Attracting butterflies is easy...just plant their favorite plants!To attract butterflies in your wildlife habitat you must use native plants that grow naturally in your own area. You simply set up an ecosystem that is sustainable, provides flowering plants, and maintains itself. This is not as hard as it sounds, and it will be a very nice area for you to relax in!One of the biggest off-puts to butterflies are lawns, driveways, and large open spaces. The more opportunistic bird species like these conditions, but butterflies do not. They like edges, where they can get some sunlight, flowers and insects for food, and water not too far away. Most of all they like to be close to dense shrubs where they can hide if a threat appears.
They especially like to have flowers to sip nectar from, not too close to the ground, and in the sun, and they like to rest in the sun as well. It’s not that hard to set up a small backyard or balcony butterfly sanctuary, and it can be done over several planting seasons.
Visit your local botanical gardens and/or nature center, read some butterfly guide books from your local library, and make a list of those plants you will need to acquire. You will need to find about what species of local butterflies are in your area, and what host plants they use. They don’t just lay eggs on any plant, they have specific plants that the young caterpillar can eat, as it matures to chrysalis stage. Butterflies like reds, pinks, oranges, yellow, purple, white and blue. They also have a three phase breeding cycle, from egg to chrysalis, to butterfly. The butterfly stage life span is often only a few days. They sip nectar through a long proboscis, which tucks up under the head when not in use.
Moths are very similar to a butterfly, except moths usally feed at night. Some of them are very beautiful. Larval stages of both are caterpillars, and feed on leaves. If you plant the plants that butterfly larvae feed on, you will attract butterflies.
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