This was absolutely amazing I have children all different ages 4 11 and 13 and they were all really engaged with the activity every morning they would wake up excited to see how big they grown it is amazing how quick they grow would highly recommend xx
Bought this for my granddaughter’s 4th birthday and she was so excited when she opened it, as they had one at her nursery and had been learning all about butterflies.
Her caterpillars have arrived and are busy growing. Nell watches them every day and is fascinated, to the point where mum and dad are going to get more! Definitely a great present choice.
This was a birthday request for our 7 yr old granddaughter and she absolutely loved watching all the stages in the metamorphosis! All 5 caterpillars survived and emerged as butterflies. Watching them, as they ‘charged up’ in warmth outside and eating before the top was opened itself was brilliant. Seeing them fly away was too – one flew to some cherry blossom on the lawn, sucked up nectar, then flew off!
My 5 year old son absolutely loved watching these grow from Caterpillar to pupae and finally into butterfly’s! Absolutely fantastic idea to see children learn to care for animals at such a young age
4 stars as the caterpillars have to be ordered after getting this and it’s a joykill for a 4 year old.
They are not arriving till after the beginning of May.
I ordered it for a friend’s daughter and had to them order the caterpillars separately.
Just be aware and you won’t be disappointed.
This is an excellent gift for someone who loves nature. Doesn’t have to be a child either lol. It’s fascinating to see process. My grandson was delighted with it and will be releasing the butterflies today or tomorrow depending on the weather. Personally, I can’t wait to see them gain their freedom. I would recommend anyone to buy such a fascinating gift.
Every was perfect the instructions the service my kids are learning and want to learn more about nature thanks to Insect Lore. As a parent you have to be very patient with kids and ask them to breathe and be gentle with the little ones, it is an amazing learning experience
We love this! Myself and my children are fascinated watching the caterpillars change, it’s just amazing! The caterpillars aren’t in the box you get a voucher in to order them, yiu do have to pay postage on them think it was 2.99 but very easy process and they soon came!
Just be aware that the caterpillars are not included and you will have to order them using a voucher inside the pack. This will cost another 2.99 so the butterfly garden is a pricey considering it’s just a bit of net!
I ordered this in the summer, the kids absolutely loved following the transition of the caterpillars to butterflies.
The package was cheaper to order on amazon than on the insectlore website.
Although bear in mind this set does not come with the caterpillars. You receive a voucher to redeem on the insectlore website and they will send you out the catepillars in roughly a week. We got ours in 4 days. They also come with a guarantee, that I think if at least 3 don’t make it to butterflies they will send you out more.
It took about 10 days before they turned into crysalis’s and another week before they hatched into butterflies. We fed them sugar water and fruit , they particularly liked juicy fruit such as orange, mango, plums. We kept them for 3 days as butterflies then released them, which was an enjoyable sight.
A tip is if you want to take photos holding the butterflies. I would recommend doing this within the first day of them hatching. As their wings are still gaining strength so they do not fly away when handled or don’t fly very far. That way you can get some fab pics!
Overall Would I order this again? As much as the kids and I loved it, no I wouldn’t. I knew when ordering this, that the caterpillars come in a jar. I didn’t realise how awfully messy the jar would look betime they were fully grown. I understand they are in the jars to increase the results of them all making it as butterflies. But I feel it is wrong to have them in these living conditions. They eat, sleep in the food they eat and the feaces they drop. The jar also smelt shocking when we opened the jar to put the chrysalis’s in the net. So I don’t agree with a jar being their habitat. I would much rather collect caterpillars in a big box, with leaves and recreate their natural habitat and let nature takes its course.
I brought this for my daughters birthday as she loves butterflies.
You receive the net and then you order the caterpillars when you are ready with a code. After ordering the caterpillars they arrive within 2-3 days and they live inside the little pot until they turn into a crystallise and then you put them into the net.
This was such a fascinating experience for my daughters aged 6 and 9.
Once hatched we fed them on fruit, flowers and the sugar solution provided.
After about 3 days we let the butterflies go in the garden and it was so magical watching them fly off.
You can then reuse the net the following year and just buy the caterpillars.
So this product is for the plastic and net pop up Butterfly home and a voucher for some caterpillars. You have to pay postage on the voucher at 2.99 but the caterpillars are free so take that into account When buying this.
So the caterpillars took about 3 weeks to arrive from when I submitted the request. They came in a box with some butterfly sugar and a crystallises holder.
We had them on the 4th July and the first one ‘hatched’ if that’s the word, on 26th July. My son and daughter have loved watching them and are now obsessed with seeing them eating and flying. They will be sad when we send them off into the big wide world tommorow!!
So why 4 stars. I do like the fact you can do this again and again with the butterfly net thingy but really you need to make sure you get a butterfly feeder as I’ve resorted to tissues on a plate with oranges nearby! In addition to do it again it will cost 11.99 plus 2.99 postage – expensive. So what I’ve got is a tiny pop up laundry basket left!!!
I bought this for my 3 year old who loves caterpillars and butterflies. We throughly enjoyed watching the caterpillars becoming butterflies we kept a log and was a great way to teach her.
When you buy this product you only get the butterfly habitat, instructions and a voucher code from insect lore website to purchase the caterpillars, which are sent to you separately live in the post, once you receive them you are good to start.
All contents are reusable and you have a guarantee if the caterpillars do not become butterflies.
We were fortunate that all our caterpillars became butterflies and the kids were able to let them go into the garden.
Definitely would recommend for all ages.
Everything went exactly how the instructions and guides predicted. Even when I received emails informing me that the caterpillars should form a chrysalis now, the next day they did. When I received the email telling me the butterflies should emerge now and what I need to do next, etc…the next day they emerged! My 5 year old daughter loved watching all this. We released them after a few days and it was wonderful because they sat on my daughters have for a while before flying away. The real magic happened TWO days later when one came back! It literally just landed on my little girl and never left her for well over an hour until we had to leave it. Amazing experience for my little girl. Best money I ever spe
Great product but didn’t realise I’d have to order the Caterpillar box separately and pay further for it and that it would be a whole month before they can send out! Disappointed kids!
ote: you do not get the caterpillars with this product, you order with a small additional cost once your product has arrived. Well worth the money and wait for the caterpillars (not a long wait as they came a week before estimated). Clear instructions on how to care and release once butterflies. I will be doing these yearly with my kids. I forgot to keep the tub, as i just threw it out, so would be worth keeping if you decide to order more.
You need to order caterpillars separately, so the net it’s quite pricey for what it is. Although you can use it again. In general it was an amazing experience for my son to watch how beautiful butterflies emerged and transformed from little larvae
The caterpillar garden was delivered promptly but I was disappointed that on submission of the voucher to have to wait four weeks for the first available delivery date of the live caterpillars. Disappointing as this was a present for early June. Will have to wait and see how they get on once the caterpillars have arrived.
It’s not cheap when you factor in postage (including for subsequent caterpillars dispatch) but this was such a fun learning experience for the kids! Make sure you redeem your included voucher to order your caterpillars as soon as it arrives as it can take a few weeks for them to come in peak season. We had 5 healthy caterpillars and 4 healthy butterflies. Unfortunately despite cleaning the chrysalis carefully the 5th butterfly seemed to get his bottom stuck which may have been what then led to deformed wings. We followed instructions and after releasing the other 4 kept him safe and fed but after a few days he passed away. Very sad but I suppose another good life lesson.
I bought this for my 5 year old and when I say he loved being able to watch the transformation..
Watching all of the caterpillars change into butterflies was an amazing learning experience for my son and was very hands on.
Once this comes you have to them order the butterflies which heads up can take a few weeks for them to be dispatched then a few days to arrive. Other than the wait this was an amazing kit and will definitely purchase again.
We are having an amazing time watching these caterpillars grow. They are currently in the chrysalis phase. My children are 4 and 2. My 4 year old is getting the most out of it. We draw what they look like every few days and have drawn up the pasta butterfly cycle (have a look on google images). It’s been a really exciting month watching them grow. You get updates from the company around the time they should change with a reminder on what to do but it’s all in the little book you get with the kit. It’s fab. I love it!
I can’t rate this product highly enough! We ordered during lockdown, it arrived promptly with very step by step instructions and information to answerany questionsyou may have. It’s been a fascinating journey watching the tiny caterpillars grow so fast and turn into chrysalis’s. We are waiting for them to hatch but have 5 beautifully formed chrysalis’s. This kit does not include the caterpillars with it but inside is a voucher so you can order them online for an additional small fee and you can select the date they are dispatched. Would highly recommend this kit for any age as I’ve enjoyed it as much as my 7 year old.
The kids and I love this. Our caterpillars are growing beautifully and are days away from forming into chrysalids. It’s a wonderful thing to watch. The tub is a fine size for the caterpillars to grow in and there’s plenty of food for them to munch on.
I’ve noticed people moaning about the caterpillars not coming with the pack. It’s clearly stated on the box (and the image of the box) that you get a voucher code which you then have to use to send away for the caterpillars. Yes there is an additional price, which is a bit cheeky, given you’re paying nearly 20 for essentially a net – The least they could include is the plastic butterfly feeder (which costs 1.49 to buy, but charges you 6 something in postage!) So value for money isn’t good and has knocked my rating down a bit.
Again people complaining about their caterpillars dying. Unfortunately that’s just luck and no one can foresee that. I’m afraid you’ll just have to try again and use the experience as an educational tool.
So overall:
PROS-
-The net is lovely
-Our caterpillars are thriving so far (have prepared the kids for the next stage and that theres a possibility of things not going to plan.)
-Fantastic educational tool
-Net can be reused
CONS-
-Value for money could be a lot better.
-The postage price of over 6 for a 1.47 butterfly feeder is outrageous. – The feeder isnt necessary, but certainly makes feeding the butterflies easier.
Bought this for my daughter as schools have now closed due to the corona virus and I thought it would be something fun and educational for us both. The butterfly farm arrived quickly with the vouchers to order the caterpillars – ordered the caterpillars and they came within a few days which I thought was very good considering the circumstances. The caterpillars come with all the food they need to turn into butterflies. We are currently still in caterpillar stage but enjoying checking them every day – they are literally doubling in size during the day!
Lovely! Arrived a day early, I ended up using the voucher when I got the Butterfly kit first and ended up with two cups when purchasing one so that’s 10 little babies to look after. They arrived safely and are all alive and well. Day four and already, they are growing and are looking good and healthy.
Highly recommend this to anyone, it’s great for times when you can’t go out and buy a pet. they sit on my bedside table safely and make great temporary pets.
ADVICE: Do not put them on the window in direct sunlight, or else the caterpillars will turn red and may die, that’s what I have learned so that’s out of the way. So far, they are all active and eating the lovely mush provided for them.
This is a perfect activity to do this time of the year especially round this crucial time when it’s hard for the world to do anything in this state. I am so buying again some time.
Grandson vvery pleased with his butterfly garden. Full report will depend on receipt of painted lady caterpillars and then if they can be grown into butterflies. Price initially should say you have to pay when sending for the caterpillars in march
This is the second time I have purchased one of these kits. This time it was for my 5 year old daughter who was excited to get started. As stated in the description you receive a voucher in the box to redeem 5 live caterpillars which are sent by post (at a small extra cost).
I have to say the quality of the butterfly net has gone downhill since the first time I bought one around 5 years earlier. The zip kept catching on the material which resulted in the zip breaking when transferring the chrysalis to to the net, meaning we had to throw it away when the butterflies emerged.
My son has asked for one of these ever since they had one at school (& posted the results on their blog). We now have 5 happy healthy caterpillars, kids love it. I thought they might get a bit freaked as they’re not normally into creepy crawlies but now they’re all wanting to pet them. They are very easy to take care of, no butterflies as of yet but shouldn’t be long as they are getting quite big now 🙂 . I also went onto the insect lore website where they have a range of bugs & crawlies like stick insects, ants, worms & silk moths (where hoping to try them next) & lots of information about all of them & extras you can buy.
I can not recommend this enough!! Quick delivery then using the voucher I ordered cup of caterpillars, which you actually get to pick a dispatch date for which was fantastic as it was for my sons birthday. Cup came, with 5 tiny caterpillars, they guarantee at least 3 will hatch into butterflies and all 5 of ours did!!! Can’t wait to order another cup of caterpillars and do it all again!!
This product is very good. We bought one kit plus an extra pack of caterpillars so we had 10 in total. To my surprise all 10 survived and turned into beautiful ‘painted lady’ butterflies. It was sad to have to let them go and we are got rather attached to them!
The only negative thing that I would say is that I found that turning the jar lids on their sides and then slitting them into a cardboard stand quite difficult. At least 4 of our cacoons dropped off. The cardboard stand seemed a bit flimsy too. Having said that the net / cage was big enough for 10 butterflies and feeding them was quite easy. I would recommend for children so long as there is adult supervision. The children will need to understand that there is a couple of weeks where nothing much happens between the caterpillars going into their cocoons and the butterflies emerging. Overall this is a better product than I was expecting.
Bought as a gift for grandson who was almost 11 and hoped they’d hatch on his birthday, only missed by a couple of days. His Mum was as fascinated as he was watching the transformation. Would definitely buy again. Plus you can keep the kit and order more eggs, which is on the cards. Down side was having to open the package to retrieve the voucher, but hey ho, bit of sellotape sorted that ou
Comes with a voucher and order on-line with code – just pay p&p. The illustration on Amazon showed the price for postage in $US – fear not they come from UK with pounds sterling. It’s good to use their website for guidance though quick start instructions are included. I wanted to take lid off when the beasties arrived – a no no! Grandson very happy and all going well though when the caterpillars arrived they did a good impersonation of dead things. Fear not – they ok.
Brought this as a educational tool for my daughter who loves butterflies after buying one for my niece and nephew years ago.
The kit and instructions are great and easy to follow.
I ordered the caterpillars and they were delivered but just popped outside our door, no ring on the door and only noticed as I was putting something in my car.
Anyway I opened the box and thought they were dead but they were ok, Out of the 5 caterpillars that arrived only 3 survived to form chrysalis’s and have now hatched and will release soon.
The only thing I would say is that to order more caterpillars in order to use the kit again it is quite expensive for the chance of not all of them survive.
I bought this for my three year old grandson whose favourite story is the Hungry Caterpillar. He was enthralled watching the caterpillars and luckily was with me when they changed into cocoons. I thought the pot was too small as the caterpillars seemed to struggle finding their own space but a week later one by one beautiful butterflies emerged and when we set them free one of them sat on my grandsons hand with open wings for ages before flying off. Totally magical. The whole family got a lot out of the experience. You do need to be around so don’t buy them if your going away.
As someone who isn’t keen on caterpillars I wasn’t sure about actively welcoming them into my house… But I knew the toddler would like them so we got this set for his birthday.
Acquiring the caterpillars was very simple.. Just enter the code online and pay a small delivery fee… The caterpillars come through the post but can’t fit through the letterbox (I didn’t tell my elderly neighbours what was in the box when I collected it!).
The caterpillars come in a little plastic cup and they’re really small and I questioned why I thought I wouldn’t like them. They were placed on the mantlepiece. They don’t stay small. They grow into big fat hairy horrid caterpillars that were always in eyeline…I had images of the pot being knocked over and them escaping and crawling all over me. Thankfully that didn’t happen.
They became crystallises with 4 of the 5 hanging from the lid. I was going nowhere near them even in this state so my husband did the transfer to the net cage. I’d been warned that when you try and move any on the floor they wiggle so I didn’t watch that bit but what I wasn’t ready for was the noise the hanging ones made.. They kind of wiggle up and down creating a banging noise on the plastic lid… It was like something out of a horror film.
About a week later however we have 5 lovely butterflies (1 with a slightly damaged wing) and the caterpillar phase is nearly forgotten.
Even with my hatred of caterpillars this set is fascinating. The 3 year old has loved it too.. Waking to each morning and checking if they’d ‘hatched’ yet…a really great prese
If you are after the whole kit I have come to realise that this item if the net only which includes a voucher to purchase the caterpillars in the jar for 2.99. I had a kit at my nursery which I thought this was. If you are after the whole kit which includes a large box containing the caterpillars, food flower tray, stickers, log, wind up toy and net then you are better off ordering directly from insectlore.co.uk. Also if this is for a present (as was this for my sons birthday) make sure you order in plenty of time! You can select a date you would like them to dispatch which is good. Sadly my son won’t get these on time even tho I ordered this with prime delivery, having to redeem the voucher meant I only had two delivery option dates which were on and past my sons birthday.
The whole process of the lifecycle is AMAZING though and I highly recommend getting these for any child (or adult). I thoroughly enjoyed watching these little friends growing and changing every day in my nursery class.
Brought this first for myself to do, then based on how successful it was brought it again for my 4 year old niece to try. Both of us, needless to say, are huge fans, even though I never had a problem, but my niece discovered a rather poorly butterfly that unfortunately didn’t survive but the others flew away happy, and my niece took the loss remarkably well and helped teach her an important but difficult life lesson. Will definitely purchase again for future nieces and nephews as well as myself!
