Butterflies are beautiful and enchanting. They elicit images of spring sunshine, summer gardens, and lush meadows. Butterflies are also essential for the environment and are a barometer of environmental health.
These mesmerizing insects are highly susceptible to even small changes in the environment. Many ecologists and environmentalists study butterflies and are raising warnings and alarms. Why are butterflies so crucial to the environment, and what makes them critical barometers of environmental health? Let’s explore the role these colorful insects play in our ecosystems–and how we can help protect them!
Why are Butterflies Important?
Of course, butterflies have intrinsic value just for existing and contributing to the earth’s rich biodiversity. There are more than 20,000 species of butterflies. Most of them live in tropical rainforests. Still, they also play many essential roles in the environment.
Butterflies are important pollinators.
Butterflies feed on nectar that is stored deep inside flowers. As they reach in to eat the nectar, they rub against the flower, which causes pollen to stick to their legs, wings, and body. As they travel from one flower to the next, the pollen is distributed among the flowers for reproduction.
Butterflies help promote and expand the genetic diversity of plants, making them more resistant to disease. Because butterflies can travel long distances as they eat, they are one of the most important pollinators in the environment. They can spread pollen further than other pollinators like bees which tend to stay closer to home.
In other words, butterflies play a critical role in reproducing countless plants!
We rely on pollinators like butterflies for food like fruits and vegetables that fill our plates. Some studies estimate that pollinators like butterflies are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat!
Butterflies help us measure the health of ecosystems.
Scientists call butterflies the “wild indicators of an ecosystem.” These colorful insects are highly susceptible to changes in the environment, like changes in temperature or habitat destruction.
Butterflies are attracted to areas with very fertile soil with a lot of plant diversity. These areas are also home to a variety of animals and other insects. In all their life stages, butterflies serve as food for many other animals like birds, small mammals, and insects, making them a critical part of the overall food chain.
Some species of butterflies also play an essential role in helping control pests like aphids that can destroy plants.
Many scientists measure the size and overall health of butterfly populations to determine an ecosystem’s overall stability and health. Even small changes in their natural habitat can cause significant changes to butterfly populations. For this reason, scientists rely on them to help monitor and observe habitat fragmentation and environmental changes.
Butterfly studies lead to other scientific research.
Because of their delicate life cycle and their role as pollinators, many scientists study butterflies to understand other aspects of the natural world. Many of these studies have led to further scientific discoveries or research.
Who knows what valuable discoveries we might make when studying the intricacies of the butterfly! For example, learning what types of plants butterflies choose to lay their eggs on led to new discoveries in new ways that humans can use plants. Scientists are researching how milkweed and other plants with anti-parasitic properties might benefit people. Other scientists are studying the natural antibiotic the Meadow Brown butterfly produces to see if it might be helpful to humans.
What Is Threatening Butterflies?
Scientists have observed a significant decline in the population of butterflies worldwide. While there are many contributing factors to these changes, scientists agree there are a few critical causes.
Butterflies suffer when their habitat is destroyed.
Butterflies rely on the nectar of various plants and trees for food and shelter. Unfortunately, many of their natural habitats are being destroyed by deforestation for farming, urbanization, and other human activities. Most butterflies aren’t able to adapt to new habitats.
Some butterflies can only survive where there are specific plants or vegetation. For example, the Bitterbush Blue butterfly only lives where the coast bitter-bush grows. So, when there isn’t enough of this plant in certain regions, the butterflies cannot survive.
Butterflies are extremely sensitive to chemicals.
Chemicals in pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides can have devastating impacts on butterfly populations. One study as far back as 2015 proved that continuous use of pesticides caused the decline in butterfly populations in Florida.
It’s not just chemicals sprayed on plants that are threatening butterflies. Even purchasing plants that are pre-treated with pesticides and herbicides can be dangerous to butterflies. When you put those treated plants in your garden, butterflies lay eggs on them, and the caterpillars that hatch will eat the chemical-treated leaves and die.
Changing environmental cues threaten butterflies.
Butterflies rely on climate cues to know when to emerge from their eggs, when to migrate, and other crucial acts. Many factors are changing the environmental cues that butterflies need to survive.
One specific example of these changes is the monarch butterfly. Milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat. But not all milkweed plants are the same.
There is an invasive species of the plant called tropical milkweed that blooms longer and does not die back. That means the monarch butterflies don’t receive the cue that it’s time to migrate before the temperatures get too cold for them to survive. The invasive species of milkweed can also spread deadly parasites to butterflies.
Sadly, many well-meaning gardeners plant milkweed in their gardens to feed monarch butterflies but aren’t choosing the native milkweed species!
How Can We Help Butterflies?
There is good news! We can make small changes to help protect the butterflies #smallactionsbigimpact
Plant only native plants in your gardens.
While exotic flowers and plants might be beautiful and exciting to grow, they do impact the local ecosystem. Skip the exotic plants and choose locally native host plants for your gardens. (And keep the exotic plants for indoor enjoyment.)
Caterpillars and butterflies are surprisingly picky eaters. After all, they’re engineered to thrive in specific ecosystems with particular plants. Cultivate a butterfly-friendly ecosystem by planting the flowers and plants that naturally grow in your region and that butterflies are attracted to. You can plug in your zipcode here: https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/plants and find out!
Just because a plant at your local garden center is labeled “butterfly friendly” doesn’t mean it’s native to your region. Unfortunately, many “butterfly-friendly” plants do more harm than good in the long term.
Remember the invasive milkweed plant that some people grew to feed monarch butterflies? This variety of milkweed is not native to most regions where monarchs live. It doesn’t go dormant in the winter, disrupting the butterfly’s natural migration patterns.
A “butterfly-friendly” plant was introduced into the region and is more harmful in the long run. It’s better to choose plants and flowers that are native to your region to cultivate long-term ecological health and stability.
Avoid releasing commercially raised butterflies into the wild.
Many people get excited when local school groups or clubs release commercially raised butterflies. While this sounds like a good idea on the surface, these human-grown butterflies can introduce parasites and diseases into the wild populations.
Some environmental groups understand how to cultivate butterfly populations and release them into the wild without these risks, but most commercially raised butterflies are not helpful in the long run.
Instead, encourage schools and clubs to cultivate butterfly gardens with native flowers. These gardens attract wild butterflies and create safe ecosystems for caterpillars and butterflies.
Avoid using pesticides and herbicides.
Avoid using pesticides and herbicides on your lawn and garden. Pesticides kill wide varieties of insect larvae–including butterflies! That’s what it’s designed to do! Additionally, pesticides and herbicides often kill native plant species like milkweed–the only plant on which monarch butterflies lay eggs.
Skipping the pesticides and herbicides is healthier for you, the soil, and all the plants and animals in your area. If you still need to prevent or eliminate the “bad” bugs in your garden, there are some “reduced-risk pesticides” that pose less risk to humans and pollinators like butterflies and bees.
Rather than using broad-spectrum insecticides or pesticides, know what type of pest insect you’re targeting and choose a treatment option accordingly. This will reduce the overall chemical impact of the spray.
Avoid treating flowering plants since pollinators like butterflies, moths, and bees feed on these plants. It’s also helpful to apply insecticides in the early morning or late evening when pollinators are less likely to be foraging.
Nobody wants to imagine a world without beautiful butterflies. Together we can make small changes to protect these beautiful and valuable pollinators!
I invite you to take just ONE action to help save the butterflies this spring. Whether choosing different flowers for your spring garden or changing your pesticide usage on your lawn, if we ALL take small actions, it will add to significant changes, remember: small actions, big impact.
