I was thinking peaches and plums...any suggestions?
TIA :)
Susan
What are the best fruit to put out for butterflies?
Nevermind folks...I just found out by purchasing a butterfly feeder :)
Butterfly feeder? Do tell what you bought - most of the butterfly feeders sold in stores don't work well - is it like a hummingbird type feeder that uses nectar or something you can put cut up fruit in?
Butterflies out here enjoy a variety of fruits - we've used bananas, grapes, cherries, peaches, pears, pineapple, mangos, papayas, oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, watermelon, melon, strawberries, mulberries and pretty much any fruit that is sweet - the more overripe the better.
I have photos on my gardening blog showing butterflies that frequent fruit, mudpuddles, scat and such.
~ Cat
To see the photos - click on my screen name to the left of this post - then scroll down to "Actions" and then click on the link for" Read TexasPuddyPrint's Garden Diary" - there is a blog called 'Butterflies that enjoy fruit, brew, scat, mud and re-hydrated upchuck' :o)
This message was edited Jul 19, 2009 11:23 PM
Hello Cat,
I found out after just one afternoon, all the peach slices I left on top dried out in one afternoon. Looks like I'll be going through a lot of fruit...Geeeesssh. Any suggestions?
I posted pics/info about the feeder I got here in this thread...
http://www.network54.com/Forum/444667/thread/1247938385/last-1247967667/What+fruit+are+attractive+to+butterflies-
I'll check your blog...Thanks :)
Susan,
That is a pretty feeder :o) Looks like the kind I've seen in butterfly conservatories. Any dish or tray or piece of wood will do the trick.
During these hot days of 100+ temperatures everything dries out quickly. You might try putting in near a tree where it will be partly shaded.
~ Cat
Some pretty pics on that forum and the blog!
I guess I don't quite understand your BF feeder. susan....? Do you put nectar in the clear plastic pan and then somehow the BFs can slurp it up? Can't quite tell from the pic.
(The only BF feeders I know about are the kind with the 'scouring pad' soaked in nectar placed in a dish. Or putting fruit out on a hanging plate, or smearing BF 'concoctions' on a log, and those sorts of things... )
I'm ready to try something new though. My 'feeders' never seem to attract anything...
There is a type of butterfly that adores rotting fruit. They especially seem to like watermelon rinds - set out a watermelon rind on your compost heap or in a corner of the yard and just leave it alone for a while. As it begins to ferment, the butterflies will show up. This past week, I saw them even hanging around my onions that were curing! I don't know what they are, I never see them except around melon rinds or under fruit trees.
Tina
OK. I set out some watermelon. I notice I have some peaches that have 'gone over' that I can put out also. Now we shall wait and see!
Getting really into this, next I moistened some mushroom compost and put that out for the BFs.
I remember a wonderful thread on DG showing some of the BF gardeners 'logs' and 'dishes' where they placed their 'concoctions' for the BFs. Can't seem to find it right now.
At the moment I can't recall which of our butterflies like the compost mixtures. Maybe hackberrys? or Mourning Cloaks? I am sure someone can confirm that.
Tabasco,
At that link, in that other forum, I gave another link which brings you directly to the manufacturer...and a close up pic with the descriptions...how to's etc.
It has about 40 holes on top for the butterflies to slurp up sugar water which I make anyway for the hummingbird's feeders...so I put some in this to.
Tina,
I wish you knew which butterfly it is...we may or may not have the same variety here...
Cat, I just read your diary with all the lovely photos. Are those all from your area? This may sound goofy, but how do you keep the caterpillers from eating all your plants? The Monarchs completely ate all my dill, and the Gulf Fritallarys nearly killed my newly-planted Passion Flower this year.
SusanLouise, I will look and see if I can find it. We had them in Oklahoma when I was a child. I never got over the wonder of seeing an entire flock of butterflies! LOL!
Tabasco, I hope it works for you. :-)
Tina
well this went faster than I thought it would! I think it may be the Hackberry Emperor:
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/images?l=1830
This is a nice site: do a "Map Search" to get to your immediate area, then sort by "Phylogenetic Order" to get them separated enough to make sense of.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/map?sf=Taxonomy&si=44&dc=5654&_dcc=1
Tina
Papapablo,
I'm scratching my head...LOL
I bought and planted all the host plants for the butterflies to devour. Thankfully, all but two are large enough to sustain many caterpillars. I'm still waiting for the Virginia Snakeroot and the Cassia Hebecarpa to get larger before any lady butterflies lay eggs on them...crossing fingers. Those are the only 2 that will be eaten up rather quickly by one or two cats.
I can only suggest buying/planting/sowing more of whichever plants are vanishing completely...if not this year, you can plan ahead for next year.
