My mini tutorial explains you everything you need to learn how to grow butterflies at home, where to buy a butterfly growing kit and what to feed growing caterpillars as you watch them transform into beautiful wild and free butterflies. Painted Lady butterflies feed from over 100 different plants; this makes them incredibly vital pollinators.

Our Butterfly Breeding Kit features caterpillars of the Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui, L), which are native, migrating butterfly, that can fly thousands of miles in search of food. They lay up to 500 eggs and their caterpillars feed on weeds such as nettles, so gardeners don’t need to worry! Once you have released your butterflies, they can often be seen for several days- especially if you have a butterfly friendly garden and feeder. These Butterfly Breeding kits come with everything you need to raise your own Painted Lady butterflies. This educational kit gives children, students and families an unforgettable opportunity to watch caterpillars change into chrysalides and then emerge as beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies. Raise and feed your very own butterflies and then release them into the wild! The entire transformation from caterpillar to adult butterfly takes about three to five weeks. The life cycle of a butterfly is a beautiful example of metamorphosis. The opportunity to grow butterflies is a wonderful gift for nature lovers of all ages. While raising butterflies, kids always get excited to watch their caterpillars grow bigger by the day. Growing butterflies and learning about life cycles helps them connect with our world and engages them with nature. If you don’t want to grow butterflies but have lots in your area, why not encourage the kids to identify and record what they see in a garden butterfly survey with Butterfly Conservation? Attract Butterflies to Your GardenPlease note - Immediately upon receipt of the caterpillars, you will need to distribute the food and caterpillars between the vials, instructions on how to do this are included. If you should receive more than 33 caterpillars, any remaining may stay and develop in the cup they arrived in. This practical experience also fills them with a sense of accomplishment as they get a chance to raise pretty painted ladies from small caterpillars. Taking care of their caterpillars and providing them everything they need to transform also teaches kids about responsibility. Step-by-step Instructions and Helpful Accessories Painted Lady butterflies can cover a lot of ground - up to 100 miles per day during their migration. Painted Lady butterflies can adjust to almost any habitat. They are found in suburban, agricultural, swamp, bog, marsh, tundra, desert, meadow, forest, rainforest and mountain environments. Butterfly growing is literally looking after caterpillars in your house until they transform into butterflies to be released into the wild. Watching the life cycle is amazing.

Caterpillars spin silk using tiny spinnerets located on the lower part of the head. When you see a caterpillar moving its head from side to side, it is usually spinning silk. Cup of 3-5 LIVE caterpillars with food or voucher to redeem for caterpillars (caterpillars available March to mid-September) A butterfly cannot fly or eat immediately after emergence. It needs time to prepare itself for life as a butterfly. The vibrant colors of a butterfly's wings warn predators to stay away. These bright colors signify that the butterfly may taste bitter or may even be poisonous.

A lidded pot arrives in the post, (or box if you buy the full kit), filled with ‘sludge’ (caterpillar food) and 5 or 6 tiny live Painted Lady caterpillars. A friend bought us our butterfly kit and we’ve successfully grown three lots of Painted Lady caterpillars as well as lending the habitat net for friends to use too. Crumpled wings Pop the cup on a safe shelf and watch the caterpillars munching until they become chrysalides hanging from the lid of the cup. It can take a couple of weeks. The below photo is not long after emergence but we missed the actual event! Notice how soft and crumpled the wings are at first. It doesn’t really look like a butterfly. And the red substance isn’t blood but a liquid that comes out during emergence.

It’s a favourite indoor kids nature activity, allowing a truly up-close insight into the fascinating life cycle of butterflies, witnessing metamorphosis in your own home. Wow! Most butterflies prefer to feed on nectar, but others will feed on the juices of rotting fruit or animal dung.The mister helps in creating a gentle mist for your butterflies inside their habitat. The resulting humid environment promotes their growth. You can enjoy feeding sugar water to your butterflies with the help of butterfly feeder. You can also offer them slices of freshly cut fruits. Satisfaction Guaranteed for Nature Lovers The butterfly refill kit comes with detailed instructions to guide you. Growing butterflies will be a child’s play. Caterpillars will take about 3 weeks to grow into butterflies. The instructions cover all the stages of their life cycle and how to take care of them during every stage. Wild wishes that your hungry caterpillars turn into beautiful, brilliant butterflies! Things To Do In The Holidays Cup of 3-5 LIVE caterpillars with all the nutritious food they need to grow into lovable Painted Lady butterflies When a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, its mouth is made up of two separate pieces. The butterfly must "fuse" or "zip" these two parts together to form one tubular proboscis before it is able to eat.

Alternatively, attract butterflies to your own garden by creating a wildlife area with wildflower seeds and pollinator(bee and butterfly)-friendly plants. You don’t need much space – we plant wildflower seeds in a recycled wheelbarrow container, which looks pretty as well as being great for conservation. Find out how to make one here: create a mini meadow in a wheelbarrowButterflies will often feed from mud puddles to ingest minerals and salts, which are important supplements to their diet.