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Butterfly Rearing

Butterfly Rearing

Raising butterfly caterpillars by providing them with food and shelter until they transform into adults is both educational and enjoyable. Rearing them provides an opportunity for close observation of the life cycle of butterflies. Various butterfly rearing kits are available in our store and at the websites listed below. You can begin with eggs found on the butterfly food plant. Place the leaves with eggs on them into a large wide-mouth jar or other container with the food plant. You can also start with caterpillars rather than eggs, if you collect them from plant leaves or tree branches. Make sure you have adequate fresh food growing nearby for your hungry caterpillars! Punch small holes in the jar lid, or cover the top with a fine screen mesh held on with a rubber band. Keep a damp paper towel in the container. Frequently clean the cage of frass (droppings). Replace the food plants as necessary, when the leaves have been eaten or turn dry. As the newly hatched caterpillars grow, they will need plenty of food and space. Never place too many caterpillars in a single container. Put in some twigs for the caterpillars to climb on when they begin to pupate. The transformation of a frequently ugly or bizarre caterpillar into an elegant butterfly - is truly one of the regularly performed miracles of Nature. Be sure to watch each stage of butterfly development carefully. You may observe how the egg changes color before hatching, how the caterpillar eats and moves, and how it changes features and perhaps color as it grows. Check on the pupa often so you can release the adult outside soon after it emerges. If you prefer, you can buy butterfly kits to raise Painted Lady Butterflies from caterpillar to adult. Watch the caterpillar’s transition as it matures, changes into a chrysalid, and finally emerges as a Painted Lady Butterfly! Painted Lady Butterflies are used in these kits because they can be released in any state in the Continental US. Also, an artificial diet comes with the caterpillars for them to completely develop on, where other types of butterflies need live food plants to complete their growth. Butterfly kits can be used to rear butterflies even as winter projects as they come with instructions how to feed adult butterflies without releasing them. Each kit includes a colorful habitat, free certificate for butterfly larvae with special food, feeding kit and complete instructions.

5 yr-old Dwight Smith of Beach Park, Illinois reared Painted Lady Butterflies with a butterfly kit.

Butterfly Rearing Links