Skip The Flowers: Attract Butterflies With A Kitchen Scrap They'd Be Thrilled To Find

The whimsy and charm of a butterfly-filled garden is enough to convince many gardeners to try attracting the insects to their property — all of the environmental benefits of butterflies are just a bonus. They're powerful pollinators and feed on garden pests like aphids, meaning their presence can help your garden thrive. There are many ways to encourage them to visit your home, like covering your yard with a butterfly-friendly ground cover. But if you want a quicker invitation, you can easily make some butterfly food using sugar and overripe peaches.

As long as they haven't turned completely rotten, hold onto the old peaches you forgot about in the back of your fridge. It's even okay if they have a few moldy spots — just cut these away along with any seeds before processing them into butterfly food. Once the peaches are prepared, cut them into chunks and toss them into a bowl along with some water. Use a fork to further break up the peach chunks, then mash them up until the fruit combines with the water. Top the mixture with either brown or white sugar, loosely cover the bowl with a cloth or paper towel, and keep it in a warm spot for at least a day. Then, simply pass the mixture through a fine sieve and put out the resulting sugary peach juice for your butterflies.

This recipe works because, like humans, butterflies are attracted to sugar. Peaches tend to have more sugar than many other fruits like berries or melons, making them especially alluring to the different butterfly species you see flying around your garden. A simple solution of water and sugar should bring some bugs to your yard, but adding the overripe peaches makes the mixture even sweeter while also preventing food waste. Plus, you can take any bits of peach that didn't make it through the sieve and toss them in your compost pile.

To ensure the best results, be sure to regularly change out the peach water and clean the feeder. Otherwise, harmful bacteria may start to develop. You should also keep the feeder off the ground, or else ants and other crawling insects might steal all the nectar. Place the butterfly food around your garden near places you know butterflies already visit, like around flowers or your DIY flowerpot butterfly homes.

For an even more efficient version of this recipe, simply cut out a slice of an overripe peach, break the flesh up a bit, and put it out on a dish for your butterfly friends. Just don't include the peach pit, which is toxic to the insects.