Use That Overripe Fruit to Attract Butterflies
Did you forget about that slice of watermelon sitting in the back of the fridge? You’ve been ignoring it because throwing away food makes you feel guilty, and you’re hoping that the refrigerator fairies will carry it away.
However, that dumpsterish odor is making this approach more and more difficult.
Good news! You can take your overripe fruit and put it to an environmentally beneficial use. That’s because many species of butterflies, including Monarchs, will feed on fruit that is past its prime.
We discovered this recently when we found butterflies feeding on oranges that had been left out for the Baltimore Orioles for a few too many days. Orioles do like oranges, but they prefer fresh.
The butterflies we saw were Mourning Cloaks and Commas. Neither are rare or among the more beautiful of the Lepidoptera, but nor are they often seen in our garden. These days I am pleased to see any butterfly.
The host plants for Comma caterpillars are all members of the elm and nettle families, according to Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA).
There are many Elm trees in the neighborhood, though they are mostly either Siberian Elm (Ulmus pumila) or hybrids – the American Elm (Ulmus americana) having become very rare. Apparently the non-native Elms can still serve as hosts for the Mourning Cloaks.
Hosts for the Comma include Willows, Cottonwoods, and Hackberries. There’s a huge Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) across the alley from us, a Western Hackberry (Celtis occidentalus) in the front parkway, and a huge Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica) across the street.
Commas are found only in North America, while the range of Mourning Cloaks extends into the temperate parts of Eurasia.
If you are stumped by a butterfly, moth, or caterpillar ID in North America, you can submit a snapshot to BAMONA and they will get back to you with a positive identification. You do need to set up a free account, but all the IDs go into a database that helps to monitor population trends. Is that a great resource or what?
In addition to oranges, butterflies are fond of apples, cantaloupe, and watermelon. The fruit needs to be sliced open so that there is easy access to the juices. For more information on attracting butterflies with fruit, click on this link.
Seen many butterflies in your garden so far this year?
gardeninacity 
Great tip. Glad you’re seeing and encouraging butterflies–they were scarce last year around here. Today I saw an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and one I think is Cabbage White (Pieris rapae). If I get some good pictures I’ll try out the new resource you mentioned.
Haven’t seen any Swallowtails yet. I have seen some cabbage whites, though I kind of feel they hardly count.
I usually find commas in my “compost” (it’s really just a huge pile that grows larger each passing year) each spring. There are elms in my neighborhood but not certain which kind – in fact I grew a sapling from my neighbor’s tree. I love these butterflies with their “camouflage” that then surprises when they open their wings. I am patiently waiting for Monarchs – please? I have seen many Swallowtails. I remember touring a garden through our local club here and on their woodpile were quite a bit of watermelon rind – to attract hummingbirds! I would think the hummers were attracted to the fruit flies and not the fruit.
No swallowtails or monarchs here. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Oh, I so hope to see Monarchs soon!
Interesting tip Jason! I have got a lot of butterflies at the moment, mostly small tortoiseshells and the occasional skipper. Nowhere near as many as last year, but I think they are just later than normal due to the odd weather patterns we have had.
I hope the same is true here – that the butterflies are late because the weather has been mostly cooler than normal.
Really interesting post Jason, followed your link ‘attracting fruit’, and see they suggest putting the fruit in a dish within another dish of water to prevent ants. Also like your link to BAMONA, the layout of information is very organised. In the UK there is an expected mass influx of Painted Ladies, with apparently millions of these Butterflies winging over from Africa. I am going to try fruit, to see if I can attract any here. Like you we seem to getting less Butterflies every year.
I really like the BAMONA site, it is very informative and easy to use.
That’s a great idea. We never seem to finish melon! Maybe we can get the commas to stop for longer in the garden
Worth a try. Let me know how it works!
We practice this and found it to be successful, although we do have to change out the fruit rather frequently especially in our heat. It makes its way from our kitchen to the butterfly dish and then to the compost pile. In the fall we cut up our jack-o-lanterns for the butterflies and other wildlife to devour.
I never thought of pumpkins. Though by the end of October, sadly, there are few if any butterflies here.
I’ve seen Skippers and Moth but no ‘real’ gorgeous butterflies. 😦
The best I’ve seen are the Red Admirals.
We have lots of Eastern tiger swallowtails at the little house in the big woods. So elegant and beautiful.
I’m jealous of your swallowtails! No sign of them here as of yet, darn it!
The fruit I put out is never visited by butterflies in my garden. They do like it when the apple tree (which we no longer have) leaves it’s fruits on the ground. Maybe I will try this again since our apple tree is gone. They might appreciate it now.
The post I link to shows lots of butterflies feeding off of apple slices.
I am definitely going to try that soon. They aren’t colourful but they do have an understated kind of beauty to them. Great captures btw
Thanks!
I always have butterflies and probably the comma (though I haven’t stopped to ID–I should!), in my compost. But thanks for the good reminder about fruit for pollinators–and birds, btw!
You’re welcome. Except for the orioles and their oranges, the birds here seem to go for either jelly or berries on trees and shrubs.
I find that they particularly enjoy rotten bananas, especially the Question Marks. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any lately so they may be heading further north. 🙂 I did get some pictures of some Mourning Cloaks feeding on bananas, though, so they may still be here. Great post! AND pictures!
New recycling strategies are always welcome. This is a good one. I’m no good with butterfly ID, but we’ve spotted large yellow and black ones and also white and black lately.
That’s a great idea. I always buy too much fruit.
I’ve seen a few but nothing like there was just a few years ago.
That is awesome!! I will try this for sure with the beans!! Thank you for passing this along! And we have had many butterflies this year! No monarchs yet but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed as my milkweed is booming! I actually held my finger out and a swallowtail landed on it! It had been circling us for a while….just a magical experience! Happy gardening friend! Nicole
A good tip…I’ve seen a few monarchs in my garden but I’d love to see move butterflies.
That’s so interesting! I always learn things from reading your blog. I’ve seen those yellow ones and the small tiny ones that look kind of like monarchs. Isn’t my knowledge of butterfly names impressive? 😉
I always put out of date fruit out too, here, nothing, neither bird nor butterfly will eat oranges or melon, but of course they are not native so sadly go to waste. Sam will eat both though, food is food to a dog! Love your butterflies, plain or colourful, always nice to see wildlife that isn’t native here.xxx
I do that too. But the squirrels seem to have developed a sweet tooth and have been making off with my fruit, even the grape jelly in the orange rinds. The local Butterfly Conservancy always has fruit out for the butterflies. It is fun to go there and see all the butterflies up close.
I realize though that I have to keep the fruit away from the bird feeders.
Jason, I had a butterfly farm and nature center when I lived in Austin, We used rotten fruit on a regular basis in our butterfly house. We found that rotten bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and oranges all work very well. Love having those butterflies around!
Did you have trouble with furry critters getting into the fruit?
One of my riding pals took a photo of a Swallowtail on horse pooh and uses it as her FB profile picture.
I did read that some butterflies feed on manure. Charming!
Too much rain and in torrents for butterflies to stick around…they have gone around us and headed north it seems. I will have to remember this trick.
We have been seeing more the last week or so, including at least one Monarch.
I’ve just spotted this old post of yours. Do you know, it’s never occurred to me to put out old fruit for butterflies? I tend to think of them only drinking nectar from flowers. We do have a lot of butterflies here, but equally there is usually some fruit we haven’t eaten in time, and now I know what to do with it. Brilliant, thanks!