Insect Lore Cup Caterpillars - 5 Live Painted Lady Caterpillars with Food - Includes Figurines - Refill Kit for Butterfly Garden Habitat - STEM Science Activity for Kids and Classrooms

The caterpillars come in a cup that you are not supposed to open lest their food get moldy or whatever. They spin a web so it quickly gets hard to see clearly to observe them. They grow very quickly and from the time of delivery to emerging as butterflies only took 20 days. It says you can release them unless in certain states. But ours all fly upside down despite following directions carefully and seemingly no issues during development. I even give them my room cleared out and set up to be butterfly friendly(no dangers or places to get stuck etc) to practice and set up a feeding station of various flowers and "nectar" mixes for them. They refused the sugar water mix the instructions told us to make so after a bunch of research I tried a few kinds including the sports drink/water combo and they really seemed to love the orange and blue ones. it's been a week now and they still are having trouble flying. I do keep them in the netted cage(bought separately) when i go to bed lest they get squashed middle of the night, but they have free flying room other than that. Someone suggested it may be because of inter breeding so much that they have development problems of some sort but I can't say for sure as they do not provide any information as to where these caterpillars came from. It has been a phenomenal experience with the kids to watch these wonderful creations God designed. Did you know they pretty much turn into a caterpillar soup in the chrysalis and then reconstruct themselves from that into butterflies? Also glad they warned us about the meconium in instructions. It really does look like blood. The little models of the 4 stages were a huge hit with my little guy. I definitely recommend having this experience, though I would be prepared to care for them their whole several weeks of life in case yours also have trouble flying and cannot be released. Still a fantastic experience to witness

These are a great activity for children to learn about the life cycle of butterflies. We have raised these for 20 years each summer in my home daycare. The kids love watching each stage, today they are hatching, which is very exciting. Arrive quickly and in perfect condition. Typically 4 of the 5 caterpillars make it all the way to butterflies. Sometimes they all do, but on average over the years it has been 4. Be careful when releasing them as birds really like them and having kids see a bird snap one up right in front of them was a little traumatic that year. We always release near flowers so they have a food source right away.

I have been ordering from this company for years and for the first few years we would get a cup of 5 caterpillars that would result in 4-5 butterflies. My daughter loved this experience. However, the last two years we've been getting cups of 5 that only yield 1-2 butterflies and sometimes those butterflies have damaged wings. I'm not sure what has happened in the last few years but my daughter cries so hard when they come out like this and when more than half don't come out anymore. InsectLore does have a 3-5 butterfly guarantee and honors that by sending a new cup if you provide pictures of the results, but my daughter is so sad at this point that we won't be ordering anymore from this company.

I purchase these every year for our kindergarten team, they are always high quality and are delivered in a timely manner. The kids love them!

We have ordered this item three times (once with the full kit with the cage, and twice with the refill only, all from the same company. The first time, all 5 caterpillars successfully matured and transformed into butterflies. The second time, there were 4 caterpillars of the same size, and a 5th that was much smaller, upon arrival. The smaller one mysteriously disappeared one day....likely into the belly of a much larger one...but the rest went on to become butterflies! The 3rd time, 3 were alive, 1 was dead, and 1 was missing. They were much larger this time - they went into the chrysalis stage the same night we received them. (It appeared that the dead one had tried to begin its transformation during the delivery but wasn't able). We have been able to catch the transformation into the chrysalis multiple times, and my 7yo daughter loves it every time. She releases them into our wildflower garden each time, and she enjoys the few minutes she has with each before they fly away. This has been a great experience.

Typically this is a great experience. I have been ordering caterpillars for years and have had no issues. This time, one caterpillar in each cup never got any bigger and i had to release them so they didn't mess with the other 4 that went into their chrysalis. I was expecting that all 8 butterflies would have hatched over the weekend, but when I got to my classroom this morning, it looks like 4 (all on one of the lids) are almost black and i think they died. I have NEVER had this happen and I, along with my class) are really disappointed. Hopefully next year it will be better.

I was skeptical of caterpillars being shipped and surviving to become butterflies. This product exceeded my expectations, all the caterpillars survived! The instructions were easy to understand. My 3 year old daughter and I had a blast watching them go through their transition. She loved setting them free as well. Great activity for toddlers. I will buy more of these and include more neighborhood kids next time.

I ordered 10 caterpillars, however, only 6 out of 10 made it into Chrysalis form and 3 have fell from the top of the lid attempting to latch. Now I have 3 laying on the ground of the habitat and 3 that have managed to properly latch to the lid. Because they took so long to arrive 4 died attempting to chrysalis because the box did not create the still, fragile transport that would have been required for them to latch to the top of the lid of the cup. I am hoping the 6 remaining chrysalises survive and can still hatch properly. My complaint is that they were already out of the caterpillar stage upon arrival. Timing is everything with getting to properly experience this and have it work out.

I thought caterpillars would have been great to see their stages of development. Unfortunately the perishable package was opened by CBSA and the containers with caterpillars were disturbed and they died. I will not reorder.