Bought for our seven year olds birthday. The caterpillars are shipped to you separately via the voucher inside the box, you pay postage
It was a fascinating journey seeing the transformation and the whole family took great delight in the process. Watching the caterpillars grow, changing to chrysalis and then into butterflies! The last stage you have to be watchful for. We missed it, you could see the wings pattern forming inside then pop, it was out. The children were very good about releasing them and took great delight in the fact that they sat on their hands for a while. A really educational present which I would happily repeat!
We ordered the eggs from the address on the kit ( extra charge) and had such fun watching these beautiful creatures change from caterpillars to Chysalids and then into glorious butterflies. Because we were going on holiday we took them with us to our holiday cottage in Gloucestershire and released them (with the head gardeners permission) in a beautiful walled flower garden. They stayed around long enough for us to take a million photos and we almost had tears in our eyes as they moved into their new environment. Will do it again next year.
We loved the whole experience of metamorphosis of butterflies.
Please note on this amazon order you won’t get your caterpillars delivered. You need to spend an addition 3.00 to order it.
It comes in a small jar with food and 5 caterpillars. We had read quite a few reviews saying not all of them survived. When I said this my daughter she instantaneously said ” mumma no wonder they didn’t, as it’s a cramped space”. Children are just amazing:-).
Day 3, the jar was covered in their poo and silk around it. We transferred them into a bigger box. A couple of weeks ….Hooray all of them survived and became beautiful butterflies.
I would highly recommend this. Thank you amazon.
The Jar is not big enough for all the caterpillars.
OMG !! This was/is just AMAZING..we got delivery on 4th May as I requested. After reading thoroughly all the information we followed their progress, and made a daily chart of their progress. In the book it says hopefully 3 out of the 5 should survive. Well unbelievably all 5 survived and even more special, one arrived on the 23rd May. But the remaining 4 arrived on the 24th our Grandaughter’s 11th birthday.when we had a family party.. She was over the moon, as were we all. And then today for her birthday party with friends , they were released in the garden when the sun was shining and then landed on a flowery plant in the garden. As if posing for photographs before they eventually flew off.
We are spreading the word and hoping more people will apply to be ‘Foster Parents’ and watch their butterflies go through all the growing and nurturing progress will give them as much pleasure we have had. INSECT LORE ‘ROCKS’!!! Thank you so much.
We lost the packaging including the voucher for caterpillars (admittedly totally our own fault) but when we contacted Insect Lore they refused to replace the voucher and in effect we had to pay virtually the total price all over again in order to obtain the caterpillars.
Whilst in my opinion I thought at the time that was poor customer service, I also should report that when the delivery of caterpillars then went astray (through no fault of Insect Lore) they contacted me to check what had gone wrong and arranged a second delivery at no additional cost. That I thought was exceptionally good customer service.
Update 4: Day 24. We’ve released them. Will definitely be getting more next year.
Update 3: Day 23. They’re mating. We have two pairs. One’s a loner.
Update 2: Day 20. They have now emerged, and all are well. Lovely creatures.
Update: Day 10: They’ve now all turned into chrysalides speckled with golden dots. One fell off the cap after a frantic wiggle when I moved them, but is snuggling in a corner, nice and healthy. The other four seem to be calmer. You can still see one of them in the video wiggling, though. Be very gentle with them, so they don’t go into defence mode like that.
I ordered this hoping my daughter would have butterflies on her birthday. When they arrived, they were so tiny that I thought it’s too late, but in only a week they grew as big as you can see in the picture, and all five of them seem healthy and strong. I also got some 3D stickers when I ordered the larvae. Can’t wait to see her face when she sees all these butterflies!
Brilliant idea, lovely watching the transformations, but works out very expensive for a 7 day project. there is a charge for postage and packaging and refill pots thereafter which is is OK but would of hoped refill be a bit cheaper to experience time and time again, I have bought a refill but don’t intend to make it a regular purchase like I would have done. However I would encourage the experience is not to be missed.
we ordered our caterpillars, everything went well, except, all the butterflies were from the same family. i prefer to see different colours and sizes 😀 my little one had fun with them, and even took them to school on science week. a tip, don’t put in sugary water to feed them, they kept falling in, instead use fruits like oranges to feed them 😀
This is a wonderful gift and children are much more likely to remember with fondness a natural wildlife experience like this, rather than a toy. It is easy to keep the net for an annual butterfly project too, and it’s always magical to see them emerge.
1. Read all of the literature and view videos beforehand, and then read it all again. In fact, read a few books about insects in general, they are ace! Seriously, you need to not be in a position where the caterpillars turn up and you’re scrambling around looking for the leaflet which somehow has disappeared from the box. Also you don’t want to look like a bumbling amateur in front of kiddies.
2. Don’t leave the care of vulnerable darling insects to kids. This all needs the care and dedication of an adult, and if you’re not wringing your hands in anxiety over the fate of these tiny creatures at least twice a day you’re not putting the time in.
3. Put a stiff tray under the butterfly enclosure to keep it stable when you move it around. It is a flimsy net and the bottom warps, resulting in pupae rolling around on the floor unless you put the entire thing on a hard surface.
4. Load up your cardboard chrysalis stand with a few dried peas to give it some weight and mechanical hardness, otherwise the card tends to fatigue and your carefully balanced cup lid laden with chrysalids ends up falling flat onto the enclosure floor.
5. Don’t pin the chrysalis cup lid to the side of the netting. Opening and closing the zip on the lid results in the entire enclosure warping or shaking and flinging your precious animals around. Use the chrysalis holder, or blue-tack the holder to the ground leaning against the net.
6. Put a paper towel or tissue at the bottom of the enclosure – that meconium gets everywhere!
7. If you see any traces of mould in the substrate in your cup of caterpillars while they are still in the feeding up stage, carefully remove the lid after scaring the larvae onto the bottom of the cup, and scoop out any mould with a plastic spoon. This mould will spread really quickly because of the low ventilation and high humidity of the cup, and kill the caterpillars. The caterpillar food is meant to be sterile when it arrives but the hatchlings themselves may have spores on them which can grow into a big mould problem.
8. Don’t remove any chrysalides that you think are dead. They probably aren’t. Just put them on the floor of the enclosure and leave them alone. If they make it, great, if they don’t, it’s the circle of liiiife.
9. Don’t bother keeping the butterflies and feeding them on nectar (a heaped teaspoon of sugar in 100 ml of water soaked into tissues on a saucer) for longer than a day or two, unless they are not healthy enough to survive in the wild and you might get a kick out of keeping them. They really prefer being outdoors and risk damaging wings if they are kept in the enclosure for a long time, and they get nectar all over themselves and it’s terrifying to watch.
10. I have made this sound like a difficult, harrowing and thankless task. It is actually not hard, and is incredibly rewarding to witness a miraculous natural event with your kids, Enjoy!
Although it would have been nice to buy and get the butterflies right away the process was fairly straight forward and easy and the growing was a lovely experience for me and my daughter. We documented our journey and as a home educating parent found this project very educational and something to remember at the end my daughter was sad to let them go but egar to grow again although we haven’t purchased yet it’s not something I’m ruling out as it was so fun watching the transformation true enclosure was sold and sad for the butterflies and roomy I thought it was too small initially but I suppose they should be released soon after birthing so it’s not meant to be so large as they should be free.
This has got to be one of the bes activities we have done with the kids. An absolutely AMAZING experience for the whole family! And what great value for money. you get the box with the pop up tent + instruction booklet delivered once you purchase. you then have to go online with a code to order the caterpillars + in the booklet it tells you exactly how to time this delivery – you want to be around when they start building a chrysalis + when the butterflies emerge. All our caterpillars grow and turned into butterflies although one emerged a day later than the others – that one was also later forming a chrysalis though.
We were very lucky with the weather the day we released them + whilst 4 of them took off straigh away one of them sat on my son’s hand for a while and spend another couple of hours on our flowers.
You can really see the changes on a daily basis – our children (2 + 4) really enjoyed it but i think I was the most excited – what a truly fantastic experience!!
This was such a fantastic buy and gave us so much pleasure for relatively little cost. My daughter is five and her class at school had grown some caterpillars to butterflies which she talked about a lot, so when I heard you could get these home kits I was keen to try it out. It was fascinating at every stage. All our caterpillars became butterflies and we kept them for a couple of days before releasing them in the garden. My daughter loved it, she decided to keep a “caterpillar diary” which she wrote in every day and to which we added photos. The whole thing was a great experience in so many ways for her, and I have to say I was just as enchanted with it as my daughter. We were lucky enough to see one of our caterpillars emerge from its chrysalis. We missed the first four actually emerging and we were both so keen to see at least one my daughter decided we should “stake out” the last one. We sat doing a table activity with the net in front of us and managed to see it! I was surprised how fast they come out, although once out they do rest for a long time. Recommended wholeheartedly. In fact we are going to do it again next summer. The net washed out very easily in some washing up liquid by the way, came up good as new.
Have bought five of these over the years, even bought one for myself for my desk at work which was endlessly fascinating for the entire office. Of our five caterpillars (wow they grow huge!) 3 turned into beautiful butterflies, 1 died halfway out of its cocoon, and 1 was a bit malformed and couldn’t fly (we called him charlie). So I would warn parents of smaller children to be prepared it may not be pretty if they don’t all work. Also there’s this red stuff that comes out when they turn into butterflies that can look a bit like blood, but we just explain it away.
The caterpillars don’t come in the box. You get a certificate which you post away and you’ve to pay a couple of quid more on postage which is a bit annoying. Just worth noting if you’re buying for a gift you should open it and apply for the caterpillars too or you could have some very excited and impatient children on your hands!
But great for adults and children alike. I’ll continue to buy these yearly as I love watching them on my desk and they are super easy.
3 turned into beautiful butterflies, 1 died halfway out of its cocoo
I bought this to show my two young girls where butterflies come from.
It was well packaged and you could purchase caterpillars direct. However we had a new annual plant in our garden which I sowed from seed and it literally had hundreds of caterpillars on it. So I caught a few and set up my experiment.
I must say my two girls 3&2 yrs were interested all for 5 seconds. However I was hooked. It was easy to replace the food source for the caterpillars. Just collected more leaves from the plant in the garden and replaced every day.
After around a week they morphed into butterflies. It was mesmerising. I was so happy when I could release the butterflies. I will be growing more plants next year to get even more
This was a wonderful gift. I bought it as one of my son’s presents for his 3rd birthday. It went down a storm. We sent off our voucher and two weeks later our caterpillars arrived in the post – he was delighted! Every day he checked them to see if they were growing and happy and if they had gone into their chrysalis’/cocoons. After another two weeks they all began to transform and within two days they were in their chrysalis. We transferred them to the butterfly pen. After daily checking, about another two weeks later they all emerged within about 2 hours of each other (while we were eating lunch) and out came the butterflies! My son was so excited! We went into the garden and got leaves and sticks and flowers for their enclosure and he set them all up for the butterflies. He made the glucose water and put the fruit down for them all to eat each day. On the 3rd day we took them all to be released. We put each one onto his hand and waited for them to fly away. One wouldn’t leave! It stayed with us for another 3 days and on the 4th day decided to fly away. Every time we see a red butterfly now he says it’s one of his butterflies coming back to say hello. What a lovely gift! Educational and magical for under 15. Fantastic.
Do not hesitate, buy this now!
Bought for my daughters 5th birthday, and she (and my husband and I) have been captivated right from the start. Read the leaflet, answers all your questions!
You get the kit and then send off for the caterpillars. They can take up to a week to arrive, but it’s fine. If you want them straight away, open the box,l before giving as a gift, send off for he caterpillars and await their arrival! (My daughter didn’t mind waiting)
Just watching the tiny little ‘pillars growing at a fast rate was amazing, and they just attached themselves to the ceiling so very excited to see the next stage and move them to the net
My 5 year old was caring and asked a lot of nice questions about this, very good summer holiday project!
Our 5 caterpillars are growing amazingly quickly! I got this for my 4 year old who loves the hungry caterpillar. I thought it would be nice to watch it happen in real. Sent off for my caterpillars online and they came on the day I selected. They come in a jar with food and you don’t interfere until they become chrysalises but it’s so fascinating to watch them. Every day we get up they look loads bigger. All 5 alive and wriggling. I admit I am slightly more enthusiastic than my daughter but she does look with me every day. I can’t wait to see the transformation into butterflies and happy that we will be releasing them and adding to the population as I haven’t seen many painted ladies this year. A really great gift!
Incredible product, great value for money. Bought this for our daughter’s 7th birthday and have since bought a number as presents as something a little different and for our daughter’s classroom. The kit arrived quickly and was well packaged. The caterpillars were easy to order online (with this kit you only pay for postage and packaging of caterpillars) and you can choose from given dispatch days.
All of the caterpillars formed cocoons and eventually hatched into butterflies. Our children loved watching the life cycle, watching the caterpillars grow and eventually feeding the butterflies. When you’re finished with the butterfly garden, it’s very easy to clean in warm soapy water (as recommended in the instructions), it dries quickly and folds back down to enable you to put it all back in the box, ready for next time.
In the instruction/information leaflet it does say to cover surfaces of furniture as the butterflies can leave a mess when emerging. This is great advice as they do
leave a red residue. We just used 2 layers of paper towel underneath the garden and it was fine. Easily cleaned up and no damage to the unit it was sitting on.
I would definitely recommend this product to any parent. It’s a fabulous learning experience. Opens up lots of conversations and makes the children more aware of what’s going on in the world outside their door. Our children are constantly watching for butterflies and
Keeping an eye out for cocoons. We are all looking forward to repeating this again next year!
This was a lovely little buy. Watching the caterpillars grow each day and then waiting for the transformation. Weeks of excitment and heart warming to see them released. I’ve also given these as birthday gifts to my children’s friends and they have all been equally as thrilled. The only problem was delivery, not time specific of when they will come. My first batch got delivered to a neighbour who stored them (unknowingly) upside down all day. At first I thought they had all died, but were fine and starting moving after 2 days. Labelling on packaging could inform of “live cargo” and “this way up” to ensure more care when in transport.
Bought this for our daughters 5th birthday. The caterpillars arrived inside a pot with food. We then enjoyed watching them grow and munch their way through all of the food! They then turned into crysallis at the top of the pit. We had a little trouble transferring the paper into the netting since the paper wouldn’t come away from the lid. We left them attached to the lid in the end and it worked fine. After about 7 days they hatched and we had a couple of days watching the beautiful butterflies before setting them free.
It was a lovely gift that we all got a lot out off. Be aware that you need to pay 2.99 p&p for the caterpillars and make sure you time getting the caterpillars well, you don’t want them to be hatching without you there to see it and feed the butterflies.
Great kit. I feel the need to leave a reveiw if nothing else to point out that some of the negative reveiws are because they expected caterpillars in the box, and others complaining that the caterpillar voucher can’t be redeemed until March when it was bought for Christmas. Of course there are times of the year it simply isn’t appropriate to release butterflies outdoors, the winter months being obvious to most. So please consider this before purchasing the kit and be aware that there are definitely no live insects in the box and a 2.99 delivery charge is made when you do order (at an appropriate time of year of course!). We purchased at christmas aware that it was a summer activity in the hope to spread things throughout the year, which worked great as it’d been sat on the shelf and our daughter was really excited when we told her it was time to open it up.
Unfortunately the first lot of caterpillars we had didn’t do so well, with only one becoming a butterfly and the others dying within a week…. HOWEVER, in the box of caterpillars you get a caterpillar garantee, that says they garantee a minimum of 3 out of the 5 will become butterflies. Super easy to redeem, just sent off the cup containing the ‘bodies’ and recieved new ones within a week…. that did so much better and all 5 have since emerged.
My 4 year old found the whole process simply amazing and I’m suprised at how quickly they emerge… I missed it everytime despite checking constantly once the first had appeared. Have since watched videos of painted lady butterflies emerging with my daughter and the process is about 3 minutes long so no wonder I kept missing it… If you want to see them emerge be very vigilant!
Great gift for kids of all ages, daddy and I enjoyed it as much as our daughter did!
After buying for a friend’s little girl as a birthday present, we got such rave reviews that I’ve bought for my own children (aged 5 and 2) as well as just about every other friend of the same age! The butterfly garden is such a great idea – children can watch the life cycle of a butterfly as teeny little caterpillars morph into much bigger caterpillars, encase themselves in chrysalides and finally emerge as butterflies. It’s safe, clean, easy to order and look after the caterpillars and a wonderfully fun educational tool. We’ve had 3 lots of caterpillars in the habitat this summer and they are as interested in it as the first time. Highly recommended.
This is the second time we have purchased the Insect Lore Butterfly kit, it is just fantastic so we have chosen to do it again! When you buy the kit you then have to send off the voucher inside to receive your caterpillars, it’s worth factoring this into your timing. It is such a great way to experience a lifecycle first hand for children and we found it fitted in well with the school curriculum during the early summer term. It’s definitely something to do with your children, the caterpillars need to be cared for well and the chrysalis stage can be very delicate. It is thrilling to watch butterflies emerge and lovely to care for them for a short time when they first emerge. Setting them free can be a little sad for youngsters, but another good lesson in wildlife. I would recommend this kit wholeheartedly to families and lovers of nature alike, it was also be a great teaching aid in schools.
