Most of my blogs are going to be about what I call ‘proper gardening’, but sometimes there is a little wildlife trick that is too good not to try. This one involves mushy bananas!Now usually when I have an overripe banana, it goes into my syrup flapjacks, but not in autumn. At this time of year, I keep them solely for butterflies.If you haven’t tried it, here’s the technique. Take a blackened banana. Squidge it and squeeze it inside its skin until it loses all its rigidity. Cut some little nicks in the top. And then put out in a sunny sheltered position in the garden.
Here’s what was coming to mine this week for a gloopy, sugary drink – top and bottom are two Commas; the two in the middle are Red Admirals. They loved it, and visited day after day with several of their friends. Note there is a small risk of a few wasps joining the feast - I've never had a problem, but if you do just close your smoothie bar early and consign the banana to a closed compost heap.
I see where I've gone wrong now! I've tried banana before, but I don't think they were ripe enough so there were no takers. Nearly all the butterflies have gone from here now, so will have to wait for next year. Thanks for the right idea!
I'm going to try this in about 5 minutes time, I am about to do some squishing and squashing!!
I hope that I get just as many butterflies