you can actually hold them by their closed wings, very gently.
They seem to come in when the door is open and land on the ceiling or often in a cupboard. Is there a safe way to pick them up and remove them. The glass and card trick doesn't work well as they won't let go of the wall and I don't want to damage their wings. I would say I remove about 10 butterflies a year from the house, mainly from cupboards that they must fly into somehow and decide to hibernate for months at a time. Always the small red tortoiseshell. I've opened my bedroom cupboard to find 2 or 3 at a time and I've had them decide to start flying around in winter after being hidden for months.
