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The Minnesotan recently shared his success with putting black bananas in his bird bath — this one attracted over a dozen butterflies to feed at one time.
This is especially great for those lulls when pollinator-attracting flowers aren’t in bloom. Give your neighborhood butterflies something to chow down on!
Or maybe this just tells you what NOT to leave in your garden if you’re like Ariel who saw this picture and commented, “These are the fucking ugliest butterflies I’ve ever seen.”
This is super effective if you can put the banana on some damp sand/super shallow mud. Butterflies love love love sweet stuff, but they also like to drink water from the mud/sand to get the minerals.
Dootsie, you seriously have tips for everything. You’re like an encyclopedia of home knowledge. Pls, write a guest post about ANYTHING and share your wealth of knowledge with the rest of us 🙂
Dootsie clearly likes to see me on my knees. I’ve been begging her to write for us for AGES, and clearly she’s going to make me crawl before she agrees.
Maybe you need to make a Jack Black style begging video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlk8DhHYDNw
(Note, you apparently need 1000 people too, but I’m sure that can be arranged.)
LOL OK I’m not all that up on entomology but I think the winged creatures in this pic are moths…I’m totally willing to be corrected though!
I’m excited about this tip! I want to put in a sensory garden at work and this would be a great way to get some quick, initial results without having to wait for blooms on new plants 🙂
I’m not fully up on entomology either, but these have antennae that look like butterfly antennae, however they have thick hairy bodies, which are indicative of a moth. Hmmm
they are butterflies, some kind of painted lady I believe
They are either painted ladies or a fritillary. I am leaning towards fritillary. I am not up to speed on my lepidopetera either.
The ones on the bottom are red admiral butterlies the one on the top a comma
Definitely not moths. Moths have feathery attennae.
Those are some of the most terrifying creatures I have ever seen.
They look like zombie apocalypse butterflies, are you sure that is banana that they are eating. hehe
These butterflies are awesome! Let’s not forget that butterflies, like most insects, have two defense mechanisms the first is something like “Hey hey birds and other predators, see all my bright as colors and patterns, that means I am just bursting with poison and you should totally not eat me!” They may not even be poisonous but evolution helped them trick everyone. The other goes more like “Ha bitches, you can’t even see me because I am so perfectly camouflaged I blend right in with the stone, dirt and bark! I am a flying rock yo!” I love seeing how creatures have perfectly adapted to their environment it makes me totally appreciate every bit of camouflage.