“Fragile, beautiful, and fascinating, butterflies flutter their way into our gardens and seem to just as quickly wing their way out. It isn’t because they necessarily want to leave, said Heather Stoven, an entomologist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. Rather they don’t find what they need to park themselves permanently.”
“As detailed in Extension’s publication The Wildlife Garden: How to Create a Butterfly Garden, butterflies require specific room and board to have their needs met. As with all wildlife, shelter, water and food are a given, but for butterflies, the range of repast is more limited.
When butterflies change from egg to larvae, or caterpillar, they come out ravenous and with chewing mouthparts, two things that set them up to damage plants, a condition gardeners must tolerate or forgo butterflies except in the most ephemeral way.
Fortunately for the gardener—not at all fortunate for the butterfly—only a few plants qualify as nutrition for the caterpillar, sometimes just one. These host plants must be present, Stoven pointed out, or the caterpillars starve to death.” Read more to learn about host plants for our local butterflies: HERE.
The OSU Extension publication on how to create a butterfly garden may be downloaded: HERE.
