Butterfly Boxes - a waste of time?

[walpolec]

Wishing everyone at UK Butterflies a Happy New Year!

I've taken great pleasure in hanging my UKB Calendar up today. Beaut photo of the Orange Tip to start us off. Hopefully it won't seem too long before we start seeing them for real.

Along with some lovely butterfly coasters, another Christmas Present I received this year was a "Butterfly Box" (I think it is this one: http://www.brandalley.co.uk/fiche-Produ ... kew-garden).

It looks quite nice, seems well made, but I have to admit that I am very sceptical as to whether will attract any butterflies. I think the idea is that the butterflies use the box to roost in or more likely for hibernation. I just wondered if anyone else has ever received/used one of these?!

I'm tempted to adapt it and turn it into a bird box!

Best wishes

Chris

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Chris,
Your instincts are correct. A butterfly needs a 'Butterfly Box' like a fish needs a bicycle. Drill/fill and use as a bird box.
BWs, Neil

[David M]

I've heard it all now!

You may as well just leave a gap under your shed roof.

[Cotswold Cockney]

A kindly cousin bought me one of those years ago. I have never seen a butterfly enter it or found one in it. However, I have seen both Small Tortoisehells and Peacocks enter a narrow slot like that in an outhouse eaves or brick wall.

I suspect that positioning is far more important for the insects to use it. Poorly sited and they will move on. Same with Bird Nest Boxes.

I have seen Peacocks hibernating inside the top of an old worn tyre I leaned behind my garage.

Have seen dozens hibernating on the roof inside a WWII Concrete "Pill Box" on a local Aerodrome on the former site of the Gloster Aircraft factory at Brockworth, Glos where aged relatives once worked there also lived in a big house on the side of the Airfield. Visits there for this small schoolboy in the 1950s were always a rare treat. Marsh Fritillarys were present on at least two of the Airfields close to Gloster in those now far away early 1950s. The Aerodrome at Brockworth now has numerous large Industrial Estate units on it and also high density housing. The main runway on the other airfield south of the city at Moreton Valance is now part of the M5 Motorway. The large concrete turning circles where I saw Gloster Meteors and Javelins parked back then following their maiden flights which I sometimes observed are still visible from the large off-ramp from the Motorway at, IIRC, J12.

I have also seen Peacocks alight and enter small gaps in the stones of Cotswold Walls and even small Rabbit Burrow entrance holes for shelter or hibernation.

Correctly located and suitably weathered, I would bet a few quid some butterflies like those two common hibernators would use it.

Finally ~ Happy New Year to all.

[Matsukaze]

...

Have seen dozens hibernating on the roof inside a WWII Concrete "Pill Box" on a local Aerodrome on the former site of the Gloster Aircraft factory at Brockworth, Glos where aged relatives once worked there also lived in a big house on the side of the Airfield. Visits there for this small schoolboy in the 1950s were always a rare treat. Marsh Fritillarys were present on at least two of the Airfields close to Gloster in those now far away early 1950s. The Aerodrome at Brockworth now has numerous large Industrial Estate units on it and also high density housing. The main runway on the other airfield south of the city at Moreton Valance is now part of the M5 Motorway. The large concrete turning circles where I saw Gloster Meteors and Javelins parked back then following their maiden flights which I sometimes observed are still visible from the large off-ramp from the Motorway at, IIRC, J12.
...

I have often wondered about checking out old pill boxes for hibernating butterflies, but too many have been sealed up or are otherwise inaccessible. Often I think the sealing-up is to prevent them being used for various kinds of illicit behaviour. My father used to teach at a secondary school which had a pill-box on the fringes of the sports fields, which was used by the kids as a smoking den, presumably because it commanded a fine field of view in most directions and they could not be seen inside...

[walpolec]

Thanks for the feedback. Seems I wasn't being unfair to think the boxes are a waste of time for butterflies. Luckily the relative who gave me the box lives a long way away and won't be asking me what's happened to my Christmas present! Actually, as the box looks quite nice I'm going to put it up and see how it goes for a year or two. I'll try and follow the much appreciated advice about correct siting.

Chris

[Susie]

I was given a bee box (with hollow canes for solitary bees to nest in) once which also had a section for butterflies.

I didnt see a butterfly go anywhere near it but I did see plenty of spiders, earwigs and ladybirds in there so it was useful for somethings

[NickMorgan]

A friend of ours kept horses until recently and when they gave them up they sold a sort of dung Hoover that they had. It consisted of a box on wheels, with a four or five foot tube about five inches wide and presumably a motor to suck up the dung. Apparently when the buyer came to collect it last autumn they took the lid off the collection box to find that it had loads of butterflies in it! They all flew off when they were disturbed and hopefully it was early enough in the year for them to find somewhere else to hibernate. The machine was located in an open, south-facing barn. It made me think that if I had a larger garden I would try making an insulated box with a similar pipe as an entrance to see if butterflies would hibernate in it!

[MikeOxon]

It made me think that if I had a larger garden I would try making an insulated box with a similar pipe as an entrance to see if butterflies would hibernate in it!

I suspect that the dung is an all-important component, too.

Mike

[David M]

Food for thought there (quite literally!)

It'd be interesting to know if the presence of dung would be attractive to hibernating butterflies. I guess it's a fair insulator.

[Susie]

But not good if it combusts as dung heaps are want to do.

Someone once told me that they had a camberwell beauty come to a bucket of slops outside the kitchen door which was going to be taken to the compost heap, also that they had red admirals coming directly to their compost heap. I guess rotting fruit and other putrid food (or poo) would be as attractive to a butterfly as any other fly and if there is a dry space near the heap to hibernate in even better.

[dave brown]

We have had a butterfly box in the garden for the last three years and have yet to see a butterfly use it. We leave it up in hope, but agree with the previous comments that they do appear not fit for purpose. Not sure why, could be design or even materials used.

[hilary]

In the past, when Tortoishells were more plentiful, there was often a sad sight in one of our outbuildings - wings strewn on the floor below a suitable perching spot. The building was an 'attic' which was accessed via a large cattle shed.
In keeping with the above observations, it seems they entered through a (always open) top stable door and progressed through into the darker attic room and probably roosted on the rafters. However there is a semi-transparent roof panel which means it is light enough for birds such as Robins to forage.
Another popular spot was in another shed (accessed through a large ventilation space above the doors) in between sheets of stored corrugated iron.
This year I tried to provide some bird proof roosting spots in the attic place, but the only taker was a type of Hoverfly.

Unfortunately they do seem to be drawn to hibernate in sheds, a door open in the last days of autumn is unlikely to be still open when they awake in spring, so many must perish or fall prey to spiders at the windows. Having seen this in (or the evidence of wing on the window sill) I now try and keep the windows cobweb free and check them on warm early spring days.

As it seems people's experience that there are often several in a winter roost, it does make you wonder if they can detect the scent of other butterflies already there.

Anyway all this waffling was just to suggest a place for your butterfly box - inside a larger dark opening!