Butterflies: Caterpillars with Wings! | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of I Heart Radio. [Music]. the podcast I'm Josh and there's Chuck. and Jerry's here too and this is stuff. you should know. um part two of a one-two punch of insect. goodness. yeah caterpillars uh hopefully you just. listened to uh if you didn't you might. want to. because it really you know without.

caterpillar there is no butterfly. episode yeah. on their own like I don't think you. should have to have listened to when to. understand what we're going to talk. about here no no no but you know we're. probably gonna say when it comes time to. talk about how the caterpillar turns. into a butterfly just go back in time to. two days ago and listen to that one. right we'll be like. and once again we have to thank uh. howstuffworks.com and our. former and current colleague Tracy. Wilson.

as well as our former colleague not. current uh Jennifer Horton wrote a fun. piece about butterfly gardens that we're. going to talk about at the end but I. forgot about Jennifer you remember her. oh yeah she was great she wrote lots of. great stuff she's a good person so the. Jennifer I don't know if you're out. there and listen but hi. hi it's been a while yeah this is like. 2008 or nine years. well so we're talking about butterflies. and we should probably kind of pick up. not where we left off because we talked.

I think about caterpillars being pests. at the end or considered pests but. they're not really yeah we should pick. up um after the the caterpillar emerges. from its chrysalis because we're talking. specifically about butterflies so it's. the Chrysalis not a cocoon that it. metamorphosizes within and once it. emerges uh it is a beautiful creature. that resembles the caterpillar that it. was almost not at all but it's the same. exact creature it's got the same mind it.

can remember smells and all that but. whereas the caterpillar was built for. eating I think we said in the last. episode too the butterfly is built for. sex sex sex. yeah they're built for reproducing uh. uh um should we talk uh I mean should we. go back in time just a little bit and. talk about the fact that like the. distinction between moths and. butterflies and stuff like that sure. well what's the deal wasn't it uh aren't.

malls and butterflies basically mostly. the same except mods are uh they they do. their sex at night and butterflies do. their sex in the day yeah I mean there's. there's not many distinctions between. them other than like the obvious ones. um but that's the biggest one and the. reason why butterflies are diurnal and. moths are nocturnal is because all. butterflies I think what is there like. fifteen thousand twenty thousand species. of butterflies a lot of them yeah all of. them are descended from moths and these.

were just moths that started to do their. thing in the daytime rather than the. night time and over time they evolve to. fit in in the daytime rather than the. night time which is how moths evolved so. of moths camouflage is meant to to blend. in with like a tree where it's sleeping. during the day yeah whereas a butterfly. is bright colored because it's out in. the daytime and it needs to blend in. with the big colorful. um flowers that it likes to hang out on.

why I meant to look this up and didn't. why then I'm off is so attracted to. light. um I saw that they think that it is. attracted to the moon for navigation oh. okay and that butterflies aren't. attracted to light because they don't. navigate by the moon they lost that. ability or that need well butterflies. navigate by the sun that's one of the. one of my amazing facts about. butterflies yeah but then that's weird. that they don't fly to light but they. they are not attracted to flames or. light bulbs yeah oh well maybe they know.

sun is deaf yeah whereas the Moon is. nice and cool. should we talk about their their bodies. a little bit because that's where we. like to start off usually with our. insect uh casts one more thing let's. talk about where the word butterfly came. from eh where'd it come from oh well. it's very old English and it means. butter and fly right no real mystery. there yeah but the reason they think. there's two reasons why they are named. butterflies in the Old English and they.

think it's either because some of them. are a pale yellow in color so they. resemble butter we can pretty much. discard that one. the other one is that there was a folk. belief that they stole butter. that they were just kind of some sort of. Supernatural spirit in a butterfly form. to come and steal your milk and your. butter and there's um evidence of that. in other nearby languages I think the. Germans call butterflies milk thieves. and butter fairy almost yes and then the.

Dutch and the Germans have a word for. butterfly that means butter witch so. that's probably why butterflies are. called that because they used to think. that they stole butter well you know who. it was the whole time it was Grandpa. doing his night night eating yeah he. could get one cc of blood through those. arteries they were so clogged he was he. was on Ambien uh does it does it say. when. um the name morphed for my wife into. flutterfly. uh they actually used to think or some.

like it's it's a pretty strange um idea. that they're called butterflies rather. than flutter buys because that makes. more sense so Emily's kind of taking it. at a much smarter Direction but it's. interesting she probably just doesn't. know that the fact that they're actually. witches in Disguise who are out to steal. butter and milk. yeah she's always she's still causing. flutterflies does she call spaghetti. spaghetti no no just butterflies. uh can we talk about their their bodies. now yes yes thank you for indulging me I.

feel so indulged sure. um so. like we mentioned uh the head the thorax. and the abdomen of the butterfly will. look a lot like a caterpillar in some. ways if you hold them up next to each. other and that's about it. um for one a butterfly can see a lot. better than a caterpillar can. um I get the idea that it still doesn't. have like you know like great vision. um but caterpillars remember were.

