Butterflies

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Butterflies

Butterflies are beautiful to watch and bring color and whimsy to a yard. It is easy to create an environment to encourage butterflies in your garden. A successful butterfly garden has plants that meet butterfly's needs during all four life stages, the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult.

To attract butterflies to your garden provide them with food (plants and flowers), water, shelter, and places to lay their eggs. There are two types of plants needed to attract butterflies. Nectar plants for the adult to feed on and host plants for the eggs to hatch and the caterpillars to feed on.

Nectar plants for our area include:

Wild onion, Wild garlic, Agarita, Laurel cherry, Escarpment black cherry, Texas almond, Mexican plum, Redbud, Kidneywood, Plains sumac, Evergreen sumac, Fragrant sumac, Soapberry ,Mexican buckeye, Grapes (fall, fermenting fruit on the ground) Pepper vine, Turk's cap Wild carrot, Elbow bush, Wand butterfly-bush, Butterfly weed, Blue-curls, Anacua, Heliotrope, Rose vervain, Texas lantana, Bushy lippia, Redbrush lippi ,White brush, Mealy sage, Wild bergamot, Lemon Bee balm, Common buttonbush, Abelia, Cardinal flower, Blue boneset , Shrubby boneset, Roosevelt weed, Cowpen daisy

Host plants include:

Mexican Plum, Black Cherry, parsley, dill, Dutchman’s breeches, Swamp Milkweed, Antelope-horns, Butterfly weed, hackberries, Yellow Passionflower, Bracted passionflower, Purple sage, cenizo, barometer bush, Black-eyed Susan, Flame acanthus, Texas Bluebonnet, Texas mountain laurel, Texas persimmon, Redbud,

- Water: Butterflies need water to drink and to help regulate their body temperatures, especially on hot summer days. Consider adding a water source, such as a birdbath or a shallow dish filled with water, to give the butterfly’s easy and reliable access to water.

- Shelter: Butterflies need shelter for protection against strong wind, extreme temperatures, and predators. Butterflies also need good surface areas for sunning and sleeping. Shelter can take many forms, including vegetation, a brush pile, large rocks, etc.

Considerations:

Be careful not to destroy the other life stages of the butterfly (egg, larva, or pupa). Do not use pesticides on butterfly plants, especially Bt pesticides. Bt pesticides are bacterial, organic pesticides that ONLY kill caterpillars. If you have a pest problem, treat it manually. Pick off the unwanted insects or use boiling water on ant nests. Do eliminate the fire ants, as they are predators on the butterfly larvae. Use the growth hormone treatment, not poisons.

Plant a mixture of flowering shrubs and herbs, both native and exotic. Butterflies like edges. Plant low flowers at the edge of a lawn, high flowers at the edge of trees or by a fence.

Finally, get a field guide so you can identify the caterpillars and butterflies and have fun!

Keep Brownwood Beautiful is having a Plant Sale Saturday May 3^rd at Avenues A and Brady from 9am to 1pm.