I recently had some extra time on my hands (story of your life this pandemic season, amirite?!), so I made a spur of the moment Amazon purchase of a Butterfly Growing kit to entertain the kids. I didn’t really know what all that meant until I suddenly found a box of live caterpillars sitting on my front step! 🤣 Luckily I can fill you in on all the details before you get a kit yourself!

Which kit should I purchase?

We purchased this butterfly growing kit from Amazon that included live caterpillars in the initial shipment. Heads up, there are also kits that don’t automatically ship the caterpillars to you, but you get a voucher to order the caterpillars at a later date. If you already have your own insect cage, you could also just order the caterpillars by themselves to save money!

Do I have to touch the caterpillars?

I’m not a bug person by any means, but this kit made it easy and I didn’t have to handle any bugs! You keep the caterpillars in the cup they ship in until they transform. Their food is already in there so you literally just sit back and watch them grow.

Once the caterpillars turn into chrysalides, you open the cup and place the lid vertically in a holder inside the net. Zip up the cage and then sit back and watch until they hatch into butterflies!

We waited about a week until our butterflies were flying around the cage before we released them. It takes a day or so for their wings to completely harden before they can fly.

Make sure the butterflies have enough room to let their wings expand or they won’t form correctly. We had one chrysalis that fell down into our caterpillar cup and that butterfly was stuck in there once it hatched. Unfortunately it’s wing couldn’t fully expand and it hardened all crinkled. Learn from our mistake and don’t leave any chrysalides in the cup!

Feeding and Releasing the Butterflies

After they turn into butterflies and before you release them, you do have to feed your butterflies. It was as easy as placing a few drops of sugar water in the feeder provided in your kit. I also dropped an orange slice down in there for a little extra treat.

It was easy to release the butterflies. The cage collapses so we just opened it up and pushed it down and they all flew away! My 5 year old did pick one up but it quickly took off.

Timeline of Butterfly Growth

Just so you have an idea, here is the timeline of our Butterfly growing:

April 8th: I received the kit after ordering it on March 27th, so heads up it does take some time to arrive. I also read that they will delay shipping if the outside temperature is too cold in your area, since the caterpillars will be unable to survive.

April 17th: chrysalides were hardened enough to be transferred to the cage.

April 25th: We woke up to our first hatched butterfly! The rest followed suit by the end of the next day!

The kit guaranteed at least 3 butterflies would make it, so I was pleasantly surprised that all 5 of ours did!

Educational Opportunity

This was a great opportunity to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly and see it in action. There are lots of worksheets and other resources you can add into this activity to learn even more!

My kids enjoyed it so much that we also got our own ladybug kit as well! Give it a go and let me know in the comments how your family enjoyed it!

If you’re looking for fun outside of your home, check out our recent posts of places to visit that are still open during the pandemic!