Attracting Floating Tapestries—Part 2
Greetings Earthling! Beautiful and a very important pollinator too!
Okay, so we covered providing a sunny, sheltered site with lots of host plants for the caterpillars and nectar-producing plants for the butterflies in our Part 1 post. What else do you need? The rest of this stuff is all bonus for our butterfly friends…
FACT—There are about 700 species found in North America and about 100 in Illinois.
"Do you like my hat? Butterfly not included." All of the pictures in this post (with the exception of Mr. Caterpillar) are compliments of Jim Frazier--one of Cantigny's Volunteer Photographers...Thanks Jim!
Ingredient number 5: provide a “Puddling” spot. What the heck is that you may ask? Well, butterflies need to access moisture by extracting it—but not from open water. You might have seen them gathering on a dirt or gravel road in a damp area where they are sipping up minerals and water. This is called puddling. So to mimic this you can use a shallow container or bury a bucket to the rim and fill with sand and gravel. You can then pour in various liquids depending on the time of the year. Water is fine at anytime of the year but, if you want to get really fancy you can add sweet drinks, or stale beer. Yumm-oh! One of their personal favorites is overripe fruit! Rotting bananas and grapes are especially attractive for early spring fliers as well as honey, molasses or syrup—these can be smeared on a rock or fence post. Maybe you’ve seen this in action at a butterfly conservatory, eh?
FACT: Most butterflies live 10-20 days. Some as short as 3-4, others such as overwintering Monarchs, can live 6 months.
Another plus to attract butterflies is to back off on your use of chemicals in your yard. Limited or no chemical use is ingredient number 6 and very important to our little friends. Use mulch instead of weed killer. Prune out a diseased branch instead of spraying. Swab soapy water on nefarious insects instead of using insecticides. Or, just have some tolerance for a bit of imperfection in your garden. The butterflies will smile in your honor. Also, if you have ever used Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) as a “safe” means to control caterpillars, don’t forget that butterflies in their larval stage are caterpillars too!
Swallowtail caterpillar on bronze fennel--photo compliments of Jack Bannister
FACT: Their proboscis (like a tongue) is like a double straw!
One more ingredient and you’re pretty well set—try to water at ground level (soaker hoses are helpful here). Sprinklers can wash eggs, pollen and caterpillars off of plants. It also limits the amount of time butterflies have to “get to” the flowers.
FACT: Butterflies “feet” or tarsi, have a sense of taste similar to a taste bud; when they come in contact with nectar, their proboscis uncoils.
Hawkmoth--sometimes people confuse this creature with a hummingbird--but he's much slower AND he's got antennae!
Combine all of your ingredients together. Add in a healthy dose of patience. Serves: Monarchs, Black and Tiger Swallowtails, Admirals, Viceroys, Morning Cloaks, Painted Ladies and Frittilaries. A very nice complementary addition to this recipe is a great butterfly identification book from your local library.
Monarch on Butterfly Bush
Enjoy with kids—yours or someone else’s. It’s a good way to get them interested in gardening period. Let them create and care for their own butterfly container garden. Raising caterpillars can be educational and fun too. The butterflies emerge from the chrysalis and can be released back into your own yard. See resources below.
www.monarchwatch.org
www.butterfliesandmoths.org
www.naba.org North American Butterfly Association
www.chias.org Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago, IL
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I love to watch them flutterby!
ReplyDeleteNice post. Man, that's some photographer too. ;-)
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