Features:

  • Cup of 5 Baby caterpillars
  • Nutritious Caterpillar food
  • Deluxe Chrysalis station log
  • Caterpillar quick 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.
i Cannot Recommend This Enough!!! 5++++ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!!

This has been the most interesting and fascinating thing to happen within our home. My hubby purchased these caterpillars for our 5 year old daughter and it has really been a magical experience for us to witness the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. As a 41 year old adult, I had never seen the process from start to finish so it was very exciting for me as well. It is wonderful for young children because the process is SO incredible, yet FAST. We had our first butterfly 11 days after receiving the caterpillars! We received 6 (eventhough it said 5) small caterpillars which we thought initially were dead due to their lack of movement. As the instructions state, this is normal and they will liven up over the next couple of days, which they did. Then they began to eat and eat and grew to be huge. One by one they began to hang from the top of the lid and begin to cocoon. One was later than the rest and crawled around knocking all of the others down from the lid. I was worried this would interfere with the process so I called the company and a very informative woman over the phone answered all of my questions and explained that they become territorial and that it would be fine for them to be on the floor of the cup. She told me to lay them on a napkin at the bottom of our butterfly habitat, which I did. I noticed one of the cocoons had darkened in color this morning and realized it was the wing of the butterfly showing through. I kept checking on it every 1/2 or so, when my daughter told me that the cocoon had broken. I expected to catch the emergence, but when I looked, I noticed a butterfly attached to the side of the habitat! It happened so quickly I am hoping we actually see at least one emerge. Anyway, I can easily say this is 19 dollars well spent for a priceless experience and plethora of life lessons for children. When you watch this it really gives you the perspective that anything is possible. I do want to mention two items that we were not made aware of that are a little suprising. First, they shed their exoskeleton when they cocoon so you'll see what looks like bits and pieces of caterpillar all over. Second, after the butterfly emerged, a red blood-like fluid was excreted from it's abdomen. I had to Google it because I was sure something was wrong, but it was metabolic waste from the transformation. I highly recommend this purchase for all ages!

Yearly life cycle activity! My students are fascinated!

I order these every year for my second grade class to experience life cycles. I’ve also done lady bugs and tadpoles. These caterpillars are by far easier to care for and more successful! If you are squeamish beware that these can be a little icky! Taking the lid off with the webbing and caterpillar parts in the cup and when they emerge with their red fluids. This year we had two handicapped butterflies when they emergededbfrom thier chrysalis. One had fallen off the lid and developed with a bum wing. These two couldn’t fly which made our release party a challenge. I was able to place them on a branch of a nearby tree and tell my students that perhaps the fresh air would help them fly! 🤷🏼♀️

So much fun!!

The kids loved this! We got to watch them grow and cocoon. All 5 of ours arrived alive and all 5 hatched. Make sure you read the directions! It says once they cocoon to wait 3 to 4 days before removing the lid from the jar and moving them into your netting area to make sure the cocoons have hardened. 4 of our cocoons hatched in 1 day and the other one hatched the very next day. We can't wait to do this again. So much fun. On a side note and I'm not sure if this is why others had problems with theirs, knowing ours were coming I kept a close eye out. When they arrived the box is very clearly marked that their are live things in the box and clearly says handle with care and this side up. Well I watched our UPS lady carry it and sit it on it's side. (not the side up that it was supposed to be) Also she was not the most gentle when carrying (arms swinging as she walked) I was glad ours were ok. And it all worked out to be a great experiment for the kids. Will buy again!

Cool Experiment

My kids LOVED this, but it’s not for the faint of heart. I don’t mind bugs, but was somewhat grossed out by them eating through the food, the waste that they obviously produced (didn’t think of this beforehand), and the rapid movement when transferring them to the the net enclosure although all of this was part of the fun and learning experience for my kids. All 5 of our butterflies successfully came out of the chrysalis and were released. Make sure you’re ready to begin as soon as they arrive. I would definitely (if not reluctantly) but for my kids again or as a gift!

