Live Butterfly Garden

I bought this for my daughter's 4th birthday. We received 5 caterpillars and she was thrilled. She treated them very gently and kept them out of direct sun. After a few days they went into their cocoons and after 7 days all 5 became butterflies. She loved taking them outside and letting them go. After we watched the last one fly away she said "I am a great butterfly mommy, aren't I". Overall it was a great learning experience. Wonderful product!

My 6 yr-old asked for the butterfly garden. His father and I were just as fascinated as he was to watch the whole process of them eating, growing, and forming chrysalids. My son was delighted to release his new butterfly "pets" after a few days. I would have preferred having the caterpillars mailed along with the habitat rather than sending off for them separately, though.

We love this toy!!! All Caterpillars hatched into beautiful butterflies. We had fun giving them fresh flowers and special food that is also available. We had a cup of wheat grass growing from a school project and gave it to the butterflies and they played in the grass every day. We have already ordered more caterpillars to start our butterfly habitat again. It is very educational and fun for the whole family. This pavilion is light weight, easy to view and easy to clean. Get one for your kids and see it is so much fun to learn about butterflies and science.

We mailed in the coupon to receive the caterpillars in mid July, and all 10 survived the hot summer mailbox. Within a week they turned into chrysalids, and after about another week the butterflies just popped out! We got one of them coming out on video camera - they come out quick! One of them couldn't come out quite right, but even the 3 on the floor on a paper towel came out just fine.

They weren't too crazy about sugar water, so I did some research and thought maybe the concentration wasn't high enough. So I used a little less than a tablespoon of sugar to 1/2 cup of water, and I see them drink from that a bit more. I also cut up oranges, apples, nectarines, and bananas. I also cut up some fresh flowers that butterflies like and put them in a tiny container with water. They like that the best.

I still felt like they weren't eating very much, so I went to a local greenhouse and got a smallest annual plant they had that butterflies love (lantana), and within minutes of putting it inside, the butterflies were all over it. And they started laying eggs!! And they're only 5 days old!! Thankfully I've researched what painted lady caterpillars eat (different species eat different leaves) and been collecting plants outdoors. Insect Lore informed me that the caterpillars would come out of the mesh holes, so we bought a critter cage and put a paper towel underneath the lid.

My daughter received this from her aunt for her 6th birthday in December. We mailed the enclosed pre-paid card to redeem the larvae in late February. I'm not sure where this was purchased, but there were no hidden, additional costs for us, although my sister paid around $25 for the kit. It took about 2 weeks to receive the larvae, which was packed carefully and properly labeled so the Post Office didn't damage it. It contained 5 larvae and we had 100% success. Facinating to watch as they grow daily. At the point that you remove the crysalids from the plastic cup, it is filled with leftover food, poop, and webs, so you will need someone who is not squeamish. When they were in the butterfly stage, I tried sugar-water on flowers but they didn't seem to eat. Orange slices left mold on the bottom of the cage. Dipping crumpled paper in sugar-water seemed to work best. The butterflies will live about 2 weeks, and we kept them indoors since it was only April and too cold to release them. They did open their wings and become active when the sun came through our window. We released them one warm day after they had been butterflies for two weeks, rather than have them die before our eyes indoors. I would recommend you attempt this 2-month process in warm weather.