Building My Butterfly House From Scratch

Hello everyone!

With this post, I want to show you the process I'm following to build a small homemade butterfly house on the land I purchased in front of my house.

At first, I'm going to install a 500x200x200mm greenhouse that fits exactly on the land I have. By making a couple of simple changes, I'll transform it into a viable butterfly house (or so I hope 😬).

Here are some photos of the land clearing and acclimatization process 🙌🏽

Here you can see what the land was like, full of garbage and debris that had to be removed...

When I had removed all the bad things from the land, I set about leveling the ground

Once that was done, I treated the soil where we were going to plant the plants and laid down weed control fabric. 💪🏽I also built a ladder so I could enter and exit the plot.

Thanks for the encouragement and the good comments jejjej 😬

I'll be posting the whole process so you can see it 💪🏽

In fact, today we planted some plants in front of the stairs to hide them a bit and make the entrance look prettier 🙌🏽

Hi everyone, I'm back!

I want to update you on how the preparation of my new butterfly greenhouse is going🙏🏽

The structure has arrived, and I'm making a couple of modifications. First, I've opened three windows at the top. When it's summer here, it can get very hot inside the enclosure, and I want it to have as much ventilation and airflow as possible 🙌🏽

I'm also going to put in a double door, made of mosquito netting, in addition to the plastic one the structure already has. When it's colder outside, the plastic door is left closed, and when it's really hot, it's left open, but it will have the mosquito netting door I'm going to install. This way, we prevent leaks, and the airflow and heat dissipation will be better 👌🏽

I look forward to your opinions. I'll update when the door is installed too!

Thanks, best regards, I hope you like it😬

The magnets are already in place so the plastic can be closed when it's cold 🙏🏽

Now I just need to put up the double screen door so I can leave the plastic one open when it's hot...

That's the hardest part 😬

Hi everyone, today I'm back with updates.

I've assembled the structure and installed the greenhouse, repositioned the weed control mesh, installed the temperature and humidity meter, and properly positioned the irrigation hose 🙌🏽

Now, in my opinion, the hardest part is left... And that's installing a screen door to prevent leaks when entering and leaving the greenhouse.

I'll show you the finished work (hopefully) in the next message.

Thanks to everyone following the project, and I hope you like it🫰🏽

Thanks so much for the advice Merlín.

I was considering it, but the material the greenhouse is made of is PE (Polyethylene), and it's super hard to get anything to stick there... whether it's double-sided tape or cyanoacrylate glue, for example... so when I tried Velcro, it broke very easily ☹️

So luckily, I found a trick to be able to stick at least the magnets on. It's to sand the PE (Polyethylene) a little just before gluing it with cyanoacrylate. For me, it's more comfortable, and I can open the windows much more easily🙌🏽

The screen door I'm going to install also has a magnetic closure so I can easily enter and exit. 🫰🏽 As soon as I finish it, I'll post the photos.

Thanks so much for the advice friend!

But the adhesive on the Velcro I bought didn't stick, unfortunately. 😭

I'll try it next time I need to modify something in the greenhouse! 🫰🏽

I'm so glad you like the process. Here's a photo of how I installed the screen door 🫰🏽

I hope the plants grow well, since that's what it's supposed to be in a greenhouse🌱

I'm worried about temperature and humidity, but I think the windows and door can do their job and raise or lower the temperature depending on whether I close them or not and the weather outside 🤷🏽‍♂️

I also want the butterflies to breed and be happy there.

I've managed to breed Greta, Heliconius, Danaus, and some papilio in boxes no larger than 1x1x1m, so I hope they'll do well in 2x2x5m. 😬

Best regards, I'll be posting with updates 🙌🏽

Hello everyone, I'm back with some updates after several days of work on the butterfly house.

I've installed shade netting to prevent it from retaining so much heat when the sun is strong. I've also planted several host plants and decorated the floor a bit, although it still needs finishing.

Now I want to add more flowering plants and some greenery. I currently have several Caligo memnon butterflies flying around, reproducing, and laying eggs efficiently.

They're eating a mixture of banana and honey water from feeders I made with my 3D printer, and I'm also putting pieces of fruit around the butterfly house.

I hope you like it 🙌🏽

Hi everyone, I've been really busy with work...

But the butterfly garden has come a long way 🤫

I've planted lots of things and many others have grown beautifully.

Here are some photos from a few months ago until now!

Thanks everyone 🙌🏽

I'm glad you like it 🙌🏽

it's appreciated that you value the work that goes into this jeje.

There are already several butterflies flying and several caterpillars growing there.

I'll take some photos as soon as I can.

Cheers!🙏🏽

The Semi-Wild Life 😁