Insect Lore Raise and Release Butterfly Garden Kit – Caterpillar Habitat with...

This was such a fun project. Great gift idea. Best for ages 5+ better understanding at that age.

This was such a fun project! My kids loved setting up the habitat and watching the caterpillars turn into butterflies. Its well made and a good size for keeping out in the house for children to observe. Having the voucher for the caterpillars makes it worth the price and rice it can be reused, we thought it was a great investment in our children's education and entertainment.

The Live Butterfly Garden by Insect Lore is a fun, hands- on educational experience that is certain to appeal to even the most stubborn, disinterested child. With the Live Butterfly Garden, children get to observe the process of metamorphosis, right before their eyes. Starting with caterpillars, children watch the little critters eat food, create a cocoon, and then transform into fully grown adult butterflies. The butterflies can then be observed in their habitat for a while before setting free. This butterfly garden is great for dozens of reasons, the most obvious of which is the educational value. Reading about insects and metamorphosis is one thing, but seeing the process live is another thing entirely. Kids get to learn how caterpillars/butterflies live, eat, and thrive; how to care for them; etc. They get to observe the caterpillars and butterflies at play and watch the butterflies eat their food, which is provided in the package. The caterpillars that come with the Live Butterfly Garden are painted ladies, which are not very common and will not be recognized by most children. However, most kids won't care- the fun of watching these small caterpillars transform into butterflies will have many kids gazing in awe, and prompt them to ask many questions. This educational toy is a huge hit and my kids loved it, but there were a few small issues. One was waiting for the caterpillars to arrive in the mail. To get the caterpillars, you have to mail in an included certificate, along with a check, and then wait. It seems like an eternity, especially from the perspective of young children, and it took longer than expected. Anther problem was parting with the butterflies. Once you have the caterpillars and they have transformed into adult butterflies, the next problem will be setting them free. Kids will grow attached to their small, winged friends and will not want to let them go. Another minor issue is with the transferring of the caterpillars from their small container- the one you receive in the mail- into the actual habitat. The container that the caterpillars arrive in has a paper area at the top, where the caterpillars will hang as they spin their cocoons. This paper section is fairly easy to remove, but the problem is that the cocoons are very delicately attached, and that means that some will fall off when the transfer is made. You will need to pin this piece of paper to the inside of the butterfly garden, but the kit doesn't include any pins. Safety pins or straight pins work, and it would have been nice if these were included in the kit. Still, when all factors are considered, the Live Butterfly Garden is worth the purchase and young children will enjoy the educational experience. Sure, it could be improved a little bit by making a few minor changes, but this is still a very good toy and considering my kid's fascination with the process, along with the educational value, it earns an easy recommendation.

This was such a fun and educational experiment. I bought it as a present for my child, and she loved watching her caterpillars transform into butterflies. Ordering the caterpillars was easy, and we had a 100% success rate with them completing the transformation. It turned into a wonderful learning experience — she not only got to observe the life cycle firsthand, but also enjoyed releasing the butterflies into her garden when it was time. A perfect mix of fun and education. TL;DR: Easy to use, educational, and fun. 100% success rate with caterpillars turning into butterflies.