Our caterpillar to butterfly experience. :)

I highly recommend doing this project at least once in your life, whether you have kids or not. I did it once several years ago when my teenagers were young. Now I have a two year old and we were learning about caterpillars and butterflies so I decided to do it again with her. She was totally into the whole process and will tell anyone who will listen now that a butterfly lays an egg, then a caterpillar comes out, then the caterpillar hangs upside-down, then it makes a chrysalis, and then the butterfly comes out! It's a fascinating process to watch. You may wonder how a company can ship live caterpillars without injuring them, but you'll understand when the cup arrives in the mail. The caterpillars at that point are the size of apple seeds and they are safely suspended in silk webs. They also don't move much at all that first day, so don't be alarmed by that. The next morning you'll wake up to find your caterpillars have somehow doubled in size overnight. And you'll continue to notice this day after day. They practically grow before your eyes. Around day 7 (and I'm counting the days from the date of the arrival of the cup in the mail), our now huge caterpillars became very active and were frantically working at the top of the cup for hours. I had a feeling they were getting ready to pupate because of the sudden change in behavior. As expected, on day 8 they assumed their J positions and began to transform one by one. You would think it would take a while for a caterpillar to become a chrysalis, but it only takes a minute. It is so fast I was never able to catch any of them transforming "live". I would walk out of the room for a minute, go back in, and another one had transformed. So I recommend once your caterpillars get into position, keep a close eye on them so you might catch the transformation live. (If you miss it, there's a lot of YouTube videos where others have caught it.) It amazes me how they go from huge, super active caterpillars to small, hard as a rock statues in a matter of hours. We did have some bad news though. At some point when they were getting into their J positions one of the caterpillars must have knocked another down from the top, and he was sort of suspended in a web in a j-shape. It wasn't looking good for the poor guy but there wasn't anything I could do to help him without sacrificing the other caterpillars. He did transform, but in the process fell into the food in the bottom of the cup and was laying there in all the muck. Normally you would wait a few days before moving the chrysalids to the enclosure, but I went ahead and moved them the following day because I was concerned for the poor guy at the bottom. I did as the instructions on Insect Lore's site said and carefully moved him out of the cup using a plastic spoon. However, his chrysalis never looked exactly like the others (it was oddly shaped) so I didn't have high hopes for him. Days 9-15 were boring. After a week of seeing nothing happen, you start to wonder, "are there really living butterflies in there?" But nature is so amazing. On day 16 we woke up and a butterfly must have just emerged as he was just standing there next to the empty shell and hadn't expelled any meconium yet. (Note: when they do that, it's kind of scary. They appear to be bleeding to death. But it's supposed to happen and it's not blood so don't worry about it.) Within minutes the next butterfly emerged. You can tell they are about to come out because suddenly the chrysalis becomes transparent and you can clearly see the wings. If you look at my Day 16 - 10 AM photo you can see that the chrysalis to the right of the butterfly is almost completely transparent and about to emerge any second. The one to the left of the butterfly is starting to darken a bit, which happens about an hour before it turns transparent. The one below and to the left of the butterfly has not yet started to change in appearance at all. And the poor dude laying there on the bottom of the picture was our possible casualty. Once you notice a change in the chrysalids' appearance, especially when they become transparent, don't blink or you'll miss it. I literally went and brushed my teeth and came back and butterfly #2 was out. So I got the camera ready when #3 became transparent and was able to capture the "birth" on camera, which was fascinating (my 2 year old, of course, loved seeing that). #4 ran about 24 hours behind the others and emerged just before we woke up on day 17. I was just amazed that after a week of "hibernation" 3 of the butterflies emerged within minutes of each other. It's as if they communicate with each other telepathically from the chrysalids and say "ok let's get out of here!" Caterpillar #5 (The one who fell while pupating) is a mystery to me. I thought he was a goner. His chrysalis never looked quite right. Then on day 17 after #4 emerged, #5's chrysalis started looking really bad. It turned this dark greenish black color and started oozing. It had a horribly deformed shape. We could see pieces of the butterfly through it, but it looked deader than dead. I let it rest for several hours in that state and saw no change. So I took the really sorry looking chrysalis out of the enclosure, considered it a casualty and planned to bring it out to the garden later. I was quite shocked when I went back into the kitchen an hour later and there was a butterfly on my kitchen counter. I have no idea how on earth a living creature came out of that rotten-looking chrysalis, but there he was. I was shocked. I put him in the enclosure with the other butterflies and he was walking around and doing ok. Unfortunately he has deformed, underdeveloped wings and will never fly. I don't have the heart to kill him, so I'm just going to let him live out his 2 weeks of life in the butterfly enclosure. Poor little dude. Overall, this is just a really inexpensive way to entertain your kids (and yourself) for about 3 weeks and it will give you a new-found appreciation for nature's wonders. Update: Just thought I'd add in here that our deformed butterfly actually lived a full and happy butterfly life (2 weeks) in the enclosure sipping oranges. I couldn't believe it!

