http://www.care2.com/greenliving/butterfly-bait-how-to-formula.html
Butterfly Bait: How-To Formula
We love butterflies! They have lifted human hearts for millennia with their fragile, colorful beauty. There are specific flowers that butterflies love, but what if you don’t have the space or time to grow butterfly-attracting plants? We can make Butterfly Bait! Because not all butterflies are only attracted to flower-nectar, this magic stuff will attract butterflies to your yard, even if all you have is a balcony.
Just wait until you find out the ingredients of Butterfly Bait! They’re not as pretty as the butterflies, that’s for sure–but this magic goop will have White Admirals, Mourning Cloaks, Viceroys and many others flocking to your place. Here’s the formula:
Many butterflies prefer rotting fruit, tree sap, dung, carrion, urine, and other non-nectar sources of nutrients. You can allow fruit from your fruit trees to decay on the ground, leave your pet’s droppings where they lie, or place a bit of raw meat or fish in a discreet part of your garden.
And here is the formula for Butterfly Bait:
INGREDIENTS
1 pound sugar
1 or 2 cans stale beer
3 mashed overripe banana
1 cup of molasses or syrup
1 cup of fruit juice
1 shot of rum
Mix all ingredients well and paint on trees, fence posts, rocks, or stumps–or simply soak a sponge in the mixture and hang from a tree-limb.
Adapted from The Butterfly Garden, by Matthew Tekulsky (Harvard Common Press, 1985)
For more information about butterflies, including some fascinating facts, and a listing of plants that will attract them, see Care2’s How to Attract Butterflies.
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The Butterfly Garden
Turning your garden, window box, or backyard into a beautiful home for butterflies.buy nowrelated stories
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Kabin
Konteyner
mega kabin
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Eating with our Butterfly Friend:
My mom and I were at a local fair about a week ago and we sat down to eat lunch when a butterfly decided to join us. He LOVED a little piece of tomato from my mom's sandwich. We had finished and were watching him for a while but he just kept drinking and drinking. We finally had to ask someone to throw away a piece of our trash when the butterfly was done eating/drinking. She had young kids and was a teacher (like my mom) so they loved it.
It was very neat to see. Mom even moved the paper that he was on and he just stayed there.
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I was curious if this bait will actually provide a substantial food source for butterflies once they arrive or if it is merely an attractant.
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i did try it and it only attracted ants, wasps and flies. The butterflies still prefered my buddleia and other flowers.
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I will try to make that butterfly attracting conconction, but I will only place it in select places in my garden! I would love to see more varieties of butterflies. I think they are truly beautiful and a real sign of Summer!!!!!!
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I did not know this. Since I live in a fairly rural setting, the scents would just blend in with all the other scents. Thanks, I'll have to try it.
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or forget about the bait and just keep nettles in your garden for them to be able to grow and also keep flowers in your garden for them to feed when they turned into a butterfly... if you keep your garden fairly natural, you do not need baits
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Be aware that in many municipalities, there are Public health regulations, i.e., LAWS, that do not allow people to have rotting fruit lying around the yard or "... to leave your pet droppings where they lie, or place a bit of raw meat or fish in a discreet part of your garden."
Where I live (Nassau County, New York), people can't even throw birdseed on the ground. Yes, that is considered a violation here because it "might attract wildlife such as rats."
I know this because my neighbor called the Board of Health to complain about me doing that. She objects to me feeding the birds because she "doesn't want birds flying over her property."
To all who want to try the suggestions above, be aware of local restrictions and nasty neighbors.
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this was a great idea, and I love butterflies. Thank you.
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now this is something i didn't know! learn something new everyday.
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