Woman Performs Surgery On Monarch Butterfly With Broken Wing, Next Day It Surprises Her In The Coolest Way
Depending what time of year they’re born, Monarch butterflies can live from 2 weeks to about 5 months, but this guy’s time was threatened to be cut even shorter. Luckily, Romy McCloskey was there to help. “I fell into raising butterflies by accident when I found 3 caterpillars on a bush in my front yard,” she told Bored Panda. So after one of her darlings got injured, Romy knew she had to help. McCloskey turned her home into an operating room and used common household items to perform a wing transplant.
“I have always had a love for butterflies,” she said. “They have a very personal meaning to me. Before my mother died, almost 20 years ago, she said to me, ‘Romy, whenever you see a butterfly, know that I’m there with you, and that I love you.'”
Romy McCloskey is a professional costume designer and master hand embroiderer, so this was right up her alley. Her supplies included a towel, a wire hanger, contact cement, a toothpick, a cotton swab, scissors, tweezers, talc powder, and an extra butterfly wing from one of her little girls that died a few days before.
According to McCloskey, there’s no need to drug the butterflies when performing such a procedure. She compared their wings to human nails or hair: “They do not have pain receptors.”
“[P.S.] I feel it is important to note that the butterfly sustained his injury during pupating into his chrysalis. It was not a genetic defect or deformity due to the Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) parasite that fatally infect Monarchs. I did have a lot of people asking why I would ever introduce inferior or defective genes into the butterfly gene pool. I had to explain to many that I did not. In fact, any caterpillars or butterflies that are infected with OE or Tachinid fly (T-fly) larva must be euthanized to stop any further contamination in the Monarch population.”
Scroll down to check out how the surgery went!
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“The patient: this 3-day-old little boy was born with torn upper and lower wings. Let’s see how we can help!”
“The operating room and supplies: towel, wire hanger, contact cement, toothpick, cotton swab, scissors, tweezers, talc powder, extra butterfly wing”
“Securing the butterfly and cutting the damaged parts away. Don’t worry it doesn’t hurt them. It’s like cutting hair or trimming fingernails”
“Ta-da! With a little patience and a steady hand, I fit the new wings to my little guy”
“The black lines do not match completely and it is missing the black dot (male marking) on the lower right wing, but with luck, he will fly”
“FLIGHT DAY! After a day of rest and filling his belly with homemade nectar, it is time to see if he will fly”
“With a quick lap around the yard and a little rest on a bush, he was off! A successful surgery and outcome! Bye, little buddy! Good luck”
this is the kind of story i go online to see. Thank you for being a great person.
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I resigned my office-job and now I am getting paid £64 hourly. How? I work over internet! My old work was making me miserable, so I was forced to try something different, two years after...I can say my life is changed-completely for the better! Check it out what i do... http://cutt.us/Udp9c
He wasn't taking to you you annoying piece of shit.
Stop scamming people. It's disgusting.
We should be able to report SPAM comments
Commendable patience and precision! Butterflies and moths and dragonflies and damselflies....so magical!
So true. Moths have always fascinated me. So beautiful. My favourite is an Ermine Moth.
The glass wing butterfly is one of my favourites...
my favourite is the luna moth
This is the sort of thing I absolutely love to read. Even the smallest creature deserve love and care.
a dead wing will wilt and will get stiff since the nerve is not connected with its own body, it wont get anything from the butterfly since it's only glued to him. however you give this butterfly the chance to fly and be free.... i like that =)
I was thinking same but also remember these Monarchs have to fly huge distances & stop only to feed/drink. Who knows if she extended the life of this creature but it still is awesome. Think how many get hit by cars on their journey. Sad
Actually the wing will not wilt~ It does not contain nerves or blood supply. Think if the repair like that of a kite repair. The glue I used was an adhesive that I use to fuse leather together, so the bond will withstand varying weather conditions and its love journey to Mexico :)
This is actually the recommended repair for a butterfly with a missing or broken wing, and works incredibly well!
Well, if everyone treated all living creatures with this much respect we'd have a much better world. I say kudos even if it didn't work out in the end.
As a regular bee rescuer, I applaud this :D
RE Bee rescue I've discovered that if they are pulled from a pool, you can use a blow dryer on low to warm them back up enough to make it home again...w/o that if hypo is setting in they don't recover on their own.
