Checkerspot and common blue butterflies puddle together in the Merritt area.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Loekie Vanderwal
July 07, 2025 - 4:00 AM
Colourful butterflies congregate in large numbers in Kamloops and the Okanagan every summer as they engage in a natural phenomenon called mud puddling.
While most of a butterfly’s nutrition comes from sugary flower nectar, male butterflies need minerals and salts to enrich their sperm and breeding outcomes.
The males will gather around moist mud, dung and decaying flesh to drink and absorb salts and amino acids. Part of the nutrients are transferred to the female during mating and this extra nutrition helps the eggs survive, according to Earth Touch News Network.
Checkerspot butterflies puddle in the Merritt area at the end of June.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Loekie Vanderwal
Gardeners can attract mud-puddling butterflies by filling a shallow dish with soil or sand from the beach and pouring water over it make it moist. The addition of manure or compost and some overripe fruit helps attract butterflies, and a pinch of salt will ensure they get enough nutrients. The insects will need something to stand on as they can’t land on open water.
Area photographers were able to capture several species of mud-puddling butterflies at area lakes in the past few weeks, including a vary large congregation with two different species, and a closeup look of a butterfly with its proboscis in the soil.
If you have interesting nature photographs to share, send them to news@infonews.ca
A butterfly sucks up moisture from the soil in the Kamloops area in summer.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Valerie Walsh
A butterfly sticks its proboscis into the sand in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Valerie Walsh
A butterfly sticks its proboscis into the soil on a lakeshore in the South Okanagan in June.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Kathy Green
Checkerspot butterflies engage in mud-puddling behaviour in the Merritt area in early summer.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Loekie Vanderwal
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