Really great & educational was looking for a birthday present me & my daughter could do together & learn something instead of just buying toys , she saw this on TV & asked for it. It was great but you have to order the caterpillars when you get the box with the habitat I didn’t know this at first. Really easy to understand my daughters only just turned 3 and she knew to be gentle and how to help look after the caterpillars and butterfly’s. They changed really quickly the whole thing took about 3 weeks we released them today 2 died sadly but 3 were released one went really quick the other 2 took hours to come out I lifted them out on a flower my daughter held it and the butterfly went onto her hand which made her day!!
Great activity will Definetley do it again!! 🙂
My daughter got bought this set for her birthday (in January), we had to wait to order the caterpillars. Caterpillars can be ordered March to September. I would recommend that you are planning to be at home during the 5 ish weeks, as it is great to see the transformation every day. You really can see the changes day-by-day. My daughter is 5 years old and enjoyed them so much. We were able to read her the “Instruction Guide” and show her pictures of what would be happening. The most exciting part was releasing them. We got some wonderful pictures and my daughter will not stop talking about them. The butterflies walked up her arms and she held them on her hands. This was the best present she has received as it was fun, there was lots of learning and it lasted 5 weeks. They come with a guarantee that you will get 3 butterflies out of the 5 caterpillars that you are sent or you get a new set. We got 4 as one died before it became a butterfly. Although this was really sad, we were able to talk about death too which helped my daughter too (especially as we lost a family member recently). I would definitely buy this again….we are planning to order a refill of caterpillars for the school holidays too. Great idea and will be buying this as a gift for others.
Awesome idea, great fun - best gift my 5 year old has ever had!
Good price for this product. We used one last year and bought this one as a gift. In the box is a voucher for five caterpillars which you use by going on the Insect Lore website and registering the code. You pay 2.99 on their site and can choose when you want your caterpillars dispatching to you. We loved watching our caterpillars grow and all five did turn into butterflies so 100% success rate! Releasing them was a special moment and my little one was delighted when one of them landed on her before flying off – precious moment. Would highly recommend this product. We’ve already ordered our caterpillars again for this year!
Absolutely amazing! I bought 2 sets of the Butterfly Garden for my grandchildren as gifts and they have been enthralled by the whole process as the caterpillars changed into butterflies. When we went to release the butterflies they didn’t fly off immediately and spent nearly twenty minutes on our hands and clothing, the delight on my granddaughters faces was magical. I videoed the whole experience and I am sure we will watch it for many years to come .Although we think we are aware what happens to actually see them developing over the period of time is nature at its best and all members of the family have learnt so much. (My very grown up son especially – he has been mesmorised!) It is such a simple affordable gift but probably one of the best that I have ever bought for them and we will definitely be repeating the process next year and purchasing for other children as birthday presents etc. I cannot recommend Insect Lore highly enough, the ordering was simple and the instructions easy to follow as detailed in the box but as well as this they sent me regular E-Mails to ensure we knew what to expect next and how to look after them. Superb customer service!
Enjoyed the process as much as my 4 years son, it was recommended by his teacher as he is more into the living creature explorer. the only issue is that they should process the voucher for the caterpillars faster as we waited around 5 working days until it arrives, I can’t say it the end of the world but, with an eager explorer waiting for his own butterfly growing kit it was a bit of disappointment (for him not me as I can accept the fact of the need to ship the caterpillars safely)
Great kit recommended for any child as they’ll be impressed and appreciated better how creature can grow and change.
Amazing item to have, you can exchange the coupon inside online or through the post and pay the 2 something for p+p.
Our item arrived quickly although needed to wait a while to use it because it was for an Easter gift for our children. Once the caterpillars arrived we tracked their progress and took photos by writing a diary etc.
We were very lucky that all 5 caterpillars changed into butterflies and when the time was right to let them go we opened the enclosure expecting em to shoot off out….but they didn’t! It took a short while for them to elope and one of them needed much coaxing for it to leave its home to find another.
It was a great buy and our children loved it!!
First off, I never expected so much educational value out of this. Me and the kids have learnt so much about nature from this. It was also a great starting point that led to a lot of other personal research. We had one butterfly that emerged with deformed wings – sort of like reverse wing formation – basically one of its forewings grew under the hindwing instead of above it, so the butterfly could not fly well and the wings don’t fold nicely when it’s at rest. That was not due to us as we followed the instructions to remove frass and webbing very carefully. Also the strong pee smell that hits when we opened the container to remove the chrysalides. And feeding them, letting them climb on our hands, etc. All good fun. Certainly helped some of us get over the fear of allowing insects to crawl on us. For the money this really can’t be beaten on value. We really loved doing this. It helped us develop a better understanding and appreciation of wildlife and nature. Textbooks and storybooks explaining metamorphosis are not enough. I recommend this kit especially to those with children. We might order another batch in fact.
Once received you need to go online using the code on the voucher in the box to pick a date from selected dates on which the caterpillars will be dispatched from the supplier.I picked a Tuesday for dispatch and the caterpillars arrived on the Thursday in a tub within a very small cardboard box so you do need to make sure you are in for delivery as they need to be opened asap.
I received 5 tiny caterpillars, which grew very quickly over the space of just under two weeks. It was fascinating to watch as my Daughter and I saw one change/mature right in front of us from a little black caterpillar into a black and white spotty, spikey one!!
It took about two weeks for the caterpillars to climb to the top of the tub and form chrysalis, about a day or two later we attached the paper they had attached themselves to in the habitat. It then took about 4 or 5 days for the butterflies to emerge.
The weather was a bit touch and go for the few days ahead so we decided to let them go 2 days after they had all emerged when the weather was at its best to give them the best chance of survival.
Overall I would say it was a brilliant, fascinating and educational experience and I would definitely recommend!!!
I ordered this for my son’s birthday which is at the end of September and I’m abroad, and hadn’t read the bumpf about the caterpillars being separate so it was lucky I opened up the box to have a look and check everything was ok, and then discovered they had to be ordered separately. Even luckier I have managed to book a despatch date of the 16th September as close to his birthday as possible, as that was the last date of despatch! I could have had a very upset little boy. It is completely my fault as I hadn’t read any reviews or instructions and just presumed. By the time they arrive they will probably be quite well grown as it takes about a week for post to get here :o/ I am really looking forward to seeing his reaction though as he loves all bugs and we usually grow silk worms that aren’t quite so pretty when they hatch.
I bought this product for my little girl, they came in the little transparent tub with the tiny caterpillars in, which eat their way to a fat wiggidygrub which then turn into ‘crysaliscts*’ *Phonetic spelling maybe poorly attempted,
After weeks of hanging there they ‘give birth to themselves’, but during this time, my little girl was on a school trip, so the excitement was purely for me, now its a fantastic thing…now shortly after they spouted an turned into butterflys I came into a little bit of money an wanted to hand my notice into work…WHAT BETTER WAY THAN BUTTERFLY DELIVERY!, but after training them from a very young age, I have learnt that A4 or A5 notes are too heavy for them to carry and in order for them to carry something…it needs to be a few of them…this is far to time consuming and just aswell because I lost my money on the dogs and actually needed to keep my job if I wanted to continue to eat and live my life.
All in all, Butterflys are quiet good….just not ‘messenger’ good.
I got this for my daughter as she loves animals but we can’t get her a pet at the moment. Sounds like a poor substitute for a dog but it was worth doing because she loved watching the caterpillars grow (and they grew very quickly) and then transform into chrysalis and then butterflies (although we missed them coming out of their chrysalis :-(). They come in a little tub (we got 5 caterpillars) they have all the food and moisture they need in the tub so no care needed, they just take care of themselves. We got a magnifying glass out at one point and studied them more closely, a bit freaky but also fascinating. When we released them they sat on our hands for ages before flying off. Great to share their lifecycle with my daughter and then release them knowing we’re also helping the environment. A little warning that you get a voucher for your butterflies but it’s extra for postage. You can order more butterflies if you want to.
Since my first son was three, I have been getting the caterpillars (the refills after the first year) as we all enjoy watching the cycle and then releasing the butterflies. However, at the reduced price I bought this package for it seems sensible to buy the whole package from scratch again to have a fresh butterfly garden. I have done this for the last two years rather than just buy the refills. I would certainly recommend the butterfly garden as both my boys (now 8 & 3) get loads out of the whole experience EVERY year. I will be buying the product for years to come. The butterflies settle on us when we release them and we get to look at the butterflies close up. The caterpillars come as really tiny creatures and we get to watch them grow into hairy beasts. It is fascinating for them and me.
My wife bought the Butterfly Garden after it was recommended by a friend. The kit arrived promptly and we sent away for the caterpillars right away. They arrived within a couple of days and they are TINY! We were a bit dubious at first, but the speed at which the little guys grow is quite astonishing. Within a couple of days we had a pot of chubby caterpillars who had started to practice making their silky threads. After a few days they moved to the top of the pot to hang and start to change into chrysalises. After about a week, we woke one morning to see two butterflies. The others came out later that day. The whole process has been quite captivating for the whole family – children of 6, 10, 11 and even a 14 year old was interested enough to put down his XBox controller to take a look.
A really educational experience recommended to all.
This was an amazing experience, watching the little caterpillars get bigger every day then suspend themselves and form their chrysalids and eventually emerging as beautiful butterflies. It really is one of the most amazing transformations in nature. The kit made it so easy as the caterpillars have everything they need to grow. Feeding the butterflies was easy. Releasing the butterflies was beautiful, they needed a little coaxing as they’d only exercised their wings in the habitat and so to help them with their first flight was really special, we had to gently put our fingers in front of them so they could climb on and be lifted up then they needed a little time to warm themselves from our body heat before they took off for their first flight and how satisfying it was to see them take off, knowing you’d been a part of their journey. I definitely recommend this experience to anyone of any age, your love for these amazing creatures will grow. Best to order them before September and they need to be released somewhere where there are lots of flowers.
Bought this for both myself and my 5 year old son.
You need to send off for the live caterpillars and pay postage. I did it online and paid through paypal. You select a despatch date that suits you best so that you have an idea when they should arrive. (Tue or a Fri despatch.) I choose a Tuesday and they arrived by royal mail on the Sat.
It seems like the caterpillars double in size every day and are fun to watch. It took 3-4 weeks from the day our caterpillars arrived to the day we released them.
All 5 butterflies were released happy and healthy. They only guarantee 3.
Very pleased with this product and have kept everything so that we can order more ext year.
I don’t usually bother with reviews but had to with this one. It is brilliant! We got the pack really quickly which contains the net, pipette for future feeding of butterflies and instructions with a code that you can either post off or ideally enter online to then arrange for the dispatch of the live caterpillars. These cost me 2.99 for the postage and packing. The retail price of this item seems to be 15-20 so Amazon is the cheapest place to buy that I could find.
The caterpillars have food in the cup which is sealed and basically you just watch them eat and grow and grow until one day they all decide to craw to the top of the cup and hang upside down. Ours took about 8 days to go through this process. It is amazing to then see the transformation from caterpillar to chrysalides. I have only ever seen it on tv but this beats that by far. We then had to transfer the disk in the cup with the chrysalides hanging from them and pin it into the butterfly net.
We have been watching them every day but they have been a lightish colour until this morning.
I went down for breakfast and noticed that they were really dark and then suddenly one of them started to open and my 6 yr old son and I were very lucky to see a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis. It was great. A further three hatched out shortly after which we missed and then we just caught the fifth one emerging a couple of hours later.
We now have five beautiful butterflies which we have admired all afternoon, supplied with the water/sugar solution recommended in the instruction leaflet and given them some fruit. We are going to enjoy them for a couple of days before we release them into the garden.
Very educational for young children and we have actually taken photographs of each stage as a little record for his scrapbook. Great idea for a school project too.
This is a wonderful product, especially for my younger generation. Even though other people have said that its a waste of money because you have to pay an extra charge to receive the caterpillars. However, it’s clearly stated that this is the case, and the 11.25 paid for this kit, includes the caterpillars. This is a really good value kit because if you want to buy more caterpillars as a refill, it’s 9.99, which shows how much money you’re saving, or that the net is only worth 2.00, which is highly unlikely!
I will be recommending this to my friends and family! It arrived 4 days before the estimated delivery date! I’ll be recommending this to my friends, and have already told my family all about it!
Thanks for the product amazon!
I purchased this item with trepidation after reading the reviews that the code would not work in the UK and that caterpillars could not be redeemed with a USA code if you were sent the wrong box.
My daughter saved her pocket money for this after doing it at school, so we went ahead and purchased it. It arrived this morning. The leaflet inside has a special code that you enter either by post (with 2.99 to cover the shipping of the caterpillar larvae) or you can also enter it online and pay via paypal, which I did. It was VERY quick and easy, I can only assume that some people have been very unfortunate and have received USA stock by mistake, or that the newer stock is all UK butterfly garden boxes.
Anyway, I have paid the fee and eagerly await the caterpillars being despatched. You can only pick from a limited list of delivery dates so be prepared to wait at least a week or more for your caterpillars to arrive. ALSO – if you want to do this, eggs are ONLY AVAILABLE in the spring and summer months so be sure you order this item at the right time otherwise it will be useless until the next butterfly season!
The box only contains the butterfly net/house, a feeding pipette, and instruction booklet, as well as your unique code to redeem the caterpillars.
THIS IS MADE ABUNDANTLY CLEAR! I cannot understand the bad reviews from those intellectually challenged people who seem to think LIVE animals can be kept indefinitely on a shelf until they are sold. Caterpillars life cycle takes about 5 weeks so they would be dead and gone before the kits were sold! Of course they charge a handling fee to get you fresh larvae sent out. If people cant comprehend this basic fact, maybe they don’t have the requisite intelligence to be explaining life cycles to a child. Don’t be disappointed to find NO LIVE INSECTS in your kit! Sheeeesh! (eye roll)….
I will update this reviews when the larvae arrive!
27/07/13 – caterpillars arrived today. They are about 1cm long, black and hairy, and are in a small clear plastic cup with a lid and a cardboard sleeve that can be rotated around the cup to view the caterpillars. Already there are some silk like threads being spun at the bottom of the cup. Four of the caterpillars are very active and can clearly be seen crawling about and eating the thick jelly stuff at the bottom of the cup. The fifth caterpillar is alive but quite inactive and has not moved much. Some have even ventured to the underside of the cup lid.
31/07/13 – all five caterpillars are still alive, though the slow/inert one is still lying at the bottom of the cup not having moved much. They have more than trebled in size since they arrived, the largest one is now about 2.5 – 3cm long. The inside of the cup looks a bit gross now with all the caterpillar waste product (frass) and shed skins. since last night alone they are noticeably fatter; it’s amazing just how fast they grow, there can be a marked difference between day and night. In this warmer weather the process is, according to the booklet, much faster. I’m expecting the chrysalis’s to start forming over the next few days. At this point I’m hoping for 5 successful butterflies!
02/08/13 – 4 of the caterpillars are now hanging from the lid of the cup, one seems to be a bit more ahead of the others as it has already formed somewhat of a thick cocoon over itself, the others just look like they are hanging there. The fifth caterpillar is making its way to the top of the cup. I hope they all form cocoons at the same time as I don’t know what to do if some have not and some have, as the instructions say you should not open the lid until all are hanging from the top (you can introduce bacteria etc into their environment otherwise). Exciting!
05/08/13 – All five caterpillars made it into the cocoon stage, but one was hanging not from the lid but from another cocoon. We opened the lid as per instructions and cleaned away the silk strands and debris (this apparently can cause the butterflies to become entangled and have deformed wings if you don’t do this). The cocoon that was hanging from another cocoon, we have detached and laid on a paper towel at the bottom of the enclosure. The instructions say this is okay and it should still hatch out. We are now to wait for the cocoons to turn a very dark colour, and the butterflies are suppose to hatch the same day! This stage was quite yucky if I’m honest and may gross out a sensitive child, as there were ‘bits’ of old caterpillar skin and what looks like blood (its just ‘meconium’ according the booklet!). We now wait expectantly for our butterflies!
It is interesting to note that the cocoons were shaking quite violently on their own as we were doing this, apparently this is a defence mechanism! Very strange to see.
12/08/13 – First butterfly hatched out yesterday morning. We missed the actual event but it was sitting at the bottom of the enclosure. Have put fresh cut oranges and peaches in the net, as well as some fresh flowers sprayed with ‘nectar’ (sugar water) as per instructions. The second butterfly hatched this afternoon, and a third looks like it is about to emerge. We have taken lots of pictures. Two down, three to go!
13/08/13 – Two hatched out yesterday afternoon after writing my update. We actually caught the second one on video emerging from its cocoon – you have to be fast because once it starts, it’s out in about 5 seconds, it is not the slow process you might imagine! We were very lucky to catch it. A fair amount of red ‘blood’ drips from their back ends once emerged, so put your habitat on some newspaper.
