Zane Greathouse started Greathouse Butterfly Farm ten years ago. Zane was a fifth grade teacher and believed children learn best with "hands-on" experiences.

It wasn’t hard to come up with materials for his earth and physical science lessons, but it was difficult to come up with live animals for life science. Zane wanted each student to have his or her own animal rather than share the token guinea pig in the back of the class. His students learned life science while studying insects. The Florida Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America honored him for his teaching. He began sharing his insect lessons with other teachers through a seminar entitled There Are Bugs In My Classroom! He provided butterfly pupae and larvae to teachers across the state of Florida at no charge. Eventually Zane began to get requests from exhibitors who wanted one hundred or more pupae a week.

Zane put one and one together and decided to become a butterfly farmer. After hours of thoughtful consideration and discussion, he designed a business plan. Greathouse Butterfly Farm, Inc. was born and has grown to be one of the largest butterfly farms in North America. The Butterfly Farm produces 45+ species of Florida native butterflies and supplies butterflies to exhibitors all across North America.

Greathouse Butterfly Farm is truly a family farm. Zane and his daughter, Ana, work together to make the Butterfly Farm a magical place to visit. The Butterfly Farm is located in a pecan grove that Zane’s grandfather planted. These pecan trees are almost a hundred years old and are still producing yummy pecans.

Greathouse Butterfly Farm, Inc. is located in North Central Florida just 15 miles east of Gainesville. Zane and Ana raise live butterflies for exhibitions, releases, movies, educators and sell and ship butterflies and butterfly pupae to customers all across North America. Every year, our farm receives many visitors who come to tour the farm, see the exhibit with its beautiful butterflies and take classes. Greathouse Butterfly Farm also has traveling butterfly exhibits, which we take all over the Southeastern United States so that we can share our love and knowledge of butterflies with others.