essentially blind right butterflies at. least have these compound eyes and they. can detect color and I think we said the. caterpillar could only see in black and. white they can detect a movement as well. right but when it comes to like the star. of the show as far as butterfly Parts go. it's those antennae well hold on before. we move on I've got one about the eyes. too you know the monarch butterfly like. basically the quintessential butterfly. sure they have 12 000 eyes both compound.

and simple and they go basically all the. way around their head. a lot of eyes they can see into your. soul. and that's why they uh maybe that's why. they're so great at migrating uh every. year in such large numbers possibly well. I think we talked about in our animal. Migration episode we talked about. monarch butterfly migration and I think. we said one of the reasons why they're. able to make it from Eastern Canada all. the way down to Northwest Mexico. is because they are they navigate using. UV they see in the UV.

yeah it's that it's that sun. um and that's kind of brings me back. around to antennae oh good uh these. things are amazing they uh they get. their sense of direction from the. position of the sun so they are. literally navigating by the position of. the sun uh at the antennae also act as. light receptors uh obviously to track. the sun they're highly attuned to odors. uh those antenna are great smellers. um they sense pheromones uh during times.

of mating and they can even sense these. antennae the beat of wings of. butterflies of the same species. that's amazing just the antennae just. the antennae wow uh how about the labial. palps. well. yeah those are if you if you look at a. close-up of a butterfly and they can. take kind of different uh positions but. usually I've seen them they look like. kind of little hairy tusks coming out. coming out of what Chuck coming out of.

their their head well near their mouth. Parts yep ding ding okay it's now. officially a Tracy Wilson article that's. right. um they apparently are like this is food. this isn't food this is food but they. don't eat with the labial palps it's. just a way of sensing food. um what they eat with is they're. proboscis and there that's the um long. kind of tongue-like appendage that they. suck nectar with that's right I got one. more thing on the labial pumps though oh.

okay they uh they've kind of surmised. that it detects food that the function. was is fairly unknown but uh I think. they've learned I'm not sure how. recently that they can those labial. palps detect uh CO2 in the air oh neat. it says well and they think that might. be the main function oh that's really. cool who knows so instead of seeing red. or green they have the labial palps that. detect I guess CO2 that was a reference. to a reality episode yeah yeah uh so.

what part did you move to I moved on to. their proboscis oh everyone loves a good. proboscis and the the uh the butterfly. proboscis is interesting because when. the butterfly comes out and we'll talk. about this more in a second it's almost. like it should have a a label that says. some assembly required yeah because they. got to do some stuff before they can. really do their butterfly thing and one. of those things is literally almost like. screwing together their proboscis yeah.

they have two parts of the proboscope. just that they have to connect in order. to start eating so that's one of the. first things that they do when they eat. clothes from their chrysalis. e close that's a great name no it sounds. like apple has trademarked it or. something. uh and we'll talk more about the. proboscis as we go but um we do need to. mention their legs uh if you remember. the caterpillars have six real legs and. then a bunch of pro legs uh the. butterfly says I don't need those Pro. legs anymore because I'm flying.

basically uh but I've still got those. six legs so I've got a set of uh four. legs some middle legs and some hind legs. and these things are pretty they're more. than just legs as well because they will. land on something and. um they're looking for dissolving sugars. basically to eat and they're looking for. that with their legs yeah and also. you'll probably see fairly commonly that. there are some butterfly species that. only have two pairs of legs and that's. not true they actually have six but one.

pair is basically shriveled almost to. nothingness oh and by the way I should. clear up when I say their legs are. looking for dissolving sugars they're. not doing it by feel like they are taste. organs in their in their feet yeah they. can taste through all sorts of different. organs it's pretty cool and they um. apparently when they're they step in. like some dissolving sugar they're. proboscis uncoils involuntarily like. and it just starts sipping nectar. immediately oh man so you better hope.

that your um your legs are finally. attuned to sugar and you don't. accidentally suck up some really gross. stuff yeah you know like oh it was pus. right oh my God. oh the worst word it's the worst it's. pretty bad and it's one of the words. hygienic utensil though like what are. the odds that one of the grossest things. has the grossest word I don't know I. wonder if that was intentional.

yeah like what is that uh pus right does. that sound gross enough sure let's go. with it can we please stop talking about. pots sure Webster. um the wings we're gonna talk about a. lot we did a whole episode on uh the. iridescence of butterfly wings so we're. not gonna really get into it here but if. you want to learn about iridescence it's. very complex and complicated and. deserved its own episode many years ago. yeah but the upshot is the structure of. the scales they're transparent.

multi-layered and they reflect and. amplify light multiple times that was a. really cool episode if I remember. correctly it was and it was a tough one. uh if I remember to like absorb yes but. we did such a great job of it I would. like to say we probably just knocked it. out of the park really I think so too uh. but the butterfly wings are made of uh. it's transparents called chitin uh if. you've heard of chitin you're you're. probably just alive on the earth because. it is one of the most abundant.

polysaccharide sides in nature it's I. think the second most abundant it's all. over the place uh it's made their wings. are made of that chitin and they have. those sort of vein-like structures that. you can if you look at their wings. closely don't touch them though please. no. uh we talked about that in that episode. but they have those four wings. um that are obviously toward the front. and they are basically triangular and. then the hind Wings toward the butt and. they kind of look like little seashells. yes and they're like you said don't.

touch them they're very very delicate. and those veins are species specific so. that's one of the ways that they use to. recognize one another when they're. mating as well. yeah and I think butterflies cannot. repair their wings isn't that correct. yes they have no means of doing that. they have no car shield for wings but I. don't think it kills them but if a. butterfly can't fly that's probably. ultimately a death sentence right that's. my guess if it would make them easy prey. at the very least yeah I think that's.

kind of the deal when they say a. butterfly will die if you touch their. wings yes it will die quicker. um there's something that a butterfly. that's recently e-closed and a baby. that's just been born have in common do. you know what it is. um maybe but go ahead they both. um poop out in a meconium oh sure a. human baby yeah yeah. meconium is that that first poop uh that.

they take in in this case the. butterflies pooping. um what it last eight is a caterpillar. that's so cool it is really cool it's. usually red bright red almost looks like. blood but the butterfly poops that out. that's one of the first things it does. um it has to clean off all of its organs. its feet to make sure it's sugar finding. not pus finding clean off its antennas. put its proboscis together again yeah. but let its wings dry out that's cool I. saw and I don't think we mentioned in. the caterpillar episode that in its last.

in Star it has wings already they're. just folded up under its skin but they. develop even further in the Chrysalis. but um when they they're when they come. out they're soaking wet because the. butterfly was Goo not too long ago yeah. and they have to spread them out and let. them dry in the sun before they can fly. so they're doing all this like self-care. um basically a morning at the spa right. after their. yeah and but they can't just like flop.

their wings open immediately they. actually have to pump them up uh almost. like an air pump inflating a raft or. something or some high tops yeah or. something oh man remember those that's. so funny what a scam. that was a scam right I'm quite sure you. could break your ankle and that just as. easily as any other shoe sure yeah it. may give you like a little tighter fit. or something I don't know about that uh. and for people that are are younger our. younger listeners if you don't know who. Millie Vanilli was or pump up basketball.

shoes there were I think Reebok right. pretty sure it was Reebok had basketball. shoes that on the tongue had a little. basketball that was a little pump. and you would put on your shoes tie them. up and then press that pump a bunch of. times and it would fill some cavities. with air I guess and make your juice. tighter yeah especially around your. ankles meant to give you extra ankle. support so you could donate easier even. though you've never dunked in your life. that's right but they had Spud Webb. repping them so.

you know oh yeah. yeah I think he I think he uh was one of. their pitch guys for a little while okay. cool uh but anyway the butterfly uh wait. wait should we explain who's budweb was. he was a diminutive NBA player yeah. autograph one time yeah nice. uh they pump their wings out but not. with air there's a fluid that they pump. through these uh those tube-like veins. we were talking about and just sort of. inflate them out and like you said they. just get all cleaned up and ready to fly.

yes and then once they're all ready they. start flying and they realize very. quickly oh it's not a very good day to. fly and I say we take a break and come. back and explain just what in the Holy. heck I'm talking about. [Music]. oh. [Music].

all right wasn't the holy heck are you. talking about oh well let me explain. Chuck it turns out that butterflies. while being pretty Hardy individuals at. least as far as insects are concerned on. that level they're also very delicate. like we talked about with their wings. and even beyond their wings getting like. a raindrop driving through it that can. happen. um or say like strong wind tattering it.

that's a big problem for a butterfly. just the temperature the ambient. temperature has a tremendous effect on. them not just because they're ectotherms. meaning they're like a lizard they rely. on the the ambient temperature to warm. themselves or cool themselves off. their muscles just simply will not. function when it drops below a certain. temperature yeah I think Tracy points. out they work best when their internal. temperature is about 82 Fahrenheit 28.