This morning we released all four butterflies as the fifth one was not hatched yet. We got some lovely pictures – they are happy to sit on your fingers etc as you place them on the plants. My daughter was a bit teary for a while but after explaining that her new friends needed to be free to see the world etc and that they would come back and visit her if they could, she felt a bit better. The fifth butterfly hatched in the last two hours, so he will be released this afternoon, as I feel they should not be kept in the net any longer then necessary.
In summary this has been an amazing experience for both adult and child. The whole process from receiving larvae to releasing the butterflies took 17 days. I highly recommend this item, we are already thinking about doing it again next summer!
This was one of the best things we have done – our granddaughter, a few months off 3 yrs old, followed the progress of the caterpillars through to the hatched butterflies. We put the butterfly garden net into her ball pit [also net with a large opening in the top], then opened the butterfly home. One by one the butterflies came onto her hand and she stood up carefully and held out her hand for them to fly away. We have the most beautiful photographs and the expression on her face is an absolute joy. Educational? Yes, of course, but so much more than that. A lovely memory for her that she would tell anyone about who had the time to listen. Thank you
This is our second Live butterfly garden. Once you receive the netting and a voucher for the larvae it takes about a week to receive the shipment(weather permitting). They used to make the netting twice as long but this shorter one is much more practical! We received 5 larva and 4 survived to butterfly stage. The 5th one was so little and never seemed to grow so we waited as long as we dared before opening the jar and transferring the chrysalis to the netting. One day later the butterflies started hatching out and the 5th little one never did make it. We enjoyed letting the butterflies loose on our backyard butterfly bush and had a wonderful time watching them feed. We will purchase the refill again next year!
The pop up garden arrived in a couple of days and after a quick order was placed on the computer to order the caterpillars, they soon followed. They were so small when they arrived but to our amazement soon grew into big eating machines. Only a few days later they were crystalis and five days later and the first two of five have just hatched. They are beautiful close up and the kids really enjoyed making up sugar water for them. My partner is a child minder and the kids are really engaged by the transformation but typically they hatched on a weekend so they missed the emerging. Just hope there are a couple left for them to watch emerge on monday. Easy to follow instructions and really compact habitat make it a rewarding, hassle free experience for the kids[with supervision]. Clean and odourless, they are ideal. Releasing them in a couple of days with the kids help.
We live in the city and finding af caterpillar or even a butterfly here is impossible, so I ordered the Butterfly Garden. Today we have released our own five butterflies, my daughter and her friend, five years, changed their clothes to look pretty for the special event. The butterflies flew away and that was the end of five weeks of family fun. It is just basically fascinating to watch the caterpillars transformation, and we might do it again this summer. Even our son of 1 1/2 year has had his fun watching the animals.
The gear is fine, plastic – nothing special, but it works great and the box has fine descriptions of that to do and what is happening to tell the kids. And our caterpillars arrived in good condition by mail.
I purchased this for my 6 year old son in an attempt to get him something fun but educational. We take him to butterfly houses and he really seems to enjoy them. The whole process was easy and not as initially high maintenance as it seemed.nit came with a voucher to redeem caterpillars. Note though – when I went to order them I went to the website to redeem and I discovered you pick a date to dispatch and its about 2 weeks from the date you look into it. S, ultimately these came later than anticipated as we were buying as a gift. They did come quickly after dispatch. The caterpillars were smaller than a grain of rice when we got them and really didn’t move at all. (Keep them in a room with a constant temperature that isnt too hot or cold, keep them out of the sun, usual stuff) They quickly became massive and they all have hung upside down. Putting the disc into the net was a pain as they hang sideways, so we used 2 safety pins with short thread between them (about 3 of these) and hung it so they’re hanging like they were in the cup. My son in particular loved them. It was secretly educational as well. There were extra little bits in the box that are a bit easier for kids to understand, pictures, etc. lots of info that we can read and tell our son about. Best bit is that once we let the butterflies go we can reuse it. Our son has been walking around throwing out info about the caterpillars. Great set, good value considering you can reorder the caterpillars. Would recommend to anyone with a child that loves butterflies – it might seem high maintenance when you first read it, but really get them in the right place and leave them be, take them out when they’re all hung upside down and then let them go! Great fun.
Firstly I’ll mention that you don’t get your caterpillars straight away. You receive a net tent and a VOUCHER with a code, that you either send of by post or register online. This is to ensure that you will be home to receive your caterpillars. I ordered mine online and selected a date on a calendar, about a week away.
We all loved watching these little caterpillars grow and develop. You get five caterpillars and company guarantee that three will develop. Luckily all of ours did, although one fell on the floor (in the jar) early on in the chrysalis stage and didn’t develop properly, his legs and wings were curled and it couldn’t fly, poor thing!
They didn’t seem to want to feed on the cut up orange, melon or sugar water that we provided but in five days after developing into butterflies we let them go and it was very satisfying. I was concerned about keeping them in the tent for too long as we couldn’t let them go after three days (as advised) as it was raining, but everything was fine in the end. I hope. My son loved holding them and getting to know them before saying goodbye and watching them fly away (well, two kept flapping to the floor and got stuck in the grass but flew upwards in the end!).
The one that didn’t develop properly we kept at home and looked after it until it died, about four days after the others were released. Plenty to talk about and lots of learning opportunities to be had by all and we’ll do it again next year, definitely!
It took about 4 weeks, from caterpillars to butterflies. It varies though, 3-5 weeks. Also, search for Insectlore – painted lady butterflies videos on Youtube.
I bought this for my 5 year old as he loves nature, especially insects. I was initially put off by the fact you receive an empty pop up tent and just a coupon for your money but it’s very straightforward sending off the voucher and doesn’t cost much more in postage and packaging. I hadn’t looked at the photos on Amazon of what to expect at the different stages so it was a lovely surprise for my son to receive a pot with tiny caterpillars inside. It was all very neat and self contained with the food at the bottom. We couldn’t believe how big they grew and how quick the process was. The pot did begin to fill up with their waste! Not so tidy anymore.
It was truly amazing when they crawled up to the paper lid and hung themselves upside down. They just went very still and you could literally see them changing into chrysalids. Unbelievable. We’re now excitedly waiting for them to hatch out as butterflies. It’s so thrilling. I would recommend this gift for anyone, not just children. It’s fantastic!
I bought this directly from Amazon as the seller and no issues with getting US vouchers for the caterpillars.
Postage to send off for them was 2.50, so no unreasonable. If you were giving as a present, could always include the cash for it as well.
Caterpillars arrived promptly after choosing the dispatch date. They grew a few mm every day for about two weeks before pupating, so interesting to watch even for children with short attention spans. 10 days after they cocooned themselves in, we’ve had all five butterflies hatch over the preriod of two days. My child was absolutely fascinated by watching them hatch out (as were all the adults watching :-)).
We’ll be keeping the enclosure and getting a caterpillar refill again next year.
Thoroughly recommend this.
Late last year, I remember reading several excellent reviews on the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden . It sounded incredibly appealing – so appealing in fact that I almost immediately went onto Amazon and purchased one as a christmas gift for my daughter .
The kit, as it turned out was a terrible Christmas present . The kit itself was perfect – a lovely brightly coloured pop up habitat with a zip opening and mesh sides, through which you could see your butterflies. Although caterpillars were not included in the kit itself , they were included in the price – you simply had to send off the voucher at the bottom of the instruction leaflet, and you’d receive the caterpillars in the post. Nope, the kit was lovely, no doubt about it , but it was upon reading the instructions that I realised I wouldn’t be able to actually get my caterpillars until late February at the earliest, since they need a nice warmish temperature in which to grow, evolve, and hopefully be released. Clearly this was bad timing on my part, and after a cursory glance, my daughter put this kit in the back of her wardrobe, disgusted that her evil mummy had purchased her a gift that was, for the time being, useless.
However, in early march, we remembered about the kit . I filled in and sent off the form for my caterpillars, and received them through my door in about a week. I was better organised this time round – I’d read the instructions thoroughly, and knew that it could be anywhere between 3-5 weeks before the caterpillars were released, so I’d ensured we had no plans to go away. They came in a cardboard box that had the words ‘Open Immediately’ stamped across it, and not being one to ignore simple instructions, I ensured that we did .
Inside was a clear plastic pot, slightly larger than a yoghurt pot, with a white lid that had air holes punctured in it to allow the caterpillars to breathe. There is a label on the top telling you what kind of caterpillars they are (painted lady) and the bottom of the pot has a thick beige layer – this is the caterpillars food. There is also a cardboard sleeve you can pop round the cup that has holes cut in for viewing.
You don’t need to do anything with the caterpillars at this point – simply observe. When we first got them, they were tiny, and actually didn’t seem to really do much at all . However, within four or five days we started to notice that these little monsters were growing at a very rapid rate.They went from tiny, soft squidgy looking things to huge spiky caterpillars, and they seemed to grow even as we watched . The smooth beige disk of food at the bottom of the cup soon became churned up, with bits of it spread all over the container.
After another couple of days, we started seeing silk thread beginning to cross the cup. We knew that soon the caterpillars would be turning into chrysalides, so we decided at this point to decorate our habitat a little, adding in some dry twigs, some stones, and a little moss. Soon the caterpillars had all moved to the top of the pot, and were hanging upside down fully encased in their cocoons. We watched as , over the course of a few days, these became glossy and hard – an indication that they were ready to be moved from their cup into the hatching habitat . This was easily done, we simply removed the disk from the lid of the cup, and pinned it carefully to the mesh sides of the habitat .
Sadly, we did not actually see any of the butterflies hatch – we simply woke up one morning, and instead of hanging upside down by their bums, there were three butterflies clinging to the sides of the cage. At this point we needed to start providing them with some food – we opted for some sliced banana and apple, and a couple of wet leaves, but the leaflet offers a good number of suggestions . With three having hatched behind our backs, we were really keen to at least see one of the other two emerge, but they chose to be just as sneaky, emerging whilst we were having a meal out .
They didn’t really do a lot at first – they seemed to just hang onto the sides of the habitat, with their wings closed, which was a shame as we wanted to see the pretty colours . However, these do live for three to five weeks, so there was no hurry to immediately release them, and after a few days they became a little more active, spreading their wings more so we could look at them, and feeding more. The habitat was easily portable so long as we were gentle, and I did find that taking the habitat outside so they could feel the breeze did stir them into action a little.
After about a week of observation, we decided to release them out into the wild – it was quite emotional really watching them all fly away . However,we still have the habitat itself, which is excellent for observing all manner of insects and is currently housing a couple of spiders. I think this is a brilliant educational toy that will interest children for a long time, and that can be used in conjunction with other activities – for example, I think this toy would work brilliantly alongside a reading of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ for younger children, but would also work equally well for slightly older children studying minibeasts at school.
The kit costs 14.99 from amazon.co.uk and includes 5 caterpillars. Refill packs of caterpillars can also be purchased, costing 7.60.
I think this is a brilliant toy – just don’t do as I did and buy it as a present at a time when it can’t actually be used!
Arrived on time but the boxes were a little bashed around as they were sent in a bag with no protective packing, which was a shame as one was for a gift and it looked second hand with crumpled corners etc, thankfully the receiver is to young to care what the box looks likes. I would have returned it had it not been for the fact that I didnt have time. We have not used these yet though as we will wait for the spring time, but I’m hopeful they will bring interest and smiles all round. I bought one for my nephews 4th birthday he LOVE nature so this was a hit and another for my boys aged 9 and 2, everyone seems really excited to send away for the eggs so hope we receive them ok. Also looked at companies that sell eggs so hopefully we can reuse the habitat plenty of times. Great educational item to watch the development cycle of a butterfly, suitable and interesting for all ages, including myself (30)! Seems a good choice for boys and girls, and as the eggs hatch and develop over 3 weeks then there is good value for money too. Not many items, games or toys keep interest for longer than a day sometimes it seems! I got these reduced at under 7 each and I am quite glad as the extra few pounds to send for the eggs seems a bit cheeky. Anyway all round I really do rate this. Only given it 4 stars due to the shoddy packaging and not the product.
I purchased this after a recommendation from a friend at work. There are other companies but it is obvious with other reviews that Insect Lore is superior. The “garden” arrived quickly and is a pop up tent and is as described. I do not think it is over priced as the money for the caterpillars and the subsequent development that you watch is priceless!! I had read other reviews so I knew that the caterpillars would need separate ordering. For 2.50 this is an entirely reasonable price. The caterpillars are self contained and eat the food in the jar that they come in. There is a coupon but this can be redeemed online with a credit card payment. This was simple and allowed me to choose an exact date of arrival. As it turned out, the delivery went to my neighbour. The caterpillars were tiny and do not move much so I was worried they were dead but they grow SO quickly. The instructions are good but it is useful to watch the Insect Lore video on You tube which shows you what will happen. Currently our caterpillars are in the pupae stage and the butterflies are expected any day now. I am not worried as Insect Lore guarantees that at least 3 will survive. My 3 year old daughter LOVES it. The caterpillars are in the garden in her bedroom and she has watched them develop. A must for children who love the hungry caterpillar books. I think it is approaching the end of the butterfly season so anyone ordering may not get the caterpillars for some time so this could be a factor for birthday gifts etc. If ordering as a present, must open to get the voucher and order the caterpillars ahead of any event. Highly recommended and will be ordering more next year!
This is one of the best things I have ever bought for my daughter. Be aware that once you receive the kit, you will have to send off or apply online for your pot of five caterpillars plus their food, at an extra cost of 2-3 to cover postage, but then, you’re away. The caterpillars grow at an amazing rate, turning into chrysalids after about 10-14 days. After another 10 days or so, the butterflies emerge.
My daughter managed to drop the caterpillar pot a couple of times, but they were remarkably resilient; we even took the brave step of letting her take the ‘garden’ into school, as she missed seeing four of the five butterflies emerging from their chrysalid state, but all was fine. We released all five butterflies two days ago and unanimously agreed that we will definitely do this again. It was fun, educational and culminates in helping to increase the butterfly population, which is amazing.
Got this for my daughter who saw the endless adverts and also having it in school. Amazon is by far the cheapest place I found and decided to get it. You have a pop up enclosure to keep the butterflies in, a full set of detailed instructions on caring for your butterflies, a feeder pipette and a coupon for caterpillars. As this does not come with caterpillars, you have to either send away for them or order them online and en enter the special code that came with this product. The caterpillars were sent out on a Friday and arrived Saturday.
The small tiny caterpillars looked like a black grain of rice onto of a brown solid mass, but over the time they grew and grew into large fat caterpillars, eating virtually all of the food. Once they make their way to the top of the container, they hang upside down and start to cocoon. It is this time that you move them from the container to the pop up container and pin the disc to the side. There they will hatch into butterflies for you to feed and study for a few days before freeing.
The container then folds flat to be used again next time and caterpillars can be purchased from the company for twelve pounds or so, which is virtually what this unit costs plus the P&P for the little creatures, so maybe I will give the unit to someone else and buy a new one as it may be cheaper.
Overall, a good little buy but does seem expensive for what you actually get.
I think I have enjoyed watching this more than my children but I have been fascinated from the day the caterpillars arrived to today when they emerged as butterflies. I did delay putting the children to bed one night so we could see a caterpillar turn into a chrysalis as it was imminent!! The best bit was watching the butterflies emerge today. I had to video it so my 5 year old could see it when she got home from school. I’ve just got to hope the weather is warm enough to release them in a couple of days. I have told so many people about this as we have loved it so much My daughter’s teacher is looking into getting some for her class now.
I used this as a basis for my Year 5 & 6s work on life cycles in science. Even though life cycle of a butterfly is a KS1 task the pupils loved this resource and the caterpillars were a great ‘distraction’ during silent reading (!) :-/
This resource brought the life cycles unit of work to life and motivated the children in preparation for their project work in which they had to research their favourite animal’s life cycle and present back to the class.
The parcel arrived very quickly and inside was a comprehensive information booklet which included colouring-in & dot-to-dot activities, as well as a coupon for your caterpillars which you have to send off/complete online. The caterpillars arrived quickly, but BEWARE of where you get the little ones delivered – you must ensure the box is upright and opened immediately to allow the animals to over heat/suffocate.
The caterpillars arrive in a cup with some food and are so small they are barely visible, but they grow extremely quickly and turn into chrysalids in approximately 2 weeks. They stay as chrysalids for another two weeks and then hatch. The hatching process is extremely fast; I tried catching it on video camera and missed 2 because it all happened so rapidly!
A fantastic product, a great resource and reusable too! You just send off for the caterpillars next time you want to have another go!
When my 11 year old daughter gets it into her head that she wants to buy something, then that’s it. So she saved and bought the Butterfly Garden. We sent off for the caterpillars and they arrived really quickly too. The tiny little caterpillars ate and ate and ate the food that is supplied in the pot with them, and got bigger and bigger until they were great big fat things.
After a couple of weeks the first of the five caterpillars “cocooned”, and within another day or two, so had the rest. We transferred them to the “Butterfly Garden”, and waited patiently. Just a couple of days ago the first hatched out into a beautiful butterfly, followed by another later in the day and then the final three yesterday.
