I saw a thread that described a butterfly puddle but I can't for the life of me find it again. It was something about aquarium gravel in shallow receptacle and fish emulsion had to be added once a week. Can somebody remind this old, grumpy man where to find this thread?
Thanks,
Chuck
Butterfly Puddlin'
Chuck,
I did a search for the word *puddle* and came up with a few posts.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/search.php?forum=&search_text=puddle&limit=bbb&limit_poster=&Search=Search
Butterflies out here will land on any form of wet dirt, cow patties (or other dung) as well as rotting fruit. Back at the ranch you could find gobs of them on the ground where the cattle urinated. They really go for that salty eeky stuff!
~ Cat
This message was edited Mar 16, 2006 7:12 PM
sand, 1/2 tsp. salt and weekly capfull of fish emulsion moistened with water. Do not replace the salt because it stays in there. Karen
Regular table salt?
yes
Dear Karen,
Thanks for the recipe. I had forgotten it. I am going to save it now.
Thanks again,
Chuck
Happy St. Patrick's Day to Everyone!!!!
I just saw a California Sister puddling on the road (country private road) in front of our place! Being in a severe drought status, we don't often have anything out there to puddle in, but we got a little bit of precip this morning. The b-fly stayed still while I got a real good look, then swooped up our driveway and back down. Of course when I returned with the camera, it was gone!
This message was edited Mar 19, 2006 8:14 PM
TexasPuddyPrint,
I have never been that far sourth in Texas as Edinburg. However, a couple of my in-laws live there. I stood up for them at their wedding and someday we want to visit them there.
I grew up across the street from a dairy and when I was a lad, I used to visit my grandparents' dairy in the Ozarks. The puddling habits of butterflies doesn't surprise me at all. However, I think I will keep the recipe for the puddle with salt.
Have a nice day!!
Thanks,
Chuck
Dear Karen,
Thanks again for the method of butterfly puddlin'. After days of procrastination, I have finally put the puddle out. I used aquarium gravel instead of sand. It is not even dark yet but I have a feeling that the butterflies will take a while to visit this puddle.
Thanks,
Chuck
I'm so glad I found this thread and recipe. I had seen a "puddling stone and puddling food mix" in a catalog for about $35 and wanted to get it so much. I couldn't justify the expense but this is so easy and affordable. I'll be making this tomorrow morning! Many thanks,
Donna
The thread you are looking for is titled Quotations from a great butterfly garden article. (Last post April 3, 2006) See # 3 for a puddling place description. It's a great little article.
Dear Tangerine z6,
I looked at this puddlin place from Quotations from a great butterfly garden. What is mushroom compost? I think I have an idea but I would rather stick with the fish emulsion as I use it regularly as a fertilizer in my garden. I will let you know if it works and if you would let me know how the mushroom compost works, I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chuck
I don't think I would do that, having had fish (discus), all kinds of fish bacteria, etc are in the gravel. But mine were freshwater. Still, I think I would use unused sand or gravel. Karen
Chuck, I never seem to come across mushroom compost myself, but believe it is the soil that was used to grow mushrooms in. It's rich and delicious, I guess, if you're a butterfly.
Mushroom compost abounds in Kennett Square, Pa - in the Brandywine region southwest of Philadelphia near the Delaware border. If you google using some of the terms you might be able to find a mail order source. We drove by there about 10 days ago and there were lots of retailers.
HM
Giving their choices most all the winged beauties here hit the dog poo and or pee it makes you sort of shake your head when you see it. Also, if you put out a feeder like this one: http://www.gardeners.com/Butterfly-Beacon/default/17391.prd you can use sports drinks (the red flavors) in lieu of the mix they sell. Also, these are great because they will hold the fruit too! This is mine from last year with some old mushy peaches in it!
ldy - the dish is very pretty and I checked the link as well. The budget is about shot for a while...I'm thinking I might check out garage sales this summer for a similar dish and epoxy it to a stake and see how it goes. Peaches definitely better than dog poo. Thanks for posting the pic. HM
That's a great idea,Idy. Beautiful pic as well.
Crystal brings up a good question,but the biggest thing I worry about in my area are ants. Would leaving fruit out also attract ants?
Tee
I have really enjoyed this thread. I knew they always congregated around puddles of water where I had watered flowers. I will be making them a 'watering hole'.
As for bees and ants it really depends on the time of year. Early in the spring and most of the summer I don't have problems with any bees at all. Late in September the yellow jackets can get on the fruit but the dish isn't near any walking areas so if they are there it isn't a really big deal. With fruit I see very few ants, if I add gatorade to the dish the number of ants goes up, they like that just as much as they like the sugar water for hummingbirds! You could use any kind of shallow dish to put the fruit in, I have seen hanging plastic birdfeeders (looks like a big saucer) used like this!
HTH!
I bought a bird bath that looks like a pie plant at Lowe's last year. Hangs by chains. Never has been a great bird bath but I be it would be great to hang from a sassafras tree that is growing in my flower bed and fill with fruit or the brown sugar and dark beer mixture.
For now, since the budget is shot, I turned over a 8" pot and put a shallow terra cotta plate - 12" on top. I stuck it in the middle of the dill bed - when available - I will put the fresh fruit in or whatever other butterfly attractions and see how it goes. I found the pots hidden behind my peonies. HM
The Animal Planet did a show on Butterfly Gardening, and they did a puddling area (which could be easily modified). They dug a shallow hole, put in a plastic liner, filled it with sand (said ocean or salt-water sand would be fine - so I'm guessing sea salt would work with reg. sandbox sand), added water, and then a slurry of horse manure-compost (from local Home Depot, Lowes, etc) mixed with water, and added into the hole as well. The water was obviously not deep, and there were a few flat stones placed in the water for the butterflies to rest on while drinking. Flat pavers were put around the hole with pieces of watermelon flesh or other soft fruit for the butterflies to slurp from.
You could always use a shallow dish or trash-can top, buried in the ground instead of making a hole. And I would put the fruit in a dish with water to discourage ants, but the fruit wouldn't be something you would want to leave out overnight anyway....
Although I haven't had many butterflies yet this year, and got started with the idea too late last year...but anyways, I also didn't have anything to use, so I simply used one of my glass pie plates. I haven't put anything together yet this season to even try, as I have some construction going on in my front yard..but when the coast is clear, I'm going to bait!
Edited to add this interesting link I found
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/nature/butterfly-food.shtml
This message was edited Jun 3, 2006 10:57 PM
Great post and tips, sunshine0805. By the way...Howdy neighbor!! Great idea about adding water to the fruit bowl. Why didn't I think of that!! DUH. I will try that today.
Thanks!