I don't know why but I found this absolutely fascinating! Wow, I did not know that they had no feeling receptors in their wings. Learn something new every day!
compassion is for all creatures
And the wisest part of compassion is truly understanding the creature. Its instinct would have it trying and trying to fly.....
I dearly wish there was a, "one million likes" button!! Such an amazing and beautiful story! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Shout out to the poor wing donor.
She was one of my butterflies that had died a few days before. I am very happy that her life was not in vain.
My wife and I were canoeing on a mountain lake in Pennsylvania and found a Monarch floating in the water unable to fly. We lifted him out with a paddle and let him sit in the sun to dry out. After an hour he was walking around the canoe and on our paddles and us before taking little test flights. When sure he was fine he flew away across the lake. About 30 minutes later we saw two Monarchs flying toward us from that direction. When they got to us they circled around our heads several times before flying back across the lake. It was like he had met his mate and brought her back to see where he had his close escape from drowning or being eaten by a fish. We could imagine him describing these creatures who helped him dry off and regain his flying ability.
Wow, I truly believe you
woow. Amazing looks hard.
The story is nice, but like many articles these days, the headline is misleading. I did not see that anything happened the next day that showed the butterfly thanking the caretaker in the coolest way, did you? I hate it when I am sucked in like that.
Fantastic! How cool you saved a living creature!
That's so wonderful! Who would have thought it was possible!!
Amazing story!
Wow that's incredible and then for it to be able to fly after just amazing.
I never knew you could do a wing transplant on a butterfly. So cool and wonderful. What a great person you are for doing this for this little guy.
I love this story but I can't resist thinking that it's better to be born beautiful. A cockroach would get no help. If you think of it, it applies to broader contexts. Some species extinct for the reason that they aren't beautiful/useful/charismatic for people. Some people don't get help on the street because they wear poor clothes.
Butterflies are beneficial to us by pollinating plants. Cockroaches are mostly detrimental to us, at least the typical house cockroach, by eating our food, eating our things, eating away at our home (including glues and other materials like wire coatings), spreading diseases as they go, taking over in swarms if they are able.
My wife raises monarchs here in FL and we now have over 100 crysilyses ready to pop! Anyway, love the article. May I asked...how do you make your homemade nectar and how do you give it to the butterfly?
Hi there Norman~ You can use very ripe bananas, mashed. You can soak cotton balls or a paper towel with a sugar water solution with a dash of soy sauce (salt that they need) , or raw honey and water with soy, or raw honey and Gatorade. I soak cottonballs in the solution and then skewer the cotton balls on bamboo sticks and put them in a jar. They mimic flowers. Remeber that newlt ecolsed butterflies do not need to eat for the first 24 hours. If you can release them before that, they will be fine in the wild. If they are inside longer, they will need to eat and may even need to be coaxed to do it by bringing them to the nectar and placing their feet in it ( so they can taste it.) If they do not begin to feed, you can take a toothpick and stick it thru the curled proboscis and help unfurl it gently, so that it finds the nectar. Best of Luck!
Butterfly Wing Transplanter and other MAJOR surgery... I am deeply impressed (not because for what you did but for yoir will to do so) . Thank YOU
What a wonderful person You are ... I don't even know You but I love You !
that is surreal almost to me
You did a fantastic job! I also learned something. I didn't know the spot on the wing means it is male. THANKS.
I know someone who saved a snail by using superglue to stick it's broken shell together again.
Where did she find the extra wing?!
She had a butterfly die a couple days before, so she used that wing.
Where is the '...coolest way it surprises her' '..the next day'? I love what she did for this beautiful butterfly but I am getting so tired of these 'headlines' that lead us to believe there is more when there isn't...
This world is filled with extraordinarily bad people and extraordinary good; Romy is one of the REALLY good.
Thank you <3
This woman´s a genius, her surgery for the poor monarch butterfly with the broken wing´s excellent, I´m so glad there´s so often someone who cares, also about the lil ones of God´s creatures, could´ve been me, when I was a child/teenie girl I once rescued a honeybee from drowning in a lake where we always went swimming in summer (Steißlinger See), the poor bee had fallen into the water in the middle of the lake, I took her onto my left hand and swam back to the shore, holding my left hand out of the water, then put the poor unlucky bee on a stone at the shore and kept on sitting next to her until her wings were dry and she finally flew away (into the other direction, off the lake, to the meadow)!!! Because #EveryLifeMatters 😲😲😲💖💖💖
Same question I have. Or did you have to make the spare wing? And with what?
It's said in the text that she had a wing from a butterfly that had died earlier
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maybe she cut it off of another butterfly
If you took the 5 mins to read the text as oppose to treating bored panda like 'a pretty picture book!' You'd see she said the wing was from one of her girls that had died earlier...
Will it last though or will the glue detach or the wing decay? I wonder if he would've been able to fly with the damaged wing.. Will he be able to mate or will females be put off by the scent or the appearance of his wing? Sorry for being a pessimist lol. I just always think about the bigger picture. Hope he's still out there living his best life!
Wow....this brightened my day!
This is fascinating. 2 different types of wing repair, and one is just like the story. https://youtu.be/ah0SBALIc0o
Amazing, thank you for giving him a great start, I love butterflies too.
Great job! What a patience you have and how amazing person you are. Most upvoted story I've seen in Bored panda so far.
Beautiful work, from a lovely person with not only a heart, but remarkable healing hands. Good work, and God bless you!
Blew my mind!!! What an amazing thing to do, especially fixing up the wings of such delicate beings
WOW! WONDERFUL STORY!!! I HAVE NO EXTRA WINGS HANGING AROUND AND IT WOULD NEVER OCCUR TO ME TO EVEN TRY. AMAING. YOU HAVE HELPED SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT! :) THIS HAS TO GO ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE! HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!!
Plot twist: The effect of releasing this butterfly loose caused a Tsunami on the other side of the planet.
Lol! 🤣
This is absolutely amazing!
This reminded me of How To Train Your Dragon, when Hiccup fixed Toothless' tail fin :D
This is true magic! Thank you for your loving kindness and creativity in action! I protected a monarch which I found on the ground not moving and not flying away. Kept it in an open box, fed it nectar and prayed that it would gain enough strength to fly away. Sadly it died the next day. Your story reminds me of the connection I had with that beautiful little friend of mine. Thank you so much for sharing!
I had a similar experience a couple of years ago, when I came across a Monarch with a busted up wing in front of my home. I repaired his wing w/ that very light weight pink paper tape girls use to tape a curl into place. It worked pretty well & was light enough that it didn't throw it's balance off. I do wildlife rehab & have rescued plenty of insects from a variety of certain deaths, but this was my first insect "surgery"!
Aww this is so sweet
Fabulous! You rock!
I learned something here with this story and that is great! Plus, very cool to help this little guy out. What a great ending!
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Now THIS is how you help nature!
She should not have released him. He was born with a defect that may or may not be genetic. If it is and he breeds he could pass o. This defict to his offsping. Monarchs are already stuggling to survive as a species to allow a male with amounts to a fatal defect to breed. She should have kept him as a pet. Made a little outdoor enclosure for him or something but definitely not released him
Will the glue hold up to weather, rain?
Beautiful rescue story... the new wing looked awesome..So worth the outcome... Blessings to you for a tedious, precious job well done !!
It look like someone took a bite into it
Most times people use the internet to bitch and moan. Not here. More of this!
It's amazing, lovely story.
Wow, so amazing it brought a tear to my eye. Lovely story.
I was actually at camp Hiawatha once and I did this with a lady bug that i hadfound in the bathroom!
Wow . Just wow
Romy, is amazing!
I love her for what she did.
Truly amazing!
Truly amazing
Where did she get the wing tho??
Romy you are a beautiful human being x x
Where does someone come by the “extra butterfly wing?”
there are still people with a lot of love for nature like Romy McCloskey
good idea
Wow.
Amazing person! Amazing surgery! Amazing butterfly! A story to warm your heart!
Where is the rest of the story. How did the butterfly surprise her the next day.
I guess by being able to fly ... dunno ...
Where did you get the transplant wing?
#INCREDIBLE and #AMAZING 👍👌😱😱😱😱😱
how do you know it doesn’t hurt them? just thinking about cutting his wing...makes me sad :( i know you had a human intentions and thank you for that but i personally, would never, ever dare to cut his wings :( just because they do not scream, doesn’t mean they do not feel. maybe i am wrong- there are people who are much smarter and know what they are talking about but...that is my opinion.
I appreciate your opinion, however, the fact is, butterflies do not have a complex nervous system that contain pain receptors as humans do.
Now I'm out looking for wildlife to help. I want to be an incredible world citizen like you.
