Pollinator Week Wrap-up: Advanced Butterfly Gardening
By Laurie Sheldon Edith Smith In the spirit of Pollinator week, the Ixia chapter invited butterfly breeder Edith Smith to speak at their meeting in Jacksonville last week. Two days later, Edith gave the chapter a tour of Shady Oak Butterfly Farm in Brooker, FL, which she and her husband Stephen own and operate. At the Meeting Because the majority of our chapter members are well versed in the basics of butterfly gardening, Edith's presentation focused on some of the more advanced concepts involved in butterfly and moth rearing, including nutritional requirements, parasitoids, and diseases of viral and fungal origin. She also made sure we knew that, contrary to popular belief, butterflies do not sleep in "butterfly houses" (bird houses with narrow vertical entrances). Butterflies "puddling" on manure. Photo credit: Kris and Kevin Brady Nutrition "Puddling," a phenomenon wherein butterflies gather to sip from wet sand or soil, is an impo...