Features:

  • See butterfly metamorphosis up close
  • 2 cups of 5 live caterpillars - that's 10 caterpillars in total!
  • 11.5” tall reusable pop-up habitat (folds flat when not in use) two deluxe Chrysalis stations; feeding kit; caterpillars to butterflies instruction guide
  • Important NOTE! Please postpone your live order if daytime temperatures in your area are below 55 degrees or above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Your caterpillars may not survive their journey to you in extreme heat or cold.
  • Stem.Org authenticated butterfly kit can help cultivate an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)
Great Educational Gift!

This was from the Easter Bunny. It actually arrived sooner than expected (gotta love Amazon!!) We got the kit WITH the caterpillars. Just so you know....in the 4 days prior to Easter those Caterpillars more the DOUBLED in size. I know they grow quickly, but didn't expect it to be that quick. It's been 2 days since the kids received this and the caterpillars are already starting to hang from the lid to start turning into chrysalis. So keep that in mind if you are getting this as a gift, you may want to opt for the one with the voucher to order the caterpillars at a later date. NOTE: some of the things that people said about the information not being up to date, I believe has since been fixed. The directions and the info. book were informative on all the items that came in this kit. So far things are looking good, we are excited to see the butterflies in a couple weeks!

Educational and interesting.

Pretty cool kit. 5 tiny caterpillars arrived in a little cup. Everyday you could see them increase in size. Now, 8 days later all 5 are large and hanging on the lid—should be hatching in 2-3 weeks. Kit is low fuss and easy to use. The hardest thing is not picking up the cup to look at the caterpillars. Pics are note the best, but I didn’t want to touch/move the cup. Excellent project! Added some additional pictures. All 5 caterpillars have emerged and are now butterflies! The instructions state “7-10 days” and today is day 7.

3 out of 5 guaranteed to survive

As advertised, 3 out of the 5 butterflies actually fully developed and survived. For some reason, the other 2 weren’t able to expand their wings and eventually died. Instructions were clear but would be beneficial to add a “what if” section should things don’t go according to what the instructions states. One chrysalis laid at the bottom of the cup instead of the top so I used a spoon to scoop up the food it was lying on while being careful not to touch it and left the whole spoon in the net — this was one of the butterflies that fully developed. Our 3 year-old loved watching the whole process from baby caterpillars to butterflies, esp releasing them. Just ordered a refill.

Annual Tradition in my Class

This is the 4th year in a row I have bought live caterpillars from Insect Lore. They are such a great gift for kids. I use them in my classroom with special needs students to study the life cycle. The students love seeing the transformation and then ultimately releasing the butterflies. It is easy as the caterpillars have enough food before they turn into the pupas. The one thing is that I never keep the butterfly habitat as the butterflies always leak red fluid all over it when they are born out of the pupas. I love how this updated kit has a clear lid on the top of the habitat so that it is easier to see inside. I never really use the feeder as I just give them oranges and strawberries. Be gentle with the caterpillar cups as the pupas can fall off when the cup is shaken. It's a great project for kids of all ages. Even adults are amazed to see the butterflies. It takes a little over a month for everything to hatch and be released.

Great experience.

In the heat of July in FL we received 6 caterpillars. We were home when they were delivered and immediately unpacked them. Four caterpillars moved within 20 minutes. The other two each moved some in 48 hours but neither made it. We were delighted with four chrysalis. Two were knocked to the ground by the last caterpillar to form his chrysalis. When it came time to move everything to the net, I used a spoon to scoop the two chrysalis on the ground and place into the net along with the two who were still attached to the lid. All four emerged as a butterfly although one had wing damage. Maybe I didn’t remove all the silk from the chrysalis (it was one that had fallen) or maybe another butterfly damaged it while it emerged. I’ve seen the 3 other butterflies fly near it and flap their wings, maybe trying to get it to fly. Everyone in my family enjoyed the entire process. The ones that didn’t make it to butterfly provided additional teaching opportunities for our 4 year old. Great product and experience. We will order more catapillars.

Amazing to see the transformation up close and personal!

We loved it! We received 12 caterpillars and ended up with 11 butterflies. We watched them and took pictures each day. It was amazing for us to actually see the changes each day. I took the advice of some of the previous reviews and lined the bottom of the habitat with cardboard. The red excretion still got on the sides, but I was able to easily clean it after we released the butterflies. The butterflies were beautiful. Will definitely do this again.

