#30DaysWild – Making a butterfly feeder

We don’t see many butterflies in our garden although I’ve spotted caterpillars on the nettles a few times. I’m quite keen to attract some more butterflies to the garden if I can. Providing food for the butterflies is one way to encourage them. Sophie and I enjoyed making a simple butterfly feeder together to hang in the garden. This is how we created it:

 

 

You will need

• A large plastic bottle
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Garden twine
• Coloured beads
• A piece of sponge
• Sugar
• Water
• Overripe fruit (optional)

 

1) Make sugar water by heating 1tbsp of sugar in 9tbsp of water in a pan. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from the heat and leave to cool for at least 30 minutes.

 

2) Cut the bottom off the plastic bottle to create a shallow bowl.

 

3) Punch holes around the edges for the twine and make a small hole in the bottom. This will help any rainwater to drain away.

 

4) Tie lengths of garden twine to each of the holes and thread some beads on to each piece of twine.

 

 

5) Soak a piece of sponge in the sugar water and place in the plastic bottle bowl. You can also add pieces of overripe fruit.

 

6) Hang in the garden near some flowers.

 

We originally had five lengths of string on our butterfly feeder but once it was hanging near the roses, I removed two to give the butterflies more space. It’s been up a few hours and we’ve yet to spot any butterflies visiting it but hopefully we will see some soon. If not, I’ll try moving it to another part of the garden.

 

 

Although we didn’t manage to spot any butterflies today, we did spot a pretty cinnabar moth in the garden.

 

 

We also spotted a newly emerged ladybird in the overgrown part of the garden. If you look at the top right of the picture, you can see the pupa from which it emerged.

 

 

 

This year we’re taking part in #30DaysWild – a challenge from the Wildlife Trusts to get outside each day in June, do something wild and connect with nature.