Attracting Butterflies & Pollinators

Who doesn’t want more butterflies in their yards? You need nectar-producing plants of course. And if you want to watch all the butterfly stages -- which means your plant’s leaves will get eaten by the growing caterpillars -- you need to include specific host plants, such as milkweed for Monarchs, or mallow for Painted Ladies. But for both butterflies and pollinators you need to watch your use of pesticides. Oh, and keep some weeds around. These were among the important takeaways of the forum "Where have all the Butterflies and Bees Gone? How to Protect our Butterflies and Pollinators,” sponsored by the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD) and the Redlands Sustainability Network on Saturday, Nov. 14 in Redlands. Butterfly expert Moe Magoski, and pollinator specialist Michael Klein, who together have 90 years of experience with some of our smallest critters, emphasized the importance of insects and offered tips on how attract butterflies and pollinators to your yards. Pollinators – more than just honeybees Klein, who began as a butterfly hobbyist as a kid, and moved on to pollinators in his career as a wildlife biologist, surprised people with info on the many pollinators in our midst. Aside from the important European honeybee, which pollinates so many crops, Klein pointed out that hundreds of other bees, plus numerous flies, beetles and moths provide important pollination roles. “Almost 100% of our native bees pollinate, plus over 70% of our flies and one-third of our beetles pollinate. And also one out of 10 moths that you see flying around do too,” he said. “If we remove pollinators and other insects from our area, from the world, humans die. Insects are critical for human survival and it’s important to find ways to encourage them into our yards,” he said. He cited Albert Einstein, who said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Attracting pollinators and butterflies Both speakers offered tips to attract them. First, was not using pesticides, which kills the good insects along with the bad ones. You can adjust the plants in your yard to meet what you want to attract. For example, providing an array of native plants will attract many varieties of native pollinators as well as the important European honeybee. (UC-Davis research has demonstrated that the presence of native pollinators makes the honeybees work even harder.) To attract adult butterflies as they fly through your yard in search of nectar plants (and the specific host plants that they require to lay their eggs), consider native rich-nectar plants like buckwheats, ceanothus (wild lilac) and sages (salvias). Non-natives such as lavender, rosemary, and lantana also provide nectar during many parts of the year. Common butterfly and their host plants If you want to watch all the butterfly stages, you need host plants, which means the caterpillar will eat them down as they pass through five stages called instars. There are over 200 butterflies in Southern California but Magoski shared info about our area’s common butterflies and their host plants. Most people are quick to identify the monarch butterfly, which along with the Queen butterfly, require milkweed, of which there are many types. “The tropical milkweed (Asclepsias curassavic) is not local or native but is great to have because it blooms the longest and into the winter months. It’s also good to have the other local native varieties, which bloom at different times of the year,” says Magoski. They also require slightly less water. Along with native plants from Mockingbird Nursery in Riverside, local milkweed from Butterfly Farms in Encinitas, which all grow two to three feet high, were available at the forum. Desert Milkweed (Asclepius erosa) which as its name suggests, grows in the desert but does well in the Inland area’s minimal rainfall. Narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepius fascicularis) is a common milkweed with snowy white to pink clusters. Both bloom spring through summer. Pine Needle milkweed (Asclepius linaria), has leaves that look like its name, and blooms white flowers most of the year, April through November. Fennel, citrus and elms for Swallowtails Other butterflies you might attract are the Anise Swallowtail, which hosts on fennel, but also anything in the carrot or parsley family. “So if people have herb gardens and grow dill, parsley, celery, etc. the Anise caterpillars will feed on the leafy material,” said Klein. In the field, Klein has also witnessed Anise caterpillars using the native Touschia, especially Touschia argute, also called Southern umbrellawort. Other swallowtail and their host plants are the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Sycamore and Willow) and the Giant Swallowtail (Citrus and Rue). Other popular butterflies include Gulf Fritillary, which require the Passion Vine. We planted one in San Diego and had caterpillars on it within months. Others and their host plants are the Cloudless Sulfur (assorted Cassias), Painted Lady (Thistles and Mallow) and the Buckeye (Plantain, Snapdragon and Penstemon) and the Mourning Cloak (Assorted Elms, Willows and Cottonwood). Keeping some weeds around Magoski shared how he collected hundreds of buckeye caterpillars from an empty lot that were feeding on plantain, what many would call weeds. Buckeyes need plantain, snapdragons or penstemons as their host plants. He left hundreds of caterpillars but when he returned a couple weeks later, the lot had been weedwhacked down to stubble. Magoski encourages people to check for caterpillars and leave some plants for them to feed on. “In addition to plantain, common plants that people consider weeds, but are important for butterflies, are mallow or cheeseweed, fennel, and asters such as cudweed and pearly everlasting.”