And yesterday we released them in our garden. They weren’t in any hurry to fly away and we were able to watch them for ages on the bushes, knowing that just a few weeks before they were just tiny little caterpillars. For the kids to see them go through the whole process was fascinating, and they’re looking forward to getting more caterpillars next year.
While this set may seem a bit expensive at first sight, it’s been fascinating for the kids (and us adults) and to see the kids faces as the butterflies were released, and to see the butterflies going off into the wild….well, it’s priceless.
I would definitely recommend the InsectLore Butterfly Garden.
Just a couple of notes to add to the many reviews. Firstly our caterpillars definately looked dead when they turned up. Expect very small black things that hardly move at all. They soon came to life after a couple of days and my they can eat! Secondly, our butterflies didnt eat at all once hatched. Despite our best attempts they all more or less stayed in the same spot with their wings up. After a few days of virtually no movement I took them out into the sunshine and they really livened up. I dont know if its a fact that they need the sun to energise them but it certainly worked for us. We ceased the moment and set them free. This is a great gift for anyone.
The Butterfly garden is basically a small pop up cylinder with a zipped lid. You also get a plastic pipette and an instruction leaflet and a postcard with a code number and details of how to get your actual butterflies. You can post off to get them or order online. The caterpillars are only available between mid or the end of February and Beginning of October (I suppose it would be too cold to release them) so if you buy this gift as a christmas present the recipient won’t be able to use it until at least March. You also have to pay postage for the caterpillars which I thought was a bit of a cheek given the price of the kit (I think it was #2.50), you also may have to wait (when I ordered mine at the beginning of May the site said there had been high demand and that my caterpillars may take up to two weeks to be dispatched)
The baby (tiny,tiny) little caterpillars arrived through the normal post in a cardboard box and were packed in a plastic tub with a couple centimetres of what looked like fudge. We did need to be in as the box wouldn’t have fitted through the letterbox. Basically you keep the plastic carton somewhere fairly warm (consistent temperature) and watch the five babies you get (3 are guaranteed to hatch into butterflies)eat the fudge, poo and get very fat. The caterpillars- are not cute little green ones but brown sluglike ones – my older daughters thought they looked revolting but my son loved them and couldn’t wait for them to cocoon.
One caterpillar was a lot smaller than the others so we hadn’t high hopes for his survival. After about a week the caterpillars cocooned- they climb to the top of the carton where there is a piece of filter paper and they attach upside down by a little thread and cocoon themselves. My son loved this – but you do have to be a little gentle and not shake the jar and disturb them at this point.
Once they have all cocooned (one of ours only half cocooned and the little one managed it three days after the others)you transfer the paper disc to your pop up “garden”, safety pinning it to the side gently. You can decorate the garden with twigs and leaves and flowers and wait for the butterflies to emerge. We didn’t actually manage to see any of the butterflies emerge, but all four did. They left a slightly alarming red stain all along the side of the container when they emerged – which again my older kids thought was just disgusting . Once hatched your child can have fun making a sugar and water syrup for the butterflies to eat or providing them with cut oranges. They can use the pipette to put sugar syrup on the flowers and leaves they have decorated the garden with and watch them flutter around for a few days before you decide to release them.
My son had a lovely time with this set and took many photos during his caterpillars development.
I thought for what you got the kit was overpriced, but my son did really like it. It would be great for a school group or sibling group too – although you do have to make sure that you book the caterpillars to arrive when you will be at home and not on holiday like a friend did!
I bought this gift for my three children aged 3,4 and 8 as an alternative to choclate at Easter! They were not disappointed! In fact they were amazed at how their five little pets grew and grew into beautiful butterflies. The pack came with a butterfly net which folds down and can be reused, a syringe to feed the butterflies, a voucher for sending off for your larvae and also full instructions on how to care for the creatures. The five little caterpillars come in a tub with special food in the bottom. The caterpillars grow quickly and eventually form crysalides which then form butterflies. You can keep your butterflies for up to three days before letting them go. The whole process from caterpillar to releasing the butterflies took about three weeks. It really has been one of the best gifts I have ever bought for my girls – educational, fun and good value! They loved it!!
Absolutely superb present for the kids that amazes them and provides daily interest as they watch the tiny caterpillars transform into butterflies over a few weeks.
The kit contains a colourful pop-up enclosure with a feeding pipette and a coded voucher to redeem for a couple of quid for 4 or 5 tiny caterpillars. They can’t put live caterpillars in the box of course. The voucher must either be sent by post or the code used on the Insect Lore website. I went for the web option used PayPal and effortlessly received the caterpillars within 2 days. You are sent a small clear plastic jar with half a cm of some kind of fatty substance at the bottom. The caterpillars remain in the jar (it has tiny air holes) eating away at the fatty food and growing at an incredible pace into large, black hairy ones. No additional feeding is necessary whilst in the jar and the lid must remain tight until they form chrysalises and hang from the paper that is on the underside of the sealed lid. Then, the paper from which they all dangle must be carefully removed with them attached and pinned into the enclosure and left undisturbed until they hatch into butterflies. Place in some flowers from the garden and a bit of orange, banana or other fruit, drip some sugar water via the pipette and they’ll be very happy indeed. Three days later, release into the outside provided the weather is warm.
The kids were fascinated by the whole process, ran downstairs in the mornings to see the progress and took delight in observing nature so closely. I totally recommend this for any kids say aged 4+. You’ll be happy to see the pleasure they get from it and somewhat chuffed as a parent (or relative) to have bought something unusual and educational.
And don’t worry if the caterpillars hardly move or even stay completely still for some time – that’s normal. They probably need all the rest they can get – as butterflies they will cover over 3,000 miles in the 5 weeks they live!
This was absolutely amazing I have children all different ages 4 11 and 13 and they were all really engaged with the activity every morning they would wake up excited to see how big they grown it is amazing how quick they grow would highly recommend xx
Kids love this present.They have a lot of exciting when Caterpillar changing to cocoon and hatchet.
This is brilliant. Will defiantly use again next year. The kids loved it. Great to show them the whole process. Easy to clean and away for next year.
Bought this for my granddaughter’s 4th birthday and she was so excited when she opened it, as they had one at her nursery and had been learning all about butterflies.
Her caterpillars have arrived and are busy growing. Nell watches them every day and is fascinated, to the point where mum and dad are going to get more! Definitely a great present choice.
This was a birthday request for our 7 yr old granddaughter and she absolutely loved watching all the stages in the metamorphosis! All 5 caterpillars survived and emerged as butterflies. Watching them, as they ‘charged up’ in warmth outside and eating before the top was opened itself was brilliant. Seeing them fly away was too – one flew to some cherry blossom on the lawn, sucked up nectar, then flew off!
My 5 year old son absolutely loved watching these grow from Caterpillar to pupae and finally into butterfly’s! Absolutely fantastic idea to see children learn to care for animals at such a young age
4 stars as the caterpillars have to be ordered after getting this and it’s a joykill for a 4 year old.
They are not arriving till after the beginning of May.
I ordered it for a friend’s daughter and had to them order the caterpillars separately.
Just be aware and you won’t be disappointed.
This is an excellent gift for someone who loves nature. Doesn’t have to be a child either lol. It’s fascinating to see process. My grandson was delighted with it and will be releasing the butterflies today or tomorrow depending on the weather. Personally, I can’t wait to see them gain their freedom. I would recommend anyone to buy such a fascinating gift.
Every was perfect the instructions the service my kids are learning and want to learn more about nature thanks to Insect Lore. As a parent you have to be very patient with kids and ask them to breathe and be gentle with the little ones, it is an amazing learning experience
We love this! Myself and my children are fascinated watching the caterpillars change, it’s just amazing! The caterpillars aren’t in the box you get a voucher in to order them, yiu do have to pay postage on them think it was 2.99 but very easy process and they soon came!
Just be aware that the caterpillars are not included and you will have to order them using a voucher inside the pack. This will cost another 2.99 so the butterfly garden is a pricey considering it’s just a bit of net!
I ordered this in the summer, the kids absolutely loved following the transition of the caterpillars to butterflies.
The package was cheaper to order on amazon than on the insectlore website.
Although bear in mind this set does not come with the caterpillars. You receive a voucher to redeem on the insectlore website and they will send you out the catepillars in roughly a week. We got ours in 4 days. They also come with a guarantee, that I think if at least 3 don’t make it to butterflies they will send you out more.
It took about 10 days before they turned into crysalis’s and another week before they hatched into butterflies. We fed them sugar water and fruit , they particularly liked juicy fruit such as orange, mango, plums. We kept them for 3 days as butterflies then released them, which was an enjoyable sight.
A tip is if you want to take photos holding the butterflies. I would recommend doing this within the first day of them hatching. As their wings are still gaining strength so they do not fly away when handled or don’t fly very far. That way you can get some fab pics!
Overall Would I order this again? As much as the kids and I loved it, no I wouldn’t. I knew when ordering this, that the caterpillars come in a jar. I didn’t realise how awfully messy the jar would look betime they were fully grown. I understand they are in the jars to increase the results of them all making it as butterflies. But I feel it is wrong to have them in these living conditions. They eat, sleep in the food they eat and the feaces they drop. The jar also smelt shocking when we opened the jar to put the chrysalis’s in the net. So I don’t agree with a jar being their habitat. I would much rather collect caterpillars in a big box, with leaves and recreate their natural habitat and let nature takes its course.
This butterfly garden is amazing.
I brought this for my daughters birthday as she loves butterflies.
You receive the net and then you order the caterpillars when you are ready with a code. After ordering the caterpillars they arrive within 2-3 days and they live inside the little pot until they turn into a crystallise and then you put them into the net.
This was such a fascinating experience for my daughters aged 6 and 9.
Once hatched we fed them on fruit, flowers and the sugar solution provided.
After about 3 days we let the butterflies go in the garden and it was so magical watching them fly off.
You can then reuse the net the following year and just buy the caterpillars.
* Highly recommended *
So this product is for the plastic and net pop up Butterfly home and a voucher for some caterpillars. You have to pay postage on the voucher at 2.99 but the caterpillars are free so take that into account When buying this.
So the caterpillars took about 3 weeks to arrive from when I submitted the request. They came in a box with some butterfly sugar and a crystallises holder.
We had them on the 4th July and the first one ‘hatched’ if that’s the word, on 26th July. My son and daughter have loved watching them and are now obsessed with seeing them eating and flying. They will be sad when we send them off into the big wide world tommorow!!
So why 4 stars. I do like the fact you can do this again and again with the butterfly net thingy but really you need to make sure you get a butterfly feeder as I’ve resorted to tissues on a plate with oranges nearby! In addition to do it again it will cost 11.99 plus 2.99 postage – expensive. So what I’ve got is a tiny pop up laundry basket left!!!
When you buy this product you only get the butterfly habitat, instructions and a voucher code from insect lore website to purchase the caterpillars, which are sent to you separately live in the post, once you receive them you are good to start.
All contents are reusable and you have a guarantee if the caterpillars do not become butterflies.
We were fortunate that all our caterpillars became butterflies and the kids were able to let them go into the garden.
Definitely would recommend for all ages.
Everything went exactly how the instructions and guides predicted. Even when I received emails informing me that the caterpillars should form a chrysalis now, the next day they did. When I received the email telling me the butterflies should emerge now and what I need to do next, etc…the next day they emerged! My 5 year old daughter loved watching all this. We released them after a few days and it was wonderful because they sat on my daughters have for a while before flying away. The real magic happened TWO days later when one came back! It literally just landed on my little girl and never left her for well over an hour until we had to leave it. Amazing experience for my little girl. Best money I ever spe
Great product but didn’t realise I’d have to order the Caterpillar box separately and pay further for it and that it would be a whole month before they can send out! Disappointed kids!
ote: you do not get the caterpillars with this product, you order with a small additional cost once your product has arrived. Well worth the money and wait for the caterpillars (not a long wait as they came a week before estimated). Clear instructions on how to care and release once butterflies. I will be doing these yearly with my kids. I forgot to keep the tub, as i just threw it out, so would be worth keeping if you decide to order more.
You need to order caterpillars separately, so the net it’s quite pricey for what it is. Although you can use it again. In general it was an amazing experience for my son to watch how beautiful butterflies emerged and transformed from little larvae
The caterpillar garden was delivered promptly but I was disappointed that on submission of the voucher to have to wait four weeks for the first available delivery date of the live caterpillars. Disappointing as this was a present for early June. Will have to wait and see how they get on once the caterpillars have arrived.
It’s not cheap when you factor in postage (including for subsequent caterpillars dispatch) but this was such a fun learning experience for the kids! Make sure you redeem your included voucher to order your caterpillars as soon as it arrives as it can take a few weeks for them to come in peak season. We had 5 healthy caterpillars and 4 healthy butterflies. Unfortunately despite cleaning the chrysalis carefully the 5th butterfly seemed to get his bottom stuck which may have been what then led to deformed wings. We followed instructions and after releasing the other 4 kept him safe and fed but after a few days he passed away. Very sad but I suppose another good life lesson.
I bought this for my 5 year old and when I say he loved being able to watch the transformation..
Watching all of the caterpillars change into butterflies was an amazing learning experience for my son and was very hands on.
Once this comes you have to them order the butterflies which heads up can take a few weeks for them to be dispatched then a few days to arrive. Other than the wait this was an amazing kit and will definitely purchase again.
We are having an amazing time watching these caterpillars grow. They are currently in the chrysalis phase. My children are 4 and 2. My 4 year old is getting the most out of it. We draw what they look like every few days and have drawn up the pasta butterfly cycle (have a look on google images). It’s been a really exciting month watching them grow. You get updates from the company around the time they should change with a reminder on what to do but it’s all in the little book you get with the kit. It’s fab. I love it!
I can’t rate this product highly enough! We ordered during lockdown, it arrived promptly with very step by step instructions and information to answerany questionsyou may have. It’s been a fascinating journey watching the tiny caterpillars grow so fast and turn into chrysalis’s. We are waiting for them to hatch but have 5 beautifully formed chrysalis’s. This kit does not include the caterpillars with it but inside is a voucher so you can order them online for an additional small fee and you can select the date they are dispatched. Would highly recommend this kit for any age as I’ve enjoyed it as much as my 7 year old.
The kids and I love this. Our caterpillars are growing beautifully and are days away from forming into chrysalids. It’s a wonderful thing to watch. The tub is a fine size for the caterpillars to grow in and there’s plenty of food for them to munch on.
I’ve noticed people moaning about the caterpillars not coming with the pack. It’s clearly stated on the box (and the image of the box) that you get a voucher code which you then have to use to send away for the caterpillars. Yes there is an additional price, which is a bit cheeky, given you’re paying nearly 20 for essentially a net – The least they could include is the plastic butterfly feeder (which costs 1.49 to buy, but charges you 6 something in postage!) So value for money isn’t good and has knocked my rating down a bit.
Again people complaining about their caterpillars dying. Unfortunately that’s just luck and no one can foresee that. I’m afraid you’ll just have to try again and use the experience as an educational tool.
So overall:
PROS-
-The net is lovely
-Our caterpillars are thriving so far (have prepared the kids for the next stage and that theres a possibility of things not going to plan.)
-Fantastic educational tool
-Net can be reused
CONS-
-Value for money could be a lot better.
-The postage price of over 6 for a 1.47 butterfly feeder is outrageous. – The feeder isnt necessary, but certainly makes feeding the butterflies easier.
Bought this for my daughter as schools have now closed due to the corona virus and I thought it would be something fun and educational for us both. The butterfly farm arrived quickly with the vouchers to order the caterpillars – ordered the caterpillars and they came within a few days which I thought was very good considering the circumstances. The caterpillars come with all the food they need to turn into butterflies. We are currently still in caterpillar stage but enjoying checking them every day – they are literally doubling in size during the day!
Lovely! Arrived a day early, I ended up using the voucher when I got the Butterfly kit first and ended up with two cups when purchasing one so that’s 10 little babies to look after. They arrived safely and are all alive and well. Day four and already, they are growing and are looking good and healthy.
Highly recommend this to anyone, it’s great for times when you can’t go out and buy a pet. they sit on my bedside table safely and make great temporary pets.
ADVICE: Do not put them on the window in direct sunlight, or else the caterpillars will turn red and may die, that’s what I have learned so that’s out of the way. So far, they are all active and eating the lovely mush provided for them.
This is a perfect activity to do this time of the year especially round this crucial time when it’s hard for the world to do anything in this state. I am so buying again some time.
Grandson vvery pleased with his butterfly garden. Full report will depend on receipt of painted lady caterpillars and then if they can be grown into butterflies. Price initially should say you have to pay when sending for the caterpillars in march
This is the second time I have purchased one of these kits. This time it was for my 5 year old daughter who was excited to get started. As stated in the description you receive a voucher in the box to redeem 5 live caterpillars which are sent by post (at a small extra cost).
I have to say the quality of the butterfly net has gone downhill since the first time I bought one around 5 years earlier. The zip kept catching on the material which resulted in the zip breaking when transferring the chrysalis to to the net, meaning we had to throw it away when the butterflies emerged.
