Insect Lore Butterfly Garden (Packaging May Vary)

Product Information

Painted Lady caterpillars spin silk. They use this silk to attach themselves to their host plants. You'll see your caterpillars spinning silk when your Cup of Caterpillars arrives. Chrysalis, cocoon and pupae are all used for the same thing. The stage of the life cycle where the butterfly or moth is enclosed and metamorphising from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Once you have your caterpillar (or caterpillars if possible it’s a more likely to have success that way) it’s time to set up your observation net. The largest threat to butterflies is the loss of their habitats. The increase in farming, forestry, land and building development and climate change result in the decline of butterflies and moths.

All butterflies have a long, tube-shaped mouth called a "proboscis" which they use to drink liquids such as plant nectar. When not in use, this proboscis stays curled up and out of sight. Caterpillars don’t need to be given water, they get the water from their leaves. However, they do like a slightly humid atmosphere so it’s a really good idea to mist the net once a day to keep the humidity levels up especially if you have air con or heating on. Butterfly Garden Butterfly Breeding Kit– This colourful and reusable Butterfly Garden allows you to study 5 butterflies from caterpillar to butterfly. The Butterfly Garden includes a 30cm hanging / free-standing mesh garden, a VOUCHER for 5 Painted Lady caterpillars and food, pipette for feeding and full instructions. Plant a butterfly garden in your school’s courtyard or on its playground and include milkweed to attract monarch butterflies native to your area. Make sure to tell your students that they should observe the butterflies from a distance and never catch or trap them. This is an effective activity because “milkweed restoration remains one immediately actionable strategy to combat monarch loss” (Zaya et al., 2017).The kit doesn’t include the mesh habitat. So, you either have to release them straight into your garden or already have a terrarium. What happens to the animals after the life-cycle lessons are complete? Companies that produce butterfly kits, such as FOSS, consider them useless at that point. FOSS actually recommends killing animals, such as snails, by “collecting them in a bag and placing them in the freezer” and then disposing of them “in the trash.”

A butterfly cannot fly or eat immediately after emergence. It needs time to prepare itself for life as a butterfly. Cup of 3-5 LIVE caterpillars with food or voucher to redeem for caterpillars (caterpillars available March to mid-September)Our Butterfly Breeding Kit features caterpillars of the Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui, L), which are native, migrating butterfly, that can fly thousands of miles in search of food. They lay up to 500 eggs and their caterpillars feed on weeds such as nettles, so gardeners don’t need to worry! Once you have released your butterflies, they can often be seen for several days- especially if you have a butterfly friendly garden and feeder. These Butterfly Breeding kits come with everything you need to raise your own Painted Lady butterflies.

Growing the right plants in your garden is the best way to encourage butterflies to continue breeding in your garden. Some excellent plants to attract butterflies are nettles, cabbage, and various type of grasses. This grow your own butterfly kit is designed as a starter kit to get small children interested in the world of butterflies. The small terrarium is large enough for five butterflies, and there’s a small opening in the sides for easy access. This educational kit gives children, students and families an unforgettable opportunity to watch caterpillars change into chrysalides and then emerge as beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies. Raise and feed your very own butterflies and then release them into the wild! The entire transformation from caterpillar to adult butterfly takes about three to five weeks.Probably the most well-known company for providing live caterpillars and kits is Insect Lore. Once you have the kit for the first time, you are then able to buy caterpillars to raise in subsequent years.