Attracting Butterflies to Mississippi Gardens

Butterflies provide a beautiful living element in the landscape. In addition to their myriad colors, sizes, and forms, they provide an important role of pollinating many wildflowers and woody plants. The key to attracting butterflies is to simply provide their food sources and other living needs, both for adults and caterpillars. While providing for these needs, beautiful flowering gardens are often created as well.

Certain butterfly species are specific to particular environments, ranging from deep shady woods to open sunny meadows and dunes. Each type selects a particular place according to a certain geographic elevation, latitude, available plant species, lack of predators, and other factors. In other words, the more variety of habitats and plants that you provide on your property, the more species of butterflies will occur.

The Butterfly Life Cycle

Though we most often enjoy and appreciate the winged adults, understanding the butterfly life cycle is important when encouraging butterflies. A butterfly's life begins as an egg that is laid on a particular host plant. Usually, the eggs are laid on the bottoms of the leaves and can vary widely in shape, form, size, and color. Within two weeks the tiny eggs hatch, and tiny caterpillars emerge. The larva consumes the host plant's leaves and will shed its skin several times as it grows. Get a caterpillar identification guide if you are concerned about which ones are harmful or helpful. In about a month, the larva is ready to form a chrysalis (pupa). After a few weeks, the magical transformation takes place and an adult butterfly is born. Most adult butterflies live for only a short time–some species must mate and live for just a few days–and others are known to last over a year.

The Butterfly Garden

A successful garden for attracting butterflies accommodates for their food, shelter, and breeding needs. Since butterflies are cold-blooded, they require sunny areas in order to warm up and move around. At night they hide under the cover of leaves of shrubs and trees, and thus need vegetated areas as well. Unless these needs are provided for in your neighborhood you will see few butterflies in your backyard. Avoid the use of pesticides in the garden.

Food

Butterfly food falls under two categories: host plants and nectar plants, both of which are necessary to continue populations. Host plants are specific plants that the eggs are laid on and that the caterpillars eat. Nectar plants are the flowering plants that the adult butterflies feed upon. The following is a list of both host and nectar plants that successfully grow in Mississippi.

HOST PLANTS

NECTAR PLANTS

Shelter

These winged insects need shelter from the wind and rain, as well as a roosting place for the night. Shrub foliage is often used for protection, as well as sleeping quarters. You can create a butterfly shelter area by constructing a simple log pile in a corner of the back yard. Simply stack cut logs anywhere from 3 to 5 feet high and from 3 to 5 feet long. Be careful though, as this provides butterfly shelter it will also provide shelter for other wildlife as well.

Mud Puddles

Mud puddles are the way that some butterflies obtain additional water and minerals. Sulphurs, swallowtails, skippers, and blues will visit these wet areas. Simply provide a wet muddy area in the garden, or provide a man-made stream or pond where water can splash.

Rocks

A few flat stones placed in open sunny areas of the garden gives butterflies an area to warm up on cool mornings. They will also use brick or concrete patios, walkways, or decks for basking.

These factsheets were written by Robert F. Brzuszek, Assistant Extension Professor, The Department of Landscape Architecture, Mississippi State University.