Video Blog: Graeme Hill’s Guide to Butterfly Breeding

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.