Its Butterfly Bait Season!

With the onset of cooler temperatures butterfly activity declines. In addition, a prolonged dry spell has made many of our late season nectar plants dry up, although the thistle is still hanging in there.

We will soon get to a point where a majority of the butterflies on the wing will be rotten fruit and tree sap feeders, looking for meals among your overripe peaches and apples that have fallen to the ground. Among these butterflies are the Eastern Comma and Question Mark, the punctuation butterflies! You may also find Red Admirals, Red-spotted Purple, and Northern Pearly Eyes among those feeding on your rotting fruit.

For these butterflies, there is nothing better than our homemade Butterfly Ridge Butterfly Bait. Our special recipe is a secret of course, but it does contain, among other things, rotten banana, brown sugar, and dark imported beer.

Our bait stations are quite simple. For those who have visited Butterfly Ridge, as all of you should, repeatedly, you have spotted what looks like pieces of firewood hanging from trees. These are our bait stations. Literally a piece of firewood hanging by a piece of electrical wire from a tree. Why electrical wire? That’s what we happened to have laying around!

Red-spotted Purple, Eastern Comma, and Bald-faced Hornet enjoying the butterfly ridge bait!

Simply pour bait onto the stick in the morning and enjoy watching nature take in a thoughtful meal. We also like to set up our GoPro video camera next to the bait stick so that we can get a sense for everything that happens at the stick (https://youtu.be/EyXfxObTrXM?si=GnoUdzh6AmWTzxbp).

Yes, bees, flies, and other insects also partake of the bait. I cannot begin to estimate how many sticks I have baited in my life, and I have never been stung by a bee at a bait stick. They are so involved in feeding, that they honestly couldn’t care less about me standing next to the stick. Or perhaps they are so fershnickered from their bait consumption that they do not even realize I am there!

Swing by Butterfly Ridge during our open hours and pick up a bottle of bait. Large bottles are $10, small bottles and $6.