If the gardener on your list is a pollinator keeper, he or she may think finding a butterfly house under the Christmas tree is a great gift.
The term "butterfly house" has two meanings. One use of the term "butterfly house" is a structure built specifically for the breeding and display of butterflies. This structure is much like a veranda, offering a tropical environment with high humidity and controlled temperature. The technical term to indicate this entity is lepidoptera (lep-ih-dop-ter-AIR-ee-um), an abbreviation of the surname that combines butterfly, lepidoptera and terraria; The peculiarity of the terrarium is that it is built of glass and is completely surrounded by environmental factors that control light, humidity and temperature.
The second meaning of the butterfly house is more correctly called “hibernation box” (butterflywebsite.com). However, in our research for today's article, most gardens refer to these structures as butterfly houses, and in keeping with common gardening jargon, we will refer to them as butterfly houses for our purposes.
Will a butterfly house always attract butterflies? Maybe not, but it brings an element of hope to anyone who looks longingly at the house in the garden and waits for the butterflies to find a safe haven. A butterfly house adds interest to the garden.
We know what brings butterflies to the garden: host plants and nectar plants. To keep butterflies in the garden, they need a water source and shelter.
Many species of butterflies migrate. During their journey, they may stop and feed on the nectar from your garden, then continue on to their destination. Some adult species hibernate, finding undisturbed areas to hibernate. These are the species that can be attracted and protected in a butterfly house. They will use mourning cloaks, angel wings and turtle shells (joyfulbutterfly.com).
Since the butterfly house is used as a refuge during the hibernation of the adults, they will not occupy it until the temperature begins to drop.
Where to put the butterfly house?
There are four main considerations.
1) Provide a food source, which requires placing the butterfly house near host plants or nectar plants.
2) Butterflies are attracted to isolated areas of forest with dense foliage for protection.
3) Butterflies fly around the garden in search of nectar, which means that the house should be located close to the height of the plants visited by the butterflies.
4) position the house behind, protected from the winds; Mount on a sturdy stand to minimize wind movement.
Butterfly houses are structures constructed of untreated wood. They can have different shapes, some are long and narrow, as in the photo, others look like houses. Unlike bee boxes with round holes, butterfly houses have long, narrow holes that house the delicate wings of adults and keep predators away from the house.
Some information from Butterflywebsite.com.
Ellen Pefley taught college horticulture for 28 years, including 25 at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two varieties of onions. He is now the sole owner of From the Garden. You can email him at Gardens@suddenlink.net.
This article was originally published in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Gardening for you. Butterfly houses for the garden
