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Gardening for our Beautiful Butterflies
Butterflies are a welcome addition to any garden and like many native buddies, need all the
help they can get to make sure they remain regular backyard guests. Attracting and keeping
butterflies around your yard is a cinch. Butterflies go through a number of different lifecycle
changes but they always need food, shelter from the wind and a drink of water to keep them going.
Butterflies depend two types of plants to survive. Flowering plants, called nectar plants,
produce nectar to keep butterflies alive and food plants are ones on which the female can lay her eggs.
Why butterflies need your help
There are more than 400 species of butterfly in Australia. Butterflies lay their eggs on plants
that their caterpillars like to eat. Different butterflies need different plants. Habitat loss,
particularly native grasslands, threatens butterflies. Bushfires threaten butterfly populations;
winter burnings to reduce summer fire risks kill butterfly eggs, larvae and pupae.
What butterflies like and dislike
Butterflies love:
- Sunshine that gives them the energy they need for flight. Provide a small,
open area, without overhanging trees.
- The sweet taste of nectar.
- Puddles of water where they can safely drink.
But they don't like:
- Strong winds which tear their fragile wings
- Cloudy days that keep the warm sunshine away
- Rain that keeps them from flight
- Cats which can frighten or even attack them
- Garden pesticides, which kill them
Be a butterfly buddy
Build your own Butterfly Box
Try to:
- Provide lots of warm sunshine - cold blooded butterflies need plenty of sunshine to give them energy.
- Put some rocks in your butterfly garden to soak up the rays and give your butterflies a place to sun themselves.
- Maintain diversity in plant height, colour and flowering periods. Grow a variety of nectar-rich natives in
your garden so that a reliable food source is available throughout the year.
- Plant groups of the same species together so that it is more obvious to butterflies and locate tall plants
at the back to offer maximum protection from strong winds.
- Place a shallow dish of muddy water in a sunny spot.
- Find out what to plant. Each type of caterpillar has its favourite plant for food (get more info from the Flora for Fauna website).
- Experiment and learn which flowers your local butterflies prefer. Get to know what their caterpillars look like.
Avoid:
- Using poisonous pesticides in your butterfly garden.
- Mowing or slashing grasses and sedges on which butterfly and moth larvae are dependant.
Don't be surprised if butterflies:
- Hang upside down from leaves or twigs. Butterflies rest in this position on cloudy days or at night, hidden amongst foliage.
A few more butterfly facts
- Butterflies smell with their antennae and taste with their feet! They have a very well developed sense
of smell, allowing them to track down flowers with sweet nectar. Butterflies taste the sugar in nectar with
their feet which lets them know if something is good to eat or not.
- Many butterflies are territorial and fight, chasing others out of their territory.
- Butterflies can see ultraviolet light (light invisible to the human eye) which makes flower markings
vivid and guides them to the nectar tubes. Some butterflies have ultraviolet markings on their own wings
which are visible only to other butterflies.
- Butterflies can't hear, but they can feel vibrations.
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Adopt a cuddly Backyard Buddy and help the
animals in the wild.
Call 1800 283 343
White Wood Butterfly elias aganippe.
Photo: Patrick Keogh
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