GARDEN BUTTERFLIES OF AMERICA

Rick Mikula is crazy about butterflies. His passion for these fleeting flights of fancy, shines through in every word and photograph in this book. 

His instructions on how to plant your garden to attract butterflies are straight forward and invaluable. He explains the life cycle of these painted beauties and how we can accommodate their needs and enrich our lives by doing so. 
 For instance, when he writes of their need to bask (butterflies' internal muscles must warm to 80 degrees for flight) he suggests providing light colored basking areas to let them rev up their engines faster. He calls these places butterfly waterless ponds. He makes his in the shape of a butterfly, but any shape will do. You make an indentation in the soil, line it with plastic, add a few similar in size light colored stones or sand and stand back. He adds that, if morning dew collects, the butterflies will find this moisture when they come to bask.  Of course, the sidewalk will work too, but it is not as much fun.

There are also helpful lists of all kinds of things from how to say butterfly in a lot of different languages to plants to plant to deter insects that bother butterflies.

If all that doesn't hook you, then you will surely enjoy the full page color photos of 40 of North America's most treasured visitors accompanied by a detailed page of that butterflies likes and dislikes, particular identifying marks and region it can be found in. In most of the photos, he has included a snapshot of what the butterfly looks like with his wings up. Some of them are amazingly camouflaged.

This book is a must have for beginning butterfly enthusiasts.

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