My son has asked for one of these ever since they had one at school (& posted the results on their blog). We now have 5 happy healthy caterpillars, kids love it. I thought they might get a bit freaked as they’re not normally into creepy crawlies but now they’re all wanting to pet them. They are very easy to take care of, no butterflies as of yet but shouldn’t be long as they are getting quite big now 🙂 . I also went onto the insect lore website where they have a range of bugs & crawlies like stick insects, ants, worms & silk moths (where hoping to try them next) & lots of information about all of them & extras you can buy.
I can not recommend this enough!! Quick delivery then using the voucher I ordered cup of caterpillars, which you actually get to pick a dispatch date for which was fantastic as it was for my sons birthday. Cup came, with 5 tiny caterpillars, they guarantee at least 3 will hatch into butterflies and all 5 of ours did!!! Can’t wait to order another cup of caterpillars and do it all again!!
The only negative thing that I would say is that I found that turning the jar lids on their sides and then slitting them into a cardboard stand quite difficult. At least 4 of our cacoons dropped off. The cardboard stand seemed a bit flimsy too. Having said that the net / cage was big enough for 10 butterflies and feeding them was quite easy. I would recommend for children so long as there is adult supervision. The children will need to understand that there is a couple of weeks where nothing much happens between the caterpillars going into their cocoons and the butterflies emerging. Overall this is a better product than I was expecting.
Bought as a gift for grandson who was almost 11 and hoped they’d hatch on his birthday, only missed by a couple of days. His Mum was as fascinated as he was watching the transformation. Would definitely buy again. Plus you can keep the kit and order more eggs, which is on the cards. Down side was having to open the package to retrieve the voucher, but hey ho, bit of sellotape sorted that ou
Comes with a voucher and order on-line with code – just pay p&p. The illustration on Amazon showed the price for postage in $US – fear not they come from UK with pounds sterling. It’s good to use their website for guidance though quick start instructions are included. I wanted to take lid off when the beasties arrived – a no no! Grandson very happy and all going well though when the caterpillars arrived they did a good impersonation of dead things. Fear not – they ok.
Brought this as a educational tool for my daughter who loves butterflies after buying one for my niece and nephew years ago.
The kit and instructions are great and easy to follow.
I ordered the caterpillars and they were delivered but just popped outside our door, no ring on the door and only noticed as I was putting something in my car.
Anyway I opened the box and thought they were dead but they were ok, Out of the 5 caterpillars that arrived only 3 survived to form chrysalis’s and have now hatched and will release soon.
The only thing I would say is that to order more caterpillars in order to use the kit again it is quite expensive for the chance of not all of them survive.
I bought this for my three year old grandson whose favourite story is the Hungry Caterpillar. He was enthralled watching the caterpillars and luckily was with me when they changed into cocoons. I thought the pot was too small as the caterpillars seemed to struggle finding their own space but a week later one by one beautiful butterflies emerged and when we set them free one of them sat on my grandsons hand with open wings for ages before flying off. Totally magical. The whole family got a lot out of the experience. You do need to be around so don’t buy them if your going away.
Acquiring the caterpillars was very simple.. Just enter the code online and pay a small delivery fee… The caterpillars come through the post but can’t fit through the letterbox (I didn’t tell my elderly neighbours what was in the box when I collected it!).
The caterpillars come in a little plastic cup and they’re really small and I questioned why I thought I wouldn’t like them. They were placed on the mantlepiece. They don’t stay small. They grow into big fat hairy horrid caterpillars that were always in eyeline…I had images of the pot being knocked over and them escaping and crawling all over me. Thankfully that didn’t happen.
They became crystallises with 4 of the 5 hanging from the lid. I was going nowhere near them even in this state so my husband did the transfer to the net cage. I’d been warned that when you try and move any on the floor they wiggle so I didn’t watch that bit but what I wasn’t ready for was the noise the hanging ones made.. They kind of wiggle up and down creating a banging noise on the plastic lid… It was like something out of a horror film.
About a week later however we have 5 lovely butterflies (1 with a slightly damaged wing) and the caterpillar phase is nearly forgotten.
Even with my hatred of caterpillars this set is fascinating. The 3 year old has loved it too.. Waking to each morning and checking if they’d ‘hatched’ yet…a really great prese
If you are after the whole kit I have come to realise that this item if the net only which includes a voucher to purchase the caterpillars in the jar for 2.99. I had a kit at my nursery which I thought this was. If you are after the whole kit which includes a large box containing the caterpillars, food flower tray, stickers, log, wind up toy and net then you are better off ordering directly from insectlore.co.uk. Also if this is for a present (as was this for my sons birthday) make sure you order in plenty of time! You can select a date you would like them to dispatch which is good. Sadly my son won’t get these on time even tho I ordered this with prime delivery, having to redeem the voucher meant I only had two delivery option dates which were on and past my sons birthday.
The whole process of the lifecycle is AMAZING though and I highly recommend getting these for any child (or adult). I thoroughly enjoyed watching these little friends growing and changing every day in my nursery class.
Brought this first for myself to do, then based on how successful it was brought it again for my 4 year old niece to try. Both of us, needless to say, are huge fans, even though I never had a problem, but my niece discovered a rather poorly butterfly that unfortunately didn’t survive but the others flew away happy, and my niece took the loss remarkably well and helped teach her an important but difficult life lesson. Will definitely purchase again for future nieces and nephews as well as myself!
Bought for our seven year olds birthday. The caterpillars are shipped to you separately via the voucher inside the box, you pay postage
It was a fascinating journey seeing the transformation and the whole family took great delight in the process. Watching the caterpillars grow, changing to chrysalis and then into butterflies! The last stage you have to be watchful for. We missed it, you could see the wings pattern forming inside then pop, it was out. The children were very good about releasing them and took great delight in the fact that they sat on their hands for a while. A really educational present which I would happily repeat!
We ordered the eggs from the address on the kit ( extra charge) and had such fun watching these beautiful creatures change from caterpillars to Chysalids and then into glorious butterflies. Because we were going on holiday we took them with us to our holiday cottage in Gloucestershire and released them (with the head gardeners permission) in a beautiful walled flower garden. They stayed around long enough for us to take a million photos and we almost had tears in our eyes as they moved into their new environment. Will do it again next year.
Please note on this amazon order you won’t get your caterpillars delivered. You need to spend an addition 3.00 to order it.
It comes in a small jar with food and 5 caterpillars. We had read quite a few reviews saying not all of them survived. When I said this my daughter she instantaneously said ” mumma no wonder they didn’t, as it’s a cramped space”. Children are just amazing:-).
Day 3, the jar was covered in their poo and silk around it. We transferred them into a bigger box. A couple of weeks ….Hooray all of them survived and became beautiful butterflies.
I would highly recommend this. Thank you amazon.
We are spreading the word and hoping more people will apply to be ‘Foster Parents’ and watch their butterflies go through all the growing and nurturing progress will give them as much pleasure we have had. INSECT LORE ‘ROCKS’!!! Thank you so much.
We lost the packaging including the voucher for caterpillars (admittedly totally our own fault) but when we contacted Insect Lore they refused to replace the voucher and in effect we had to pay virtually the total price all over again in order to obtain the caterpillars.
Whilst in my opinion I thought at the time that was poor customer service, I also should report that when the delivery of caterpillars then went astray (through no fault of Insect Lore) they contacted me to check what had gone wrong and arranged a second delivery at no additional cost. That I thought was exceptionally good customer service.
Update 3: Day 23. They’re mating. We have two pairs. One’s a loner.
Update 2: Day 20. They have now emerged, and all are well. Lovely creatures.
Update: Day 10: They’ve now all turned into chrysalides speckled with golden dots. One fell off the cap after a frantic wiggle when I moved them, but is snuggling in a corner, nice and healthy. The other four seem to be calmer. You can still see one of them in the video wiggling, though. Be very gentle with them, so they don’t go into defence mode like that.
I ordered this hoping my daughter would have butterflies on her birthday. When they arrived, they were so tiny that I thought it’s too late, but in only a week they grew as big as you can see in the picture, and all five of them seem healthy and strong. I also got some 3D stickers when I ordered the larvae. Can’t wait to see her face when she sees all these butterflies!
Brilliant idea, lovely watching the transformations, but works out very expensive for a 7 day project. there is a charge for postage and packaging and refill pots thereafter which is is OK but would of hoped refill be a bit cheaper to experience time and time again, I have bought a refill but don’t intend to make it a regular purchase like I would have done. However I would encourage the experience is not to be missed.
This is a wonderful gift and children are much more likely to remember with fondness a natural wildlife experience like this, rather than a toy. It is easy to keep the net for an annual butterfly project too, and it’s always magical to see them emerge.
1. Read all of the literature and view videos beforehand, and then read it all again. In fact, read a few books about insects in general, they are ace! Seriously, you need to not be in a position where the caterpillars turn up and you’re scrambling around looking for the leaflet which somehow has disappeared from the box. Also you don’t want to look like a bumbling amateur in front of kiddies.
2. Don’t leave the care of vulnerable darling insects to kids. This all needs the care and dedication of an adult, and if you’re not wringing your hands in anxiety over the fate of these tiny creatures at least twice a day you’re not putting the time in.
3. Put a stiff tray under the butterfly enclosure to keep it stable when you move it around. It is a flimsy net and the bottom warps, resulting in pupae rolling around on the floor unless you put the entire thing on a hard surface.
4. Load up your cardboard chrysalis stand with a few dried peas to give it some weight and mechanical hardness, otherwise the card tends to fatigue and your carefully balanced cup lid laden with chrysalids ends up falling flat onto the enclosure floor.
5. Don’t pin the chrysalis cup lid to the side of the netting. Opening and closing the zip on the lid results in the entire enclosure warping or shaking and flinging your precious animals around. Use the chrysalis holder, or blue-tack the holder to the ground leaning against the net.
6. Put a paper towel or tissue at the bottom of the enclosure – that meconium gets everywhere!
7. If you see any traces of mould in the substrate in your cup of caterpillars while they are still in the feeding up stage, carefully remove the lid after scaring the larvae onto the bottom of the cup, and scoop out any mould with a plastic spoon. This mould will spread really quickly because of the low ventilation and high humidity of the cup, and kill the caterpillars. The caterpillar food is meant to be sterile when it arrives but the hatchlings themselves may have spores on them which can grow into a big mould problem.
8. Don’t remove any chrysalides that you think are dead. They probably aren’t. Just put them on the floor of the enclosure and leave them alone. If they make it, great, if they don’t, it’s the circle of liiiife.
9. Don’t bother keeping the butterflies and feeding them on nectar (a heaped teaspoon of sugar in 100 ml of water soaked into tissues on a saucer) for longer than a day or two, unless they are not healthy enough to survive in the wild and you might get a kick out of keeping them. They really prefer being outdoors and risk damaging wings if they are kept in the enclosure for a long time, and they get nectar all over themselves and it’s terrifying to watch.
10. I have made this sound like a difficult, harrowing and thankless task. It is actually not hard, and is incredibly rewarding to witness a miraculous natural event with your kids, Enjoy!
Although it would have been nice to buy and get the butterflies right away the process was fairly straight forward and easy and the growing was a lovely experience for me and my daughter. We documented our journey and as a home educating parent found this project very educational and something to remember at the end my daughter was sad to let them go but egar to grow again although we haven’t purchased yet it’s not something I’m ruling out as it was so fun watching the transformation true enclosure was sold and sad for the butterflies and roomy I thought it was too small initially but I suppose they should be released soon after birthing so it’s not meant to be so large as they should be free.
We were very lucky with the weather the day we released them + whilst 4 of them took off straigh away one of them sat on my son’s hand for a while and spend another couple of hours on our flowers.
You can really see the changes on a daily basis – our children (2 + 4) really enjoyed it but i think I was the most excited – what a truly fantastic experience!!
The caterpillars don’t come in the box. You get a certificate which you post away and you’ve to pay a couple of quid more on postage which is a bit annoying. Just worth noting if you’re buying for a gift you should open it and apply for the caterpillars too or you could have some very excited and impatient children on your hands!
But great for adults and children alike. I’ll continue to buy these yearly as I love watching them on my desk and they are super easy.
It was well packaged and you could purchase caterpillars direct. However we had a new annual plant in our garden which I sowed from seed and it literally had hundreds of caterpillars on it. So I caught a few and set up my experiment.
I must say my two girls 3&2 yrs were interested all for 5 seconds. However I was hooked. It was easy to replace the food source for the caterpillars. Just collected more leaves from the plant in the garden and replaced every day.
After around a week they morphed into butterflies. It was mesmerising. I was so happy when I could release the butterflies. I will be growing more plants next year to get even more
Bought for my daughters 5th birthday, and she (and my husband and I) have been captivated right from the start. Read the leaflet, answers all your questions!
You get the kit and then send off for the caterpillars. They can take up to a week to arrive, but it’s fine. If you want them straight away, open the box,l before giving as a gift, send off for he caterpillars and await their arrival! (My daughter didn’t mind waiting)
Just watching the tiny little ‘pillars growing at a fast rate was amazing, and they just attached themselves to the ceiling so very excited to see the next stage and move them to the net
My 5 year old was caring and asked a lot of nice questions about this, very good summer holiday project!
Our 5 caterpillars are growing amazingly quickly! I got this for my 4 year old who loves the hungry caterpillar. I thought it would be nice to watch it happen in real. Sent off for my caterpillars online and they came on the day I selected. They come in a jar with food and you don’t interfere until they become chrysalises but it’s so fascinating to watch them. Every day we get up they look loads bigger. All 5 alive and wriggling. I admit I am slightly more enthusiastic than my daughter but she does look with me every day. I can’t wait to see the transformation into butterflies and happy that we will be releasing them and adding to the population as I haven’t seen many painted ladies this year. A really great gift!
Incredible product, great value for money. Bought this for our daughter’s 7th birthday and have since bought a number as presents as something a little different and for our daughter’s classroom. The kit arrived quickly and was well packaged. The caterpillars were easy to order online (with this kit you only pay for postage and packaging of caterpillars) and you can choose from given dispatch days.
All of the caterpillars formed cocoons and eventually hatched into butterflies. Our children loved watching the life cycle, watching the caterpillars grow and eventually feeding the butterflies. When you’re finished with the butterfly garden, it’s very easy to clean in warm soapy water (as recommended in the instructions), it dries quickly and folds back down to enable you to put it all back in the box, ready for next time.
In the instruction/information leaflet it does say to cover surfaces of furniture as the butterflies can leave a mess when emerging. This is great advice as they do
leave a red residue. We just used 2 layers of paper towel underneath the garden and it was fine. Easily cleaned up and no damage to the unit it was sitting on.
I would definitely recommend this product to any parent. It’s a fabulous learning experience. Opens up lots of conversations and makes the children more aware of what’s going on in the world outside their door. Our children are constantly watching for butterflies and
Keeping an eye out for cocoons. We are all looking forward to repeating this again next year!
This was a lovely little buy. Watching the caterpillars grow each day and then waiting for the transformation. Weeks of excitment and heart warming to see them released. I’ve also given these as birthday gifts to my children’s friends and they have all been equally as thrilled. The only problem was delivery, not time specific of when they will come. My first batch got delivered to a neighbour who stored them (unknowingly) upside down all day. At first I thought they had all died, but were fine and starting moving after 2 days. Labelling on packaging could inform of “live cargo” and “this way up” to ensure more care when in transport.
Bought this for our daughters 5th birthday. The caterpillars arrived inside a pot with food. We then enjoyed watching them grow and munch their way through all of the food! They then turned into crysallis at the top of the pit. We had a little trouble transferring the paper into the netting since the paper wouldn’t come away from the lid. We left them attached to the lid in the end and it worked fine. After about 7 days they hatched and we had a couple of days watching the beautiful butterflies before setting them free.
It was a lovely gift that we all got a lot out off. Be aware that you need to pay 2.99 p&p for the caterpillars and make sure you time getting the caterpillars well, you don’t want them to be hatching without you there to see it and feed the butterflies.
Unfortunately the first lot of caterpillars we had didn’t do so well, with only one becoming a butterfly and the others dying within a week…. HOWEVER, in the box of caterpillars you get a caterpillar garantee, that says they garantee a minimum of 3 out of the 5 will become butterflies. Super easy to redeem, just sent off the cup containing the ‘bodies’ and recieved new ones within a week…. that did so much better and all 5 have since emerged.
My 4 year old found the whole process simply amazing and I’m suprised at how quickly they emerge… I missed it everytime despite checking constantly once the first had appeared. Have since watched videos of painted lady butterflies emerging with my daughter and the process is about 3 minutes long so no wonder I kept missing it… If you want to see them emerge be very vigilant!
Great gift for kids of all ages, daddy and I enjoyed it as much as our daughter did!
After buying for a friend’s little girl as a birthday present, we got such rave reviews that I’ve bought for my own children (aged 5 and 2) as well as just about every other friend of the same age! The butterfly garden is such a great idea – children can watch the life cycle of a butterfly as teeny little caterpillars morph into much bigger caterpillars, encase themselves in chrysalides and finally emerge as butterflies. It’s safe, clean, easy to order and look after the caterpillars and a wonderfully fun educational tool. We’ve had 3 lots of caterpillars in the habitat this summer and they are as interested in it as the first time. Highly recommended.
