How one Florida family shook up their yawn of a lawn and created a certified wildlife habitat.

Not long ago, in a small suburban backyard in Florida, three little boys were stunned into silence. Their eyes fixed on the same point. The quiet was interminable: perhaps 0.8 seconds. Then Davis yelped, "We're rich!" "We've struck gold!" hollered Lucas. "That's gotta be worth a thousand bucks!" roared Bernardo.

The object that held them rapt was a luminous green monarch butterfly chrysalis (or pupa) studded with gold filigree. Davis is used to finding such treasure in his backyard because it serves as an oasis for small mammals, birds, lizards, frogs, fish, and, yes, butterflies. The place is so inviting that the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) designated it a "backyard wildlife habitat," one of 60,000 across the country.