Fake Butterflies in the garden

[Gary350]

TV garden show yesterday evening was interesting. The woman had fake butterflies in her garden she read that they keep real butterflies away. She thinks white color butterflies keep real cabbage butterflies away. Butterflies are attached to a sewing thread then tied to a stick the stick can be laid between 2 plants so fake butterfly flutters in tiny breeze they look like real butterflies flying in the garden. If they keep real butterflies away or not they look cute, a garden full of butterflies. I did online search and not finding anything but what we already have magnet stick on butterflies $3 for 50 from China on Ebay free postage. The woman's fake butterflies look like paper thin plastic shaped and painted like butterflies. I searched the house white color section of potato chip bag will make a white butterfly on 1 side but silver color on other side. Paper plate is perfect but will never be good when wet. Anyone have ideas?

Also she was growing passion fruit to attract a certain type orange color butterfly. Passion fruit has big orange color caterpillars that turn into orange color butterflies. I had passion fruit last year I remember seeing a lot of orange butterflies and the big orange caterpillars on the plants I think my passion fruit plants should return again on their own. What do you know about orange butterflies are they a problem in the garden? As long as orange caterpillars say on passion fruit and not get on other plants maybe they be OK. I saved several 100 passion fruit seeds not sure yet where to plant them.

Here is photo of fake butterflies we have stuck on refrigerator and all over out camper trailer. They are not a good copy of real butterflies that we ever see around here. Fake birds are also available to buy very cheep.

[applestar]

Lucky you — those would be
Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Butterflies and Moths of North America

https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/spe ... s-vanillae

...a littl too far north here to see them or grow the freeze sensitive passion flowers, though there are I believe two species that would survive, one of them being MayPop P.incarnata.

Not sure that fake butterflies would keep them away — I would have thought same species would be led to the location to see if there are flowers to feed on or plants to lay eggs on... or likely prospects to mate with....?

...I do know male Monarch Butterfly establishes a pheromone scent-marked territory by flying a pattern while wafting scent trails.

Bright colors by their own merits may attract though that I'm not sure of re: butterflies — hummingbirds certainly zoom over to see if my red gardening shirt or colorful suspenders are flowers they had not noticed before. Don’t know if they are same one each time, but I’ve been yelled (chattered) at after multiple such “trickery” while I’m bursting out laughing at their gullibility.

[TomatoNut95]

I've never heard of fake butterflies running of real ones, that's a new one on me. I've seen some fake butterflies that are are just cheap plant stakes. I also think I've seen some fake butterflies that light up or something, found with all that cheap gardening knickknacks in Family Dollar store. You could try eBay, just search for butterfly plant stakes or magnets. Do you think butterfly stickers would work?

[imafan26]

I haven't heard of fake butterflies doing that anyway. I have seen the passion butterfly. They are orange all over. I have only seen them hovering around the passion vines and not much anywhere else. We do have a few specialist butterflies. The cabbage moth really only hangs around the crucifers including alyssum which is in the cabbage family, and the endangered Hawaiian butterfly is rarely seen outside of its home range. It feeds exclusively on nettles (here it mainly feeds on mamaki. The Wahiawa Botanical Garden is trying to establish a population in the garden. Mamaki grows well there and they are planting different species of mamaki (mainly the ones from Big Island) where they are importing the butterflies from.

https://www.mauimagazine.net/on-the-wing/

The monarchs do only feed on milkweeds. They are definitely not endangered here and they do not migrate either. I have seen Monarchs, cabbage white butterfly, and the Fiery skipper gathering nectar in the garden from other flowers.
And then there is the huge black sphinx moth living in my garage.

https://hawaiinaturejournal.weebly.com/ ... ry-skipper

[TomatoNut95]

Monarchs aren't too common here either, although I have come across some. A black Sphinx moth??? That I gotta see if you manage to get a picture of it, please. I'll spot a hummingbird moth on rare occasion if I'm outside late in the evening. They're brown in color and their wings make a soft humming sound quite like the actual hummiingbird, plus they have long tounges, lol!

[Nyan]

My brother grows a bunch of Milkweeds in his back lot specifically for the Monarchs.
And, as I found out yesterday, he has apparently spread some seed in my side lot too...
Oh well, guess I'll be raising them too.