Butterfly Winter Survival
Butterfly Winter Survival
Butterfly Winter Survival
Butterflies have been delighting us all summer as they flit from one colorful flower to the next. Unfortunately, summer does come to an end and wildlife begins now to prepare for colder weather. Our butterflies are no exception as they don’t tolerate temperatures below 55 degrees. Different species of butterflies will use different strategies to make it through the colder months.
Some butterflies like our eastern Monarchs make long migrations southward to more temperate areas in the Sierra Madre mountains of central Mexico. Butterflies that make these long migrations will typically begin their journey in late August or early September.
Other butterflies will remain in the same areas where they spend their summers. Some will overwinter in an egg stage, some will overwinter as a larval or caterpillar stage, some overwinter as a pupa in a chrysalis (swallowtail chrysalis in photo above) and some will overwinter as an adult. No matter what stage is used for overwintering they all require protected areas like under the bark of a tree, tree cavities, rolled leaves that they secure with silk strands, stems of dormant plants and leaf litter.
When raking leaves and cleaning up gardens in fall, we can keep in mind overwintering butterflies. Allowing leaves to accumulate in garden areas, leaving dormant plant stems standing, creating a brush pile in an out of the way location will all help to provide overwintering butterflies with needed protection. They will spend the cold days in a state of suspended development just waiting for warmer days and early spring flowers.
