Inviting butterflies into your north Texas garden

There?s something magical and compelling about butterflies flitting through a garden. The quandary that gardeners encounter, when attempting to attract them, is similar to the saying about not counting chickens before they hatch: Often, eager gardeners landscape with plants that are supposed to attract butterflies. Then they watch in anticipation, and the butterflies may or may not appear. It?s always a gamble!

But you can "put your thumb on the scale" and make it less of a gamble if you know what makes a butterfly tick.

The life of a butterfly is a perpetual gamble also. In only a week or two, a female butterfly can lay hundreds of eggs. Yet only a few will become butterflies. Knowing the characteristics of butterflies, including their predators and defenses, will increase your chances of a butterfly show in your garden.

About 440 species of butterfly have been reported in Texas. Among them are the Zebra, Painted Lady, Question Mark, Viceroy, Pipevine Swallowtail and the one we?ve all seen—the Monarch.

Butterflies-to-be are most vulnerable to predators and disease during the caterpillar (larval) stage in the early spring. During the early spring they need what?s called "host plants". Caterpillars seek these out for laying eggs and feeding larvae. Every landscape needs host plants ? even if it?s merely an out-of-the-way corner of the yard.

Caterpillars must use specific host plants, and the destruction of these host plants directly affects the number of butterflies. Sometimes, the host plant the caterpillar uses is considered a "weed" and is destroyed by gardeners. Indiscriminate use of pesticides is also responsible for the demise of many eggs, caterpillars and butterflies. On average, out of 500 eggs, only five survive the typical backyard living conditions.

This pathetic survival rate can be frustrating to gardeners who are intent on luring these beauties by planting host plants necessary for laying eggs and feeding larvae. Predators vary. Birds will swoop down and pick off a caterpillar for lunch or try to snatch a butterfly in flight—though birds aren?t a big problem. Frogs, toads, lizards and rodents hunt these would-be butterflies too. However, the biggest problem by far is humans.

Throughout the summer and into the fall, nectar plants are vital to a butterfly's survival, particularly for migrating butterflies such as monarchs. Texas plays an important role as an "aerial highway" for spring and fall butterfly migrations as they make their way to and from their wintering home. Monarchs are most notable in this respect, but last spring we were treated to hordes of migrating Gulf Fritillaries. The main attractant to a butterfly searching for a stopover place is an abundance of the right kind of plants, to fuel up on nectar for the long trip ahead.

A list of the "right kinds of plants" for north Texas include mistflower, verbena, lantana, Turk?s cap, milkweed, butterfly weed, scarlet sage and yarrow. In Texas these plants are best planted in the ground during the fall, but winter and spring are acceptable.

An important criteria (still imagining that you?re a hungry butterfly) is that there should be a "mass" of plants, not simply one or two. Also, plants that are native to this area are spotted more readily by butterflies, than plants originally brought here from other parts of the world.

Certainly, food and a place to safely lay eggs are necessary for butterflies, too. I?d recommend passion vine, clover, sunflower, sumac and a wide variety of native, wild grasses ? at least a foot tall.

If you?re serious about attracting butterflies, nothing should be sprayed on your landscape that?s artificial, man-made or poisonous. Caterpillars (which become pupae, which become butterflies) are often confused with more destructive bugs and are squashed or sprayed on sight. For example, a homeowner will kill a green, yellow and black caterpillar on a parsley plant without realizing it will soon be a gorgeous Eastern black swallowtail.

Chunks of roadside or unmaintained lots are often filled with wildflowers and native grasses a future banquet for butterflies. Spray a pesticide or herbicide, however, and it will become a butterfly wasteland. Only after the owner, or the city, stops spraying will the butterflies (and birds) return. Systemic pesticides, those that are absorbed into plant tissue, are particularly lethal to caterpillars and mature, egg-laying butterflies alike because they affect pollen and nectar.

Do everything that?s recommended and butterflies MIGHT visit your yard. It?s still a bit of a gamble, and you should start planning now. But if you don?t give it a try, it?s a sure thing that your yard will be as attractive as the Sahara Desert to a butterfly.

Owen Yost is an area landscape architect specializing in designing low-maintenance landscapes while incorporating native plants with hardscape. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Keep Denton Beautiful and the Native Plant Society of Texas. His Denton office is at 4516 Coyote Point; call 940-382-2099 or 940-383-9655 or e-mail him at Yost87@charter.net