First of all what is a Hibernation Box?
These are decorative wooden boxes, which look like tall bird houses with slit openings, you can get them at garden centers and nature stores.
Unlike birds, butterflies don't require a space to rear young.
The caterpillar feed themselves, on leaves and constructing a leaf shelter for safety.
Adult butterflies need shelter from rain or darkness and will perch under a leaf or against the bark of a tree.
In temperate climates, butterflies spend the winter months in hibernation.
They've all evolved to wait out the cold months during one stage such as an egg, larva, pupa or adult.
It's most common to hibernate as larva or pupa, but a few species overwinter as adults.
Examples are Mourning Cloak, Comma, Question Mark, Milbert's Tortoiseshell and American Snout.
These butterflies hide under tree bark, in a wood pile or in the eaves of an unheated garage.
Hibernation boxes are designed to offer a dry, sheltered place for them to spend the winter.
A woodworking plan that was used as part of a Cub Scout service project in Sterling, Virginia.
Scouts built seven boxes for the Hedgerow Habitat Trail at Community Lutheran Church in fall,
1995. They substituted a plexiglas panel on one side so boxes' use could be monitored.
Boxes were sited in a wooded area. Says trail organizer Greenstone, "We've checked the boxes in spring and fall since they were put in.
So far, no butterflies, but spiders love them!"
Robert Snetsinger of PSU says, "I have yet to see evidence to support the notion that butterflies
actually need or use butterfly houses.
My suggestion is, if you want to do something useful for butterflies, build them a mud puddle."
The Avant Gardener newsletter, "Hibernation boxes for butterflies are reported to be useless,
since non-migrating species will overwinter quite comfortably under fallen leaves or in brush piles, or as pupae in cocoons."
So don't spend money on these, unless you simply like the looks of them.
These boxes are much more likely to become a home to spiders, wasps, or ants than butterflies.