- How do butterflies feed?
- Which plants are particularly good food for butterflies?
- Can you feed butterflies?
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Many gardeners wish they had butterflies in their garden. Here you can find out which plants you can use to attract the colorful butterflies and how butterflies can actually feed themselves.
Butterflies are the epitome of elegance and beauty for many people. Children in particular are fascinated by the colorful animals and are happy when they can observe the pretty butterflies in the wild. So it's no wonder that many gardeners want to attract butterflies to their garden. This works best if you offer the moths a good supply of food in your garden. But what do butterflies actually eat and which plants can actually be used to lure the animals? In this article you can find out what food butterflies need and how the animals can be given additional support.
How do butterflies feed?
Most people know what a butterfly looks like and how it develops from a caterpillar into a beautiful animal. What butterflies eat is unknown to many. In fact, the type of food is highly dependent on the butterfly species. Butterfly species that are native to us, such as the brimstone butterfly, feed mainly on nectar. The butterflies take their food with their long proboscis, which they can simply roll up between meals. This type of food intake allows butterflies to use numerous plants that are not accessible to other beneficial insects such as bees - this also makes butterflies an important pollinator for many plants. Moths also mainly eat nectar as food. Most butterfly species fly from March to April and are then in search of food. Between November and February, on the other hand, there are only six butterfly species that overwinter as moths in Germany. Normally these are in the hibernation, only when the weather is exceptionally warm, you can see isolated moths foraging during this time.
However, there are butterflies that prefer a different diet. Some, like the little oneDuring their short lifespan, they eat nothing at all and have stunted proboscises. Other butterflies prefer plant sap or fallen fruit for food, and some even feed on aphid honeydew. In tropical regions there are exotic moths that use tears, sweat or even blood as a source of food - but this food is not common for butterflies in Germany.
Which plants are particularly good food for butterflies?
If you want to lure butterflies into your garden with food, you quickly realize that different species prefer very different food plants. Painted lady butterflies particularly like alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and red clover (Trifolium pratense) as food, but can also be planted on the thistle ( Carduus acanthoides). Brimstone butterflies, on the other hand, prefer plants such as purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) or knapweed (Centaurea). The diet of moths also depends on the butterfly species in question: hawk moths use their long proboscis to nibble on the hidden nectar of bindweed (Calystegia sepium) and phlox (Phlox ), the gamma-ray owl, on the other hand, visits flowers of all kinds.
To attract as many different butterfly species as possible in the garden, it is worth adding various butterfly-friendly plants such as heather (Calluna vulgaris), sorrel (Rumex ) or dandelion (Taraxacum), which are accepted by numerous species. In order not to have to look for all the plant seeds yourself, it is helpful to use butterfly-friendly seeds - such as the Plantura Butterfly Club - which contain the most popular butterfly plants. Since the butterfly club blooms throughout the season, it offers an ideal food source for butterflies in your garden. In addition, you can add perennial plants that provide food for butterflies. Some of the most popular food sources for butterflies include willow (Salix) and sloe (Prunus spinosa), but also bilberry nectar ( Vaccinium myrtillus) and summer lilac (Buddleja) are popular with butterflies as food. In general, the more plant species you offer, the more butterflies you will find in your garden.
In addition to food for butterflies, the supply of something is of course toodrink important. But what do butterflies actually drink? In fact, butterflies meet their fluid needs primarily by ingesting liquid nectar and other plant juices. Only on particularly hot days or to balance their mineral balance do butterflies occasionally seek out small puddles to drink water from.
Can you feed butterflies?
In general, the best food for butterflies is what they can collect themselves from a colorful flower meadow - so a garden full of butterfly-friendly plants is the best way to feed butterflies. However, if you find a butterfly that is obviously exhausted and weak, you can refresh it with additional food. To do this, dissolve one part sugar in four parts water and dip a sponge into the cooled sugar solution. The butterfly can now take its food from this through the long proboscis.
Bowls or plates with sugar water should be avoided, however, as the liquid could get onto the wings of the butterflies and, in the worst case, cause them to stick together. Butterflies also like juicy oranges: Simply cut the fruit into slices one centimeter thick and drape them on a kitchen towel so that excess fruit juice does not stick to the wings of the animals. The butterflies then suck the sweet fruit juice out of the offered slice on their own.
In the summer, the colorful butterflies can be found everywhere. But what about in winter? You will learn everything about the wintering of butterflies from our article.