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If you’re looking for a fun experiment to conduct with the kids or a birthday gift for this summer, I highly recommend growing caterpillars and hatching butterflies.
Our family loved watching this process, which took 2.5 weeks. The caterpillars arrived teeny tiny and we were able to watch them grow quickly, turn themselves into a chrysalis, and eventually, morph into a butterfly. I’d never seen the process myself, and it was amazing to witness — like the miracle of life happening right before our eyes! We felt lucky that all 5 of ours grew healthy.
A few FYIs:
- The little balls that appear in the caterpillar cup? Yeah, that’s poop.
- When the butterflies emerge, it looks like blood coming out of the chrysalis {thanks for the heads up, Kalyn!} — it is actually meconium from the metamorphosis process. I put a small piece of napkin in the bottom to catch some of it.
Butterflies can live for up to a month indoors while being fed fruit or homemade nectar, which is just sugar water. We had fun holding them {careful not to touch the wings} before releasing them into the wild after ours hatched.
Aren’t they gorgeous?!
Such an easy and fun experiment and great learning tool for kids. We can’t wait to oder more caterpillars and do this over and over again now that we have the kit.
Purchase the kit here and additional caterpillars here.
What other at-home experiments have you conducted? We’re always looking for new ideas!
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