Celsius. uh and you know they use these wings for. flying which is great. um but you might think like oh it's no. big deal if it's cold they just kind of. hunker down but they also use these. wings. um to do all kinds of like cool things. like um namely to scare away Predators. they can do all sorts of uh like they. can make eyes where it looks like a. scary face. um kind of like their little caterpillar. former selves can look like snakes. um they can Flash these bright colors. that a lot of times say getaway predator. and if they can't move their wings it's.

not just that they can't fly but they. can't defend themselves or disguise. themselves so it means that when it's. cold outside or when it's too windy or. rainy or something then they're way more. vulnerable to prey for sure or as prey. right but even prey could probably get. them that's how vulnerable they are so. for sure so um you'll often see like. butterflies just kind of Basking in the. sun I've always wondered what they're. doing like they just seem like they're.

they don't know what to do next that's. how it's always struck me for some. reason they're thinking of their next. move but in in reality they're just. sitting there getting warmed up by the. Sun so they can fly to another spot and. if you stop and think about it the next. time you see a butterfly basking in the. sun. um I'll bet it's below 80 degrees out. and the butterflies having to warm. itself so it can fly on to the next. flower to eat or rest or whatever yeah. that's a good point. um they do take shelter at night when it.

gets chilly that's why you don't see. butterflies flying around at night. mainly and like you said they're uh what. are daytime uh dwellers called diurnal. diurnal uh urinal. is that how you remember it. um now it is okay well you do remember. it that's how I need to remember it. right uh but yeah they bash those wings. they'll sit around on rocks uh they they. shelter at night sometimes that they.

will actually do like a kind of like. human shiver to warm up they can kind of. shake their butterfly wings to get their. muscles warmed up to fly that's just. they just can't go out cold they gotta. do a little warm-up first it's like that. um that knee hike thing. we lift your knees really really high. like in in place a bunch of times yeah. that soccer players do yeah like that. Ted lasso guy right then there's a name. for that but don't bother emailing us. with it we can figure it out ourselves.

um they also can use those wings as. little reflectors like you know how in. the 1950s and 60s people would sit out. in the sun with those reflectors under. their neck to reflect Sun back on their. faces they can use their wings to do. that to their to their body and warm it. up right which is pretty cool. um they can also they can also keep the. Sun from warming them up when it's too. hot out they'll fold their wings. together and just present like the edge. the outer edge of their wings to the Sun. so there's much less surface area.

yeah that makes a lot of sense uh and. they like you said when you see them. sitting they're probably not sitting for. long they're probably sitting just so. they can get it going to fly again very. shortly exactly so even though there are. sitting there warming themselves up to. move from flower to flower even and. that's typically what you see there's a. lot of species I see at least 200 that. migrate over very long distances and.

monarchs are the ones that they're like. the money the money butterfly that. everybody knows about but one of the. reasons why is because they migrate so. far again they migrate from Eastern. Canada to Northwest Mexico it takes. eight months and not a single butterfly. that starts that journey is alive at the. end. so it's like you look at the Butterfly. by the way the butterfly flock or a. group of butterflies is called the. kaleidoscope. I love that also that's the official one.

they're also called flutter Shimmer and. Rainbow of butterflies okay a flutter of. butterflies yep but you look at the. Kaleidoscope of butterflies it's like a. single organism in each individual. butterfly that lives and dies and. reproduces not necessarily in that order. as kind of like cells that function and. make up the larger hole but it's really. a bunch of individual butterflies flying. together but migrating as a whole down. from Eastern Canada to Northwest Mexico.

yeah and I guess since we're there. um there was a uh a big deforestation. illegal deforestation logging operation. in Mexico at the butterfly biosphere. Reserve in 2015 and. um it they they got like I can't. remember like 30 or 40 acres of land uh. just cut down before anyone knew what. was going on and since then and we can't. get into it here because it's really. complex but they have this very involved.

plan that they've been enacting since. then of reforestation uh including. something called assisted migration uh. that I don't fully understand yet but. I'm going to look into it more they just. Drive slowly by some butterflies and. swipe them into the car and drive them. halfway well things are better now but. there were a billion butterflies in that. migration in 1996 and in uh I think 2016. that was down to 35 million from a. billion and I think it's since gone up. due to these efforts but um that's good. yeah then you know butterflies if you.

take down where they're uh trying to get. to then they're gonna die yeah and um. that's that that biosphere Reserve is a. UNESCO world heritage site and you can. go visit it but apparently when the the. number of butterflies that show up are. in the billions the the branches that. they're sitting on Bend under the weight. of butterflies that's how many. butterflies there are sometimes but yes. it's a very problematic that there's.

fewer and fewer I'm glad to hear that. it's kind of bounced back a little bit. but they're still. um under I don't know if they're. endangered or just critical right now. but there's there there's something to. keep an eye on as we'll see because. they're an indicator species they are. and they're also pollinators. um they're not you know the best. pollinators but they're pretty good. they're not like bees I mean bees were. made to pollinate they were t-shirts. that say that they do they were B shirts.

uh but the um some butterfly some. butterflies don't spread pollen at all. they just love that nectar. um but generally butterflies are looked. at as polleners um and they have that. proboscis like you said that's just it's. made for for diving deep into those. flowers and getting all that sweet stuff. um but butterflies have lots of dietary. needs uh they can't just get by on that. sweet sweet sugar they need minerals and. stuff and they get this in a variety of. interesting ways right yeah one is.

