Fruit for Butterflies
Habitat loss, climate change and pesticide use have decreased butterfly populations.
Many butterflies do not live on nectar alone, some species prefer, even require, overripe fruit to feed on. Decaying fruits have carbohydrates and minerals, neccessary to most butterflies. Supply them with flowers, fruit, water and plants for their caterpillar stage, and you will have a large and happy, diverse population.
Putting a plate inside a larger plate or saucer that is filled with water will keep ants away from the fruit. Butterflies have a good sense of smell, they have scent receptors at the ends of their antennas, and taste receptors on the bottoms of their feet. ulocal.wgal.com
Watermelon turns rather rapidly, feeding overripe fruit to butterflies, seems like a perfect purpose for it. There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies in the world. About 725 species can be found in North America/north of Mexico, approximately 2000 species in Mexico, 3500 in Peru, 275 species in Canada and 440 in Europe. Photo by Toshio, flickr.com.
Fruit dehydrates and seals up, therefore slices need to be cut into the fruit daily, making more juice available. A blue Morpho drinking banana at lewisginter.org.
Make your own or purchase a butterfly feeder. $25. www.decor4u.com 
Watermelon on a stick. Monarchs can live up to nine months. Monarch larvae only eat milkweed, see below. Photo by Maggie Rattay, flickr.com.
Add neon pink, red and orange plastic scrubbers to your plate or bowl. Butterflies are restricted to an all-liquid diet due to their straw-like proboscis. Photo by Leskra: panoramio.com.
Painting flowers on a tray helps the butterflies locate the fruit. hollyopnshk.blogspot.com
Close-Up of a butterfly's proboscis (coiled straw) with pollen. Due to their long legs, nectar eating butterflies pick up only small amounts of pollen on their visits to flowers. Many moths are actually better polinators than butterflies. Photo by Melissa, flickr.com.
When not in use, butterflies keep their proboscis coiled up, then unfurl it to suck up nectar, pollen, tree sap, rotting fruit, dung or other foods that are in a liquid state. asknature.org
When unwound their proboscis acts as a straw. A Purple Duke extends its proboscis deep into the fruit of the Singapore Rhododendron. butterflycircle.blogspot.com
Due to the butterflies’ fragility to ecological change, they are an excellent indicator of an ecosystem’s health. Malachite butterflies feeding at a butterfly farm in Germany, photo by Andreas Adelmann, flickr.com.
Two tailed pasha drinking from an orange. Photo by Forbe5, flickr.com.
Butterflies taste with their feet. A black swallowtail drinking watermelon juice. insidestorey.blogspot.com
Because butterflies are cold blooded, they cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees, so keep the fruit in the sun and out of strong winds. buenavistabutterflies.com
Fruit salad for butterflies. Photo by Charley Chrizzy, charleychrizzy.deviantart.com.
Making cuts across the fruit allows more juice to be available. visitgainesville.com
A butterfly enjoying a dragon fruit. oceansnsunsets.hubpages.com
Many species seem to love watermelon. Unlike bees; butterflies can see the color red. .faq.gardenweb.com
Make your own or purchase a butterfly feeder. $25. www.decor4u.com. There are also numerous butterfly feeders on Etsy.
A question mark butterfly eating kiwi in a saucer set on a post. insidestorey.blogspot.com
Water, minerals and taste. Photo by Santa Barbarian, flickr.
Butterflies love red, orange, purple and yellow. Butterflies have good color vision sensing more “wavelengths” than either humans or bees.
Butterflies are particularly fond of oranges, grapefruits, cantelope, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, kiwi, apples, watermelon and bananas, especially mushy bananas that have been stored in the freezer and then thawed.
Some species love a "brew" of rotting fruit, molasses, beer, and brown sugar. Some like moist mushroom compost.
Hummingbirds and some species of butterfly like simple sugar syrup: mix 4 parts water to 1 part sugar, boil mixture just untill the sugar dissolves, then be sure to allow the sugar mixture to cool before feeding butterflies. Adding soy sauce gives a dose of minerals and salt. Do not feed butterflies this sugar mix or honey during very cold or very dry weather as the sugar could re-crystallize inside them before being digested. Fructose is the safest bet for those times as it does not crystallize. A recipe: butterflyboutique.net. Lots of recipes here: faq.gardenweb.com, although I question the long term affects of the food coloring in the Gatorade, so many people have success with.
Increase your chances of the butterflies finding their offering by having flowers close by, or paint or tape colorful flowers (real or fake) to the plate or hanging apparatus. To hang, cut three holes in a saucer, string with wire or chain and hang.
Flowers with Nectar that Butterflies Enjoy (partial list):
Aster, borage, butterfly bush, calendula, cosmos, delphinium, lilac, lupines, sweet alyssum, verbena, yarrow, zinnias. See the Pollinator Planting Guide: www.pollinator.org
Remember Monarch larvae only eat milkweed. Plant some milkweed in your garden, and don't pick off the caterpillars! 'Milkweeds and nectar sources are declining due to development and the widespread use of herbicides in croplands, pastures and roadsides. Because 90% of all milkweed/monarch habitats occur within the agricultural landscape, farm practices have the potential to strongly influence monarch populations.'* Spraying Round-Up and herbicides on roadsides reduces monarch populations. *www.monarchwatch.org
Milkweed Seed:
www.butterflyencounters.com California.
Free seed! www.livemonarch.com Florida.
How to: latimesblogs.latimes.com
Black swallowtail larvae eat the leaves of dill, parsley, carrot, and fennel. Painted lady larvae eat thistle leaves.
Mud Puddles:
Male Butterflies need extra minerals and enjoy mud puddles. The extra sodium and amino acids are transferred to the female along with the spermatophore during mating. This nutrition enhances the survival rate of the eggs. The minerals also help in the production of pheromones which attract females. To make butterfly puddles, bury a container and then fill with sand or gravel. Fill with water, a sweet drink or stale beer.
At night and during wet weather, butterflies take shelter underneath leaves, among grass blades, or in a crevice of a rock.
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Reply #2 on : Sat March 09, 2013, 09:36:34
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Reply #1 on : Fri March 01, 2013, 22:01:29