How to attract butterflies

Summer Azure butterfly. (Celastrina ladon neglecta)

Nothing screams "success" when you create a backyard wildlife habitat, like the sight of beautiful butterflies dancing from flower to flower. Here's how to create a successful butterfly garden.

Like all other wildlife, butterflies need food, water, resting places and shelter. (Learn more about butterflies here.)

Food: Provide nectar plants for adults to feed on and host plants for their caterpillars to feed on. (See lists of native butterfly plants here.)

Plant many different varieties so there's always something in bloom for adults to feed on. When one variety stops blooming, there should be another beginning to bloom.

Choose varieties (preferably native ones) that have either flat-topped blooms or short flower tubes. This allows butterflies to reach the nectar with their proboscis.

Butterflies can see colors and respond best to red, orange, purple and yellow.

Adults feed in the sun, so plant your garden where it will get at least half a day of sun.

Don't use insecticides on or near butterfly plants. Even "natural" insecticides, such as Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) will kill butterflies. (You can read about the dangers of pesticides here.)

Water: Place in your garden a saucer of water or a shallow birdbath with flat stones rising slightly above the water level.

Mud puddle: Adult butterflies like mud. Mud provides water, as well as minerals they can't get from nectar. It's as easy as filling a large saucer with soil or sand and keeping it moist. Mud puddles are so popular, you may see large gatherings there.

Basking spots: Adult butterflies are cold-blooded and need the sun to warm their bodies. Place reflective perches for them, such as large stones, in sunny places. You'll see them open their wings to catch the sun's rays.