Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne~
Difference between butterflies and moths
Butterflies…
**Fly during the day
**Are brightly colored
**Have knobbed antennae
**Place their wings over their bodies while resting
**Have slender, hairless bodies
Moths…
**Fly at night
**Are duller in color
**Most have feathery antennae
**Hold their wings flat while resting
**Have plump, hairy bodies
Creating the ideal environment for butterflies
To attract butterflies to your garden, you need to provide a variety of butterfly host plants. Butterflies use the host plant to lay eggs and the hatched caterpillars feed on the plants.
All insects are cold-blooded and cannot internally regulate their body temperature. Butterflies like to bask in the sun when it is warm out. It is a good idea to leave open areas in a yard for butterflies to sun themselves, as well as partly shady area like trees or shrubs, so they can hide or cool off.
Butterflies also like puddles. Males of several species congregate at small rain pools, forming puddle clubs. Permanent puddles are very easy to make by burying a bucket to the rim, adding gravel or sand, and then filling it with water.
Because butterflies are insects, they are threatened by all the pesticides (chemicals used to kill insects). Sadly, when people spray to kill pests many helpful insects like butterflies are poisoned. Butterflies help to pollinate many of the plants on Earth.
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