This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Very nice story! Thank you.
spare butterfly wing? where does one attain this?
You are going to butterfly heaven.
How or what did you fix the wings with?
I want to know how/where was the extra wing magically found.
plot twist the butterfly went on to murder 5 people (butterfly effect)
plot twist the butterfly went on to murder 5 people with its new wing (butterfly effect)
This is very cool. I dont know where she got an "extra butterfly wing!" ?? Lol. Also remember never to touch butterfly wings with your fingers..the oils from our skin get on theire wings and then they can't fly.
Give the article a read ;) I happened to have had a butterfly die a few days before. I used her wings as donor wings :) Also, it is a myth that butterflies will not be able to fly if you touch them because of the oils on your hands.
where did you get the extra butterfly wing? is it possible it could reject the transplant?
So cool
awww i love this!
How do you make the butterfly not move or stay put for the procedure? Why does it look so sedated?
That's what the hanger was for. It holds the butterfly down, and makes it very imobile.
Neat, but still clickbait. How did it surprise her "in the coolest way?"
yeah that would be if it brought her a flower
How did you fix the new wing? superglue? Im keen to try....
Incredible. Impressive surgeon. ❤
How I wish so badly I could do this. I tried to rescue some moths, but the cocoons died, I think. Calleta moths can take up to 3 years to emerge, but nothing's happened yet. I pray that they are okay!
These tiny creatures have amazing life cycles. Four / five generations they migrate something like 3000 kilometers, and return to the same area of their great great grandparents to keep breeding.
love
Crying with joy!
Is there a video of it actually flying?
That's wonderful. I truly did not think that was possible!
We have them in Australia, no quarantee in the old days. They don't feed on milkweed here, but plants from South Africa & other places around the world. Commonly called a flying weed, as they compete against the native butterflies for necture.
This is now my favorite post out of all of the posts and sites I visit in a day.
Wow! That's so cool!
Awesome sauce, thanks for your kindness!
How is this even possible! Really amazing :)
You are an awesome human being! We help butterflies as well, we don' use any pesticides on our farm which allows the milkweed to grow. So we get lots of monarchs in our farm. Thank you!
wow wonderful how di you learn this as I gather you have done it before , one saved from a cats breakfast
You are the change I️ wish to see in the world!
good idea we can help wild life but this is real great job unpai person needs recognised for work
awww
My hero!
Wow!!! I never knew you could actually do that!!
wowsers!!
Really Great ... Humanity Rocks !! gssjaingur...cbd074.png
I don't see the surprise here. The Butterfly flying - wasn't that intended? Very cool and skillfull though! Extremly impressing.
The surprise here is that the surgery worked. She attached the missing part of the wing from a "dead donor", and someone may think it wouldn't work, as the attached part can be recognised as a "foreign body" by the butterfly's biological mechanism, but here we see that's not the case. The butterfly recovered and is using that wing as its own. This post was pretty educational to me.
Butterfly wings are made of a keratin-like protein called chitin and are similar to humans' hair and fingernails. In fact, if one finds a butterfly in the wild with a damaged wing that affects its flight, it's possible to capture the butterfly and trim the wings with scissors so that they match up, avoiding cutting so much that the surface area is too greatly diminished.
This isn't how nature works.
Those black lines on the wings are veins, a butterfly wing is far from being like a hair or a nail. Glueing a wing on a butterfly has the same effect as glueing an arm on a human, it's a damn daft idea. That butterfly is going to die.
The black lines are *not* veins. Gluing the wing on is *not * like gluing a human arm to a body. Butterfly wings do not have blood, veins, a musculature system, or ligaments as a human arm. You are very misinformed.
andrewJust because it says something on a homepage doesn't make it true. There are homepages saying that the earth is flat. Would you walk around saying that it is flat just because you read it on the internet? No, you wouldn't. Hopefully.
To Romy. Thank you. You have a beautiful heart and may you inspire others to open theirs. We need more people in this amazing world like you! :)
Andrew, you seem very angry. I cannot even imagine why you need to argue with someone who does such a beautiful thing for these delicate creatures. However your own page states that the veins are in order to pump blood into the wings UNTIL they dry in order to pump them up. Then it goes back into the body and the wings harden and dry completely through: https://www.reimangardens.com/butterfly/butterfliesmoths-spread-wings-emerging/ Then this page further explains that they do not have cells that register pain as we do and do not feel pain: "Butterflies have a nervous system but it is different from people. Butterflies lack the special cells that allow people to know they are feeling pain. Butterflies will have a sensation that something is different, but they will not feel pain like a person experiences." It's always best to educate oneself thoroughly before stomping feet. Half truths can often embarrass us or in some cases cause trouble. In your own words..."You are welcome."
