You Already Grow Pollinator Flowers – Now Add the Overlooked Feature That Truly Helps Butterflies Thrive
A mud-puddling pool is just as important to butterflies as nectar-rich blooms, and it only takes 10 minutes to make.
Nectar provides butterflies with energy but a mud-puddling pool gives them the vital nutrients they need for flight, bodily functions and reproduction. So, if you like to garden with wildlife in mind and already have a border buffet of nectar-rich blooms, this 10-minute project should be next on your summer to-do list. Because after growing flowers for pollinators, a mud puddling station is the single best way to help butterflies thrive in your garden.
Puddling is an essential butterfly behaviour and in the wild, hundreds of butterflies can congregate to mud-puddle. The insects seek out moist organic matter then suck up fluid through their straw-like proboscises to extract vital salts and amino acids that nectar doesn’t provide, but are necessary for survival.
Different butterfly species tend to focus on different sources for this liquid nutrition, and some have evolved to puddle rotting plants, carrion and even the salty tears of reptiles. But don’t fret: the vast majority of butterflies puddle in damp soil, hence the term ‘mud-puddling’, so it's easy to provide a puddling pool in your garden.
Offering a suitable mud-puddle is an especially important way to help butterflies in June and July, which are the peak moths for mating. Males mud-puddle far more frequently than females, and that’s because they require sodium and amino acids to produce sperm, and these nutrients are passed onto the females during mating, giving eggs a better chance of survival. To extract sufficient nutrients, a male mud-puddles at an astounding rate, flushing around 600 times its own body mass of liquid through its digestive tract in a typical day.
Butterflies also mud-puddle to hydrate, which becomes more essential as summer temperatures climb. Unable to land on open water, butterflies rely on damp areas such as stream banks and puddle edges to drink safely. Offer this valuable source of moisture in your pollinator garden, and butterflies are likely to visit more often and stay for longer.
So, creating a mud-puddling pool for butterflies is a fabulous addition to a wildlife garden, especially at this time of the year.
How to Create a Mud-Puddling Pool for Butterflies
The best way to create the just-right conditions butterflies crave is to make a puddling pool in a shallow 12-16 inch container. A plant-pot saucer is perfect, and plastic or metal is better than porous terracotta (which is fine to use – it’ll just dry out more quickly so you’ll need to refill more frequently).
Add a half-and-half mix of coarse sand and garden soil, and mix in the tiniest pinch of unrefined sea salt or pure, unscented Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). Don’t use iodized table salt, as the added iodine and anti-caking agents can be highly toxic to insects. If you have it, a tablespoon of compost is a good addition for extra minerals.
Place a few flat pebbles on top to give your guests a safe spot to rest their wings. Dark stones are best, if possible, as these will absorb the sun’s warmth. Cold-blooded butterflies rely on the environment to warm their bodies up to a point that they can fly, which is why you’ll often see these insects sunbathing with their wings spread wide.
Place the mud-puddling station in a sunny, sheltered spot, and pour in just enough water to thoroughly dampen the mix and form a few very shallow, small puddles. This is a puddling pool not a paddling pool, so the majority of its surface should be moist soil or sand, not open water. Keep the station topped up with water as necessary and, once a month, empty and refill to replenish nutrients as well as maintain hygiene.
While it’s best for the mud-puddling station to be fairly close to nectar-rich flowers so butterflies can find it easily, position your pool away from dense plant cover where predators like cats – and large spiders, who love to snack on butterflies – could hide.
As well as being a beautiful part of our gardens, butterflies play a vital role in the ecosystem as pollinators and as early indicators of environmental changes. So let's help these pretty critters all we can. Even if your garden is tiny, you can support butterflies by growing nectar-rich flowers in containers. As well as making a puddling pool, giving wildlife a home with a chic bug house, raising host plants for butterfly eggs, and putting out past-its-best fruit for butterflies to feed on will all enable these winged wonders to truly thrive.
