Are Butterfly boxes that you see in most garden centres just a con or do they actually work?
I am keen to give the local wildlife in my garden as much help as possible and have several nest boxes and a hedgehog box which are all used, but think that these butterfly boxes might just be a con to get a few quid out of the punters. similar to the insect boxes (I made one myself and it doesn't seem to be used at all but I do have a lot of hiding places in my garden anyway).
Thanks in advance
Hi Dave,
Yes, a con, they don't work for butterflies. The ones designed for e.g. bees can be quite effective, but my advice would be to spend your well-intentioned money elsewhere.
Neil
i dont know to much about this but what i have learnd about butterflies from my son, i cant see how these boxs can work, butterflies lay there eggs on the food plant, unless the food plant is growing in the box, how can it be of help to the butterflies, or am i thinking outside the box, Davs dad
I believe the boxes are for the butterflies to hibernate in. Hibernators often find hollow trees, or outbuildings to hibernate in. Every year I get several Peacock in my garage - or at least I did until I repaired it! Therefore - no foodplant required!
A thoughful cousin has given me one of these recently. I shall paint it black and allow it to weather outside and find a suitable location for it. It resembles a bird nest box with four verticle slots just wide enough to allow a Small Tortoiseshell or Peacock to sidle in.
The fascia weather boards on my garage stand a tad away from the bricks. They could really do with replacing as they are now 37 years old and a little warped and tatty. Over the years, i have seen Small Tortoiseshells alight nearby, then distort themselves so that they can enter under the fascia boards to settle down for winter clinging to the boards on the ceiling of my garage. The gaps they are able to enter through are actually narrower than those narrow slots in the 'butterfly box'.
I would not be surprised if suitably weathered and placed in a favourable location .... ideally on a North or East facing wall I guess, the odd Small Tortoiseshell or even Peacock could use them to pass the winter. A South or West facing location would mean the occasional warmer sunny winter day would not be suitable for stable temperatures essential for successful hibernation until the warmer temperatures of Spring return.
My son left an old car tyre leaned against the north facing wall of our garage. I went to tidy it away one January day then noticed a Peacock hibernating inside at the top of the tyre.
I have also seen Peacocks alight on then crawl into cracks between the stones of a Cotswold Stone Walls so familiar in the Gloucestershire countryside. In East Sussex downland, I've seen Peacocks enter Rabbit Holes in the downland turf where the Adonis Blues fly in late summer, early autumn.
...
Cotswold Cockney is the name
All aspects of Natural History is my game.
Ladybird boxes are also a con including the "ladybird attractant" they sell with them. They are sold to the uninitiated to give to people with an interest in insects or to gardeners.Another triumph for marketing of useless products. could you take them back and ask for your money back as they contravened the Trades Descriptions
Act as not fit for purpose.
I am not a great believer of boxes that you can buy in garden centers. I have over the years managed my garden to encourage animals and insects to live in it in the most natural way. The best I have found so far for attracting butterflies to hibernate was the ivy that I have left growing on my shed and my shed itself . The shed is in a sheltered area and this year a couple of robins have used the cover of the ivy to make their nests. Last year, we even found a humming bird hawkmoth which had hibernated in the ivy and I have also found some caterpillars in it(unfortunately I did not manage to identify them).
If you wish to attract hedgehogs, the best way is to leave an area of your garden unmanaged and slightly overgrown with bushes and even dead branches. I have done this and I have had hedgehogs in my garden for the last 3 years. A fox has now also his den underneath the wall at the back of the garden, and I see it regurlarly jumping over the wall or passing through my garden.
For bumble bees, if you leave the grass growing in a sheltered and fairly covered spot with dead leaves etc.. then they will come foraging and looking for a nest. I have banned the use of moss killers, slugs killers and all the rest. If you leave slugs in your garden, you are bound to have hedgehogs to eat them also.
If you wish to control slugs, then leave some flower pots upside down in your garden and check them during the day, you can be sure to find lots of slugs in it. You can then release them somewhere else.
For me, this is the best solution to encourage nature in the garden and at least you will have created a natural environment which I can guarantee will be used one day or the other.
Sylvie
