Help Required Please

[Lassie1970]

Hi

I have come to your forum looking for some advice please. A few days ago I found a lovely peacock butterfly in my garage at a window tangled in an old cobweb. It had obviously been struggling for some time as its wings were a little tattered. I managed to take it down, put it into a pop up butterfly tent and gently remove the majority of the web. It was very feisty and flew to the side. I noticed only its two front legs are free - the remainder are caught in further webbing. I decided to let it settle and hoped it would manage to free itself over time. My question is do I attempt to remove the webbing or am I risking further damage? I’m reluctant to release the butterfly in its current state and I believe a cold snap is also approaching. I’d appreciate any advice on this, many thanks, Lee-Ann

[David M]

Hi Lee-Ann, Peacock's are robust butterflies so you can hold it gently by the body while you use something like a needle to pull what's left of the cobweb away. Once the butterfly is able to fly it can be released outdoors. It isn't due to go cooler until next Wednesday by which time it will be able to roost away somewhere to ride out any poor weather.