puddles they'll just descend on a puddle. that's um bare dirt not I don't think uh. asphalt would work so yeah it's kind of. gross to think about but the the. minerals from the dirt um in the soil. leech into the puddle and the. butterflies suck up those minerals. through the puddle and apparently if. there's not enough minerals for their. liking they'll actually flutter off real. quick and then come back to the puddle. and just that little butterfly movement. is enough disturbance of the water to.

bring some extra minerals to the surface. of the puddle for them to drink and to. create a hurricane uh in Belize right. uh if there's no water this is pretty. gross if it gets pretty bad they will. resort to uh puking onto the soil and. then drinking that mineral puke I took a. more spit. hey one man's another man that's right. but yeah they need the minerals the.

nutrients and it's not it's just not. enough for the nectar yeah exactly. um they've done some studies though. because they'll they'll eat fruit. they'll eat rotten fruit on the ground. or they will get on a piece of fruit. they will stomp on it with their little. feet oh yeah to try and tenderize it a. little bit and then jab it with that. proboscis uh and drink it up and they've. done studies that have found that. um the fruit eaters live longer and are. better at reproducing in studies because.

they I think it was the monarchs even. they fed them either mashed banana or. sugar and the ones that ate the mashed. banana laid almost two times as many. eggs and those eggs were were bigger and. like more robust and vital as well yeah. I also read that they tend to be easier. going in social situations and are more. well liked by their peers the fruit. eaters yeah oh wow so um there's a.

couple other places that they can get. nutrients and minerals dung in urine. butterflies are not above that. um especially if they need it really. badly. um but the the when they're getting it. from a puddle it's called puddling. there's just so many great words around. butterflies and there's a specific word. for butterflies pollinating plants it's. called psychophily like psychophily but. with 1l okay specifically butterflies. pollinating plants is psychophily. I love that I thought you would I found.

that and I was like Chuck's gonna love. this uh the sexy stuff you mentioned. they you know butterflies love to try. and reproduce and they reproduce like a. lot of animals um they they join. themselves they join end to end at the. abdomen. I think the male has a uh like a class. clasps down on the female. uh to make sure they stay together and. um there is sperm from the male that is.

eventually going to fertilize the eggs. of a female but not like you would think. uh it's pretty remarkable because what. they do is they well first of all they. have to recognize each other like I said. using those antennae they recognize. themselves as the same species or. whatever and through their pheromones as. well which is also the antennae and then. the male delivers a spermatophore so. it's like hey I don't just have sperm. for you I've packaged it up in a in a. little package for you and it's got all.

these other minerals and nutrients that. you love that'll help you in this. fertilization process and they will take. extra time to get an extra good. spermatophore package ready to be an. extra attractive mate the the good ones. will. I'm not sure so. um the uh the the I guess the female. butterflies when they fertilize their. eggs they use the last sperm that um was.

inserted to them the last spermatophore. package yeah so there are some species. where the male will. um basically close up shop after he's. inserted his spermatophore with kind of. like a sticky substance that prevents. more sperm from going in so his sperm is. the most recent sperm. yeah that's not very cool at all but I. guess that guy's also like you know what. am I doing giving you my spermatophore. if you're just going to use the latest. super metaphor that you got exactly I. went to a lot of trouble combining the.

spermatophore yeah like look at this. stuff look at all these minerals uh I. also saw that some of the males in some. species will spray them with an. off-putting scent so no other. butterflies will want them uh there are. mating dances that they'll do. and uh they you know when the female. gets this uh Square metaphor they put it. in their Bursa and then they wait until. they're ready to lay their eggs and they. actually lay the eggs first and then use.

the sperm to fertilize them once they. have laid the eggs which is also I think. pretty unusual in the insect Kingdom. right I I don't know for some reason I. had the impression that they were. fertilizing each egg as they were coming. out kind of like a Pez dispenser. yeah yeah that's what I mean though but. they're not like they're not fertilized. in the body I see what you're saying. they're fertilized externally yeah yeah. sure that's that's the word. um one other thing you talked about. terrible smells like turned up that.

there's some pheromones are Pleasant. smelling to humans. specifically let me tell you about the. green vein White. butterfly let's hear it it puts together. lemon oil for all intents and purposes. it has the same chemical composition as. lemon oil but it's the pheromone it. produces to attract a mate and I got to. tell you lemon oil is a pretty great. smell it would attract me too I love it. so if you ever smell a great veined. white during mating season you're gonna. smell some lemon oil.

uh the gestation periods about three. days and they lay anywhere from 10 to. 300 eggs uh in clusters over a two to. four week period oh wow it's that long. yeah it can't yeah two to four weeks wow. uh and these eggs you know they they lay. that many because it's tough for these. eggs to survive. um into adulthood uh they gotta be the. temperatures got to be just right. humidity's got to be just right they can. rot very easily if it's too wet.

