The Very Fussy Caterpillar is a young small copper butterfly facing the challenge of trying to find food in your garden. They're looking for a sorrel plant to feed on before they can transform into a butterfly. That neatly mown lawn they find certainly isn’t going to offer any food and those nectar-rich flowers will only provide a great snack once they’re a butterfly. It’s not until our fussy friend stumbles across an un-mown lawn that they find the one plant they’re looking for and they can have their happy ending.
From a young age, most of us grow up thinking that caterpillars will eat just about anything to quell their ravenous appetite. Despite this popular opinion, caterpillars are very picky and they will only eat from a set menu of plants. That menu is also different for every caterpillar so the more food plants your garden has to offer, the greater the variety of butterflies that can make themselves at home.
James Melling from Cheshire Wildlife Trust says:
“While we may enthusiastically plant nectar-rich flowers, we tend to forget about what the caterpillars need. Many feed off long grasses and native meadow plants. Unfortunately, these tend to be in short supply in gardens as we mow our lawns from spring to autumn - the same time when butterflies are searching for new places to lay their eggs.”
“Our message is simple, if you want to see more butterflies in your garden, make room for the caterpillars. The easiest way of doing this is to take the Grow Don’t Mow challenge and not mow your lawn”
“Even if you don’t see many wildflowers, you could be creating the ideal conditions for the caterpillars - long grasses are just as important. If you can’t spare the full lawn, leaving a patch or growing some foodplants in pots could be all it takes to give butterflies a helping hand in your own back yard.”
According to the Big Butterfly Count, last year was the worst for garden butterfly sightings. Cheshire Wildlife Trust is hoping that a few small actions, and a little encouragement from their new fussy friend, might be enough to give butterflies that extra boost they need to recover this year.