Return to story

Create a butterfly magnet

May 19, 2006 12:50 am

BUTTERFLIES ARE FUN to watch, and with a little planning a butterfly garden can add entertainment to your landscaping. During their life cycle, butterflies require nectar-producing plants for adults to feed on, and host plants where they lay eggs and the caterpillars will feed.

Flowers are what attract butterflies to gardens. Flower shape or arrangement, color and scent are three characteristics that have a role in attracting butterflies.

Color is a key part of attracting butterflies. Butterflies are attracted to groups or stands of plants that provide a mass of color. Because butterflies are nearsighted, a single plant may not produce enough color for them to see. Purple, yellow, pink, white, orange and red flowers all work well.

Most butterflies must land in order to feed. Butterflies feed by using a strawlike structure called a proboscis to sip nectar from plants. The shape and arrangement of the flowers should provide a good landing surface for butterflies. Asters provide good landing surfaces, for example, and salvia, morning glory, daylily and trumpet vine have tubular flowers with large amounts of nectar.

Butterflies use chemical receptors to detect fragrances in the air. Flower fragrances help attract butterflies to a flower garden. Flowers with strong sweet scents such as heliotrope, spicebush, butterfly bush and viburnum will help attract butterflies.

A butterfly garden should have a variety of nectar-producing plants that flower spring to fall, such as the butterfly bush and butterfly weed. Others include marigolds, black-eyed Susan, primrose, phlox, sedum, dandelion, goldenrod, aster, yarrow, honeysuckle, sunflowers, viburnum, lilac and zinnia.

The right location is also critical. The ideal butterfly garden will have six or more hours of sunlight and be protected from strong winds. The butterfly garden can be spread among different areas of your landscape as long as they're not too far apart.

Placing flat stones in an open area of the garden will provide a place for butterflies to bask in the sun to dry damp wings, warm their bodies and seek refuge from predators.

The landscape around your butterfly-attracting plants should provide shelter for the butterflies during harsh weather. Trees and rows of shrubs will serve the purpose.

Providing host plants for caterpillars helps attract adults. The function of the host plant is to provide a place for the adult to lay eggs and for the caterpillars to develop. Many species of butterflies have very specific host plant requirements. The monarch, for example, requires milkweed as the host plant for its caterpillars.

If you want to attract a specific butterfly, find out about its host plant requirements. Some host plants are considered weeds and may be undesirable in your garden. Maybe you could find an out-of-the-way place to put them.

Some common landscape plants found locally that are host plants for some species of butterflies include dogwood, spicebush, asters, daisy, willows, oaks, black cherry and elms.

Butterflies are often seen congregating around a puddle of water. Such "puddling" is done to obtain minerals and nutrients form the soil. You can create puddling areas by using a garden hose to create a mud puddle or by using a shallow pan buried in the garden area. Fill the pan with a mixture of one gallon of coarse sand and a half-cup of salt, and keep the mixture moist. But don't leave it long enough to become a mosquito breeding area.

The use of insecticides can harm your efforts. Using insecticides, even Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis ), to control insect problems can also kill butterflies and their caterpillars. Consider using biological controls, such as lady bugs, lacewings and praying mantises as your primary method of insect control. Remember, if you are successful at attracting butterflies, you may have caterpillars on landscape plants, so you'll need to accept any caterpillar damage. Caterpillars can be relocated to other host plants or other areas of the same plant when feeding damage in noticeable. Most plants will recover from minor defoliation.

For information about butterfly host plants, visit the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center's "Butterflies of Virginia" site at npwrc.usgs .gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/va/toc.htm. It include photos to help identify butterflies, habitat, range, caterpillar hosts and adult host plants.

There is still time to plan and plant a butterfly garden this year, but it may take more than one season for a butterfly garden to be successful.