um if it's not wet enough they're gonna. dry out and then of course there's all. those predators that are just dying to. eat those butterfly eggs they need to. find the Goldilocks zone with the. humidity for the eggs that's right they. do so um they also make sure that they. put the eggs on their baby's favorite. food which is a certain kind of plant. um they're they're butterflies are very. frequently indiscriminate pollinators. they just go from plant to plant but. there are also plenty of species that. are very plant specific and those are.

the ones where they will not only eat. that plant while they're they're. caterpillars they were probably born on. that same plant as well we used to have. a butterfly bush in our yard that was. those things get really big and out of. control yeah um kind of in a we have. sort of a wild garden anyway it's not. like a you know super manicured like. English type Garden it's it's kind of a. crazy fun Garden so it fit in the garden. and we had tons and tons of butterflies. but uh it went away and I don't know if. it was because I think some people.

um well I think it could be an invasive. species and a lot of people say like. don't plant the butterfly bush but we. had one for a while but don't now so. Emily may have taken it down for that. reason so the reason it's considered. invasive and harmful the butterflies is. it produces tons of nectar but it has no. value in um in supporting eggs or the. the life cycle of it other than nectar. for adults and so it's a distraction. from native plants that do provide not.

just nectar but also shelter and a place. to lay their eggs so it actually. disrupts the life cycle of local. butterflies even though it's a butterfly. bush and they love it it's actually bad. for them so I have to go cut down mine. after this. even if you have a lot of those natives. nearby like as a whole it's still bad. yes because it's a distraction because. it's so chock full of nectar that it. they go to that one instead and just die. off. well some distractions are okay right. like television. sure you could put a TV with an. extension cord out in your butterfly.

garden that's not going to harm them if. you have a butterfly bush you have to. chop it down I command you all right uh. they're really pretty though and it's. fun to see all the butterflies but yeah. I I get you in the but wait until you've. planted other plants which we'll talk. about and then you can chop down your. butterfly bush all right well let's take. a break or second break and we'll talk a. little bit more about uh what's going on. with the butterfly population and then. butterfly gardens right after this.

[Music]. uh okay well we talked already about the. monarchs and how they had been hit hard. from the illegal logging going on in.

Mexico in the mid. 2010s yeah and. um in general butterflies are doing okay. but there are some you know pesticides. and things like that I think. um one of the other big reasons besides. the logging for that migration of the. monarchs I think pesticides has killed a. lot of milkweed which I think the. monarchs love. um so pesticides are a big threat and. it's not like I'm just going to spray. this one little part of my garden like. pesticides in your garden.

in one part of your garden generally. means it's in most parts of your garden. yeah it travels very easily but on top. of that butterflies are extremely. sensitive to pesticides. so I don't know about herbicides but. definitely pesticides so if you're going. to plant a butterfly garden you want to. use natural pests defenses but that's a. big thing that's killing off butterflies. and bees too. yeah and then also we talked about it in. the last episode a lot of people think. of caterpillars as pests it's like oh. you ate some of my lettuce I'm gonna.

kill all of you. um that kills butterflies too they never. make it to be adult butterflies and you. just disrupted generations of of. butterflies that could have been so when. you put all that together humans have. not been super good for butterflies did. you mention urbanization in roads too. no those are a problem like any time we. build somewhere we destroy plants and. those often are butterflies or that's a. butterfly habitat and then the roads. that we have.

um the marginal land alongside of the. roads are often like great places for. butterfly Centric. um plants to grow but that means that. the butterflies are very close to cars. that are going 70 80 miles an hour which. is never good for the butterfly when. they come in contact with them so yeah. like I was saying humans have been kind. of bad for butterflies but fortunately. we're starting to wake up and and see. the value in butterflies goes beyond. like let's put that thing on a stamp. like there's there's more value to the.

butterfly than just its aesthetic Beauty. but that makes it plenty valuable in and. of itself. I wonder if butterflies and other. insects would ever uh if natural. selection would be such that they would. learn to fly higher than the height of. an average car sure I could see that but. then they run into semis and there's. like it's going to take Millions more. years to get higher than a semi yeah. that's a good point maybe they'll figure. out how to fly under cars very quickly.

okay yeah. uh collecting butterflies is Believe It. or Not Another thing that has hit the. butterfly population. um butterfly collecting butterflies is a. thing uh hunting butterflies and putting. them behind glass in your office uh is a. thing that some people are really into. and I don't know a lot about that but I. do know that. um. that there are certain species that are. endangered and part of the problem is.

over collecting yeah and the more rare a. butterfly species gets the more. desirable it is for collectors and the. more collecting harms that population. because it's so small. but the worst kind. yeah and I imagine we'll hear from some. collectors who. who can tell us that there are. responsible ways of doing this I really. don't know enough about it to speak to. it but I'm not going to click. butterflies that's all I'm going to say. um yeah I wonder if it's one of those.

things like Ivory where it's like okay. this happened this is done like these. things are are out there. um and we're not just gonna throw them. away that's an even bigger waste oh. right so like antique ivory or antique. taxidermied butterflies are legal but. anything new is illegal I wonder if it's. treated like that or what but I get the. impression that butterflies don't have. that much legal protection. um I think they do on paper but it's. very rarely enforced yeah.

