Creating Habitat for butterflies & hoverflies:

Butterflies flutter, flick and fly away,

Looping laughing and longing to stay,

Flowers and food are what we need,

For me, my caterpillars I hope you can see

So plan dig and plant away,

Make homes for me and here I will stay.

Some Butterflies need very specific plants for their eggs and for their caterpillars to feed on.  Learn more about how to attract butterflies in to your school grounds with these simple changes.

Thistles

Mixed grasses grown as meadow

Stinging Nettles

A huge range of UK butterflies need the plants that can be found in and amongst grassland for their caterpillars.

The story of the caterpillar undergoing their incredible change to become a butterfly is one we all know.  But we must create space and habitat for their caterpillars.

The simplest and biggest action you can do to support butterflies is to agree a green space in your school grounds that can be left to grow long – allowing wild plant species to establish amongst the grass that caterpillars can then feed on.

These grass spaces can be cut in Spring or at the end of the flowering season.

Great guidance on working with staff and maintenance teams to get your long grass meadow is in our MAINTENANCE GUIDE.

Including a management plan for grounds staff to ensure your new habitat is the best it can be and works for everyone.

Leaving large areas of nettles and thistle (both support 6 species of adult butterfly and a number of caterpillar species) will create spaces for butterflies.

Create signs around your long grass or woodland margins ‘butterfly feeding station’ to let pupils, staff and the grounds team know what to look out for.

For more information on the specific food plants of our 59 resident butterfly species see this table here on the UK Butterflies website.

To help you with more butterfly specific planting have a look at our partners website –  Butterfly Conservation for planting ideas, identification help and much more.

Below you will find some fantastic resources from the MUNCHING CATERPILLARS website –  created by Buttterfly Conservation. Lots more to be found at their website.