Monarchs, for instance, will only chow down on milkweed. Each day, hundreds of butterflies and pupae are shipped out on overnight mail. Pupae are shipped in boxes cushioned in toilet paper. Regular customers include the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Cleveland Zoo and the Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg. A popular use of the butterflies is having guests release them outside a church after a wedding, replacing the throwing of rice or releasing doves, which some churches have banned.
Some families also order butterflies for release at a cemetery during funerals.
Funerals are the hectic thing. On occasion, the Greathouses wrangle butterflies for movies and television commercials, although it can be a daunting task to get the butterflies to perform on cue. Greathouse got the idea to go into the business while raising the insects for his fifth-grade science classes in Gainesville. He and his brother Dan captured their original breeding stock right on the farm. Over the years, the operation has expanded into what Greathouse claims is the largest butterfly farm in Florida.