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Butterflies are in peril. Here’s what we can do.

June 4, 2025

During the past four decades, scientists have documented a 1.6 percent decline per year in the number of butterflies in the southwestern United States.

Doesn’t sound like much? Consider how that figure compounds over the years.

“This means that since 1977, scientists have observed a whopping 64 percent drop in butterfly numbers, which comports with my own childhood memories of butterflies in Southern California,” says Adriana Briscoe, distinguished professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine. “Thirty-two of 50 species of butterflies showing declines over this period occur in Orange County. Across the U.S., over a 20-year period starting in 2000, butterflies have continued their decline by a similar amount.”

Besides lifting spirits with their beauty, butterflies serve important environmental functions: Butterflies are indicators of overall ecosystem health. They’re important plant pollinators, and also a food source for birds and wild animals.

“The decline of butterflies is a factor in the decline of birds and other animals,” Briscoe says.

But there’s hope: We can all do things to ensure the butterfly’s future.

Because butterflies are a short-lived, annual organism, populations will generally react strongly and quickly to changes in their environment — both negatively or positively — explains Ron Vanderhoff, general manager and vice president at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. He’s also a principal contributor to the book “The Butterflies of Orange County, California” and the Orange County coordinator for the Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Butterfly Count.

Here are simple actions we can all take to make things better for our local butterfly populations:

Toss the pesticides, insecticides and herbicides.

Brisco says the biggest declines in insect abundances, back in the 1990s, coincided with the introduction of neonicotinoid pesticides. Here’s a list of common gardening products that contain the chemical.

A 2022 study of milkweeds purchased from nurseries found that every single plant contained pesticides, and one-third of sampled plants contained pesticides at levels which are harmful to monarch caterpillars.

Says Briscoe: “As someone who rears butterfly caterpillars for my research, I can verify from personal experience that if you treat a plant with pesticide, it takes a very long time for the plant to become safe to eat.”

Instead, do companion planting.

Kim Neal, garden manager at Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente, says companion planting in gardening is the planting of different plants in proximity with each other for weed suppression, pest control, pollination and to draw in beneficial insects — eliminating the need for insecticides, herbicides and pesticides.

Grow it yourself.

Since we can’t control all of the pesticides, insecticides and herbicides used in our environment, Briscoe recommends that home gardeners grow plants from seeds. “If you do purchase plants from a nursery, you might try changing the soil before planting it in the ground,” she said. “That way you are less likely to put plants in the garden which are toxic to the caterpillars you are trying to help.”

Plant both host plants for caterpillars to develop and nectar plants for adult butterflies to eat. Here are some of Briscoe’s favorite host plants for butterflies in Southern California:

Black sage (Salvia mellifera)
Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
California sage (Artemisia californica)
Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)
Deerweed (Lotus scoparius)
Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens)
Narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis)

Kale also is a good host plant for some of the local pierid white butterflies. Some swallowtail butterflies lay eggs on citrus trees.

“Adding even a few host plants to our gardens can help a lot,” Briscoe said. “You’d be amazed by how efficient female monarch butterflies are at finding even a single host plant for laying their eggs.”

The best nectaring plant? Lantana.

A Monarch butterfly lands on a Lantana flower for a taste in North Hollywood recently. (Photo by Mike Meadows, Contributing Photographer)

“It is a hardy plant that can produce flowers year-round when planted in the ground and has medium-sized flowers for skippers — a kind of butterfly — and larger butterflies,” she said.

Also, buckwheat produces small, pinkish-white flowers that feed local butterflies.

“They have smaller flowers so butterflies with tiny proboscides can reach the nectar,” she said. “Butterfly bush (Buddleja) is also a good option, and of course, milkweed produces flowers which monarch adults will nectar from.”

Vanderhoff recommends calscape.org as a good resource for finding the types of local butterflies in an area as well as specific food plants for those butterflies.

Add a puddling area in your garden.

A plant tray filled with mud, gravel and plant material along with added water to keep it moist is a simple way to create a puddling area.

“Our butterfly garden here at Casa Romantica also has a puddling area for the butterflies to seek out nutrients from minerals in the decaying plant matter, mud and gravel,” she said. “It’s not unusual to see multiple butterflies in the puddling area at the same time.”

Shop for change.

“One of the best and most impactful ways to influence a change is with our shopping habits,” Vanderhoff said. “Simply said, do not support those businesses that do not align with your values of environmental health.

“If a garden retailer or landscape company is selling or installing invasive plant species, stop shopping there and tell them why. If the shelves and displays are stock full of butterfly-harming neonicotinoids and other insecticides, stop shopping there and tell them why. If the landscape company is installing a bed of acacia, Rhaphiolepis or another plant that does not support our native butterflies, insects and other pollinators, ask them to stop. If not, stop using that landscape company and tell them why.

“Our actions and our dollars usually speak louder than our words.”

Butterflies are in peril. Here’s what we can do. Orange County Register

News Details

Butterflies are in peril. Here’s what we can do.

Toss the pesticides, insecticides and herbicides.

Instead, do companion planting.

Grow it yourself.

Add a puddling area in your garden.

Shop for change.

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