A couple of weeks ago I shared the story of getting a butterfly habitat started in my kitchen. Mr. Flutterby has now flown the coop, so I thought I'd post an update.
I received a Butterfly Bungalow kit from Insect Lore (Compare Prices) and sent away for the 3-5 caterpillars in the mail. They took a couple of weeks to arrive and there were only two caterpillars in the jar... and one wasn't looking so hot.
Well, we were right. The one caterpillar was dead dead dead, but the other one did its thing exactly as we'd hoped. (With my black thumbs I've killed every preschool seedling that ever adorned my windowsill, so we had fingers tightly crossed.) While I was hoping for more specimens, my kids weren't disappointed because I'd repeatedly prepared them for the worst.
I told my 4-year-old, "We may get some caterpillars in the mail and they may die, but they may grow into butterflies! Wouldn't THAT be great?" Seriously managing expectations here.
The caterpillar made its cocoon, though I wouldn't call it "beautiful," (more like "brown"). In a few days, a colorful butterfly emerged. We kept it in the house for 24 hours (again, I was scared to death I'd kill the thing) then released it in our vegetable garden with much ceremony.
I wasn't prepared for the goopy, brown caterpillar food in the bottom of the jar or the cobweb-like material all around the cocoon. I also didn't expect little brown chunks in there. Caterpillar poop? Who knew? So while it was a little bit nastier than I'd expected, my kids were thrilled to have a jar of caterpillar poop in the kitchen.
They loved seeing the butterfly evolve and I was able to whisk it away before it became a kitchen-counter fixture. In all, success! ...and I did better than my friend who forgot she'd ordered the caterpillars and left the package in her hot car for a week!
Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
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