I guess if you find one in the ground or. something that's uh you have that for. your collection. sure. not signing on a rock but you know dead. right sure it just fell over of old age. um should we talk about butterfly. gardens here at the end yeah because one. of the things people are doing are. saying like hey butterflies we got to. save these butterflies if we don't. things are going to go pear-shaped even. more and so people are starting to plant. butterfly gardens. yeah because I think you said they're a.

big indicator of uh like if butterflies. are dying off all around you that's a. big indicator of how your local. ecosystem is doing in large part they're. the canary in the coal mine yeah exactly. um and butterfly gardens are beautiful. and it doesn't take a lot you need some. some plants uh and you're going to want. plants well you're going to want to find. out what kind of butterflies you have. around you that's the big one uh you can. look with your eyeballs and then. cross-reference or you can just look it. up on the internet and then you want to. find out what kind of plants those. butterflies love that are native to your.

area and plant those Chuck when I was. researching this all I wanted to do was. be done with this episode so I can go. Garden. though I love that Emily's gardening I'm. looking at him right now man she's. gardening outside pound on your window. and tell her I'm jealous of her. we got I uh I put it on my Instagram I. don't know if you saw it but you uh we I. saw a huge uh well it's not that big but. a hornet's nest uh in our backyard. yesterday that is the coolest most. beautiful thing.

um kind of tucked in a magnolia Branch. about only four feet off the ground. uh and I'm glad I saw it because I was. about to go do some uh trimming of my. boxwoods right behind it uh in a few. days and it is I would have bumped right. into that thing so oh boy uh now we're. just gonna steer clear of it uh until it. is out of season and then hopefully try. and preserve it but uh Hornet's nests. are so cool looking uh and I just love. that we have one back there we got a. crazy backyard full of all kinds of. Critters does it look like a mummy's.

head sometimes it looks it looks like a. uh sort of a mommy's head but uh if it. was an alien mummy because it's like top. heavy and it looks like it has a little. mouth at the bottom you know their. little door yeah uh I'll send you the. picture it's cool yeah or I can just go. on Instagram like everybody else now you. get text privies thanks man. uh what else about the butterfly garden. you need water right yeah remember they. like to drink minerals from puddles so. if you have a little bit of water. dripping that forms a puddle in the soil.

that's definitely going to help them you. want rocks for them to Sun on yeah a big. one Chuck is you want to use native. plants I know you and Emily are like big. into that and I feel like people. including myself are really waking up to. just how bad for the local ecosystem. like non-native plants are and to use. native plants whenever you can when. you're when you're building a butterfly. garden it's crucial because even plants. within the same species can be harmful.

to butterflies yeah and I have an. example if you'll allow me sure so. butterflies in Florida and Georgia in. the Southeast in general I think are. very very keen on what's called. butterfly weed it's what monarchs love. it's that very tiny multi-flowered. orange flowered weed it's a type of. milkweed. okay yeah that's neat yes there's. another kind of milkweed called tropical. milkweed that does just fine in Florida.

and Georgia and the southeast too but. it's not native and the problem with. putting that in your Butterfly Garden in. the Southeast is that it blooms so late. into the season that butterflies will. keep reproducing and entire parts of the. population will freeze to death because. they've gone beyond their natural. reproductive window. and then furthermore when the. temperature drops a little bit they're. more susceptible to a specific kind of. protozoan parasite called OT or OE I.

can't remember. that they wouldn't otherwise be if they. were just on the the native milkweed. rather than the tropical milkweed so. like that's how much attention you. really should be paying to your. butterfly garden because you can. inadvertently harm them while you're. doing something you think is good for. them like putting a butterfly bush out. there everybody would think like that's. great I'm gonna put a butterfly bush out. and I can pretty much call myself Gandhi. from here on out Gandhi is a butterflies. but it turns out you're harming them so.

it's definitely something that you need. to take some research for but it's the. kind of research that it's like an. invitation to go like immerse yourself. in the natural world in all of the best. ways yeah boy that butterfly weed is. beautiful yes it is and it's native to. Georgia so you just plant it all you. like. you know what I'm gonna go tell Emily. like how this Butterfly Milkweed and she. can be like it's right behind you dummy. right but it's not only a food source. it's a it's like a place where monarchs. lay their eggs so you will have. butterflies like living in your garden I.

mean they'll fly to Mexico eventually. but they'll hang out there for a while. yeah I mean that's the cool thing about. the butterfly garden too if you if you. do it right then you're you're gonna. have butterflies in your yard and not. only that but butterflies are gonna like. word gets around and it'll become a. place for butterflies it'll become like. a Haven for butterflies and they don't. they don't generally I mean the ones who. migrate migrate but other than that you. could have you could have butterflies. families living their whole life back.

