Sunday, April 27, 1997

Butterflies becoming big business

By CHRISTINE LAUE

Harte-Hanks News Service

SWINNEY SWITCH - At the Homeyers' butterfly ranch, another monarch opens its crumpled wings for the first time.

For several hours, it slowly pumps its damp wings and ascends the white mesh sides of the cage, leaving its soft shell on the cage floor.

For now, its home is Michael's bedroom, where a stuffed dog and Oscar the Grouch are reminders of the teen-ager who died four years ago.

But life has filled this room again, as another caterpillar becomes the latest addition to Michael's Fluttering Wings Butterfly Ranch.

What began for Bethany Homeyer as a way of coping with her son's death has evolved into a full-time business, booming because of a recent trend - butterfly releases at weddings, funerals and parties.

Because Bethany and her husband, Reese, have one of a handful of butterfly businesses in Texas, the bulk of their business comes from Houston, Reese said. They do have out-of-state customers, thanks to the growing popularity of butterfly releases and the couple's home page on the World Wide Web.

Based in their modest ranch-style home south of the Live Oak County community of Swinney Switch, the couple can serve far-away customers by placing the butterflies in envelopes that resemble tiny origami paper hats, boxing them up and overnighting the packages.

The butterflies enter a sleep state and arrive without injury - a must for the Homeyers, who know firsthand how delicate life is, Bethany said.

Michael was going to a dance Dec. 4, 1993, with his girlfriend and a couple he'd met for the first time that night.

"I was sitting right here that night when he left," Bethany said, sitting at the kitchen table and looking out the sliding glass door. "I can remember him walking out that door."

The 18-year-old had graduated in May 1993 from George West High School, where he played baseball, and was living at home while attending Bee County College. He was the last of the couple's eight children living at home.

Bethany and Reese were awakened by a phone call at 3:20 a.m. Dec. 5.

Because they did not rear their children around alcohol and Michael had promised he never would drink and drive, they were shocked to hear that Michael had been in an alcohol-related accident.

Michael, a passenger in his new friend's car, climbed on top of it as it traveled down a country road at 65 mph, Bethany said. He was "surfing" the car, when he fell off, she said. He later died from neck injuries.

His blood-alcohol level was .20, twice the legal limit. The driver of the car pleaded no-contest to a driving-while-intoxicated charge in exchange for probation, Bethany said.

For months, Bethany had extreme difficulty dealing with Michael's death. As she'd done before he died, she prayed.

"I didn't have the strength," she recalled. "I told him, 'God, this one's up to you."

The summer after Michael died, Bethany, a nature-lover, stumbled upon articles and books about butterflies. Her curiosity grew the more she read.

In April 1996, she flew to Philadelphia for a daylong seminar on beginning butterfly farming. Reese remembers how Bethany's new interest began to heal her.

"I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world because I could see her eyes light up," Reese said.

Bethany would read anything she could get her hands on and talk with anyone about butterflies, she said.

"It really gave me peace," she said. "Maybe it gave me something to focus on."

The Homeyers selected their first livestock - caterpillars - from a catalog out of California. Two months after the seminar, about 60 painted lady caterpillars arrived in clear cups through the mail.

They went through their whole cycle, spinning their chrysalises - the butterfly equivalent of moths' cocoons - and emerged as butterflies.

The Homeyers then had confidence to break into the biz of butterfly breeding. Other butterfly businesses generally call themselves butterfly farms; the Homeyers call theirs a ranch because they are in Texas.

A butterfly can live one to two weeks in the wild, if predators, such as birds or ants, don't get it first.

Because many butterfly populations are in danger from parasites, viruses or destroyed habitat, the Homeyers are helping restore the environment with healthy butterflies, they said.

Part of the appeal of butterfly releases, they said, is that they are eco-friendly.

The Homeyers' fees are largely based on the cost of growing a garden lush in caterpillar and butterfly food, such as parsley and dill for caterpillars and bedding plants for butterflies.

Though far from being millionaires, the Homeyers were able to trade in their hard hats for garden hoes. They quit their jobs in Corpus Christi after the business was up and running.

Six months ago, Bethany's sister, Karen Silver of Tampa, Fla., called and told her to fetch Michael's funeral program, which Bethany hadn't seen since the funeral. Bethany refused, and then Silver said the cover of the program was a monarch butterfly resting on a flower.

"It was like a reinforcement" from God, Bethany said. "He's put this in my life. He's given me something else. I know what I'm doing is right."

If you can grow it, Texans will

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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