BTW, that would be great if you can find the butterfly!!!! :)
This message was edited Jul 21, 2009 2:01 PM
Tina,
All the butterflies in my garden diary are from here - we get about 320 different species. I've only raised a few and have yet to photograph all of them - am still waiting for the rare strays from Mexico and Central America :o) I have other butterfly photos on community webshots website - and I'll eventually add them to my garden journal on Dave's.
Rule #1 of butterfly gardening - you can never have too many larval host plants :o)
I plant lots of larval host plants so that the butterflies will lay eggs on them and well, the caterpillars will eat them. Caterpillars don't even make a dent in the big trees like the citrus, ash and guava etc. The smaller plants like milkweed usually gets eaten to the stem but I have lots of it growing in my yard. Also have several different species of passion vines that the Gulf Frits don't particularly use so that keeps me and the Zebra Longwings, Mexican Silverspots and Julia Dryas butterflies happy. I have plenty of passion vines in my yard and some are huge - caterpillars don't make a dent in those. I don't raise Gulf Frits because they are so abundant so Mother Nature takes her course. I can get dill, rue, parsely and fennel at local nurseries and flea markets when the ones I have in the ground start to look sparse. The extra plants give the ones in the ground time to put out new growth.
If all else fails I'll gather up caterpillars and relocate them to one of the butterfly parks - we have plenty of parks here.
If all you get is the Hackberry Emperor where you live then that really narrows it down. Out here we get Hackberry Emperor, Empress Leilia and Tawny Emperors which are similar looking :o)
~ Cat
This message was edited Jul 21, 2009 2:08 PM
Thanks, Susan, I will take another look at the links for more info.
From this link, It looks like you have many of the same butterflies in NE that we have in Ohio: http://www.lopers.net/student_org/NebraskaInverts/butterfiles/home.htm
and more on Nebraska butterflies: http://butterflywebsite.com/Articles/websourced/g1183.htm
Of course TX gets so so many kinds~~they are so lucky!
FYI This is a link to a fascinating book, "How to Spot Butterflies" by Patricia Sutton, that covers a lot of detail about which butterflies like which 'concoction'. It's kind of interesting: http://books.google.com/books?id=vDIdTyCp9QEC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=scat+butterflies&source=bl&ots=7Wwj5-OGFZ&sig=UmRhmkU5Yaxltv87zcT_k9JPoe8&hl=en&ei=7BxmSo37CIHgMfrR8KUB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3
They say that Red Admirals, White Admirals, Red-spotted purples, angel wings, leaf wings, emperors and wood nymphs like to 'nectar' on skat. Red admirals, question marks and eastern commas can be found on tree sap.
I'm going out tomorrow and 'bait' some of our trees along the woods.
Lots of butterflies frequent scat - whodathunk something so beautiful would go slumming to that extent! LOL :o)
Will admit I have a coffee can in the back of the golf cart - when I'm puttering around the back roads at the ranch I'll put scat I find in it - then I'll pile it all in one spot and re-hydrate it to see what will show up for the poo fest :o)
~ Cat
Cat,
Enjoyed your blog/diary entries...and all the pics, info about scat and butterfly brew. I'll have to try the brew...probably after I go grocery shopping at the end of the week...and will have to add the bananas and other ingredients to the list :)
Tabasco,
Thanks for the links! Big Sad sigh...We've already surpassed the # of butterflies on that list. We are still waiting on our 1st Common Buckeye, Pearl Cresent and the 'Black Form' Tiger Swallowtail...all of which visited our gardens last year.
We're hoping for more surprise/rare visitors like the Regal Fritillary. If the CB, PC, and the 'Black Form' TS stop for a visit, then we'll be up to 28 butterflies...so far the count has just hit 25. Today we had a Spring Azure (another brand new visitor), a Peck's Skipper (a new variety for us) and an Eastern Tailed-Blue.
I'm getting hungry for more varieties...will probaby have to ask DH if we can move to TX where Cat is so we can see so many other varieties ;)
This message was edited Jul 22, 2009 8:11 PM
Silly me I forgot to add an "I Spy" pic from this afternoon...
We had our 1st visitor (a Red Spotted Purple) on our brand new butterfly feeder...WooHoo!!!!
This message was edited Jul 22, 2009 12:05 AM
Susan,
The Red Spotted Purple is one of the butterflies we don't get here so you can do the happy dance for me :o)
~ Cat
Tabasco, I got lots of Black Swallowtails, Commas & Question Mark BF's on watermelon rind last summer.
I put out bananas to and the Commas & QM's liked that too. This year something keeps eating my bananas at night! I have to many wild critters roaming here...LOL!
This message was edited Jul 23, 2009 9:16 AM
SusanLouise, You will have to give us all the details on your butterfly habitat (can u make a thread with photos?). I would love to know your secrets for attracting so many different kinds.
nanny, I put out 3 watermelon rinds but haven 't had any takers except a raccoon, of course. I am still watching, though.
Even though it is sunny and the garden is in full bloom we have just a few butterflies today. I think the cold spring did them in. )-: