Sheffield's nettle patches are vital for our butterflies

When we get hot, still, sultry weather then this is a time that butterflies really appreciate with meadow browns flitting over flowery grasslands and pastures.
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Woodlands have speckled wood butterflies, relative newcomers to our region and now thriving, displaying along rides and the woodland edge, and in glades or other clearings.

They seem to be joined by stunning red admirals and peacocks as the species compete for territories in which to display and where the important business of attracting mate takes place.

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In gardens and hedgerows the small tortiseshells, as pictured here, are active and increasingly abundant.

Small tortoiseshell butterfliesSmall tortoiseshell butterflies
Small tortoiseshell butterflies

These so-called Vanessid butterflies, the painted ladies, peacocks, commas, tortoiseshells, and red admirals are our most spectacular common species and they are drawn to massed flowers of brambles along hedgerows and on rough ground.

However, they also need nettle patches on which to lay their eggs and for their caterpillars to feed and grow.

They are quite choosy about the situation and condition of the nettles and so they prefer big patches in nice, sunny spots.

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Forget the idea of a few nettles in your garden – that won’t work and you will get stung too.

I write from experience and furthermore, once introduced, stinging nettles are very difficult to get rid of.

So, if we want to have these beautiful butterflies visiting our gardens, drawn to our buddleias, valerians, and other flowers, then we must protect our local nettle-patches.

These can be along hedgerows and lane-sides, in parks, and on what we used to call, when I was young, ‘waste ground’ and this is vital butterfly habitat.

Lose the nettle-beds and you will lose your butterflies.

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This is why it is so important to safeguard networks of green spaces and furthermore to resist the desire to manage these open areas too intensively.

Scalping the landscape to within an inch of its life costs a lot of (public) money, but also makes zero ecological sense.

Indeed, we can easily expand our nature corridors and butterfly habitats simply by doing things a little differently; and as a not insignificant consideration, it saves money too.

Prof Ian D Rotherham is a researcher and, writer on wildlife and environmental issues​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​