Butterfly Food
Butterfly food varies depending on the species of butterfly and which stage of its life cycle it is in. Caterpillars eat solid leaves of plants while the adult butterfly does not eat, but sips nectar and juices from flowers, fruit and trees. You can attract butterflies to your yard by either planting a butterfly’s favorite plants or by making homemade butterfly food.
Most butterflies will only eat a certain species of plant or will eat mainly from one plant variety. For instance, the Monarch Butterfly eats the milkweed plant. The caterpillars eat the leaves while the adults use the nectar from the plant’s flowers as butterfly food. The Pearl Crescent Caterpillar eats only plants in the aster family. Caterpillars of the North American Harvester butterfly of the eastern U.S. are carnivorous and eat wooly aphids. The female even lays her eggs right in the middle of masses of aphids.
There are many different plants that are favorites of butterflies when they are in the caterpillar stage of development. If you should plant these in your backyard you would have a butterfly garden that would attract many different species. Among the most popular plants for butterfly food are asters, alder, aspen, clover, baby’s tears, fennel, grasses, cottonwood, lilac, hackberry, hollyhock, nettle, milkweed, plum, mallow, poplar, spicebush, violet, willow, nasturtium, and parsley.
If you want to have butterfly food to attract adult butterflies, there are a variety of flowering plants from which they will draw nectar. These include chrysanthemum, aster, buckwheat, clover, daisy, lavender, daylily, zinnia, violet, phlox, sunflower, dogbane, honeysuckle, oregano, marigold, passion vine, yarrow, butterfly weed and honeysuckle.
If you don’t have the room to plant an entire butterfly garden, you can still attract butterflies with homemade butterfly food. Much like hummingbirds, butterflies will also be attracted to a sugar water solution that is 4 parts water to one of sugar. Get a container for the sugar water and then add some colors to the outside like yellow, red or blue. Another easy thing to do is to soak a few brightly colored sponges in sugar water and then hang them from trees or plants. These too will attract a goodly number of butterflies.
Some butterfly food is simply not appealing but will attract butterflies. This includes dung, mud puddles and rotten fruit. Sometimes butterflies are even attracted to pet poops in the backyard. They get needed nutrients and minerals from this type of food.
It is relatively easy to make a butterfly garden so if you want to produce your own butterfly food with plants and flowers or even put some sugar water out on a summer’s day, you will have success in attracting butterflies.