...The growing butterfly-farm trend is spreading its wings in Texas

Fluttering beauties are released at weddings, funerals, birthday parties and even divorces

By Christine Laue, Corpus Christi Caller-Times

• Mikula got the idea for butterfly releases from a mime who wanted to release some during a skit.
• The Internet is a central clearinghouse for buyers and customers.

Texas may be one of the fastest-growing producers of butterflies in the booming butterfly farming business, an internationally known butterfly-farm entrepreneur said.

"I'd put Texas up against anybody," said Rick Mikula, author, lecturer and originator of the concept of butterfly releases - the latest trend at weddings, funerals, birthday parties, grand openings and even divorces.

Mikula, of Hazelton, Pa., has been featured in television programs and in more than 25 magazine articles, including the July 22, 1996, issue of People magazine.

"I'd say 50 percent of the responses I got from that article were from Texas," said Mikula, 47.

Mikula taught Swinney Switch resident Bethany Homeyer, owner of Michael's Fluttering Wings Butterfly Ranch, the basics of butterfly breeding through one of his "Spread Your Wings and Fly" seminars.

Mikula said Homeyer and her husband, Reese, are probably among three or four independent butterfly-farm owners in Texas. Another six to eight Texas farms operate just as suppliers to him, Mikula said.

He said the number of butterfly farms in Texas could be rising rapidly - a projection he based on the interest he has seen from Texans and on the increased demand for butterflies he's seen through his clearinghouse on the World Wide Web.

The Butterfly WebSite: www.butterflywebsite.com/

Butterfly farmers throughout the United States supply butterflies through Mikula by linking up with customers on the Internet, he said. He needs suppliers from across the country, because U.S. Department of Agriculture rules regulate where certain butterflies can be shipped, in an attempt to prevent the spread of butterfly parasites and diseases.

"Internationally, I'd say butterflies are naturally a multimillion dollar business, but I wouldn't be surprised if it reached a billion-dollar business," he said.

Butterfly breeders date back to at least the 1960s, he said. But they kept a low profile, raising butterflies for universities and collectors.

About 17 years ago, Mikula, then a machinist, was introduced to butterflies.While he was fishing with his wife, he made a net out of a handkerchief and a tree branch to catch a butterfly.

"When I looked it up in a book, I was introduced to 720 beautiful butterflies in the United States," he said. "I fell in love with them, and I started to read and study them."

After he began raising his own butterflies as a hobby, a pantomime group from Philadelphia approached him, asking if it could use one of his butterflies to release during a skit.

That's when he got the idea of butterfly releases.

"It just seems so appropriate to do at weddings and funerals and other places people would want a wish to come true," he said.

An Indian legend says butterflies can carry messages to the Great Spirit.

Jack Mikula, Rick's brother and the Web master for the Butterfly WebSite, said much of the activity at the Web site has to do with releases, indicating increased interest.

The Web site attracts more than l,000 visitors a day, and nearly 6,000 people have subscribed to its e-mail newsletter.

About half of the inquiries are for weddings, Rick Mikula said, and the other half for memorials or funeral services.

Mikula's business, the Hole-in-Hand Butterfly Farm, recently supplied 230 butterflies for a memorial service in Rhode Island - one butterfly for each of the victims of the TWA Flight 800 plane crash July 17 off Long Island, N.Y.

He is building what he describes as the largest butterfly farm in the world, covering 10 acres in Kanai, Hawaii; starting eco-tours to butterfly habitats in Costa Rica; and publishing his sixth book, due out May 1, called "Garden Butterflies of North America."

And he continues lecturing at his professional seminars - with no fear of being run out of business. he said.

The demand is too high as it is now, he said.

"I always tell people the best compliment somebody could give me is by putting me out of business," Mikula said.

He enjoys hearing of successes like Bethany Homeyer's, who started her business to cope with the death of her 18-year-old son.

"People tell me such beautiful stories that I end up crying. Mikula said."That's what makes this whole business worthwhile."

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