Insect Lore Butterfly Pavilion (with LIVE caterpillars!)
Your boys are going to LOVE today’s feature from Insect Lore!! Real Live Caterpillars that turn into Butterflies right before your eyes!
My oldest C’Man got a Butterfly Pavilion for his 4th birthday…that was exactly 5 years ago tomorrow!
(gosh I’m feeling old)
We had never even heard of Insect Lore before and thought it was the coolest thing ever!
We were going to get to care for caterpillars and watch them turn into their cocoon then to butterflies!
| Insect Lore: Celebrating since 1969 with Butterflies & Bugs! Insect Lore was founded in California’s San Joaquin Valley by Carlos White, an entomologist. He had an idea to create a kit through which people of all ages could witness the metamorphosis of a real, live butterfly. It seemed like a great idea – but the key to its success would be to create a recipe for caterpillar food. As the next three long years of trial and error proved, quite hard indeed. Mr. White finally came up with a successful diet for the Painted Lady butterfly caterpillars in 1969. It was then that The Butterfly Garden was born. |
One of the best things about this process is you think it’s going to be a lot of work to raise butterflies. But the process is so easy that you’ll want to do it again and again!
First, the caterpillars arrive. They stay in their jar with their food.
You can almost watch them get bigger they grow so fast. You will definitely notice a difference each day.
Second, you will see them head to the top of the jar to turn into their chrysalis, or cocoon.
Third, take them out of the jar and put them inside their home.
Fourth, Butterflies are born!
Ours are not at this stage yet, but they soon will be and I will update you with photos!
During our last experiment they butterflies emerged beautifully. We fed them for a couple of days and then let them go!
Note: If the weather is too cold you may let the butterflies live in their Home for their lifespan.
UPDATE: TEN BUTTERFILES WERE BORN & RELEASED! 🙂
Insect Lore’s website is full of fun insects including spiders, ants, ladybugs and what may be our next project…Frogs!
Win a Butterfly Pavilion with Live Caterpillars!
Includes Pavilion habitat, 6 to 10 butterfly larvae with special food (two cups of 3 to 5 caterpillars, as shown), and complete instructions.
Good Luck!
Insect Lore sent me a Butterfly Pavilion for this review but I was not compensated in any way for the post and all opinions are my own.