Caterpillars - Who Has Grown Them?

[e.j.]

When my own kids were young, they would catch caterpillars in the yard and put them in a large, cleaned out peanut butter or applesauce plastic jar with holes punched in the lid. They'd include a stick for them to climb on and leaves for them to eat which would be replace daily or every other day. I have to admit that as much I hate bugs, I loved watching the process of changing into butterflies.

We'd also scoop tadpoles from a local pond and put them into an aquarium in our breezeway. The water had to be replaced every day to keep it from getting to dirty and smelly but watching the tadpoles become adult frogs was also interesting.

[Baby Beluga]

I love hearing the positive experience everyone has had with this. This is my first time and I was worried it would be difficult or the caterpillars would die or not transform. My kit arrives tomorrow and I am so super excited.

We can order the kit any time, then order the chrysalises when.....? I live in northeastern U.S. and it's still cold here.
I should do these this year. It does sound like fun.

The kits I looked at mentioned ordering when the weather is above 40 and below 85. Some kits come with caterpillars and others come with a certificate where you can order the kit first and the caterpillars later. Mine is *supposed* to come with the caterpillars, but there was conflicting info on that so we shall see.

We'd also scoop tadpoles from a local pond and put them into an aquarium in our breezeway. The water had to be replaced every day to keep it from getting to dirty and smelly but watching the tadpoles become adult frogs was also interesting.

That sounds neat!

[Play Care]

We can order the kit any time, then order the chrysalises when.....? I live in northeastern U.S. and it's still cold here.
I should do these this year. It does sound like fun.

I seem to recall when we did ours that they would only ship the caterpillars during the warmer months. I'll have to see if I still have that information.

It was pretty cool!

[Ariana]

Yes, I think the site said 15. That's a lot! Ha. I could start a butterfly empire.

Very cool, though. I really want to do this. Got to wait until it warms up, though.

LOL! gues who just ordered 15?

I'm hoping to share some with my neighbor!

[Baby Beluga]

LOL! gues who just ordered 15?

I'm hoping to share some with my neighbor!

I got 10 I was afraid some would be DOA so wanted extra just in case.

And, they came today!! The kids are SO excited. As am I.

[Ariana]

I got 10 I was afraid some would be DOA so wanted extra just in case.

And, they came today!! The kids are SO excited. As am I.

Yay! Hope you enjoy it! Which kind did you order? I got the painted lady, the monarchs were not available.

Mine get shipped mid may and with the snow and cold we are getting here the past few days it is kind of a good thing!

[Baby Beluga]

LOL! gues who just ordered 15?

I'm hoping to share some with my neighbor!

Yay! Hope you enjoy it! Which kind did you order? I got the painted lady, the monarchs were not available.

Mine get shipped mid may and with the snow and cold we are getting here the past few days it is kind of a good thing!

I also got the painted lady. I am amazed how much they have grown in just 24 hours. Even DH noticed the difference.

http://www.amazon.com/Original-Butterfly-Garden-with-Voucher/dp/B00000ISC5/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1460168653&sr=1-2&keywords=butterfly+kit

[KiddieCahoots]

Have done this and it's a blast! Says the science/outdoor nut....or just the Tom boy reliving her childhood experiences through the kids in care
Check out the butterflies that are native to your area.
Have Swallow tail butterflies native to my area. They eat parsley. We plant parsley as one part of our curriculum, then attract the Swallow tail butterflies with the parsley to lay eggs and so forth.....
We do it every yr

[Baby Beluga]

Have done this and it's a blast! Says the science/outdoor nut....or just the Tom boy reliving her childhood experiences through the kids in care
Check out the butterflies that are native to your area.
Have Swallow tail butterflies native to my area. They eat parsley. We plant parsley as one part of our curriculum, then attract the Swallow tail butterflies with the parsley to lay eggs and so forth.....
We do it every yr

That's a wonderful idea and would make a great extension to this project. Off to do some googling

[Unregistered]

Have done this and it's a blast! Says the science/outdoor nut....or just the Tom boy reliving her childhood experiences through the kids in care
Check out the butterflies that are native to your area.
Have Swallow tail butterflies native to my area. They eat parsley. We plant parsley as one part of our curriculum, then attract the Swallow tail butterflies with the parsley to lay eggs and so forth.....
We do it every yr

We do monarchs every year. Milkweed grows like a weed You can find it everywhere. The eggs are usually on the underside of the leaf.
We will have to try planting parsley. We get yellow swallowtails here but they lay eggs on lots of different plants, right? Can you tell me what the eggs look like, size, shape, color, etc?

[Luvnmykidz]

We did this last year. The kids enjoyed it. We sliced oranges and they were able to stick small slices in the butterfly garden for the butterflies. We read books about them and they watched them and drew pictures daily. One of the caterpillars had a bent wing and one of the kids pointed out that they are different just like people and some may need more help than others. We took a field trip to an open field at the local park in our neighborhood to release them. Each child was able to help do something and there were no tears at the end. We will do it again this year.

[KiddieCahoots]

We do monarchs every year. Milkweed grows like a weed You can find it everywhere. The eggs are usually on the underside of the leaf.
We will have to try planting parsley. We get yellow swallowtails here but they lay eggs on lots of different plants, right? Can you tell me what the eggs look like, size, shape, color, etc?

It's really hard to see the eggs. Like you mentioned, they are usually on the underside of the leave, but as you know, parsley leaves are very small and vast. What I usually see is the caterpillar. They are very bright green with yellow, white and black stripes. Those you can see very clearly, even when they are small

[Unregistered]

It's really hard to see the eggs. Like you mentioned, they are usually on the underside of the leave, but as you know, parsley leaves are very small and vast. What I usually see is the caterpillar. They are very bright green with yellow, white and black stripes. Those you can see very clearly, even when they are small

Thank you! I would love to have swallowtails as well as monarchs. Interesting how similar the caterpillars are - but no bright green for monarch caterpillars.
So when you plant parsley, do you have caterpillars every year? We watch the nearby patches of milkweed and every time we see a monarch hovering near it, there are eggs. We raise dozens every year. No crying at release here - maybe because the kids have watched releases their whole lives.

[KiddieCahoots]

Thank you! I would love to have swallowtails as well as monarchs. Interesting how similar the caterpillars are - but no bright green for monarch caterpillars.
So when you plant parsley, do you have caterpillars every year? We watch the nearby patches of milkweed and every time we see a monarch hovering near it, there are eggs. We raise dozens every year. No crying at release here - maybe because the kids have watched releases their whole lives.

Np We try it every yr but don't always get them. When the parsley grows in early and becomes dense quickly is when we attract them the most. Good Luck!