Really great & educational was looking for a birthday present me & my daughter could do together & learn something instead of just buying toys , she saw this on TV & asked for it. It was great but you have to order the caterpillars when you get the box with the habitat I didn’t know this at first. Really easy to understand my daughters only just turned 3 and she knew to be gentle and how to help look after the caterpillars and butterfly’s. They changed really quickly the whole thing took about 3 weeks we released them today 2 died sadly but 3 were released one went really quick the other 2 took hours to come out I lifted them out on a flower my daughter held it and the butterfly went onto her hand which made her day!!
Great activity will Definetley do it again!! 🙂
Good price for this product. We used one last year and bought this one as a gift. In the box is a voucher for five caterpillars which you use by going on the Insect Lore website and registering the code. You pay 2.99 on their site and can choose when you want your caterpillars dispatching to you. We loved watching our caterpillars grow and all five did turn into butterflies so 100% success rate! Releasing them was a special moment and my little one was delighted when one of them landed on her before flying off – precious moment. Would highly recommend this product. We’ve already ordered our caterpillars again for this year!
Enjoyed the process as much as my 4 years son, it was recommended by his teacher as he is more into the living creature explorer. the only issue is that they should process the voucher for the caterpillars faster as we waited around 5 working days until it arrives, I can’t say it the end of the world but, with an eager explorer waiting for his own butterfly growing kit it was a bit of disappointment (for him not me as I can accept the fact of the need to ship the caterpillars safely)
Great kit recommended for any child as they’ll be impressed and appreciated better how creature can grow and change.
Amazing item to have, you can exchange the coupon inside online or through the post and pay the 2 something for p+p.
Our item arrived quickly although needed to wait a while to use it because it was for an Easter gift for our children. Once the caterpillars arrived we tracked their progress and took photos by writing a diary etc.
We were very lucky that all 5 caterpillars changed into butterflies and when the time was right to let them go we opened the enclosure expecting em to shoot off out….but they didn’t! It took a short while for them to elope and one of them needed much coaxing for it to leave its home to find another.
It was a great buy and our children loved it!!
First off, I never expected so much educational value out of this. Me and the kids have learnt so much about nature from this. It was also a great starting point that led to a lot of other personal research. We had one butterfly that emerged with deformed wings – sort of like reverse wing formation – basically one of its forewings grew under the hindwing instead of above it, so the butterfly could not fly well and the wings don’t fold nicely when it’s at rest. That was not due to us as we followed the instructions to remove frass and webbing very carefully. Also the strong pee smell that hits when we opened the container to remove the chrysalides. And feeding them, letting them climb on our hands, etc. All good fun. Certainly helped some of us get over the fear of allowing insects to crawl on us. For the money this really can’t be beaten on value. We really loved doing this. It helped us develop a better understanding and appreciation of wildlife and nature. Textbooks and storybooks explaining metamorphosis are not enough. I recommend this kit especially to those with children. We might order another batch in fact.
This arrived the next day!
Once received you need to go online using the code on the voucher in the box to pick a date from selected dates on which the caterpillars will be dispatched from the supplier.I picked a Tuesday for dispatch and the caterpillars arrived on the Thursday in a tub within a very small cardboard box so you do need to make sure you are in for delivery as they need to be opened asap.
I received 5 tiny caterpillars, which grew very quickly over the space of just under two weeks. It was fascinating to watch as my Daughter and I saw one change/mature right in front of us from a little black caterpillar into a black and white spotty, spikey one!!
It took about two weeks for the caterpillars to climb to the top of the tub and form chrysalis, about a day or two later we attached the paper they had attached themselves to in the habitat. It then took about 4 or 5 days for the butterflies to emerge.
The weather was a bit touch and go for the few days ahead so we decided to let them go 2 days after they had all emerged when the weather was at its best to give them the best chance of survival.
Overall I would say it was a brilliant, fascinating and educational experience and I would definitely recommend!!!
I ordered this for my son’s birthday which is at the end of September and I’m abroad, and hadn’t read the bumpf about the caterpillars being separate so it was lucky I opened up the box to have a look and check everything was ok, and then discovered they had to be ordered separately. Even luckier I have managed to book a despatch date of the 16th September as close to his birthday as possible, as that was the last date of despatch! I could have had a very upset little boy. It is completely my fault as I hadn’t read any reviews or instructions and just presumed. By the time they arrive they will probably be quite well grown as it takes about a week for post to get here :o/ I am really looking forward to seeing his reaction though as he loves all bugs and we usually grow silk worms that aren’t quite so pretty when they hatch.
I bought this product for my little girl, they came in the little transparent tub with the tiny caterpillars in, which eat their way to a fat wiggidygrub which then turn into ‘crysaliscts*’ *Phonetic spelling maybe poorly attempted,
After weeks of hanging there they ‘give birth to themselves’, but during this time, my little girl was on a school trip, so the excitement was purely for me, now its a fantastic thing…now shortly after they spouted an turned into butterflys I came into a little bit of money an wanted to hand my notice into work…WHAT BETTER WAY THAN BUTTERFLY DELIVERY!, but after training them from a very young age, I have learnt that A4 or A5 notes are too heavy for them to carry and in order for them to carry something…it needs to be a few of them…this is far to time consuming and just aswell because I lost my money on the dogs and actually needed to keep my job if I wanted to continue to eat and live my life.
All in all, Butterflys are quiet good….just not ‘messenger’ good.
I got this for my daughter as she loves animals but we can’t get her a pet at the moment. Sounds like a poor substitute for a dog but it was worth doing because she loved watching the caterpillars grow (and they grew very quickly) and then transform into chrysalis and then butterflies (although we missed them coming out of their chrysalis :-(). They come in a little tub (we got 5 caterpillars) they have all the food and moisture they need in the tub so no care needed, they just take care of themselves. We got a magnifying glass out at one point and studied them more closely, a bit freaky but also fascinating. When we released them they sat on our hands for ages before flying off. Great to share their lifecycle with my daughter and then release them knowing we’re also helping the environment. A little warning that you get a voucher for your butterflies but it’s extra for postage. You can order more butterflies if you want to.
Since my first son was three, I have been getting the caterpillars (the refills after the first year) as we all enjoy watching the cycle and then releasing the butterflies. However, at the reduced price I bought this package for it seems sensible to buy the whole package from scratch again to have a fresh butterfly garden. I have done this for the last two years rather than just buy the refills. I would certainly recommend the butterfly garden as both my boys (now 8 & 3) get loads out of the whole experience EVERY year. I will be buying the product for years to come. The butterflies settle on us when we release them and we get to look at the butterflies close up. The caterpillars come as really tiny creatures and we get to watch them grow into hairy beasts. It is fascinating for them and me.
A really educational experience recommended to all.
This was an amazing experience, watching the little caterpillars get bigger every day then suspend themselves and form their chrysalids and eventually emerging as beautiful butterflies. It really is one of the most amazing transformations in nature. The kit made it so easy as the caterpillars have everything they need to grow. Feeding the butterflies was easy. Releasing the butterflies was beautiful, they needed a little coaxing as they’d only exercised their wings in the habitat and so to help them with their first flight was really special, we had to gently put our fingers in front of them so they could climb on and be lifted up then they needed a little time to warm themselves from our body heat before they took off for their first flight and how satisfying it was to see them take off, knowing you’d been a part of their journey. I definitely recommend this experience to anyone of any age, your love for these amazing creatures will grow. Best to order them before September and they need to be released somewhere where there are lots of flowers.
Bought this for both myself and my 5 year old son.
You need to send off for the live caterpillars and pay postage. I did it online and paid through paypal. You select a despatch date that suits you best so that you have an idea when they should arrive. (Tue or a Fri despatch.) I choose a Tuesday and they arrived by royal mail on the Sat.
It seems like the caterpillars double in size every day and are fun to watch. It took 3-4 weeks from the day our caterpillars arrived to the day we released them.
All 5 butterflies were released happy and healthy. They only guarantee 3.
Very pleased with this product and have kept everything so that we can order more ext year.
I don’t usually bother with reviews but had to with this one. It is brilliant! We got the pack really quickly which contains the net, pipette for future feeding of butterflies and instructions with a code that you can either post off or ideally enter online to then arrange for the dispatch of the live caterpillars. These cost me 2.99 for the postage and packing. The retail price of this item seems to be 15-20 so Amazon is the cheapest place to buy that I could find.
The caterpillars have food in the cup which is sealed and basically you just watch them eat and grow and grow until one day they all decide to craw to the top of the cup and hang upside down. Ours took about 8 days to go through this process. It is amazing to then see the transformation from caterpillar to chrysalides. I have only ever seen it on tv but this beats that by far. We then had to transfer the disk in the cup with the chrysalides hanging from them and pin it into the butterfly net.
We have been watching them every day but they have been a lightish colour until this morning.
I went down for breakfast and noticed that they were really dark and then suddenly one of them started to open and my 6 yr old son and I were very lucky to see a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis. It was great. A further three hatched out shortly after which we missed and then we just caught the fifth one emerging a couple of hours later.
We now have five beautiful butterflies which we have admired all afternoon, supplied with the water/sugar solution recommended in the instruction leaflet and given them some fruit. We are going to enjoy them for a couple of days before we release them into the garden.
Very educational for young children and we have actually taken photographs of each stage as a little record for his scrapbook. Great idea for a school project too.
This is a wonderful product, especially for my younger generation. Even though other people have said that its a waste of money because you have to pay an extra charge to receive the caterpillars. However, it’s clearly stated that this is the case, and the 11.25 paid for this kit, includes the caterpillars. This is a really good value kit because if you want to buy more caterpillars as a refill, it’s 9.99, which shows how much money you’re saving, or that the net is only worth 2.00, which is highly unlikely!
I will be recommending this to my friends and family! It arrived 4 days before the estimated delivery date! I’ll be recommending this to my friends, and have already told my family all about it!
Thanks for the product amazon!
My daughter saved her pocket money for this after doing it at school, so we went ahead and purchased it. It arrived this morning. The leaflet inside has a special code that you enter either by post (with 2.99 to cover the shipping of the caterpillar larvae) or you can also enter it online and pay via paypal, which I did. It was VERY quick and easy, I can only assume that some people have been very unfortunate and have received USA stock by mistake, or that the newer stock is all UK butterfly garden boxes.
Anyway, I have paid the fee and eagerly await the caterpillars being despatched. You can only pick from a limited list of delivery dates so be prepared to wait at least a week or more for your caterpillars to arrive. ALSO – if you want to do this, eggs are ONLY AVAILABLE in the spring and summer months so be sure you order this item at the right time otherwise it will be useless until the next butterfly season!
The box only contains the butterfly net/house, a feeding pipette, and instruction booklet, as well as your unique code to redeem the caterpillars.
THIS IS MADE ABUNDANTLY CLEAR! I cannot understand the bad reviews from those intellectually challenged people who seem to think LIVE animals can be kept indefinitely on a shelf until they are sold. Caterpillars life cycle takes about 5 weeks so they would be dead and gone before the kits were sold! Of course they charge a handling fee to get you fresh larvae sent out. If people cant comprehend this basic fact, maybe they don’t have the requisite intelligence to be explaining life cycles to a child. Don’t be disappointed to find NO LIVE INSECTS in your kit! Sheeeesh! (eye roll)….
I will update this reviews when the larvae arrive!
27/07/13 – caterpillars arrived today. They are about 1cm long, black and hairy, and are in a small clear plastic cup with a lid and a cardboard sleeve that can be rotated around the cup to view the caterpillars. Already there are some silk like threads being spun at the bottom of the cup. Four of the caterpillars are very active and can clearly be seen crawling about and eating the thick jelly stuff at the bottom of the cup. The fifth caterpillar is alive but quite inactive and has not moved much. Some have even ventured to the underside of the cup lid.
31/07/13 – all five caterpillars are still alive, though the slow/inert one is still lying at the bottom of the cup not having moved much. They have more than trebled in size since they arrived, the largest one is now about 2.5 – 3cm long. The inside of the cup looks a bit gross now with all the caterpillar waste product (frass) and shed skins. since last night alone they are noticeably fatter; it’s amazing just how fast they grow, there can be a marked difference between day and night. In this warmer weather the process is, according to the booklet, much faster. I’m expecting the chrysalis’s to start forming over the next few days. At this point I’m hoping for 5 successful butterflies!
02/08/13 – 4 of the caterpillars are now hanging from the lid of the cup, one seems to be a bit more ahead of the others as it has already formed somewhat of a thick cocoon over itself, the others just look like they are hanging there. The fifth caterpillar is making its way to the top of the cup. I hope they all form cocoons at the same time as I don’t know what to do if some have not and some have, as the instructions say you should not open the lid until all are hanging from the top (you can introduce bacteria etc into their environment otherwise). Exciting!
05/08/13 – All five caterpillars made it into the cocoon stage, but one was hanging not from the lid but from another cocoon. We opened the lid as per instructions and cleaned away the silk strands and debris (this apparently can cause the butterflies to become entangled and have deformed wings if you don’t do this). The cocoon that was hanging from another cocoon, we have detached and laid on a paper towel at the bottom of the enclosure. The instructions say this is okay and it should still hatch out. We are now to wait for the cocoons to turn a very dark colour, and the butterflies are suppose to hatch the same day! This stage was quite yucky if I’m honest and may gross out a sensitive child, as there were ‘bits’ of old caterpillar skin and what looks like blood (its just ‘meconium’ according the booklet!). We now wait expectantly for our butterflies!
It is interesting to note that the cocoons were shaking quite violently on their own as we were doing this, apparently this is a defence mechanism! Very strange to see.
12/08/13 – First butterfly hatched out yesterday morning. We missed the actual event but it was sitting at the bottom of the enclosure. Have put fresh cut oranges and peaches in the net, as well as some fresh flowers sprayed with ‘nectar’ (sugar water) as per instructions. The second butterfly hatched this afternoon, and a third looks like it is about to emerge. We have taken lots of pictures. Two down, three to go!
13/08/13 – Two hatched out yesterday afternoon after writing my update. We actually caught the second one on video emerging from its cocoon – you have to be fast because once it starts, it’s out in about 5 seconds, it is not the slow process you might imagine! We were very lucky to catch it. A fair amount of red ‘blood’ drips from their back ends once emerged, so put your habitat on some newspaper.
This morning we released all four butterflies as the fifth one was not hatched yet. We got some lovely pictures – they are happy to sit on your fingers etc as you place them on the plants. My daughter was a bit teary for a while but after explaining that her new friends needed to be free to see the world etc and that they would come back and visit her if they could, she felt a bit better. The fifth butterfly hatched in the last two hours, so he will be released this afternoon, as I feel they should not be kept in the net any longer then necessary.
In summary this has been an amazing experience for both adult and child. The whole process from receiving larvae to releasing the butterflies took 17 days. I highly recommend this item, we are already thinking about doing it again next summer!
This was one of the best things we have done – our granddaughter, a few months off 3 yrs old, followed the progress of the caterpillars through to the hatched butterflies. We put the butterfly garden net into her ball pit [also net with a large opening in the top], then opened the butterfly home. One by one the butterflies came onto her hand and she stood up carefully and held out her hand for them to fly away. We have the most beautiful photographs and the expression on her face is an absolute joy. Educational? Yes, of course, but so much more than that. A lovely memory for her that she would tell anyone about who had the time to listen. Thank you
This is our second Live butterfly garden. Once you receive the netting and a voucher for the larvae it takes about a week to receive the shipment(weather permitting). They used to make the netting twice as long but this shorter one is much more practical! We received 5 larva and 4 survived to butterfly stage. The 5th one was so little and never seemed to grow so we waited as long as we dared before opening the jar and transferring the chrysalis to the netting. One day later the butterflies started hatching out and the 5th little one never did make it. We enjoyed letting the butterflies loose on our backyard butterfly bush and had a wonderful time watching them feed. We will purchase the refill again next year!
The pop up garden arrived in a couple of days and after a quick order was placed on the computer to order the caterpillars, they soon followed. They were so small when they arrived but to our amazement soon grew into big eating machines. Only a few days later they were crystalis and five days later and the first two of five have just hatched. They are beautiful close up and the kids really enjoyed making up sugar water for them. My partner is a child minder and the kids are really engaged by the transformation but typically they hatched on a weekend so they missed the emerging. Just hope there are a couple left for them to watch emerge on monday. Easy to follow instructions and really compact habitat make it a rewarding, hassle free experience for the kids[with supervision]. Clean and odourless, they are ideal. Releasing them in a couple of days with the kids help.
We live in the city and finding af caterpillar or even a butterfly here is impossible, so I ordered the Butterfly Garden. Today we have released our own five butterflies, my daughter and her friend, five years, changed their clothes to look pretty for the special event. The butterflies flew away and that was the end of five weeks of family fun. It is just basically fascinating to watch the caterpillars transformation, and we might do it again this summer. Even our son of 1 1/2 year has had his fun watching the animals.
