Project Butterfly
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We have a little science project going on this month which is growing butterflies! I got my son a kit for Christmas and once the weather warmed up, we sent away for our caterpillars. They arrived about a week ago and it’s been really fascinating to watch them move through their life cycle.
I ordered the kit from amazon.com but it’s made by a company called Insect Lore. The kit came with a coupon to send away for the caterpillars when you are ready. I was able to do this on Insect Lore’s website and saw that you can just order the kit with caterpillars included directly from them. We got our five caterpillars last Wednesday, which came in a little jar with the food and everything set up. You don’t open the jar at all until you are ready to move them to the butterfly house/garden.
The caterpillars were very tiny when they arrived. Gavin promptly named them all and really wanted them to spend the night in his room. We told him that they had to stay on the kitchen counter and not be disturbed. He agreed and checked in on them before and after school
Within a couple of days, the caterpillars tripled in size and were really active. We watched them spin silk and munch on food.
Earlier this week, one of the caterpillars made his way to the top of the jar to start the process of becoming a chrysalid. We are pretty sure it was Spaceboy. When they are ready to transform, they hang upside down.
There is Spaceboy, showing off his skills as a chrysalid.
By Wednesday evening, they were all hanging from the top. Yesterday, I actually watched a couple of them morph into chrysalides. They start to shake, almost like they are seizing. Then they suddenly have a hard casing around them. Pretty cool!
This morning we moved them to the butterfly house/garden. To do this, you just remove the lid which has a paper disc that the chrysalides are hanging from. Carefully, you remove the paper disc with the chrysalides and pin it to the inside wall of the butterfly house. When they are ready, they’ll emerge as beautiful painted butterflies! We are very excited to meet them! There are instructions for feeding the butterflies once they hatch. They like sugar water and flowers. We will likely only keep ours for a few days and then we’ll release them into nature! Painted butterflies only have a 3 month life cycle so they should have the benefit of flying freely.
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3 Responses and Counting...
Cool but kinda gross! Ha sounds like a fun project!
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What a fantastic project for you all! Love it and will look forward to seeing your beautiful butterflies before they zip off into the great big world. I wonder how are your pe roams? And what their native habitat is
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Wow, what a cool gift – I’ll have to add this to my list of gift ideas for all my favorite kiddos! And what a neat process, love Gav’s enthusiasm and that he named each one. Keep us updated on their progress!
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