Great idea. Any special kind of ripe fruit?

Oh wow! That's the bottom of a pineapple.
Very cool!

Had to enlarge the image to see it.

Maridell, at the Callaway Gardens butterfly house, they use citrus and bananas (and it's usually over-ripe)

Funny how those beautiful wings contrast with rotten fruit!

They seem to like just about any kind of over ripe or rotten fruit. I learned this from my compost pile
I get the best response to the juicy things , they love the end of watermelon.
I put fruit out when my berries are ripe to distract them so I can have the berries.


the top leaf looking thing is a butterfly
see: wings open

Glad to hear about the bananas. I usually throw 1 or 2 out because we don't eat them fast enough around here.

I read on here somewhere last fall(?) that you can hang a nanner peel near your hummingbird feeder (maybe they said to wrap it in muslin or something) because the fruit flies it gets are also food for hummers. Me? I put the old nanners in the freezer until I get around to making nanner bread.

you can just hang it on a branch or nail... the hummers love the fruit flies.. I always put oranges out to try and attract oriels .. never saw butterflies near them but good to know!!

We were at the Chattanooga Aquarium a few weeks ago, where they also have a butterfly house in the roof. Took this there. I think they are pieces of banana and grapes on a string.


A closer look.


One more.

nice.. great shots!!

Great idea. When my bananas get overripe, I freeze them for smoothies and use the peel to fertilize my epis. Last year, I was rewarded with blooms galore. The plants truly went bananas!

This popped up in random ideas today

It's a fantastic idea, but when I tried it a couple summers ago, the dish of fruit was quickly over-run with bees/wasps/hornets rather than butterflies. Other than putting it FAR AWAY from me so I don't get stung, are there any other suggestions? I don't mind feeding the bees/wasps/hornets, but I have a very strong aversion to being stung.

ripe fruit does attract a lot of feeders . I find the wasps and bees seem to take their turn also , kinda like all kinds of birds at a feeder we cant control who is hungry. I would suggest putting the feeder in a remote area if you are concerned about getting stung. I have found feeding insects usually too busy to even care about my coming and goings.

Just found this tip. I never thought of putting fruit out for the butterflies.
Never thought of hanging banana peels to attract fruit flies for the hummers.
Boy did I learn a lot from this tip.

Great tip! I will do this next summer. I am still trying to attract hummers, do you think the fruit flies will help or just wait till they show up. I do not want to attract the wrong thing.

We put out orange halves when it is cooler. When it gets hot the things are covered in flies, nothing else. We've seen several butterflies, and birds. The Red-bellied woodpeckers really chow on the oranges.

We tried bananas last year for butterflies, but it was too hot... flies. But another year, the Red-headed woodpeckers really liked it. I felt kind of bad because their bills were a mess, so didn't put any more out that year. I am sure it cleaned off, but at the time I kind of freaked wondering if that would have in some way made life miserable for them.

We've done apple and melon leftovers. A lot of flies, too, but Painted Ladies got to it, too.