The gear is fine, plastic – nothing special, but it works great and the box has fine descriptions of that to do and what is happening to tell the kids. And our caterpillars arrived in good condition by mail.
Firstly I’ll mention that you don’t get your caterpillars straight away. You receive a net tent and a VOUCHER with a code, that you either send of by post or register online. This is to ensure that you will be home to receive your caterpillars. I ordered mine online and selected a date on a calendar, about a week away.
We all loved watching these little caterpillars grow and develop. You get five caterpillars and company guarantee that three will develop. Luckily all of ours did, although one fell on the floor (in the jar) early on in the chrysalis stage and didn’t develop properly, his legs and wings were curled and it couldn’t fly, poor thing!
They didn’t seem to want to feed on the cut up orange, melon or sugar water that we provided but in five days after developing into butterflies we let them go and it was very satisfying. I was concerned about keeping them in the tent for too long as we couldn’t let them go after three days (as advised) as it was raining, but everything was fine in the end. I hope. My son loved holding them and getting to know them before saying goodbye and watching them fly away (well, two kept flapping to the floor and got stuck in the grass but flew upwards in the end!).
The one that didn’t develop properly we kept at home and looked after it until it died, about four days after the others were released. Plenty to talk about and lots of learning opportunities to be had by all and we’ll do it again next year, definitely!
It took about 4 weeks, from caterpillars to butterflies. It varies though, 3-5 weeks. Also, search for Insectlore – painted lady butterflies videos on Youtube.
I bought this for my 5 year old as he loves nature, especially insects. I was initially put off by the fact you receive an empty pop up tent and just a coupon for your money but it’s very straightforward sending off the voucher and doesn’t cost much more in postage and packaging. I hadn’t looked at the photos on Amazon of what to expect at the different stages so it was a lovely surprise for my son to receive a pot with tiny caterpillars inside. It was all very neat and self contained with the food at the bottom. We couldn’t believe how big they grew and how quick the process was. The pot did begin to fill up with their waste! Not so tidy anymore.
It was truly amazing when they crawled up to the paper lid and hung themselves upside down. They just went very still and you could literally see them changing into chrysalids. Unbelievable. We’re now excitedly waiting for them to hatch out as butterflies. It’s so thrilling. I would recommend this gift for anyone, not just children. It’s fantastic!
I bought this directly from Amazon as the seller and no issues with getting US vouchers for the caterpillars.
Postage to send off for them was 2.50, so no unreasonable. If you were giving as a present, could always include the cash for it as well.
Caterpillars arrived promptly after choosing the dispatch date. They grew a few mm every day for about two weeks before pupating, so interesting to watch even for children with short attention spans. 10 days after they cocooned themselves in, we’ve had all five butterflies hatch over the preriod of two days. My child was absolutely fascinated by watching them hatch out (as were all the adults watching :-)).
We’ll be keeping the enclosure and getting a caterpillar refill again next year.
Thoroughly recommend this.
The kit, as it turned out was a terrible Christmas present . The kit itself was perfect – a lovely brightly coloured pop up habitat with a zip opening and mesh sides, through which you could see your butterflies. Although caterpillars were not included in the kit itself , they were included in the price – you simply had to send off the voucher at the bottom of the instruction leaflet, and you’d receive the caterpillars in the post. Nope, the kit was lovely, no doubt about it , but it was upon reading the instructions that I realised I wouldn’t be able to actually get my caterpillars until late February at the earliest, since they need a nice warmish temperature in which to grow, evolve, and hopefully be released. Clearly this was bad timing on my part, and after a cursory glance, my daughter put this kit in the back of her wardrobe, disgusted that her evil mummy had purchased her a gift that was, for the time being, useless.
However, in early march, we remembered about the kit . I filled in and sent off the form for my caterpillars, and received them through my door in about a week. I was better organised this time round – I’d read the instructions thoroughly, and knew that it could be anywhere between 3-5 weeks before the caterpillars were released, so I’d ensured we had no plans to go away. They came in a cardboard box that had the words ‘Open Immediately’ stamped across it, and not being one to ignore simple instructions, I ensured that we did .
Inside was a clear plastic pot, slightly larger than a yoghurt pot, with a white lid that had air holes punctured in it to allow the caterpillars to breathe. There is a label on the top telling you what kind of caterpillars they are (painted lady) and the bottom of the pot has a thick beige layer – this is the caterpillars food. There is also a cardboard sleeve you can pop round the cup that has holes cut in for viewing.
You don’t need to do anything with the caterpillars at this point – simply observe. When we first got them, they were tiny, and actually didn’t seem to really do much at all . However, within four or five days we started to notice that these little monsters were growing at a very rapid rate.They went from tiny, soft squidgy looking things to huge spiky caterpillars, and they seemed to grow even as we watched . The smooth beige disk of food at the bottom of the cup soon became churned up, with bits of it spread all over the container.
After another couple of days, we started seeing silk thread beginning to cross the cup. We knew that soon the caterpillars would be turning into chrysalides, so we decided at this point to decorate our habitat a little, adding in some dry twigs, some stones, and a little moss. Soon the caterpillars had all moved to the top of the pot, and were hanging upside down fully encased in their cocoons. We watched as , over the course of a few days, these became glossy and hard – an indication that they were ready to be moved from their cup into the hatching habitat . This was easily done, we simply removed the disk from the lid of the cup, and pinned it carefully to the mesh sides of the habitat .
Sadly, we did not actually see any of the butterflies hatch – we simply woke up one morning, and instead of hanging upside down by their bums, there were three butterflies clinging to the sides of the cage. At this point we needed to start providing them with some food – we opted for some sliced banana and apple, and a couple of wet leaves, but the leaflet offers a good number of suggestions . With three having hatched behind our backs, we were really keen to at least see one of the other two emerge, but they chose to be just as sneaky, emerging whilst we were having a meal out .
They didn’t really do a lot at first – they seemed to just hang onto the sides of the habitat, with their wings closed, which was a shame as we wanted to see the pretty colours . However, these do live for three to five weeks, so there was no hurry to immediately release them, and after a few days they became a little more active, spreading their wings more so we could look at them, and feeding more. The habitat was easily portable so long as we were gentle, and I did find that taking the habitat outside so they could feel the breeze did stir them into action a little.
After about a week of observation, we decided to release them out into the wild – it was quite emotional really watching them all fly away . However,we still have the habitat itself, which is excellent for observing all manner of insects and is currently housing a couple of spiders. I think this is a brilliant educational toy that will interest children for a long time, and that can be used in conjunction with other activities – for example, I think this toy would work brilliantly alongside a reading of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ for younger children, but would also work equally well for slightly older children studying minibeasts at school.
The kit costs 14.99 from amazon.co.uk and includes 5 caterpillars. Refill packs of caterpillars can also be purchased, costing 7.60.
I think this is a brilliant toy – just don’t do as I did and buy it as a present at a time when it can’t actually be used!
Arrived on time but the boxes were a little bashed around as they were sent in a bag with no protective packing, which was a shame as one was for a gift and it looked second hand with crumpled corners etc, thankfully the receiver is to young to care what the box looks likes. I would have returned it had it not been for the fact that I didnt have time. We have not used these yet though as we will wait for the spring time, but I’m hopeful they will bring interest and smiles all round. I bought one for my nephews 4th birthday he LOVE nature so this was a hit and another for my boys aged 9 and 2, everyone seems really excited to send away for the eggs so hope we receive them ok. Also looked at companies that sell eggs so hopefully we can reuse the habitat plenty of times. Great educational item to watch the development cycle of a butterfly, suitable and interesting for all ages, including myself (30)! Seems a good choice for boys and girls, and as the eggs hatch and develop over 3 weeks then there is good value for money too. Not many items, games or toys keep interest for longer than a day sometimes it seems! I got these reduced at under 7 each and I am quite glad as the extra few pounds to send for the eggs seems a bit cheeky. Anyway all round I really do rate this. Only given it 4 stars due to the shoddy packaging and not the product.
I purchased this after a recommendation from a friend at work. There are other companies but it is obvious with other reviews that Insect Lore is superior. The “garden” arrived quickly and is a pop up tent and is as described. I do not think it is over priced as the money for the caterpillars and the subsequent development that you watch is priceless!! I had read other reviews so I knew that the caterpillars would need separate ordering. For 2.50 this is an entirely reasonable price. The caterpillars are self contained and eat the food in the jar that they come in. There is a coupon but this can be redeemed online with a credit card payment. This was simple and allowed me to choose an exact date of arrival. As it turned out, the delivery went to my neighbour. The caterpillars were tiny and do not move much so I was worried they were dead but they grow SO quickly. The instructions are good but it is useful to watch the Insect Lore video on You tube which shows you what will happen. Currently our caterpillars are in the pupae stage and the butterflies are expected any day now. I am not worried as Insect Lore guarantees that at least 3 will survive. My 3 year old daughter LOVES it. The caterpillars are in the garden in her bedroom and she has watched them develop. A must for children who love the hungry caterpillar books. I think it is approaching the end of the butterfly season so anyone ordering may not get the caterpillars for some time so this could be a factor for birthday gifts etc. If ordering as a present, must open to get the voucher and order the caterpillars ahead of any event. Highly recommended and will be ordering more next year!
This is one of the best things I have ever bought for my daughter. Be aware that once you receive the kit, you will have to send off or apply online for your pot of five caterpillars plus their food, at an extra cost of 2-3 to cover postage, but then, you’re away. The caterpillars grow at an amazing rate, turning into chrysalids after about 10-14 days. After another 10 days or so, the butterflies emerge.
My daughter managed to drop the caterpillar pot a couple of times, but they were remarkably resilient; we even took the brave step of letting her take the ‘garden’ into school, as she missed seeing four of the five butterflies emerging from their chrysalid state, but all was fine. We released all five butterflies two days ago and unanimously agreed that we will definitely do this again. It was fun, educational and culminates in helping to increase the butterfly population, which is amazing.
Got this for my daughter who saw the endless adverts and also having it in school. Amazon is by far the cheapest place I found and decided to get it. You have a pop up enclosure to keep the butterflies in, a full set of detailed instructions on caring for your butterflies, a feeder pipette and a coupon for caterpillars. As this does not come with caterpillars, you have to either send away for them or order them online and en enter the special code that came with this product. The caterpillars were sent out on a Friday and arrived Saturday.
The small tiny caterpillars looked like a black grain of rice onto of a brown solid mass, but over the time they grew and grew into large fat caterpillars, eating virtually all of the food. Once they make their way to the top of the container, they hang upside down and start to cocoon. It is this time that you move them from the container to the pop up container and pin the disc to the side. There they will hatch into butterflies for you to feed and study for a few days before freeing.
The container then folds flat to be used again next time and caterpillars can be purchased from the company for twelve pounds or so, which is virtually what this unit costs plus the P&P for the little creatures, so maybe I will give the unit to someone else and buy a new one as it may be cheaper.
Overall, a good little buy but does seem expensive for what you actually get.
I think I have enjoyed watching this more than my children but I have been fascinated from the day the caterpillars arrived to today when they emerged as butterflies. I did delay putting the children to bed one night so we could see a caterpillar turn into a chrysalis as it was imminent!! The best bit was watching the butterflies emerge today. I had to video it so my 5 year old could see it when she got home from school. I’ve just got to hope the weather is warm enough to release them in a couple of days. I have told so many people about this as we have loved it so much My daughter’s teacher is looking into getting some for her class now.
I used this as a basis for my Year 5 & 6s work on life cycles in science. Even though life cycle of a butterfly is a KS1 task the pupils loved this resource and the caterpillars were a great ‘distraction’ during silent reading (!) :-/
This resource brought the life cycles unit of work to life and motivated the children in preparation for their project work in which they had to research their favourite animal’s life cycle and present back to the class.
The parcel arrived very quickly and inside was a comprehensive information booklet which included colouring-in & dot-to-dot activities, as well as a coupon for your caterpillars which you have to send off/complete online. The caterpillars arrived quickly, but BEWARE of where you get the little ones delivered – you must ensure the box is upright and opened immediately to allow the animals to over heat/suffocate.
The caterpillars arrive in a cup with some food and are so small they are barely visible, but they grow extremely quickly and turn into chrysalids in approximately 2 weeks. They stay as chrysalids for another two weeks and then hatch. The hatching process is extremely fast; I tried catching it on video camera and missed 2 because it all happened so rapidly!
A fantastic product, a great resource and reusable too! You just send off for the caterpillars next time you want to have another go!
When my 11 year old daughter gets it into her head that she wants to buy something, then that’s it. So she saved and bought the Butterfly Garden. We sent off for the caterpillars and they arrived really quickly too. The tiny little caterpillars ate and ate and ate the food that is supplied in the pot with them, and got bigger and bigger until they were great big fat things.
After a couple of weeks the first of the five caterpillars “cocooned”, and within another day or two, so had the rest. We transferred them to the “Butterfly Garden”, and waited patiently. Just a couple of days ago the first hatched out into a beautiful butterfly, followed by another later in the day and then the final three yesterday.
And yesterday we released them in our garden. They weren’t in any hurry to fly away and we were able to watch them for ages on the bushes, knowing that just a few weeks before they were just tiny little caterpillars. For the kids to see them go through the whole process was fascinating, and they’re looking forward to getting more caterpillars next year.
While this set may seem a bit expensive at first sight, it’s been fascinating for the kids (and us adults) and to see the kids faces as the butterflies were released, and to see the butterflies going off into the wild….well, it’s priceless.
I would definitely recommend the InsectLore Butterfly Garden.
Just a couple of notes to add to the many reviews. Firstly our caterpillars definately looked dead when they turned up. Expect very small black things that hardly move at all. They soon came to life after a couple of days and my they can eat! Secondly, our butterflies didnt eat at all once hatched. Despite our best attempts they all more or less stayed in the same spot with their wings up. After a few days of virtually no movement I took them out into the sunshine and they really livened up. I dont know if its a fact that they need the sun to energise them but it certainly worked for us. We ceased the moment and set them free. This is a great gift for anyone.
The baby (tiny,tiny) little caterpillars arrived through the normal post in a cardboard box and were packed in a plastic tub with a couple centimetres of what looked like fudge. We did need to be in as the box wouldn’t have fitted through the letterbox. Basically you keep the plastic carton somewhere fairly warm (consistent temperature) and watch the five babies you get (3 are guaranteed to hatch into butterflies)eat the fudge, poo and get very fat. The caterpillars- are not cute little green ones but brown sluglike ones – my older daughters thought they looked revolting but my son loved them and couldn’t wait for them to cocoon.
One caterpillar was a lot smaller than the others so we hadn’t high hopes for his survival. After about a week the caterpillars cocooned- they climb to the top of the carton where there is a piece of filter paper and they attach upside down by a little thread and cocoon themselves. My son loved this – but you do have to be a little gentle and not shake the jar and disturb them at this point.
Once they have all cocooned (one of ours only half cocooned and the little one managed it three days after the others)you transfer the paper disc to your pop up “garden”, safety pinning it to the side gently. You can decorate the garden with twigs and leaves and flowers and wait for the butterflies to emerge. We didn’t actually manage to see any of the butterflies emerge, but all four did. They left a slightly alarming red stain all along the side of the container when they emerged – which again my older kids thought was just disgusting . Once hatched your child can have fun making a sugar and water syrup for the butterflies to eat or providing them with cut oranges. They can use the pipette to put sugar syrup on the flowers and leaves they have decorated the garden with and watch them flutter around for a few days before you decide to release them.
My son had a lovely time with this set and took many photos during his caterpillars development.
I thought for what you got the kit was overpriced, but my son did really like it. It would be great for a school group or sibling group too – although you do have to make sure that you book the caterpillars to arrive when you will be at home and not on holiday like a friend did!
The kit contains a colourful pop-up enclosure with a feeding pipette and a coded voucher to redeem for a couple of quid for 4 or 5 tiny caterpillars. They can’t put live caterpillars in the box of course. The voucher must either be sent by post or the code used on the Insect Lore website. I went for the web option used PayPal and effortlessly received the caterpillars within 2 days. You are sent a small clear plastic jar with half a cm of some kind of fatty substance at the bottom. The caterpillars remain in the jar (it has tiny air holes) eating away at the fatty food and growing at an incredible pace into large, black hairy ones. No additional feeding is necessary whilst in the jar and the lid must remain tight until they form chrysalises and hang from the paper that is on the underside of the sealed lid. Then, the paper from which they all dangle must be carefully removed with them attached and pinned into the enclosure and left undisturbed until they hatch into butterflies. Place in some flowers from the garden and a bit of orange, banana or other fruit, drip some sugar water via the pipette and they’ll be very happy indeed. Three days later, release into the outside provided the weather is warm.
The kids were fascinated by the whole process, ran downstairs in the mornings to see the progress and took delight in observing nature so closely. I totally recommend this for any kids say aged 4+. You’ll be happy to see the pleasure they get from it and somewhat chuffed as a parent (or relative) to have bought something unusual and educational.
And don’t worry if the caterpillars hardly move or even stay completely still for some time – that’s normal. They probably need all the rest they can get – as butterflies they will cover over 3,000 miles in the 5 weeks they live!