Insect LoreButterfly Garden | 5 Live Baby Caterpillars | Habitat, Feeder, Chrys-A-Lid Log, STEM Journal Included | Raise and Release Painted Lady Butterflies

The butterfly kit arrived with 5 caterpillars in a container with their food. One caterpillar was behind the others and ulitmately did not survive into a butterfly. The process was very simple since observation of the caterpillars in their container was all there was to do for about a week. Four of the caterpillars climbed to the bottom of the lid and made what I call a cocoon. Once again, all there was to do for 3 days was to observe the cocoons. They hardened during that time. Once the 3 days passed, I lifted the lid and placed slid it into the slot of the provided plastic piece and place them in the provided habitat.. Observation was all there was to do. Then, after about 5 to 7 days, there were butterflies. One packet of sugar came with the kit, but the instructions said to use two packets of sugar with 1/3 cup of water to make nectar for the butterflies. Once made, a pipette was provided with the kit to draw up the water and to drop the sugar water onto a tiny sponge placed in a colorful plastic "flower" that was with the kit. I made fresh sugar every day, but that's just me. In addition, I put a slice of orange and a slice of apple in the habitat. The butterflies may have smelled the fruit because they began fluttering around with excitement. My husband and I saw them "eating" the orange and apple, but they seemed to like the apple best. We saw two of the butterflies drinking the sugar water. We gave the butterflies an apple and an orange slice each day for three days. On the third day, after I was sure that they had a chance to eat, I took them outside to let them go. Two flew away within a minute or two. One sat on the plastic "flower" and drank and drank for several minutes. It flew away after five minutes or more. The fourth butterfly seems somewhat weak. It gets turned over easily and flaps around on its back. It didn't seem to want to leave. It sat on the plastic "flower" for a good while and drank, then sat on the bottom of the habitat. I waited and waited, but it didn't seem like it wanted to leave yet. I brought it back inside and will try again tomorrow. It's been an interesting experience. I bought one for my sister before I purchased mine. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience as well. All five of her butterflies lived. A friend of mine bought one for her granddaughter, which is where I found out that amazon.com had the kits. Three of her butterflies lived. All of her family found it fascinating.I would recommend this kit to anyone--young or old. It's not a difficult project, but the process is fascinating and educational.The kit came from California, and the painted lady butterflies are supposed to be all over America. All the pieces, except maybe one packet of sugar, were in the kit with five live caterpillars. The caterpillars didn't move much the first day, and one seemed dead upon arrival; but all five ate and moved around within a day or so.Great kit, great project, and wonderful experience.

I purchased this kit and used in my classroom. This isn’t the first time I’ve purchased this product. I have purchased in the past for my own children years ago. Always a hit! Arrived quickly and well packaged. Affordable. My students love this activity and I will continue to do this every year. I won’t need to purchase the entire kit again because it is good quality and reusable. All you have to do is wash the butterfly netting with a mild soap and water. Now, I can just purchase the caterpillars. I love the booklet and worksheets that come with the kit. I also purchased the additional plastic models for a hands on experience. So much fun to watch and track the growth progress. Easy to set up and use. We were able to watch 6 caterpillars go through the transformation and released ALL 6 healthy BEAUTIFUL, vibrantly colored butterflies. This will be a yearly lesson in my classroom. I honestly think any and all ages enjoy watching the process. Thank you!

I have had butterfly habitats before with my older kids, but my youngest didn’t remember them and I couldn’t find the ones I had. So, I chose Insect Lore again. I like that the caterpillars were included! It saved me the step of ordering online using the free voucher that is usually included. The caterpillars looked dead and I thought I really messed up. They were on the bottom, not moving, covered in some silky webs, which I was certain was their funeral shroud! But they all came around after a couple days! They ate most of the food in the container and made their little “transformer homes” at the top! When we moved the lids to the stands we hit a snag. The silky strands were attached to the side of the cup; so when I lifted the lid, a few chrysalises detached. We fetched a stick from outside and wrapped the silky strands around the stick to secure the chrysalises. All 10 butterflies hatched and were successfully released! Super fun! A great learning experience!

All caterpillars arrived alive and turned into butterflies exactly as the instructions laid out. They were easy to raise and was a great experience for my children.

What fun! The caterpillars arrived quickly and were in great health! The granddaughter has enjoyed drawing/writing in the journal and is eagerly awaiting the transformation into butterflies! A friend of mine with two granddaughters recommended this to me and I’m so glad she did! Fun for both kids and adults!

I was disappointed in this product; I bought it to teach my class a science lesson about the butterfly life cycle and use it as a positive behavior incentive. To be fair, the habitat and the instructions were excellent and easy to follow. When it arrived, though, only 3 of the 5 promised caterpillars were in the container, and 1 was dead. The 2 remaining caterpillars were at vastly different stages in their life cycles. It says in the directions: do not open the cup at any point because it can harm the caterpillars. It also says to remove the chrysalis from the cups before they emerge so they can dry their wings. One formed a chrysalis and was in it for a week/ready to emerge before the other caterpillar had grown to even half the size it should have been, so I released it since I had no way of removing the chrysalis and keeping it in the cup for it to create its own. I made the mistake of opening it in front of my students, so returning it was not an option without upsetting them. It may be my fault for assuming I'd be sent 5 living caterpillars or that the caterpillars would be at similar growth stages so that they would create a chrysalis around the same time. Having only one butterfly to show my class after they were so excited was disappointing. I would not buy again.In the picture you can see how different in growth the 2 living caterpillars were and the 3rd dead caterpillar in the back. Maybe there is another one that was dead beneath the larger living caterpillar, but either way, I only ever had 2 that were alive.