Grapefruit lures butterfly barrage
The Rio Grande Valley grapefruit has become known all over the world as being one of the sweetest, best-tasting citrus specimen money can buy. While you and I use the grapefruit for breakfast and in fruit salads, the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, has found it also is one of the choice fruits when it comes to nature.
If you have visited one of the major nature destinations across the country you may have already become accustomed to seeing birds relishing local delicacies. At the National Butterfly Center it is not uncommon to see Altamira orioles almost doing acrobatic splits to make sure they get every bite possible.
The colorful green jays, one of the most beautiful birds in the United States, also take every opportunity to get their mouths on the delicious fruit. But it was kind of surprising to the staff of the National Butterfly Center to recently see butterflies by the dozens feeding on the grapefruit outside of the new visitor pavilion. The grapefruit had been put in the native Retama trees for the golden-fronted woodpeckers that would normally visit, and then came the big surprise.
For weeks the Tawny Emperor butterflies acted as though they had found the ultimate food court of good eating. It was like a feeding frenzy and visitors who walk the pathway to the pavilion are amazed, first, to see butterflies on grapefruit, and then to see so many in one concentrated spot.
This has been a banner spring for butterflies over most parts of the country, and each day brings more sightings. The number of butterflies around the National Butterfly Center’s banana brew logs has been overwhelming as well. The banana brew is made from 10 over-ripe bananas, one pound of brown sugar and a can of dark beer. This blended concoction is allowed to ferment and then applied daily to logs hanging from trees or on iron rods placed throughout the garden. It is also applied to the tops of fence posts in shadier areas of the center. Though temperatures can exceed 100 degrees the banana brew has been bringing in butterflies like the colorful Question Mark, Mexican Bluewing and Emperors of all sorts.
This is a good time to get a butterfly garden established at your house. By planning to have native flowers with an overlapping season of bloom you can keep butterflies around all summer. It is important to have a good quantity of plants that provide nectar and larval food for the butterfly’s caterpillars. The icing on the cake comes from also providing food from fruit like the grapefruit and the brew made from over-ripe bananas. This will help bring in the rarer butterflies of your region.