Subject: Butterfly feeder

From: [email-masked] (Jay W Lathrop)
Date: 15 Jan 95 22:09:10 GMT

I had never heard of a butterfly feeder before, but I recently
received one as a gift. The feeder is a rather pretty, translucent
dish with butterfly decoys around the edge. A mixture of beer, brown
sugar, molasses and semi-rotten fruit is placed in the dish and it is
hung about one foot above the height of the highest flowers in the
yard. Does this serve to attract butterflies and is it a good idea?

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Jay Lathrop     <[email-masked]> = <[email-masked]>
680 Winston Way, West Union, SC 29696 
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From: [email-masked] ("Colin Cracknell")
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 17:15:53 GMT

The certainly seem to work in commercial butterfly houses.

For some reason, along with the rotten fruit etc. that you mention, the 
butterfly houses also put brightly-coloured plastic pan-scourers on the 
feeders. These are hard plastic, not the spongey ones. I can't figure out 
what they're for.

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[email-masked] | "Specialisation is for insects" [RAH]
                           | "I specialise in insects" [ColinC]
All opinions are my own, but Darter Systems agrees with me.
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From: [email-masked] (Constance F Carr)
Date: 16 Jan 1995 23:59:04 GMT

Jay W Lathrop ([email-masked]) wrote:
:   
: I had never heard of a butterfly feeder before, but I recently
: received one as a gift. The feeder is a rather pretty, translucent
: dish with butterfly decoys around the edge. A mixture of beer, brown
: sugar, molasses and semi-rotten fruit is placed in the dish and it is
: hung about one foot above the height of the highest flowers in the
: yard. Does this serve to attract butterflies and is it a good idea?

It may attract butterflies, but other insects too.

cheers, 
connie

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From: [email-masked] (Pierre A Plauzoles)
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 18:57:17 GMT

>feeders. These are hard plastic, not the spongey ones. I can't figure out 

Perhaps to give the butterflies something to hang onto while "nectaring"?

Pierre Plauzoles  [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Julie "Mudgie" Stahlhut)
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 12:56 est

> Pierre Plauzoles  [email-masked]
We do this at the Michigan State butterfly house, and it works
very well -- it gives the butterflies a stable perch.  The monarchs 
are especially attracted to this setup.  The plastic scrubbers are 
cleaned regularly in a mild bleach solution, then rinsed well. 
All in all, it's a cheap, low-maintenance, effective way to build
a bar stool for butterflies!

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From: Bill Terrill <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 95 16:31:04 -0500

Callaway Gardens In Pine Mountain Ga. (The largest indoor Butterfly
conservatory)
 uses the pan scourers (orange & yellow seem to work best) as well as overripe
fruit. It works quite well.