Butterflies are important for biodiversity. Putting a butterfly house in the garden or on the balcony can be a good idea to protect these insects. We show how and where to set up a butterfly hotel and why it makes sense for our environment and your garden.
Many insect species trigger disgust or fear in people - but the butterfly is usually a colorful exception. The colorful animals are popular with young and old and not only ensure a good mood with their brightly shimmering wings, but also make an important contribution to the garden as pollinators. But unfortunately there is a problem: many native butterfly species are now threatened with extinction or are considered endangered. If you want to help the colorful butterflies, you can do something good for them by creating a flower meadow, for example. Just like food, a protective shelter is essential for the survival of the insects, which you can offer them in the form of a butterfly house.
How does a butterfly house help its inhabitants?
Butterfly houses are still relatively unknown in Germany, which is why many doubt their point. In fact, the butterfly boxes work on the same principle as the well-known insect hotels that can already be found in many gardens: the artificial box serves as a substitute for natural retreats and protects against wind and weather, but also against predators. The last point in particular is crucial for the butterflies - low temperatures (e.g. at night) usually do not harm the butterflies, but ensure that they are almost immobile and thus represent an easy target for predators. In a butterfly hotel, on the other hand, the animals can survive cold nights unscathed. The butterfly house is so popular with some species of butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly and the brimstone butterfly, that it is used as a safe winter quarters for the cold season.
What good is a butterfly house in the garden?
A butterfly house in the garden is always an asset, because unlike conventional insect hotels, it isnot tailored to various other types of insects, but specially adapted to the needs of the magical butterflies. Especially in combination with butterfly-friendly plants, the butterfly hotel ensures that numerous colorful butterflies find their way into your garden - a fascinating spectacle that enchants children and adults alike. But the little butterflies in the garden don't just make a great visual impression: as pollinators, the beneficial insects ensure that the garden blooms and thrives. With their long proboscis, the moths can also pollinate plants whose calyxes are too long for bees and bumblebees, which is often the case with wildflowers. A butterfly box not only enriches the garden visually, but also actively helps to preserve biodiversity.
The perfect addition to a butterfly house is a butterfly pasture, which is why we have developed our Plantura Butterfly Club - a seed mixture of a wide variety of annual and perennial butterfly-friendly plants that you can easily sow in the garden, in pots or balcony boxes.
Build or buy a butterfly hotel?
Anyone who wants to help to preserve our native butterfly species will sooner or later think about purchasing a butterfly box, because this (unlike an insect hotel, which does not always optimally meet the needs of butterflies) is specially tailored to the needs adapted by butterflies and is therefore better accepted by the colorful moths. The question quickly arises as to whether you should build the butterfly hotel yourself or whether you should rather buy it from a specialist store.
In fact, building a butterfly house isn't particularly difficult if you have a certain level of manual dexterity. The basic structure of the butterfly hotel resembles a typical wooden bird nesting box with a sloping roof. The only difference: Instead of a single entry hole, the front consists of several slits. These entry slots should each be 15 centimeters long and about one centimeter wide - if the slots are smaller, the butterfly house cannot be used by all moths. On the other hand, if they are larger, predators have an easy time of it. It is also worth installing a "maintenance flap" - for example in the form of a hinged front panel - through which you can fill and clean the butterfly house. So that the butterfly hotel welcomes its little residentsadequately protected from wind and weather, you should also make sure to protect the wood from weathering with oil or glaze and to cover the roof with roofing felt.
If you are not gifted with manual skills, you can also use butterfly boxes from specialist shops. Important points to consider when purchasing a butterfly box are the correct size of the entry lanes and the use of durable material. It's also a good idea to choose a box that opens on one side so you can easily swap out the filling.
Fill the butterfly house
In theory, an empty butterfly house is enough to give the insects the necessary protection from the weather, as the animals often settle on the walls of the house. In practice, however, it has proven useful to additionally fill the butterfly house: Dry brushwood or pieces of bark ensure that the butterflies find more support in the butterfly hotel. If you want to make your butterfly house attractive to other insects, you can fill the bottom centimeters of the house with wood shavings or bark mulch - flies and beetles, especially ladybugs, also like to use the butterfly house and do not pose a threat to the butterflies. This should be done once a year Filling material exchanged and the butterfly hotel checked for possible defects. Ideally, this should take place in late autumn, since by then the summer visitors to the butterfly box have already moved out, but those over the winter have not yet settled in.
Tip: Find out more about what butterflies do in winter in our special article.
Set up the butterfly house: The perfect location
Once the butterfly house has been fully equipped, you have to choose the location: a sheltered, partially shaded to sunny spot is best. A house wall with a protective eaves is an ideal place for the butterfly hotel, as it is also shielded from rain and snow. In addition, care must be taken to ensure that the butterfly box is hung out of the reach of pets (especially cats), as they like to hunt down the colorful insects - but the butterfly box should not be hung higher than two meters. Also in theThe butterfly hotel should not be in the immediate vicinity of bird feeders or bird incubators, otherwise butterflies will be easy prey. It is also optimal if it is placed near suitable butterfly flowers: This not only ensures that the butterfly house is better accepted, but also offers the butterflies a buffet right in front of the front door.
In addition to a butterfly house, there are many other ways to support the colorful insects in the garden. To learn how to make your garden as butterfly-friendly as possible, read our article on creating a bug-friendly garden.