Here you go. They have veins, as well as blood pumping through them. You are welcome.
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Anatomy%203.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterflies/anatomy/Wings.shtml
According to livemonarch. com, butterfly hospital, this is exactly the way you repair a butterfly wing. But butterflies are very resilient- if a wing gets ripped or torn off, it will regrow.
Monarchs are fully grown when they eclose. They do not continue to grow, regenerate or heal.
Just because it says something on a homepage doesn't make it true. There are homepages saying that the earth is flat. Would you walk around saying that it is flat just because you read it on the internet? No, you wouldn't. Hopefully.
I dont like the look of that butterfly what if it slashed u with its new death wing they do that some of the more aggressive butterfly a$$holes
But if it had hatched with a genetically deformed wing, would its descendants have the possibility of deformed wings??
“[P.S.] I feel it is important to note that the butterfly sustained his injury during pupating into his chrysalis. It was not a genetic defect or deformity due to the Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) parasite that fatally infect Monarchs. I did have a lot of people asking why I would ever introduce inferior or defective genes into the butterfly gene pool. I had to explain to many that I did not. In fact, any caterpillars or butterflies that are infected with OE or Tachinid fly (T-fly) larva must be euthanized to stop any further contamination in the Monarch population.”
Thank you for posting my P.S., Chris. It seems to be a missed point by some.
I'm affraid it won't help him much - the balance is lost and I'm not sure he'll be able to fly well. And second - where did you take the spare wings?
Where did they get the other wing? Such an incredible thing to do though, I'm glad the butterfly is okay
and the buddy gets eaten by a bird.
great until, you realize its a bug.. which is food for bird .. contact cement will kill the bird..who gets eaten by a cat.. who gets eaten by a predator.. you are poisoning the food chain way to go. When you get a new rare disease you cant figure out how or why it happened think bout how you did this.. how many others do stuff (that they think helps) but that they don't think of how their actions have an affect.
tough I don't like insects, but the story is touching deadly
I'm not convinced that extensive research has been carried out in to the pain receptors of butterfly wings, but great effort either way. No pain, no gain.... innit
Where did she get the "extra butterfly wing"? Did she kill another butterfly to get it?
READ the intro. It explains where the wing came from.
wow. I had one who's wings were deformed. just a little and the deformity matched. I put him on flowers, made him nector, but all he did was try and fall. he broke my heart. I had nothing I could do but put him out of his misery it was getting colder. )-: I made him a grave, laid him under a milkweed leaf and killed him as fast as I could. he is under my bedroom window with the cats I have lost.
Wing deformities upon eclosion are often the result of OE, a protozoan parasite that adult butterflies spread on milkweed leaves and that unwitting caterpillars ingest. These butterflies should not be released to the wild, as they can spread the disease. If the infection is not too great, you can isolate the butterfly and feed it daily until it dies, later sterilizing its enclosure. If the infection is very bad, the accepted method for euthanizing it is to slip the butterfly into a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer. Best of luck to you in your future Monarch rearing.
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Where did the "extra butterfly wing" come from? Did she kill another butterfly to get it?
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Where did the extra wing come from?
If youd take the time to read the actual article rather than treating bored panda like a 'pretty picture book' you'd see the wing came from one of her girls who had passed away early
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Okay this is great, but just want to know where you get the extra monarch wing from? You just happened to have a spare kicking around?
If you took the time to read the actual article as oppose to treating bored panda like a 'pretty picture book' youd know that the wind came from one of her girls who had died early. A butterfly doaner if you like
jeez you posted the same thing a lot :/ and taking time to read about a butterfly thats going to die in a day or so is not worth it
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B-but where do you get the spare wing? Did you killed another one?
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eaten seconds later by a bird
I got to read good comments by the normal people of the earth, but now come the haters so I'm finished reading comments.
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what was the surprise ? thanks for nothing
The surprise was IT WORKED!!!!!
The surprise was that her makeshift surgery actually worked and he could fly! What were you expecting? A hand written calligraphic thank you note from the butterfly...?
