Setting up Your Butterfly Garden!

As with any other garden project, planning is important.

Draw a map of your habitat area, and make a note of what plants and shrubs you have now, and which of those ones, if any, will attract butterflies. Visit your local botanical gardens and/or nature center, read some butterfly guide books from your local library, and make a list of those plants you will need to acquire.

You will need to find about what species of local butterflies are in your area, and what host plants they use. They don’t just lay eggs on any plant, they have specific plants that the young caterpillar can eat, as it matures to chrysalis stage.

Butterflies like reds, pinks, oranges, yellow, purple, white and blue. They also have a three phase breeding cycle, from egg to chrysalis, to butterfly. The butterfly stage life span is often only a few days. They sip nectar through a long proboscis, which tucks up under the head when not in use.

Moths are very similar to a butterfly, except moths usally feed at night. Some of them are very beautiful. Larval stages of both are caterpillars, and feed on leaves. If you plant the plants that butterfly larvae feed on, you will attract butterflies.