Can butterflies suck out our organs, like our stomach or something?

Question

My friend is afraid of butterflies because someone told her that butterflies can suck out our organs. Silly right? I don't believe it but i was just wondering if this was true.

Answer 1

Buttterflies are beautiful and absolutely harmless.

Answer 2

no, butterflies can harm you not. Only be careful when touching its wings.. 'coz there's a powdered-like on its wings. If you have it on your fingers or hands after you touched the butterflies' wings, be careful not to touch your eyes before washing it coz it cud irritate your eyes..

Answer 3

Sigh...

Answer 4

... That's kind of weird. Who told her that? Obviously someone wanted to make a joke and eh, maybe she misunderstood. No, butterflies can't suck out our organs. I love butterflies, I used to play with them in my back yard during winter. Winter's nice in Cali, all the good animals come around. :P Anyway, yeah. No, butterflies can't suck anything out.

Answer 5

No

Answer 6

Butterflies are harmless, but there is a phobia known as Lepidopterophobia (fear of butterflies and moths).

As with any phobia, the victim can be desensitized by a structured program of increasing exposure.  If the program is followed diligently, recovery is approx. 94%

Answer 7

That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.  Wonder where she/he got that from?

LauraO is wrong.  It is not even "half" true.  Some butterflies do feed on the fluids of an occasional dead animal, but that is   NOT their normal diet.  They also drink water out of the mud beside lakes or streams, but mud is not their food either.  And, even if they wanted to, which they do NOT, their long tongues are no where near long enough to reach inside a person or animal to its stomach.

Butterflies and Moths are the most harmless insects on the planet.  They couldn't hurt you if they wanted to.  Their mouth parts consist of a long, curled, proboscis (tongue) which they use to suck up flower nectar.  Even the biggest butterflies or moths cannot cause any kind of pain, especially to a human.

They are wonderful, fascinating creatures, and are a great benefit to our planet.  They bring beauty and grace and elegance into our lives.  How dull would be a world without butterflies.

Answer 8

Actually I have to say this is half true, lol. There are butterflies that feed off of dead animals, fish and worms, usually after death. One in particular is the Harvester Butterfly. But, no way in the world could it pierce through your body and suck out your stomach unless we have mutant radio-active butterfly harpies running around.. correction flying around.

Quote from a website

"Butterflies and moths can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis, which is a long, flexible "tongue." This proboscis uncoils to sip food, and coils up again into a spiral when not in use. Most butterflies live on nectar from flowers. Some butterflies sip the liquid from rotting fruits and a rare few prefer rotting animal flesh or animal fluids (the Harvester butterfly pierces the bodies of woolly aphids with its sharp proboscis and drinks the body fluids). "