EXPERIENCE THE MAGIC BY RAISING YOUR OWN BUTTERFLIES: types of butterflies and types of plants to attract them
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While destruction of habitat and reduction in host plants are serious issues, raising butterflies can be fun and educational for young and old alike. planting the flowers which attract butterflies, hunting for eggs and caterpillars, and watching the ever changing magic of egg to chrysalis to butterfly is indeed one of life's magical treasurers. Behind all the fun, every flower you plant and caterpillar you nurture to butterfly truly makes a difference. (the butterflies and plants shown on this page are typical to southwestern ohio, planting zone 6. there will be regional differences for both flora and fauna, please check local sources for variances in your area). .
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Sometimes we believe the butterflies like it too!
Plants at bottom of this page
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MonarchMonarch (Danaus plexippus; Greek for "Sleepy transformation") native to North and South America, the monarch has truly become a global resident with significant populations in the south pacific and western europe/UK. The main focus of our recent efforts has been to aid the monarch butterfly by restoring habitat in the US. it is estimated that as of 2018 over 160 million acres of U.S. monarch habitat has been destroyed due to development and herbicides. With all of this in mind, how do we help locally and actually see results? it's fairly simple to construct a small garden with beautiful flowers (link) that are the natural food and nurseries of the monarchs. Rearing monarchs, while fairly simple and a lot of fun, is not without its scientific cautions. Our conservation efforts focus on providing habitat rich with host plants and then selectively taking egg and caterpillar stock to the safety of a clean enclosure to increase hatch and survival rates. We probably see 10X of monarchs go through the egg to butterfly process as a natural occurrence in the garden vs those specimens we collect and rear. We don't introduce foreign or mass produced monarchs into our resident population. There is a scientific "downside" to mass breeding and release programs as noted in the link below
from the Monarch Joint Venture that summarizes monarch rearing best practices and discusses scientific concerns with mass production: |
Black Swallowtail (Eastern)Black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes, Papilio is Latin for butterfly. "polyxenes" is from Polyxena, the daughter of Priamos, King of Troy; Homer's Iliad.) Overwhelmingly our most frequent visitor with our patch of wild fennel being their absolute favorite for both feeding and egg laying. The fennel reseeds itself yearly and by early summer the plants are alive with first generation, voracious green caterpillars. The caterpillars, large and small, are the favored meal of any number of parasitoids wasps and flies so the sheer number of eggs and caterpillars are necessary to replenish the population. In some areas the black swallowtail can be considered a pest (especially if your carrot garden is unprotected) but the beautiful wings and friendly nature of this brilliantly colored butterfly make it our grandchildren's favorite. Easy for them to capture and grow, they can easily enjoy the full lifecycle of this friendly pollinator .
Zebra SwallowtailThe zebra swallowtail is a somewhat mysterious visitor to our garden showing a preference for the Pawpaw tree. We are learning more about this species in hopes of future rearing.
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Tiger Swallowtail (eastern)Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucous; latin for butterfly and gleaming) is a frequent visitor and seemingly permanent resident on our purple cone flowers. We are learning more about this species in hopes of future rearing.
Red Spotted PurpleThe red spotted purple is among the most colorful and friendly of our garden visitors that often alights on arms or legs. We are learning more about this species in hopes of future rearing.
Hummingbird Moththe hummingbird moth is shown not because we have ambitions to raise them, but because they are one of the most fascinating of our garden visitors. They dart in and out of the branches of our butterfly bushes seemingly unafraid of our close proximity. A fascinating and beautiful hovering moth that loves our gardens as much as the butterflies.
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