there in your backyard yeah and speaking. of backyards I've got a backyard a lower. part of my backyard is. kind of wild I keep it wild like I I. don't mow it very often and there's lots. of weeds and like little clovers and. stuff growing so I've yeah I've left it. there for the beads the birds and the. bees and all that and the butterflies. but I'm going full on man I'm going to. let oh yes it's going to be just Let It. Go all butterfly like up to your hips. butterfly stuff I cannot wait to go. Planet it's I'm really looking forward. to it because it's right it goes right.

up to the edge of some Woods too so. it's gonna be amazing yeah there's. something uh we really love like leaving. green spaces and making it an invitation. for animals you know like I got my Camp. up there in North Georgia and like all. of North Georgia is just being torn down. for neighborhoods and and or and you. know if you're a hunter that's fine. that's your thing I'm not into it and we. love that we have this acreage where. we're just like tell your dear buddies.

this to come to our land set up shop. here no one will be shooting you and. spread the word everybody we have we. have a safe space for all you Critters. out here yes except for humans because. it's also a most dangerous game type. setup you got going there huh well sure. on the weekends yeah right. um let's see one more thing about. butterflies there's an amazing fact that. I think we can end on how about that. Let's Do It. um they're frequently cited as inspiring.

the discovery of the RH blood factor. which is a type of subtype of blood. types. and it actually cured what's known as. rhesus hemolytic disease which is where. a baby has a positive RH blood type and. is born from a mother with a negative RH. blood type and its immune system starts. attacking its blood not good but the. Discover of the RH blood Factor his name. is Sir Cyril Clark and he was big time.

into butterflies and he was inspired by. the butterfly's ability to mimic other. butterflies. genetically that they have these what. are called super genes these big. clusters of genes that all produce this. mimicry and that were refined by smaller. genes over time and he was like I wonder. if that has to do with blood types and. diseases and in fact it was oh wow yeah. so butterflies super useful super. beautiful. go cut down your butterfly bush today. amazing uh Chuck said amazing so that.

means it's time for listener mail. everybody. I'm gonna call this um. our influence on Spotify perhaps. uh hey guys I was wondering uh wondering. if you're aware of your potential impact. on Spotify searches on the Millie. Vanilli episode Josh mentioned the song. Owner of a Lonely Heart by yes being the. best song of the 80s and in my head I'm. like I'm not sure what that song is but. I said it out loud and immediately the. chorus popped into my head so I go over.

to listen to it later on Spotify I see. that a ton of covers for it and I see. Millie Vanilli is also in the search. results which was going to be my next. search so I think you guys may have had. enough people searching Owner of a. Lonely Heart and Millie Vanilli close. together so that the algorithm. Associated those two that's awesome. because other than the time period it's. not similar music you know no I would. say not uh maybe do a test to mention. two unrelated songs or something to see.

what happens. oh boy. uh should we try it. yeah let's mix Sabbath and you pick the. other one. okay so Black Sabbath name a song. specifically War Pigs. okay War Pigs hey everybody if you. haven't heard War Pigs you should go. search it on Spotify give it a listen. it's a great song. and while you're at it uh. I don't know if you've ever heard Barry. manilow's Oh Chuck I was going to.

suggest Barry Manilow. I did well I had a 50 50 chance there uh. I don't know if you've ever heard the. Barry Manilow song uh um even now but. it's a classic Barry Manilow song and uh. everyone should just go search those two. on Spotify so War Pigs and even now by. Black Sabbath and Barry Manilow let's. see what happens let's see what happens. that was a great experiment who was that. from that was uh from uh Corey and I. just wanted to give Corey's do um side. note saw you guys uh for the Andre the.

Giant live in Chicago episode. um I also so I saw Josh's into the world. live in Chicago uh when you tour that. your uh your short series it was so. great. um and I really enjoy that uh Josh. walked by on his way in when we were. outside and patted my friend Sam on the. shoulder. and he's definitely mentioned that. several times since then oh that's. awesome so that's from Corey and uh you. patted Sam on the shoulder and I think. that men want to say yeah thanks for. coming to see me Sam and Corey it was a.

fun show actually. uh let's see if you wanna let us know. how this experiment pans out Corey's. experiment is what we're gonna call it. uh Corey's Choice how about that. love it. um no let's call it uh. [Music]. Corey's song rather than Brian's Song oh. okay okay uh no Corey can wait. uh perfect okay. um so oh no but how about Corey's in. charge okay that's a good one that's. perfect we're gonna end on that uh if.

you want to let us know how the Corey's. in charge experiment goes but we'd love. to hear from you you can send us an. email to stuffpodcast iheartradio.com. [Music]. visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts. or wherever you listen to your favorite. shows. foreign. [Music].