My teacher friend Angie told me she was raising butterflies in her classroom and at home with her kids. I was immediately intrigued. My girl loves butterflies and my son loves bugs, so it seemed to be the perfect mesh of caterpillar and winged-creature to appease them both. In addition to that, my daughter has been begging me for a hamster, a fish, or a unicorn – so I thought I’d get her some butterflies and see how interested she really was in raising something.
I was pretty excited to order my butterfly kit and get started, but I waited until I thought the
weather was going to warm up. Butterflies need it to be 55 degrees or up to survive outside. Insect Lore Live Butterfly Kit was our choice, and caterpillars are also available through the Butterfly Lady, as well as Franklin Park Conservatory during the times when they are doing Blooms and Butterflies.
The Inset Lore kit came with a netted tent used while the insect is in chrysalis form and butterfly form, and a postcard that gave instructions on how to order and care for them in all stages (directions also available online). They don’t want to send caterpillars to people who won’t be home when the little guys arrive in the mail, and also it is important to be home when the butterflies emerge so they can be fed (an orange slice or some sugar water on a flower). The whole process took about three and a half weeks from the time the caterpillars arrived.
Happy day it was in my house when I brought in caterpillars from the mailbox. In a small cup with food were four tiny black caterpillars; I didn’t have to do anything but keep them out of the sun. They doubled in size in about three days. After seven days they were turning into chrysalis, and had to move from the cup to the tent. The kids and I were in heaven checking out the silk they left behind and the details on each chrysalis. We watched as they went through metamorphosis.
Finally, after about ten days a butterfly was sitting in the tent. Then the next day there were two more. The final butterfly happened to emerge while we were watching!
I let them flutter around for a day then felt guilty holding them prisoner. One gorgeous warm day, we let them out of the tent – beautiful Painted Ladies. Of course, Ohio is so nice to us weather-wise that the next day it dropped about 20 degrees and rained. I actually let them go
into sudden death {wiping a tear}. Lesson – be sure the weather is going to hold out when you release them – or don’t order the caterpillars until summer so you know for sure the weather will be warm.
Anyhow, the kids want to order more and I am considering it, but not until June. We also checked out books about butterflies and made a whole educational experience out of it. We read My, Oh My — A Butterfly!: All About Butterflies by Tish Rabe, From Caterpillar To Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman, and Fancy Nacy: Bonjour Butterfly by Jane O’Conner – and a library bag full of others! Giving butterflies is also a terrific gift, as long as you know the person you are giving them to can care for them.
