Watering the butterflies

This weekend I decided to get out an old sprinkler to try to revive my bone-dry lawn. It turned out most of the holes were plugged with grunge, so it was more of a mister than a sprinkler. I left the water running to try to unclog it, and soon there were tons of butterflies in the mist. Mostly tiny blue and yellow ones, with some bigger ones.

I have a lot of butterflies all the time, because I have lots of weeds/wildflowers, but not as clustered as this. As long as I’m watering the dogs, cats and horses, I might as well water the butterflies.

StG

That’s neat, I can picture it! I’ve seen them sit on a rock to drink out of a puddle but I bet they loved the mist!

That is a nice mental image, and refreshing!

Now…take pics :smiley:

Funny thing is, I see all kinds of insects drink from the horse troughs, but never butterflies. But if I let the troughs over run and the ground gets muddy, they’re all over that.

This morning before work I let the sprinkler run for about a half hour since there wasn’t any dew. Hopefully it’ll give them a good drink.

StG

If the butterflies are going after muddy ground they are probably puddling which allows them to get nutrients and salts not found in flower nectar. www.thebutterflysite.com/butterfly-behavior.shtml

I don’t know why they’d go for the mist from the sprinkler, but I would have liked to have seen it. :slight_smile: