Butterfly gardening
Encyclopedia
Butterfly gardening is a growing school of gardening
, specifically wildlife gardening
, that is aimed at creating an environment that attracts butterflies, as well as certain moths
, such as those in the Hemaris
genus. Butterfly gardening is often aimed at inviting those butterflies and moths to lay eggs as well. Because some plants are not fed upon by adult butterflies, the caterpillar
host
should also be planted for a bigger population of butterflies. Butterflies typically feed on the nectar of flowers, and there are hundreds of such plant
s that may be planted to attract them, depending on the location, time of year, and other factors. In addition to the planting of flowers that feed butterflies, other means of attracting them include constructing ¨butterfly houses¨, providing sand for puddling, water, and other resources or food items, including rotten fruit.
destruction and fragmentation, and they do not feed on the plants regularly found in gardens. Others may also help in tagging monarch butterflies, which helps scientists monitor the monarch population and their migratory routes.
, wasp
s, spider
s, bird
s, ant
s, true bugs
, and flies
in the Tachinidae
family. If these predators are becoming a problem, they can be controlled with traps rather than pesticides, which may also kill butterflies and their larva
e. There are also diseases that afflict butterflies, such as bacteria in the Pseudomonas
genus, the Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus
, and Ophryocystis elektroscirrha
, which only infects queen butterflies
and monarch butterflies.
In the absence of pesticides, aphid
s and true bugs may infest plants. Aphids can be controlled by releasing ladybugs and other biological pest control
agents that do not harm butterflies. Another method of control is by spraying the plants with water, or rinsing plants with a mild dish detergent/water solution (although caterpillars should be relocated before suds are applied). Scented detergents are fine, those containing Oxyclean should be avoided. The aphids will turn black within a day, and eventually fall off.
With small home butterfly gardens, it is common for the larvae to exhaust the food source before metamorphosis
occurs. Gardeners of Monarch butterflies will often replace the expended milkweed with a slice of pumpkin
, which serves well as a substitute source of food.
s, marigolds, poppies
, cosmos, salvia
s, some lilies, asters, coreopsis, daisies
, verbena
s, milkweed (especially for the Monarch butterfly, whose caterpillars feed solely on this plant), the butterfly bush (also called buddleia), zinnia
s, and others.
In addition to expanding the number of species seen in your yard, provide host plants that feed the caterpillars. This is just as important as planting flower beds with nectar-rich blooms.
Category: Lists of Lepidoptera by food
Category: Lists of butterflies
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
, specifically wildlife gardening
Wildlife gardening
A wildlife garden is an environment that is attractive to various forms of wildlife such as birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals and so on...
, that is aimed at creating an environment that attracts butterflies, as well as certain moths
Moths
Moths may refer to:* Gustav Moths , German rower* The Moths!, an English indie rock band* MOTHS, members of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats...
, such as those in the Hemaris
Hemaris
Hemaris is a Holarctic genus of sphinx moths, consisting of about 17 species living in the Holarctic, four of which fly in North and South America, three fly in Europe. Their main host plants are herbs and shrubs of the Dipsacaceae and Caprifoliaceae families...
genus. Butterfly gardening is often aimed at inviting those butterflies and moths to lay eggs as well. Because some plants are not fed upon by adult butterflies, the caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
host
Host (biology)
In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a parasite, or a mutual or commensal symbiont, typically providing nourishment and shelter. In botany, a host plant is one that supplies food resources and substrate for certain insects or other fauna...
should also be planted for a bigger population of butterflies. Butterflies typically feed on the nectar of flowers, and there are hundreds of such plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s that may be planted to attract them, depending on the location, time of year, and other factors. In addition to the planting of flowers that feed butterflies, other means of attracting them include constructing ¨butterfly houses¨, providing sand for puddling, water, and other resources or food items, including rotten fruit.
Reasons for Butterfly Gardening
Some people only like to look at the butterflies, while others like to take pictures as well. Others try to help the butterfly population by planting native plants which rare or threatened butterflies feed on. Done correctly, butterfly gardening can increase the populations of butterflies. Many butterflies are becoming less abundant as a result of habitatHabitat (ecology)
A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...
destruction and fragmentation, and they do not feed on the plants regularly found in gardens. Others may also help in tagging monarch butterflies, which helps scientists monitor the monarch population and their migratory routes.
Problems
Butterflies have many predators, including mantidsMantidae
Mantidae is the largest family of the order Mantodea, commonly known as praying mantises; most are tropical or subtropical. Historically, this was the only family in the order, and many references still use the term "mantid" to refer to any mantis. Technically, however, "mantid" refers only to...
, wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
s, spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s, bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s, true bugs
Hemiptera
Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...
