t figured out how to write this guide in butterfly yet (we’re working on it), so they have yet to be able to fix themselves. Thankfully, some human intervention can go a long way and help your butterfly friend get back in the air again.

Butterfly wing repair includes a few different methods depending on how bad the tear is. If there is only a small gap, lightweight cardstock can be glued in to fill the hole. If one wing is torn so that it is smaller than the other but still large enough for flying, the other wing can be cut to size, giving the butterfly back its symmetry. As a last resort, and if you happen to have extra butterfly wings around, you can replace the entire wing.

• How to Fix a Broken Butterfly Wing (Live Monarch Foundation)
• How to Care for a Butterfly with a Broken Wing
• Butterfly (Wikipedia)