The best time. Is in the spring. Plant butterfly weed and milkweed in the spring. Adult butterflies like many nectar plants but caterpillars are fussy eaters. Monarch caterpillars need milkweed. Swallowtails like dill and carrot. Your local nursery will have a list of butterfly plants in your area.
The caterpillars of the monarch butterfly. They take up the toxins from the plant and use it to become toxic themselves, that´s why they and the orange butterfly have such bright colours.
Yes, caterpillars of the monarch butterfly species are known to feed on milkweed plants as their primary source of food. Milkweed plants contain chemicals that provide protection to monarch caterpillars from predators.
It depends on what type of caterpillar it is and what it's host plant is. Caterpillars usually eat the leaves of the plant and not the flowers. For example a monarch butterfly caterpillar eats milkweed leaves. The yellow eastern swallowtail butterfly caterpillars eat fennels, dill weed, and parsley plants. The spicebush swallowtail caterpillars eat spicebush leaves. If you want to attract butterflies to your garden, you must plant the host plant that the butterflies will lay their eggs on.
milk weed
monarch butterfly
Yes, milkweed plants are the only food source for monarch caterpillars. The caterpillars rely on milkweed to lay eggs and feed their young. In return, monarch caterpillars help pollinate milkweed plants as they move from flower to flower.
The monarch butterfly can be found living in eastern North America. They migrate to the warmer states, such as California, when the eastern states get colder.
Make sure you have plenty of diversity in your butterfly garden so that there are plants that bloom all spring and summer. Milkweed is a favorite of monarchs. Swallowtails like dill. You need the host plants for the caterpillars but the adult butterflies like butterfly weed, butterfly bush, lantana, coneflowers, asters, azalea, Joe Pye weed, and zinnia. The Missouri Botanical Gardens has a nice web page on this. You can also have some butterfly puddlers. Butterflies need shallow sources of water and they get minerals by walking on mud.
The common milkweed, which the monarch uses to lay it's egg on. Also the monarchs eat the toxic milk weed and thereby gain a deterent against predation.
No. Butterfies will eat fruit, but caterpillars will not. Cats eat the host plant that their eggs are laid on. Each type of butterfly has a different host plant. Monarchs lay their eggs on the Milkweed plant. The Red Admiral butterfly lays her eggs on Pellitory Weed, & False Nettle Weed. Swallowtails lay their eggs on Sweet Fennel, Alfalfa, & Clovers. I have many pics from my butterfly garden of butterflies & a few of Monarch cats. The facebook page is Flowers in Bloom. There are several pages with that name, so look for the profile pic with the gray butterfly, that's my page.
Yes, most catepillars eat plants. The type of plant/s depends on the species of catepillar. i.e. Monarch butterfly catepillars favorite plant is Acelepias, common name "Butterfly weed" or "Milkweed". Many avid gardeners plant Ascelepias for the Monarchs which also feed on the nectar.