Well, to be fair, the title is pretty click-baity - "the coolest way"? Seriously? Might as well drop the charade and just beg you to click and read the story, or try to bribe you with a coupon to get some burgers and ice cream for free if you read the story, because honestly, the butterfly simply flying away is cool and all, but if you have to go out of your way to call it "[a] surprise in the coolest way", then you're reaching pretty hard. What was the butterfly gonna do? NOT fly away and for them to share the story anyway?! "Oh yeah, and it failed miserably and the butterfly fell on its first attempt to fly with its new wing, crashing to the ground catastrophically, convulsing, struggling not to go into that good night, but ultimately failing, giving out one last defeated gasp, and falling into the void of never-ending nothingness with a permanently disappointed look on its insect face...." -_-
Of course it would fly: if it hadn't she wouldn't have posted pictures of it, there wouldn't be an article. I would have expected something like seeing the butterfly again several days later.
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hes just gonna die in like another day or two
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Don't know why you're being downvoted. It's the sad truth. A monarch's lifespan is 2-6 weeks.
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I prefer insect spray. Also works on ni99ers and jews.
And I would prefer a world without you
Well you're fun aren't you?
Obviously a trump supporter
this is the kind of story i go online to see. Thank you for being a great person.
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I resigned my office-job and now I am getting paid £64 hourly. How? I work over internet! My old work was making me miserable, so I was forced to try something different, two years after...I can say my life is changed-completely for the better! Check it out what i do... http://cutt.us/Udp9c
He wasn't taking to you you annoying piece of shit.
Stop scamming people. It's disgusting.
We should be able to report SPAM comments
Commendable patience and precision! Butterflies and moths and dragonflies and damselflies....so magical!
So true. Moths have always fascinated me. So beautiful. My favourite is an Ermine Moth.
The glass wing butterfly is one of my favourites...
my favourite is the luna moth
This is the sort of thing I absolutely love to read. Even the smallest creature deserve love and care.
a dead wing will wilt and will get stiff since the nerve is not connected with its own body, it wont get anything from the butterfly since it's only glued to him. however you give this butterfly the chance to fly and be free.... i like that =)
I was thinking same but also remember these Monarchs have to fly huge distances & stop only to feed/drink. Who knows if she extended the life of this creature but it still is awesome. Think how many get hit by cars on their journey. Sad
Actually the wing will not wilt~ It does not contain nerves or blood supply. Think if the repair like that of a kite repair. The glue I used was an adhesive that I use to fuse leather together, so the bond will withstand varying weather conditions and its love journey to Mexico :)
This is actually the recommended repair for a butterfly with a missing or broken wing, and works incredibly well!
Well, if everyone treated all living creatures with this much respect we'd have a much better world. I say kudos even if it didn't work out in the end.
As a regular bee rescuer, I applaud this :D
RE Bee rescue I've discovered that if they are pulled from a pool, you can use a blow dryer on low to warm them back up enough to make it home again...w/o that if hypo is setting in they don't recover on their own.
I don't know why but I found this absolutely fascinating! Wow, I did not know that they had no feeling receptors in their wings. Learn something new every day!
compassion is for all creatures
And the wisest part of compassion is truly understanding the creature. Its instinct would have it trying and trying to fly.....
I dearly wish there was a, "one million likes" button!! Such an amazing and beautiful story! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Shout out to the poor wing donor.
She was one of my butterflies that had died a few days before. I am very happy that her life was not in vain.
My wife and I were canoeing on a mountain lake in Pennsylvania and found a Monarch floating in the water unable to fly. We lifted him out with a paddle and let him sit in the sun to dry out. After an hour he was walking around the canoe and on our paddles and us before taking little test flights. When sure he was fine he flew away across the lake. About 30 minutes later we saw two Monarchs flying toward us from that direction. When they got to us they circled around our heads several times before flying back across the lake. It was like he had met his mate and brought her back to see where he had his close escape from drowning or being eaten by a fish. We could imagine him describing these creatures who helped him dry off and regain his flying ability.
Wow, I truly believe you
woow. Amazing looks hard.
The story is nice, but like many articles these days, the headline is misleading. I did not see that anything happened the next day that showed the butterfly thanking the caretaker in the coolest way, did you? I hate it when I am sucked in like that.
Fantastic! How cool you saved a living creature!
That's so wonderful! Who would have thought it was possible!!
Amazing story!