Need "Refill" Caterpillars? Get Them Here

My young daughter received the Insert Lore Butterfly Garden kit as a gift. She loved "raising" her caterpillars through to the butterfly stage and letting them go. The only down side was that she was not fully prepared for how much she would miss them once she set them free. So, against my better judgment, I agreed to get "just one more" cup of caterpillars- and then looked at the price on [...]. $14.99 plus an additional $7.95 S&H, for 5 caterpillars. What?! That's more than the whole kit, including habitat and bugs, cost! I searched online and although you can get caterpillars elsewhere, they are either in bulk for classroom teaching which is way too many for us, or they don't come with food, which I didn't want to deal with. Luckily, I found the same Insect Lore "Cup of Caterpillars" with food here on Amazon at a better price and free S&H. Winner! Ordered on a Wednesday night and they were in our mailbox Monday- several days earlier than expected, which I always appreciate. We will see if they all make it- they guarantee that at least 3 out of 5 will mature to butterflies and although we were a little worried about a few the first time around, all 5 made it, and so I have high hopes again. My daughter will be thrilled when she gets off the school bus this afternoon.

Awesome experience!

All 5 made it! My students (6th grade) decided we needed to have butterflies since 1st grade was doing it—I don’t understand that logic, but I caved and bought some. What fun! And now I raise Monarchs and release them from this experience. My kids loved it. Some said it was like reliving their childhood (what? You’re 12!). And other said they learned more this time around because I made them research and share. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. The kids, and even me, are less likely to smash a bug now that we have learned their process together.

LOVED the caterpillar to butterfly project!

We LOVED the caterpillar to butterfly project! My 3 year old grand-daughter watched in amazement as the tiny caterpillars transformed over about 3 weeks into butterflies. We got lucky and received 6. (I think it is supposed to be 5/cup.) All 6 matured into beautiful butterflies. Mya learned what a chrysalis is. She gently took each butterfly out of the butterfly enclosure to set it free. The butterfly enclosure was purchased on Amazon & it is collapsible. A WONDERFUL project for grandparents, parents, schools...anyone!!! Note - Read & Follow the directions and everything will work fine. We were worried that our caterpillars needed more air or food, but we left the lid on the cup as instructed. Don't put a cup of water in the butterfly habitat, as the baby butterflies can fall into it & drown...use the dropper provided & sprinkle sugar water over fruit & flowers. They will gobble it up! Amazing to watch. :)

Nature watch.

I think these little guys are amazing to watch. They arrive in great health, but not all of them make it to butterflies, and that part is upsetting. I think it would be better, and more healthy for there to be no more than 4 caterpillars in the container, because as they grow, it's seems there just isn't enough room for 5, and in the last two orders I received ((with 5 caterpillars ) one has died. I am not sure they would make a good gift, if being shipped, unless you let the person know that there is a living creature inside, because they may not open them soon enough, and the little guys could lay on the side, instead of straight up, and that could cause one or more of them, to not be able to cocoon at the top of the container, then they lay on the bottom, cocoon, and then their wings get sticky and can not form properly, and the little fella dies. Just thought this was a VERY IMPORTANT info to pass along.

Super fun way to learn

My son was a bit scared of bugs (as some kids can be) I didn't want him to develop a fear of them so I thought this would be a good way for him to interact with them and let his own natural curiosity bring him around. The caterpillars being in the jar kept him feeling safe. By the time they had attached to the lid in cocoons he was much less scared of them. When they finally hatched he took each one outside on his finger and let them fly away. He is no longer afraid of bugs and it gave us a chance to observe and talk about nature!

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