This Plant Breeds Butterflies, See How!

What do you need?

In order to breed butterflies at home, you will need to have a butterfly farm, where they can live and reproduce. You can buy an already set up farm with everything that is needed for breeding butterflies. Or you can use some containers or create your own farm. Remember, the most important thing is that the container should be airtight, it should not be transparent and should have a lid. It is advisable to use some plants for growing flowers and plants in it.

The following plants are suitable for breeding caterpillars: cabbage, kale, spinach, melon, lilac leaves, dill leaves, mint leaves. You can even grow these plants yourself in your garden or on the window sill if there is enough sunlight there.

How do they live?

Caterpillars will lay eggs on these plants which will turn into small caterpillars and fall into a bed of cornmeal (mixed with water). This bed must be regularly turned upside down; this way caterpillars will dig under the bed and eat all cornmeal. They will live this way for a while.

When they grow, they will begin to spin a cocoon. It is during this time that you must be very careful not to disturb them. You can put a lid on the container and do not touch it for about two weeks. After two weeks, you can carefully take off the lid and check whether all butterflies have already left the cocoons or not yet.

You will notice that butterflies are going out of their cocoons when they begin to bite holes in them. Do not hurry up; you need to wait until all butterflies leave their cocoons and fly away on their own. Then you can start feeding them with nectar (honey diluted with water).

Nectar should be poured into a cup or jar with a small spout, so caterpillars could climb up easily and drink it. If you keep these plants in the garden, then you must keep in mind that caterpillars like to eat fresh leaves of these plants – so do not be surprised if your plants get eaten!

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