by Dwight R. Worley, Florida Today Newspaper, Business Section, Friday, December 18, 1998
Laura DeCarlo is betting big bucks that the public will want her "flying flowers".
The flowers actually are orange-and-black Monarch butterflies. Her home-based business, Beauty-Fly Labs Butterfly Releases, raises and sells them by the dozen for release at weddings and other special events.
"This is something really unique for this area," DeCarlo said from her Melbourne home. "People are really showing interest."
DeCarlo is one of a growing number of people nationwide who are jumping into the business of butterfly farming. Florida has several butterfly farms, including Butterfly Mystique in Miami and Florida Monarch Butterfly Farm in St. Petersburg.
But DeCarlo is the first person to take up the pursuit in Brevard County, according to county licensing records.
Butterflies are most popular at weddings where they are touted as more environmentally friendly than the balloons that are sometimes released and less dangerous to birds than traditional rice. Birds eat the rice, which can be harmful to their digestive tract, butterfly farmers say.
In three months, DeCarlo has sold butterflies for three weddings, a funeral and other events. She even sells butterfly pupae to the growing number of butterfly breeders. She plans to expand her business and sell to butterfly gardens, zoos and education exhibits around the country.
Ruth Williams, manager of Making Memories in Titusville, a wedding planning company, said she isn't surprised at increased interest in the business. She hasn't yet seen butterflies at a local wedding or even heard of butterfly farms. But she thinks they could add a nice touch to a ceremony.
"People like to release doves because they're beautiful, but I really love butterflies," she said. "I think (a business) like this would be successful."
That's just what DeCarlo wants to hear.
"I'm really pleased with the response I'm getting," she said. "People are very curious about it, and I get a lot of calls from people just asking questions."
When questions turn to purchases, the butterflies are shipped overnight in boxes, each in its own triangular envelope. They lie dormant in the envelopes until they are opened, usually at the key moment in a ceremony. DeCarlo can also arrange to have them shipped in greeting cards, she said.
Customers pay $100 for a dozen butterflies, but can buy larger quantities at volume discounts. A wedding package - including three dozen butterflies, engraved envelopes to hold the butterflies and a hanging display - costs $295.
The business is promoted heavily through industry-supported seminars and the Internet, enticing more people to start their own butterfly farms. DeCarlo and her husband, Chris Dotson, paid $330 to attend a seminar in October hosted by Rick Mikula, who is credited with starting the butterfly farming trend 20 years ago.
Mikula, who advertises and brokers deals for butterfly farmers through his Hole-In-Hand Butterfly Farm in Hazelton, Pa, said the industry is attracting career changers and at-home parents looking for a way to make money.
"Butterfly farms around the world (are) doing very good business," he said. "We're developing kits with videos to make it easy to do as a hobby or business."
Butterfly farming is not a sure-fire venture. "It's paying the bills, but I'm not putting any money in the bank," said Dale McClung, owner of Florida Monarch Butterfly Farm in St. Petersburg.
"There really are a lot of headaches," said McClung, who sold 2,500 butterflies last year. "From sterilizing everything, to diseases and bacteria. This business requires a lot of attention. You just have to ask yourself, 'Do you want to sleep at night?"
Jeff Glassberg, who heads the North American Butterfly Association, says the practice should be illegal.
"It spreads disease, results in in-appropriate mixing of genetics and confuses migration," said Glassberg, whose 3,000 member butterfly-watching organization is based in Morristown, NJ.
"They don't have proof for any of their claims," Mikula said.
DeCarlo began breeding butterflies at her "farm" - a screened aviary in the back yard of her home - in September. It's her second home-based business.
The farm work isn't easy. While DeCarlo waited for her business to get rolling, she still had to care for the butterflies, which were breeding rapidly. That meant buying gallons of nectar and orange Gatorade - apparently a butterfly favorite - and hundreds of plants for them to eat.
Although the start-up costs were minimal, the labor hours are countless. DeCarlo said, "it involves a lot more than just watching butterflies."
After raising butterflies for a year, DeCarlo and Dotson set up a website to advertise the business. An Internet present is essential because butterfly farmers get most of their business from out of state and need national exposure.
In addition to orders for weddings, DeCarlo has sold butterflies to school teachers. DeCarlo said she gets weekly orders for up to a dozen from a Las Vegas magician who uses them in his world-famous act. She has yet to market the business locally, but plans to start advertising soon.
I thought this would be something to do on the side as a hobby," DeCarlo said. "But one day I can see getting to the point where Chris (her husband) can work at home too."
Complete information can be viewed at the Beauty-Fly Labs Butterfly Releases Website