Butterfly house

I've been thinking about getting a butterfly house. I wonder if they work

I saw 1 at Hardware Hank today for only $15. I didn't buy it, but I am thinking about it. Maybe some of you have suggestions for effective houses

The butterfly farm does not have any artificial homes.
Sooooo,,,,, now I am wondering were do they sleep?

Good question.

https://georgiawildlife.com/out-my-backdoor-do-butterfly-boxes-work

What a pretty design! I never knew such things existed

I would think wasps would love it.

If you really want to try one plan to put it out in the late fall and take it down late spring otherwise unwanted insect WILL use it in the summer. If it is open inside place a few chunks of rough bark in it to loosely fill. If any of the few species that hibernate in your area deem to use it they will squeeze between then for the winter. I had very limited use of the ones I put out and consider them a novelty and at the very bottom of the list of things to do to help butterflies. Flowers(or food not all butterflies eat nectar), water and Host plants top my list which are severely dwindling in our monoculture herbicide sprayed AG world.

The experts all say that butterfly houses don't work. I suspect, that if you packed them with a lot of wood, some caterpillars would build a chrysalis in them, like they do in wood piles and rock piles, which work better. Butterfly houses are basically just decorations like garden gnome houses.

Keith

I wounder the same. Seems like it would be full of mud daubers around here. Cool idea if it works

Good butterfly info

Hmm. Well, I guess I wasted $15.

No effort to learn/help is really wasted. Have had a few morning cloak winter in the decorative one my wife still likes in the garden. I wouldn’t say enough to save population decline by any significance. Other insects do make use of. If it is deep enough to stack with at least 6” lengths of approx 5/16” hollow tubes/reeds with at least 1/2” between tubes and inside of slotted front you could covert it to Mason bee house. Mason bee tubes need to be 6”deep or more to get any female bees as they build egg chamber one in front of the other with the front 4/5 being all male(which nature has judged as more expendable to predation to protect females a downside of polygomy). Size of house from the pic is hard to judge. You could try standing tubes vertically, not a common configuration used in many mason bee house designs but I have seen them use vertical spaces and natural hollow stems that are. Mason bees are highly efficient NATIVE pollinators and greatly in need of conservation efforts.

I've wasted more money than 15 bucks on stuff I hoped worked,,...lol

I'll know more next year.

Waste of money

If it really doesn't work, try opening the a slot a bit to let small birds in to nest.

Someone, somewhere, the first person to label and sell a box as a “butterfly house” is laughing hysterically. Its bizzare what people will believe.

Plant milkweed to attract Monarch butterflys

https://kellogggarden.com/blog/hone...nGzxp15WxkkQmdV6h96ZEFy9YGhoC1XEQAvD_BwE

I read that article. I have a bone to pick with it. It lists 5 different Milkweeds. In the end it lists Butterfly weed, another type of milkweed. It claims that Monarchs won't make use of it unless its the only milkweed around. The opposite is my experience. We have a couple that grow in a garden by the house. even tho there are common milkweeds in the nearby prairie plantings and lots of poke milkweed in the woods they hit the butterfly weed the hardest. I have pulled 35 caterpillars off one plant. I put the caterpillars on the common milkweed plants as they do destroy the butterfly weed if left to their own.

I think that it makes a different where you are. What the monarchs like in WI might be different than Texas. Not all the same species are in both places. And maybe they taste different depending upon soil and moisture.

I wouldn't doubt birds or bees would like to use it

With monarchs soon to be possibly listed as Threatened, I'll do what I can to help them on my property.

Here it is:

You would be hard pressed to build one for that cost. It would take some time and skill to build one of those not mentioning having access to the materials to build one. I have had a few but never have seen butterflies coming and going for them.

To my knowledge “butterfly houses” are to help provide wintering place for those few species that hibernate thru winters. Proper location is key and MAY only be used if other better natural sites don’t already exist. They are of no aid to Monarchs. Encouraging or planting as much milkweeds as you can is better. And this will only help if enough is sustained with habitat along their migration routes and not wiped out by ag pesticides or destruction of safe wintering grounds. Much currently being overgrazed by cattle that eat them like popcorn when they temporarily fall to the ground from their tree roosts on cold mornings.

I'm not optimistic but am giving it a chance nonetheless.
There are a lot of species of butterfllies. I'm unsure how different each type acts or if most make good pollinators

I'm not discouraging any effort to aid wildlife because I've tried most everything just passing along my experiences and info gathered on my efforts. Mourning Cloak and Comma are the two most common wintering butterflies in our/your area. My wildlife improvement efforts have been most successful when enhancing what is natural and native to my property. But some artificial improvements have provided amazing results within what nature allows them bird houses, bee houses, drumming logs, squirrel boxes, etc but have been limited by natural setbacks like severe drought, weather disasters during migrations increase in marauding BEARS, lol. I have piles of next generation designs attempting to make a better whatever(not just my trapping accessories). For me that is the fun and the challenge and hope it will always be till the day they spread me on the land I trying my best to steward. As a Biologist I like to have a little science support many of the things that are marketed out there. Good luck with your efforts.

all 4 species of Bushfoot butterfly overwinter ie mourning cloak Comma etc loss
Comptom tortoishell mass together as well as mourning cloak 100 to 200 in one spot is common when you find them. The best way is when you see one flying in a warm day in Oct-Nov to follow their flight path back to the overwintering spot. Of the two colonies I have marked and re-captured in the spring 97% losses were found. One other colony was destroyed when a shrew got into them =100% eaten

The Texas generation is the first one for the year and the northern latt. are 2nd and 3rd generations for the year of the Monarchs

I suppose I may know soon if they will use it this year.

I probably should put a little leafy/woody debris in my butterfly house.

I've had an issue w/ it spinning that I am trying to overcome.