Post #4116880

2026-07-26 15:24 UTC

PSA: Wood boxes with slits that are marketed as "butterfly houses" are purely decorative. Multiple studies have confirmed that butterflies never use them. But paper wasps (Polistes) do, which is not great for butterfly populations because these wasps hunt caterpillars. Plus they sting, so not great for humans walking by. #butterflies #scam #insects #nature #garden #lepidoptera #wasps

Replies (4)

@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks 2026-07-26 16:05

Here's a photograph (not mine) of a Polistes diminula colony living inside an ornamental butterfly house. It's from Baker and Potter's excellent article titled, "Invasive paper wasp turns urban pollinator gardens into ecological traps for monarch butterfly larvae." #monarchs #butterflies #wasps https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66621-6

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@aosmith16@hachyderm.io 2026-07-26 15:29

@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks Huh, I have never heard of butterfly houses and can't imagine what life stage "slits in wood" would support.

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@mjibrower@social.vivaldi.net 2026-07-26 16:02

@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks Do wasps also use the ones with tubes that are meant for solitary bees? I bought one of those sheerly as decor (it was marketed as such) and something is living in it that likes to seal it up with dirt, like the wasps we use to call mud daubers.

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@Lefoyenlibre@mastodon.social 2026-07-26 16:12

@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks By the way, wasps don't give a heck about humans, unless they tease them...

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