Wow that's incredible and then for it to be able to fly after just amazing.
I never knew you could do a wing transplant on a butterfly. So cool and wonderful. What a great person you are for doing this for this little guy.
I love this story but I can't resist thinking that it's better to be born beautiful. A cockroach would get no help. If you think of it, it applies to broader contexts. Some species extinct for the reason that they aren't beautiful/useful/charismatic for people. Some people don't get help on the street because they wear poor clothes.
Butterflies are beneficial to us by pollinating plants. Cockroaches are mostly detrimental to us, at least the typical house cockroach, by eating our food, eating our things, eating away at our home (including glues and other materials like wire coatings), spreading diseases as they go, taking over in swarms if they are able.
My wife raises monarchs here in FL and we now have over 100 crysilyses ready to pop! Anyway, love the article. May I asked...how do you make your homemade nectar and how do you give it to the butterfly?
Hi there Norman~ You can use very ripe bananas, mashed. You can soak cotton balls or a paper towel with a sugar water solution with a dash of soy sauce (salt that they need) , or raw honey and water with soy, or raw honey and Gatorade. I soak cottonballs in the solution and then skewer the cotton balls on bamboo sticks and put them in a jar. They mimic flowers. Remeber that newlt ecolsed butterflies do not need to eat for the first 24 hours. If you can release them before that, they will be fine in the wild. If they are inside longer, they will need to eat and may even need to be coaxed to do it by bringing them to the nectar and placing their feet in it ( so they can taste it.) If they do not begin to feed, you can take a toothpick and stick it thru the curled proboscis and help unfurl it gently, so that it finds the nectar. Best of Luck!
Butterfly Wing Transplanter and other MAJOR surgery... I am deeply impressed (not because for what you did but for yoir will to do so) . Thank YOU
What a wonderful person You are ... I don't even know You but I love You !
that is surreal almost to me
You did a fantastic job! I also learned something. I didn't know the spot on the wing means it is male. THANKS.
I know someone who saved a snail by using superglue to stick it's broken shell together again.
Where did she find the extra wing?!
She had a butterfly die a couple days before, so she used that wing.
Where is the '...coolest way it surprises her' '..the next day'? I love what she did for this beautiful butterfly but I am getting so tired of these 'headlines' that lead us to believe there is more when there isn't...
This world is filled with extraordinarily bad people and extraordinary good; Romy is one of the REALLY good.
Thank you <3
This woman´s a genius, her surgery for the poor monarch butterfly with the broken wing´s excellent, I´m so glad there´s so often someone who cares, also about the lil ones of God´s creatures, could´ve been me, when I was a child/teenie girl I once rescued a honeybee from drowning in a lake where we always went swimming in summer (Steißlinger See), the poor bee had fallen into the water in the middle of the lake, I took her onto my left hand and swam back to the shore, holding my left hand out of the water, then put the poor unlucky bee on a stone at the shore and kept on sitting next to her until her wings were dry and she finally flew away (into the other direction, off the lake, to the meadow)!!! Because #EveryLifeMatters 😲😲😲💖💖💖
Same question I have. Or did you have to make the spare wing? And with what?
It's said in the text that she had a wing from a butterfly that had died earlier
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maybe she cut it off of another butterfly
If you took the 5 mins to read the text as oppose to treating bored panda like 'a pretty picture book!' You'd see she said the wing was from one of her girls that had died earlier...
Will it last though or will the glue detach or the wing decay? I wonder if he would've been able to fly with the damaged wing.. Will he be able to mate or will females be put off by the scent or the appearance of his wing? Sorry for being a pessimist lol. I just always think about the bigger picture. Hope he's still out there living his best life!
Wow....this brightened my day!
This is fascinating. 2 different types of wing repair, and one is just like the story. https://youtu.be/ah0SBALIc0o
Amazing, thank you for giving him a great start, I love butterflies too.
Great job! What a patience you have and how amazing person you are. Most upvoted story I've seen in Bored panda so far.
Beautiful work, from a lovely person with not only a heart, but remarkable healing hands. Good work, and God bless you!
Blew my mind!!! What an amazing thing to do, especially fixing up the wings of such delicate beings
WOW! WONDERFUL STORY!!! I HAVE NO EXTRA WINGS HANGING AROUND AND IT WOULD NEVER OCCUR TO ME TO EVEN TRY. AMAING. YOU HAVE HELPED SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT! :) THIS HAS TO GO ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE! HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!!