This was the perfect gift.

I had gotten this kit for my Mother actually as a Mother's Day Gift. Years back we had gotten her butterflies and she had loved them. This past winter I had occasion to see a photo she had taken of butterflies on the ground of a forest path that Mom and Dad had been walking. I had never seen it before or heard the story. Mom loved telling me about it, it made her smile. She misses Dad now gone and I think butterflies make her think of him and smile. So we got her this kit. It had all the info she needed and today she released 4 beautiful butterflies in her yard among the flowers. She was so excited when one landed on her and for a long while refused to fly free. This kit was everything I needed it to be in a gift. Thank you!

Arrived. Alive. In NYC winter

UPDATE; It’s the 2nd day and now ALL the caterpillars are MOVING and ALIVE. What’s more we noticed that even though I ordered the 10 caterpillar pack. They sent us 12. Which was super nice since it’s in the mid of winter and they wanted to make sure at least some would make it. Now we have 12 healthy AWESOME BiG caterpillars. There so active. It’s really cool for kids. We love it. Can’t wait to have 12 beautiful butterflies. Wanted to say THANK YOU to the seller Insect Lore for being so courteous. I can’t recommenced this enough. We’ll DEFINITELY be doing it again in the summer. Previous review; We just recieved the kit and even though it’s 38 degrees outside 7 out of the 10 butterflies are moving. We tried canceling the kit before it was shipped becuz we were afraid the weather would be too cold. U really SHOULD ONLY order if it’s 55 degrees and above but since we couldn’t cancel we took our chances. They arrived. Alive. Moving. These are awesome hearty little butterflies. My daughter who is a toddler is BEYOND excited to grow butterflies now. I CAN NOT recommend this ENOUGH for kids esp little kids. We’re making this into a science lesson at home and since we LOVE the very hungry caterpillar this is a perfect Transition. We will definitely be doing this again in the correct weather. Spring. But SO happy they made it in the NYC cold. This a a beautiful project for kids. Thank you So much

Fun for kids and adults

We really enjoyed this kit! The kids looked forward to waking up every morning and seeing how the caterpillars had grown and watching them hatch was really delightful. We received 6 caterpillars in each jar. 1 was unable to remove himself from his chrysalis and another hatched with malformed wings so we will be allowing that one to live out his days here with us. This was a wonderful experience for the children and a great way for them to see the life cycle of butterflies for themselves. We will definitely be purchasing more caterpillars next year because we have decided to make this a summer tradition!

Fun Project

I ordered the Deluxe Butterfly Garden w/ 2 cups of caterpillars (just in case a few didn't make it). I set this up for my daughter at home. She loved watching the caterpillars grow. For the first few days they were not moving much, and I was worried they were dead. However I noticed they did seem a little bigger despite hardly moving. Each cup had 6 caterpillars. We have a total of 9 out of 12 that developed into butterflies. One cup all 6 turned into butterflies. The other cup only 4 out of the 6 turned, but one butterfly was unable to move and open its wings so it died. We ended up with 3 out of 6 from that cup. There are two things I did not like about this product. Both are two things the manufacturer cannot control. 1) All of the webbing! I had one caterpillar stuck on the bottom of the cup because it could not move due to the webbing. It formed into a chrysalis on the bottom of the container, but it is not going to form into a butterfly. The other butterflies that made it have been out for about 2 days now. This chrysalis has turned black. The webbing also made it difficult to remove the lid to place it into the butterfly habitat. I could hear the webbing ripping from the lid as I pulled it off. I was worried I would lose some of the chrysalises in the process. The first butterfly that emerged (which we were super excited for) was so wrapped up in the webbing it got stuck and was unable to fully open its wings or move around. It died not long after emerging. :( 2) All of the red liquid from the butterflies! It got everywhere. the cage got stuck to the table. My table had the liquid all over. I wish the instruction booklet had suggested putting something under the cage if you were going to place it on a table. The butterflies got it on the bottom, all over the sides, and all over my table. It was easy to clean off of the table. I will attempt to clean the cage after we release the butterflies. Overall this was fun. I think I will order some more caterpillars and do this again.

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