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Butterfly Information

Attracting Butterflies
to your Garden

Next time you spot a beautiful butterfly dreamily floating through your garden, consider this: most adult butterflies live only 10-20 days. With a little understanding of their habits and food preferences, you should be able to attract beautiful butterflies to your own backyard!

The Difference Between a
Moth and a Butterfly

Both moths and butterflies belong to the insect classification "lepidoptera" which means "scaly-winged." The most distinct differences between the two are generally, butterflies fly during the day, moths at night. Another identifying characteristic between the two is moths look stiff and jerky when flying, while butterflies fly more gracefully. Lastly, look carefully at their antennas. Moths have tapering filaments with lots of cross hairs. Butterflies, by contrast have simple filaments that have a noticeable swelling, called the "club" at the end.

How to Attract Butterflies
to your Garden

When you want butterflies in your backyard, you should aspire to GROW THEM! That means attracting adult butterflies to lay eggs in your garden and grow caterpillars. Some good plant choices for "growing caterpillars" are asters, black cherry, hollyhocks, lupines, milkweed, parsley, snapdragon, sunflower and violets.

Adult butterflies like lots of nectar sources and sunshine. Adult butterflies searching for nectar are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink or purple blossoms. They prefer large, flat-topped or clustered flowers with short tubes. Some good plant choices to consider are bee balm, cone flowers, thyme, goldenrod, butterfly bush, lavender, lilies, marigold, wild geranium, verbenas, zinnia, asters, violets, milkweed and many mint family plants.

Butterflies like to hang out around mud puddles, wet sand and gravel areas. Here they will congregate and absorb the water and salts. Sprinkle small rocks or gravel in a concentrated area in your yard and water frequently to keep the soil underneath damp and watch the party grow!

Place large or decorative rocks in sunny areas. Butterflies are cold blooded and like to warm themselves in the sun.

And lastly, try to suspend your use of chemicals in your butterfly garden. Many commercial insecticides are lethal to butterflies and caterpillars, not to mention the damage they cause to our environment.

The Life Cycle
of a Butterfly

All butterflies go through 4 life stages. Adult females will select a host plant to lay their eggs on. Within 1 week, a voracious caterpillar will emerge and spend most of its time eating and growing. When the caterpillar has grown to full size (about 2-3 weeks) it attaches itself to a support and pupates or metamorphizes into a chrysalis. If development proceeds, an adult butterfly will emerge in 1-2 weeks. The adult butterfly will bask in the sunshine to harden and set its wings, and begin its very short, but beautiful life.

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