Plot twist: The effect of releasing this butterfly loose caused a Tsunami on the other side of the planet.
Lol! 🤣
This is absolutely amazing!
This reminded me of How To Train Your Dragon, when Hiccup fixed Toothless' tail fin :D
This is true magic! Thank you for your loving kindness and creativity in action! I protected a monarch which I found on the ground not moving and not flying away. Kept it in an open box, fed it nectar and prayed that it would gain enough strength to fly away. Sadly it died the next day. Your story reminds me of the connection I had with that beautiful little friend of mine. Thank you so much for sharing!
I had a similar experience a couple of years ago, when I came across a Monarch with a busted up wing in front of my home. I repaired his wing w/ that very light weight pink paper tape girls use to tape a curl into place. It worked pretty well & was light enough that it didn't throw it's balance off. I do wildlife rehab & have rescued plenty of insects from a variety of certain deaths, but this was my first insect "surgery"!
Aww this is so sweet
Fabulous! You rock!
I learned something here with this story and that is great! Plus, very cool to help this little guy out. What a great ending!
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Now THIS is how you help nature!
She should not have released him. He was born with a defect that may or may not be genetic. If it is and he breeds he could pass o. This defict to his offsping. Monarchs are already stuggling to survive as a species to allow a male with amounts to a fatal defect to breed. She should have kept him as a pet. Made a little outdoor enclosure for him or something but definitely not released him
Will the glue hold up to weather, rain?
Beautiful rescue story... the new wing looked awesome..So worth the outcome... Blessings to you for a tedious, precious job well done !!
It look like someone took a bite into it
Most times people use the internet to bitch and moan. Not here. More of this!
It's amazing, lovely story.
Wow, so amazing it brought a tear to my eye. Lovely story.
I was actually at camp Hiawatha once and I did this with a lady bug that i hadfound in the bathroom!
Wow . Just wow
Romy, is amazing!
I love her for what she did.
Truly amazing!
Truly amazing
Where did she get the wing tho??
Romy you are a beautiful human being x x
Where does someone come by the “extra butterfly wing?”
there are still people with a lot of love for nature like Romy McCloskey
good idea
Wow.
Amazing person! Amazing surgery! Amazing butterfly! A story to warm your heart!
Where is the rest of the story. How did the butterfly surprise her the next day.
I guess by being able to fly ... dunno ...
Where did you get the transplant wing?
#INCREDIBLE and #AMAZING 👍👌😱😱😱😱😱
how do you know it doesn’t hurt them? just thinking about cutting his wing...makes me sad :( i know you had a human intentions and thank you for that but i personally, would never, ever dare to cut his wings :( just because they do not scream, doesn’t mean they do not feel. maybe i am wrong- there are people who are much smarter and know what they are talking about but...that is my opinion.
I appreciate your opinion, however, the fact is, butterflies do not have a complex nervous system that contain pain receptors as humans do.
Now I'm out looking for wildlife to help. I want to be an incredible world citizen like you.
This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Very nice story! Thank you.
spare butterfly wing? where does one attain this?
You are going to butterfly heaven.
How or what did you fix the wings with?
I want to know how/where was the extra wing magically found.
plot twist the butterfly went on to murder 5 people (butterfly effect)
plot twist the butterfly went on to murder 5 people with its new wing (butterfly effect)
This is very cool. I dont know where she got an "extra butterfly wing!" ?? Lol. Also remember never to touch butterfly wings with your fingers..the oils from our skin get on theire wings and then they can't fly.
Give the article a read ;) I happened to have had a butterfly die a few days before. I used her wings as donor wings :) Also, it is a myth that butterflies will not be able to fly if you touch them because of the oils on your hands.
where did you get the extra butterfly wing? is it possible it could reject the transplant?
So cool
awww i love this!
How do you make the butterfly not move or stay put for the procedure? Why does it look so sedated?
That's what the hanger was for. It holds the butterfly down, and makes it very imobile.
Neat, but still clickbait. How did it surprise her "in the coolest way?"
yeah that would be if it brought her a flower
How did you fix the new wing? superglue? Im keen to try....
Incredible. Impressive surgeon. ❤
How I wish so badly I could do this. I tried to rescue some moths, but the cocoons died, I think. Calleta moths can take up to 3 years to emerge, but nothing's happened yet. I pray that they are okay!