Top things to do in St. Maarten / St. Martin: visit The Butterfly Farm

By Kerry Biddle on 15th August, 2017

Planning your vacation to St. Maarten / St. Martin and looking for amazing experiences and things to do on your holiday? The Butterfly Farm is the perfect outing for all the family, with gorgeous gardens bustling with colorful butterflies to stroll through and fascinating talks on how to grow your own butterflies at home.

Butterfly Farm

Monarch Butterfly Photo Credit: The Butterfly Farm

From brilliantly colored butterflies straight out of a fairy tale, to catatonic caterpillars ready to go into stasis, to the rather dully cloaked cocoons in their invisibility camo gear – the magic of nature all under one net.

The dizzy antics of butterflies high on sugar and the lolloping flight of the Giant Atlas Moth as it hauls its great size off in search of a mate, create a fascinating tableau of movement and color on the wing. No matter where the eye falls there is something to arrest the attention in the netted in microclimate created especially with butterflies and moths in mind. Specific plants are grown to feed specific caterpillars and bushes and plants with nectar-bearing flowers are grown for the butterflies. The combination of plant and butterfly create a magic world of color and tranquility.

Special boxes have been built to house cocoons, or pupae. The fragile-looking pupae are carefully pinned up with pins in these special boxes to keep them cool in the shade and misted occasionally to keep them from drying out. There are as many different kinds of pupae as there are butterflies and moths, with the biggest pupa looking like some brown, furled leaves. Some of them had gold on them, like the Monarch Butterfly pupae, which is particularly fascinating as it is such a rare color in nature.

Butterfly Farm

Blue Morpho Photo Credit: The Butterfly Farm

After a fun and informative tour in either English or French, a cool drink from the cafeteria will round off a thoroughly enjoyable visit.

To find out more about the Butterfly Farm click HERE

Fancy some more vacation inspiration? Check out this post on 9 great activities for kids to do on St. Maarten / St. Martin.