Tom Terrific

Butterfly Gardening.Org

Bring Butterflies into Your Yard

9016 Robyn Rd
St Louis MO 63126
Phone: 314-849-6114

Raise Your Own Butterflies

I'm sure you know that butterfly eggs and caterpillars which turn into butterflies have lots of enemies. Ants, birds, flies, dragon flies, frogs, lady bugs, lizards, spiders, wasps, will all eat caterpillars or butterfly eggs.

Early in the spring I'm amazed at the number of predators I see on my plants and flowers. I see very few butterflies, but do see tons of predator insects. It's amazing any caterpillars make it at all.

Caterpillars can even be washed away by a bad thunderstorm, so your population can be decimated in a very short time.

Even though a female butterfly may lay 400 eggs, the odds are almost all of them will be eaten by predators. For the butterfly population to stay stable every year it means that 398 must die for two to live and reproduce and start the cycle over again.

I like to increase the odds a bit by giving the eggs and the baby caterpillars a safe place to live. If I find a caterpillar or eggs laid on a host plant I put them in a safe location, give them plenty of host plant food to eat and let them grow with no predators to worry about.

One of the easy homes I've found is a standard ten gallon fish tank which I cover with a cloth and a metal mesh top to hold the cloth down. (PS...to clean the tank, fill with a 10% bleach and water solution for an hour and thoroughly.)

I've raised Cabbage Whites (very easy to raise), Monarchs, Spicebush Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails and Giant Swallowtails.

Another reason you might like to raise your own butterflies is that it's educational. Especially if you have children, it's a fun way to teach them and yourself about the natural world.

This process is not for everyone, but I find it fun and it increases the local butterfly population.

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