Video Blog: Graeme Hill’s Guide to Butterfly Breeding
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:07 am – Posted by Mandy | 2 Comments
Blogger: Web Manager for Forest & Bird, Mandy Herrick
Our admiral butterflies have had a hard-time of late. In an ongoing operation to eliminate any plant that is prickly, or stingy we’ve pretty much obliterated their youngin’s only food source: nettles. Slowly, over the years, our admiral’s nettle-filled grazing ground has been replaced with a vista of grass, roses, palms, and all variety of unedible plants.
We - unthinkingly - have put our admirals on a starvation diet.
However, there are a few people that are on a crusade to return these winged-wonders to our skies.One of these butterfly-lovers is the broadcaster, zoology guru and birder Graeme Hill. He has spent the last few years breeding red & yellow admirals, fending off nasties (such as paper wasps, German wasps and common wasps ) and educating people about the importance of nettles.
In this four-minute video, he shows you how to help boost the admiral population by becoming a backyard butterfly breeder yourself.
Thanks Graeme, I have always wanted to know how to breed butterflies. I nebver knew the Monarch trust actually helped people breed other types of butterflies, I thought they were just interested in monarchs….
Central auckland branch is looking seriously at starting a project in the central isthmus area of auckland city specifically to create a home for butterflies (planting nettles). Any registrations of interest or advice about this scheme would be much appreciated. please contact centralauckland.branch@forestandbird.org.nz