, and flies
Fly
True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...
in the Tachinidae
Tachinidae
Tachinidae is a large and rather variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. There are over 1300 species in North America. Insects in this family are commonly called tachina flies or simply tachinids...
family. If these predators are becoming a problem, they can be controlled with traps rather than pesticides, which may also kill butterflies and their larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e. There are also diseases that afflict butterflies, such as bacteria in the Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas is a genus of gammaproteobacteria, belonging to the family Pseudomonadaceae containing 191 validly described species.Recently, 16S rRNA sequence analysis has redefined the taxonomy of many bacterial species. As a result, the genus Pseudomonas includes strains formerly classified in the...
genus, the Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus
Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus
The nuclear polyhedrosis virus which belongs to the sub group Baculoviruses is a virus affecting insects, predominantly moths and butterflies. It has been used as a pesticide for crops infested by insects susceptible to contraction...
, and Ophryocystis elektroscirrha
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha is an obligate, neogregarine protozoan that infects Monarch and Queen Butterflies. There are no other known hosts. The species was first discovered in Florida, around the late 1960s...
, which only infects queen butterflies
Queen (butterfly)
The Queen Butterfly is a North and South American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae with a wingspan of 2.75–3.25" . It is orange or brown with black wing borders and small white forewing spots on its dorsal wing surface, and reddish ventral wing surface fairly similar to the dorsal surface...
and monarch butterflies.
In the absence of pesticides, aphid
Aphid
Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions...
s and true bugs may infest plants. Aphids can be controlled by releasing ladybugs and other biological pest control
Biological pest control
Biological control of pests in agriculture is a method of controlling pests that relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms...
agents that do not harm butterflies. Another method of control is by spraying the plants with water, or rinsing plants with a mild dish detergent/water solution (although caterpillars should be relocated before suds are applied). Scented detergents are fine, those containing Oxyclean should be avoided. The aphids will turn black within a day, and eventually fall off.
With small home butterfly gardens, it is common for the larvae to exhaust the food source before metamorphosis
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation...
occurs. Gardeners of Monarch butterflies will often replace the expended milkweed with a slice of pumpkin
Pumpkin
A pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America...
, which serves well as a substitute source of food.
Butterfly-attracting plants
Research should be conducted as to what species are prevalent in your area, and what plants they prefer to nectar on. Depending on your zone, some butterfly attracting plants include: purple cone flowers (echinacea purpurea), yellow cone flowers, sunflowerSunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s, marigolds, poppies
Poppy
A poppy is one of a group of a flowering plants in the poppy family, many of which are grown in gardens for their colorful flowers. Poppies are sometimes used for symbolic reasons, such as in remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime....
, cosmos, salvia
Salvia
Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, with approximately 700-900 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. It is one of several genera commonly referred to as sage. When used without modifiers, sage generally refers to Salvia officinalis ; however, it is...
s, some lilies, asters, coreopsis, daisies
Bellis
Bellis is a genus of 15 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region and northern Africa. One species has been introduced into North America and others into other parts of the world.-Description:...
, verbena
Verbena
Verbena , verbenas or vervains, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 250 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the New World from Canada south to southern Chile, but some are also native in the Old...
s, milkweed (especially for the Monarch butterfly, whose caterpillars feed solely on this plant), the butterfly bush (also called buddleia), zinnia
Zinnia
Zinnia is a genus of 20 species of annual and perennial plants of family Asteraceae, originally from scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the American Southwest to South America, but primarily Mexico, and notable for their solitary long-stemmed flowers that come in a variety of bright...
s, and others.
In addition to expanding the number of species seen in your yard, provide host plants that feed the caterpillars. This is just as important as planting flower beds with nectar-rich blooms.
See also
- Butterfly zooButterfly zooA butterfly zoo, or butterfly house, is a zoo which is specifically intended for the breeding and display of butterflies. Some butterfly houses also feature other insects, spiders, scorpions, etc.- History :...
- ButterflyButterflyA butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
Category: Lists of Lepidoptera by food
Category: Lists of butterflies
External links
- Raise Live Butterfly Gardens
- http://www.7wells.co.uk/gardening-for-butterflies-bees-and-other-beneficial-insectsbyJan Miller-Klein
- How to plant a butterfly garden in 3 easy steps, Jessica Damiano
- Tutorial: Create Your Own Butterfly Garden, Somnath Pal Das (GreenCamp.in)
- The Butterfly Garden- GardenWeb forum with info on host and nectaring plants, photos, etc.
- Butterfly Gardener, North American Butterfly Association (NABA) Join NABA and you will receive this publication as part of your membership. In addition you will receive their excellent magazine, American Butterflies
- Butterfly Gardener's Guide, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Butterfly Gardening Habitat Program, NABA
- How to Create a Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden, Pat Sutton
- Recommended Plants to Attract Hummingbirds, Butterflies, & Moths, Pat Sutton
- photodharma butterfly page with butterfly photos and information on butterfly gardening