After being barraged by the commercials on television, I ordered this Live Butterfly Garden for my son's birthday. First, buyers should understand exactly WHAT you will get in the initial "Live Butterfly Garden" pack: 1. A butterfly habitat "pop-up" tent, which is made of a mesh material on the sides, a plastic lid with a zipper to open on top, and a solid material bottom. 2. A butterfly food "feeder". This is a little plastic dropper. Once your butterflies emerge from their cocoons, you will need to make a mixture of water and sugar to feed them. This kit does not bring food for the butterflies once they have transformed. You will have to make it yourself, which is easy enough. 3. A post-card (mail-in) coupon and an instruction pamphlet. It is important to realize that you will need to mail-in a redemption coupon in order to actually receive the caterpillars. When THIS kit is delivered to your house, it does not have the caterpillars inside the box. You can also call the company (with out waiting to mail in your postcard), or you can go to their online website and place your order. That's what I did - the online ordering system asks you to enter a unique code that comes with your initial kit. There was an additional processing and handling fee of $3.00 that I had to pay for them to ship the actual caterpillars to my house (I live in Florida). One thing that I think ALL people who are thinking about ordering this set should keep in mind is... these are REAL LIVE animals. It makes sense that they would not be able to keep them in a box in some warehouse somewhere until the kit sells. By that time... well, let's just say that the animals inside probably wouldn't make it. So, you get this kit, and then you send away (or call or go online) to request your caterpillars. We did all that. A few weeks later, a TINY little box came. Now, here is where I personally had a little problem. I live in a gated community, and every house has a little metal mail box with a lock & key. Packages that are too big to fit in these boxes are delivered directly to our doors. However, if a package will fit into the little metal mailbox, the postal carrier will leave it there. Well, being a busy Mom, I sometimes do not check my mail EVERY day. It must have been 4 days before it dawned on me... OH! I ordered that butterfly - caterpillar thing! I RAN out to my metal "community" mailbox, and sure enough... there was a tiny box inside. Upon opening the tiny box, I found a little clear plastic container. Inside the container was a bunch of brown stuff (which turned out to be the caterpillar food), tons of brownish looking spider webby stuff, 3 crispy things (cocoons, or chrysalides) and 2 REALLY BIG caterpillars. Shocked and mortified, I called the customer service phone number immediately. I spoke to a nice man who explained that due to the extremely hot summer, the entire life cycle was sped up (during shipping, and no doubt sitting in my mailbox). It turns out that 3 of the caterpillars had already spun themselves into cocoons, and the other two had already eaten and grown to their maximum size. The customer service guy was really nice and he arranged to have another set sent out to me, FREE of charge. He recommended that we schedule it for another time of the year, so we settled on October. This man was so kind; he took the time to answer all of my questions and didn't make me feel like a dope for asking. I'm sure he's had SEVERAL calls like mine... but he was extremely apologetic and sincere. He made me feel better about the whole thing. Well, here I had already called my son to come and look at his new "pets" BEFORE opening the little box. There was no going back. He looked inside, and said "EWE!" He also told me that it did NOT look like it did on the commercials. The food was supposed to be sand - ours was a brown, jelly like goop. There were webs (it was actually silk) all inside and the cocoons were NOT attached to the top (like they were supposed to be). What was I going to do? I decided to keep the little container and follow the instructions. I pretended like nothing was wrong! Maybe we could save the two big caterpillars and still have the experience, I thought to myself. I will not go into any more detail about the wonder of it all - you will just have to get your own kit! I will, however, tell you that ALL of our butterflies hatched! Once they were inside our cool house... nature took its course (we keep the a/c cranked to about 70 all day, and about 65 at night). Maybe the cooler air helped them to survive. It has been in the high 90's here in Florida... probably about 120 degrees in that mailbox! DESPITE the weird start to these little creatures' lives... they really turned out to be an amazing experience. They all came out perfect. Once they had transformed into butterflies, we actually kept them for a few weeks, feeding them a sugar and water "nectar" that we made. The whole thing was messier than I had anticipated. The "pop up" tent definitely needs to be washed out BEFORE the other replacement caterpillars get shipped to us in October. The butterflies secret this red stuff from their bottoms (the instructions stress that this stuff is NOT blood) and it dripped all down the sides of the habitat. The home-made nectar was sticky after a few days and got all over the bottom and the sides of the tent. (I used brown sugar because that was all I had on hand, so I'm sure that didn't help the cleanliness issue.) Depending on the age of the recipient, it can and will make an impact upon young minds. My son is 9... so he was old enough to stick his arm in the tent and feed them (while they fluttered around his hands!) Anyway, that brings me back to my point that these ARE live creatures, little animals. They require CARE and you DO have to feed them. Then there is the issue of feeding them without letting them free in your house. This kit DOES live up to the hype. You just need to be ready for what ever nature throws in your direction! Also, in the event you DO get a "dud", the customer service for this product is top notch. It's well worth the price, and Amazon DOES have the best price around.

Ich habe das Schmetterlingsset sowohl für meinen damals 7jährigen Sohn als auch für meinen 9jährigen Neffen gekauft. Es ist alles im Set super beschrieben. Man muss über den beiliegenden Gutschein per Internet die Raupen bestellen. Und nochmals was bezahlen. Das wußte ich vorher, sodass dies nichts "Überraschendes" war. Die Raupen kamen wohlbehalten bei uns an. Wir haben uns genau an die Vorschriften gehalten und nach einigen Wochen konnten die entwickelten Schmetterlinge in die Freiheit entlassen werden. Die Kinder brauchten dabei immer die Unterstützung der Erwachsenen, was aber ja kein Problem war, denn auch wir Erwachsenen fanden das Projekt spannend! Die Entwicklungsstufen zu sehen, das war schon aufregend! Es ist zauberhaft, so nah dabei zu sein, wenn sich ein fast fertig entwickelter Schmetterling auf ein Stück Banane oder Orange stürzt. Bedenken sollte man, dass sich die Aufzucht schon etwas hinzieht und man sich schon kümmern muss. Also auch an den eigenen Urlaub denken! Und den Kinder muss klar sein, dass sie die Tiere ziemlich schnell, wenn sie fertig entwickelt sind, in die Freiheit entlassen müssen. Das geht dann sehr aprubt. Aber wenn die Kinder das wissen, ist es kein Problem.

Purchased for my granddaughter. She loves it. It’s a great learning tool. Certainly recommend it.

It's a fun and educational experience for everyone. Which I think every child should try. Please remember that Caterpillars are available from March to mid-September only. When you redeem the voucher you will receive 5 caterpilars inside plastic cup with all of the nutritious food they need and necessary equipment. After that you are ready to See an Amazing Transformation. Caterpillars growing really fast and within few days they will be much much bigger and you'll soon see them hang upside down and harden into chrysalides. Move them to the pop-up butterfly habitat Give them few more days and you will enjoy the best moment when they complete the transformation to adult butterflies. When they are ready release them into the wild! The entire transformation from caterpillar to adult butterfly took us about four weeks.

Bellissima esperienza

No estoy satisfecha con el producto. La caja con el kit para las mariposas llegó dentro del tiempo establecido, pero estaba rota. Además, dentro no venían las orugas, sino un cupón para pedirlas directamente Insect Lore; pienso que esta información debería estar mejor detallada en la descripción del producto. Además, con el cupón que me dieron, pedí las orugas hace ya dos semanas y todavía no las he recibido. He contactado directamente con Insect Lore y han sido amables pero no han podido darme más información acerca del estado de mi pedido.