Image by lil moe72 via Flickr

You can create your own butterfly houses and feeders to attract butterflies to your garden or yard. There are specific types of food that you can make available to butterflies as well as putting houses in ideal spots that are attractive to butterflies. Planting specific plants and flowers can also attract butterflies.

Over ripe fruit is a quick, easy and inexpensive type of butterfly food. Over-ripe rotten fruit are favorites of butterflies and if you have any type of fruit tree and allow the fruit to fall to the ground then you have created a good feeding spot for butterflies. Instead of throwing food out you can simply use it to feed butterflies. They love rotten, sweet and moldy fruit.

You can find objects to use as butterfly feeders from everyday household item. Dishes with slopping rims, pie plates, and plant saucers all make great butterfly fruit feeders. Find a nice shady area in your garden and hang the fruit feeder from an overhead branch. You can create your own hanger from twine or use a plant hanger. You should add rotten fruit sprinkled with water and fruit juice to keep the fruit moist.

Butterflies also love nectar and you can make your own butterfly nectar feeder using a jar, absorbent cotton, some twine and homemade nectar. Homemade nectar can be made by boiling 4 pats water to 1 part sugar and the allowing the mixture to cool. You punch holes in the jar lid, plug the holes with absorbent material, fill the jar with the nectar, put the lid on tightly and hang upside down. The absorbent material should hold the nectar without dripping.

Butterfly houses are designed to keep birds out and protect the butterflies from the wind and weather. Butterfly houses resemble birdhouses except for they have long, thin slots that let the butterfly in. The inside of the house is typically covered in tree bark. When the weather gets cool at night the butterfly will look for shelter and use your house.

The inside of the butterfly house will be covered with bark and you may even place some twigs inside so the butterflies can rest. To help attract butterflies you can place a feeder next to the butterfly house. Make sure you put the butterfly house in a good spot so you can enjoy the butterflies.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 4:07 am and is filed under Plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.