Milford Butterfly House

If you’re a butterfly enthusiast but find it hard to chase these winged jewels in wild places, the Butterfly House at Milford Nature Center near Junction City is the place for you. The spacious, natural environment, ADA-accessible and easy to visit for any age, provides close-up encounters with some of Kansas’ best-loved and most colorful insects. Natural food plants add to the beauty and discovery about how butterflies live their lives. Vanessa Avara, Assistant Director of the Milford Nature Center, tells about the exhibit. “The Butterfly House is always popular with the kids, and we have a lot of people that are regulars who come out here on a maybe once-a-week basis and sit in there and just let the kids look around and enjoy the butterflies. We have a lot of school groups and camps during the summertime that come and visit, so we’ve got a pretty good visitation. “We have monarchs, black swallowtails and giant swallowtails this year for the first time. And usually we have some painted ladies. We stick to the native species because that’s what Milford Nature Center is about, the native wildlife in Kansas, so we don’t do a lot of exotic species in our butterfly house, we just to the native stuff.” Butterfly larvae and pupae are raised in a controlled, indoors environment to prevent ants and fungi from destroying the butterfly stock population. As soon as they hatch, butterflies are released into the roomy flight area where they are accessible for study and great photography opportunities. Be sure to bring your camera to the Butterfly House. The structure, replaced and re-sized earlier this year, is now more conducive to natural butterfly flight. The screened exhibit allows natural air conditions, but it does utilize shade screens to lower light levels to comfortable viewing conditions. This also makes it slightly cooler. The Butterfly House is another way that Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism provides a connection with the outdoors. It should offer good viewing with lots of butterflies through mid-September. Make it part of your late summer travel plans, and check out the live animal displays and indoor Nature Center while you’re there. I’m Mike Blair for Kansas Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism.